The Time: Autumn, 1958. The place: the playground of the Washington Consolidated School, Washington, Connecticut. A big crowd of kids are in a circle around two fighting boys. Jimmy Tompkins has his arm hooked around…
Posts published in “Essays”
"The Lottery" is a famous short story by Shirley Jackson about an annual small town drawing whose winner is stoned to death. The story makes the point that small towns can be mean places. Lately,…
I've taken my share of beatings in my life; more, really, given that the average beating occurrence among Americans is probably not much more than zero, beatings being pretty finely distributed among very specific demographics…
A majority of Humboldt County’s Board of Supervisors supports a ballot initiative to limit early prison releases but capacity issues could interfere with the initiative’s goals. The backlash against propositions 47 and 57 and AB…
“Life is cheap up here on the Canadian,” is a line from Lonesome Dove that has stuck with me. When something goes even moderately wrong at the ranch I sometimes say, “Life sure is rough…
All traces of snow are at last gone from the picturesque nineteenth-century cemetery in Ithaca, New York. Down below in the nearby the Cascadilla Gorge the creek gathers momentum from late-arriving spring’s rain. Just beyond…
1. Do you think the County’s mental health money is being effectively spent? (around $28 million at last estimate) In general, I’m not enthusiastic about outsourcing core government responsibilities. There are circumstances where private industry…