When I was in college, I learned about ambiguity by reading the novels and the essays of Henry James, the Anglo-American author who was born…
Posts published in “Essays”
The Finne Winery was built in the 1880’s and was probably the oldest winery at that time in Mendocino County. Louis and Margarette Finne came…
On the second day of 2016, I have gathered with Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Tribal Councilmembers Lorelle Ross and Gene Buvelot to observe the…
For the past five years, a major corporation from New York has planned their very high-end board meeting on Presidents Day in February. Every year there has been a weather event, or what the airlines call an "Act of God" disaster.
In 1904 California state government provided a framework in law ordering Boards of Supervisors to construct, officer (administer), and maintain hospitals and almshouses to provide for indigent, sick and dependent poor and for such purpose they could levy tax. If the county found the so-called indigent person actually had access to income the county could take that person to court to recover the cost of their care.
Spain celebrates Three Kings Day on January 6, with a big procession in the middle of the city. But Spain also celebrates Christmas on Dec. 25, and New Year’s Eve, even has a universal holiday cake to be dutifully carried to family gatherings — a ring-shaped white flour cake called roscon, with candied fruit bits on top. The bakeries of Madrid all displayed it to prove a point: one cannot get through Deep Winter Holidays on cake alone.
It's a hell of a thing when your day is ruined before you even get your pants on. It's even heller of a thing when…
Twenty years ago at a party in San Francisco, the host introduced me to a man named Jack and said, “You are both serious film buffs. Have at it.”
A silence fell and I realized Jack was waiting for me to begin, so I said, “I just saw Basquiat. Didn’t believe it or like it, and I thought the paintings of his they chose to show were ill-chosen.”
I’ve always loved the reading rooms of great libraries: the busy hush of research underway; the reluctance of old pages being turned; the furtive glances at the mysterious materials laid out on the desk alongside and at the person who’s ordered them; the fleeting eye contact made over the top of tomes