Anybody foolish enough to spend much time reading online comments on any remotely controversial article or news story knows that this is one way to despair of modern humanity.
Posts published in “Essays”
Mom and pop gold panning is enjoying a rebirth in California. I examined a few videos about stream panning, and decided instead to renew my…
It’s Friday afternoon. An unseasonal sun bakes the city with a gratifying if alarming tropical malaise. Tiny birds sing in the trees. There’s a case…
It's Black History Month, a good time to honor the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, one of the most important yet too often overlooked leaders…
An appeal of the Reggae on the River festival’s county permit was denied by a majority of the Board of Supervisors but traffic flow conditions…
In the fall of 1970, my family — version 3.0 — was winging its way to Europe. To explain the “upgrade,” which it was in…
From the age of twenty-one until I was fifty, with only a few brief respites, I wrote many novels, most of them never published.
I left my baggage at a hostel in central Cuenca and rode east, on a small quiet highway that climbed into the beautiful green hills…
Am I admitting this? Yes, I guess so. I've been married (using the term loosely) twice, have four grown kids and four grandchildren. Not a…
Midway into its second year, the county’s prison/jail realignment program has increased rehabilitation assistance but law enforcement officials have said it’s also led to increases…
The first bad sign is Tuesday before the game. Speaking before a tangle of sweaty flesh and Japanese electronics plastered with the corporate logos of…