Seven miles offshore from a fishing village called Guanghai (“an opening to the sea”) in Taishan County, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China are two small islands called Shangshuan and Xiachuan. They are visible out…
Posts published in “Essays”
The Osage called the war that was waged against them in the 1920s a “Reign of Terror.” The terrorists were all white men—white settlers, white businessmen, white criminals, white cowboys and white lawmen— who committed…
Go West, middle-aged man! Horace Greeley took one of the first stagecoaches into Denver in the 1850s when the place was just a mining camp born of the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush. From New York…
When I got home from my trip I struggled with the padlock on the gate, finally got a wrench from my car and banged it open, and noticed my lounge chair was in the middle…
It is the third week of September and I am at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, getting ready to embark on my first backpacking trip in nearly 35 years. The setting is familiar, as…
Irene sat in the chair at her hairdressers. She was getting a perm so she'd look good for her upcoming 75th birthday celebration. She was deep into gossip with Marge, the salon's owner, when, in…
Marching for a cause was hardly an innovation in this country by the time the now historic August 1963 March on Washington took place. There had been hundreds of previous processions, some dating to the…
An out of town guest was visiting for a few days and while we were on the back deck dawdling over a sampler of Ritz crackers, Velveeta cheese and PopTart hors d’oeuvres, we discussed Ukiah’s…
I'm not sure that William Saroyan, author, playwright, and genius, can be legitimately described as a San Franciscan, but we like to claim him, although he was born in Fresno and now spends most of…