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Posts published in “Essays”

Robert Bly: Film Tribute To A Radical

Poet Robert Bly, now 89 years old, is a radical, by which I mean he returns to the roots. Haydn Reiss has captured him in his new, moving film “Robert Bly: A Thousand Years of…

A Delightfully Cynical Christmas

It’s little wonder that Thanksgiving and Christmas are the number one and two movie-going days of the year. The reason for this burst of cinematic fervor is often ascribed to family tradition. If custom is…

A Holiday Noir

Down at the beach, waiting for Santa Claus. Well, not quite; I was at the beach because I love the beach and even more important, my dog loves the beach. But it truly was Christmas…

A Tweeker’s Christmas

The holidays approacheth yet again as is their inexorable wont and there's nothing you can do to stop them. Can't slow ’em down, can’t skip over ’em, can't take enough pills to sleep through ’em.…

Dogs & Cats

Myra Eberhardt is a self-avowed cat person—the kind of cat person who finds dogs and most of their people wanting in grace and civility. A stickler for neatness and punctuality, always up-to-date on the latest…

Red Roaster Roosters

Roosters crow almost 24/7, building from the pre-dawn hours into a crescendo at sunrise. We got too many cocks, not enough hens. One gallo is usually able to service about 13 guillinas every day, but…

Fishing The Navarro River 

An interview of Francis (Frank) Ray & Geneva Linn Ray by Hillary Adams at their home ranch on Navarro Ridge Road west of the Grange, May 29, 1995  [Comments in brackets by Hillary Adams] Frank: My grandparents came…

Panderings & Missteps

The current clan occupying the English throne came to it not through military conquest but the generally less trying expedient of marriage. The route laid out by this marital union was circuitous: two generations after…

An AV Kid Grows Up

Sitting here tonight, I am remembering a man of great vision, compassion and an entrepreneurial drive that transformed your community. This visionary developed a keen ability to build teams and connections that enlightened, informed and produced results for the common good. That man, Homer Mannix, as well as his wife Bea, and son Joe and daughter Sue. As I tell you this story, I want to frame it with why I was in Philo, and how my relationship with Homer developed.

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