I was 13. It was 1958. We lived at what was then the outskirts of suburban Fresno. Down the street about half a mile was a large boysenberry farm. (Boysenberries are an early 20th Century…
Posts published in “Essays”
Gene Wilder died in August. He was eighty-three. Thinking about him took me back to the first time I saw the movie Young Frankenstein on the big screen in San Francisco in 1974. And I remember feeling as I watched the film that I was witnessing one of those extremely rare creations, a work of art that would never grow old and never be successfully imitated—the result of the unique chemistry of six superlative actors and a brilliant director, none of them duplicable: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Terry Garr, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, and Mel Brooks.
(from the AVA of September 12, 2001) Tuesday’s onslaughts on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are being likened to Pearl Harbor and the comparison is just. From the point of view of the assailants the…
In this southwest Denver neighborhood, there are American flags flying at the houses to my left and right, across the street, and kitty-corner across another street. It takes a short walk to see another house…
I "discovered" something interesting through my yoga practice recently. I've been at it for nearly five years and consider it one of the most worthwhile undertakings I've ever embarked on, but the benefits have been,…
I imagine you all know who Freda Fox is. Isn’t she the oldest living person in Anderson Valley now? Freda is not only the oldest person in the Valley, but she is also the friend…
Sports have never been of much interest to me, outside of baseball to a small degree. Growing up in Connecticut, I saw Yankees and Dodgers games on the local TV stations. My uncle Art lived…
A letter from the owner of a Humboldt County business that seeks to provide “educational and fun cannabis-themed tours of the Emerald Triangle” has motivated Humboldt County to explore how such operations should be licensed.…