The tabloid he founded in the 1950s, The Realist, violated every taboo. If you discovered Mad in your early teens, at 17 you were mad for The Realist. Krassner was a leader of the Yippie…
Posts published in “Essays”
I’m sure readers everywhere pick up a book they remember reading a decade ago, are interested enough to read it again, and remain firm in their belief that it’s STILL a great read. For example…
The other day at Peet’s Coffee on Broadway in the town of Sonoma, I had a conversation with a young woman I have known for years, but have never really gotten to know. Let’s call…
Free tickets from a friend sent my companion and me to a production of the musical Big staged by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre on a sunny Sunday afternoon in July. My companion grew up in…
“He’s gone. Feel free to spread the word,” Michael Simmons said in an email that went out to a few dozen or so of the usual suspects, including Wavy Gravy, Judy Gumbo, Larry (Ratzo) Sloman,…
In the fall of 1848 San Francisco was in a curious state of suspension. Gold had been discovered in January, but the San Franciscans hadn't put much faith in it; they had kept on with…
I met two young men in the dark and lonely intersection at Little Lake Road and the Coast Highway on Wednesday night. I was on my way back home, walking up Little Lake, past the…