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Posts published in “Essays”

Cops & Burritos

So I’m doing a little online shopping the other day, as I will during slack periods of my day—and let me tell you, I am just as pleased as plum pudding that the process has…

Robert & Nancy Darr

A little over a year ago this space covered the case of Harvey Mortier who was tried, convicted, and hanged for the murder of a young man named Richard Macpherson. The murder took place in…

World Napafication

Fly over Napa County, California, and what you see below are vineyards and industrial buildings for the mass production of wines. Roads crisscross the valley and climb into the hills and mountains. They also carry…

Chicken, Steak & Hut Dawgs

This is the story of Shirley and Spike, as much as I know and can recall. A very odd couple from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was 1967 or so and my band was playing at…

Tom Clark (1941-2018)

Tom Clark lived, for decades, as his health declined, on a busy street in Berkeley, in a house with many steep stairs. Crossing, haltingly, one of those streets he was struck by a car and…

(Barely) Makin’ It In Mendo

The airwaves these days are thick with concerned talk about the world we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. Occasionally statistics are even thrown in – usually compiled by old folks like we are,…

Mendo News 100 Years Ago

One hundred years ago the Boston Red Sox scored only nine runs in a six game World Series, and won, four games to two over the even more hitless Chicago Cubs. Babe Ruth started and…

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