Reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling for the tenth time in the last twenty-five years, I’ve been thinking about why this novel and no other of the thousands I’ve read calls to me again and again, and why, again and again, I am enthralled from first word to last.
Posts published in “Essays”
My first real job might have been the best I ever had. Armed with a brand-new first driver's license, I delivered groceries and booze to the stars. Or, at least, a couple of them. Besides John Wayne, for example, there was Ozzie and Harriett Nelson.
A typical morning for a produce manager at a grocery store may begin like this: coffee, inventory check, phone call, place an order with a large distributor, done. It takes only moments to order a…
You think hitting a deer is bad? Try hitting an elk. Laytonville County Water District Manager (and editor of the Mendocino Observer weekly newspaper in Laytonvile) Jim Shields at the County’s General Government meeting on…
Spring blossoms all around, circling and curing the brief bout with March Madness we experienced this year in the realm of Hoosier hysteria. On Good Friday, the time according to pagan tradition to plant potatoes,…
Okay, what is it with the beards? As a fashion trend, it seems a lot of young guys are sporting them. Of course there have always been men with beards, though usually older. Some because…
The Far hills, Mendocino County — In 1985 I knew a guy who tried to grow the devil-weed in a wildcat location, in the far hills. He walked for two hours to work, over hills, through…
It took me sixteen hours door-to-door in automobile, plane and subway train to get from my house in the center of New York state to this apartment in the center of Berlin. Last time I…
For years, my favorite burger in Mendocino County is Mina's Burgers in Covelo. Worth the awesome drive, which is saying a lot for someone who prefers to cook at home, and thinks my own burger is the best. Now what I'm about to share, some of you may disagree, and some may not appreciate because I understand that when you have a special place you really don't want everyone to know about it because you're already phoning your order in as to not wait in a long line. Also, there is such a thing as too much success, and it could be that Sea Pal Cove Restaurant, 32390 North Harbor Drive, (707) 964-1300, is going to experience too much success this year. Why?