Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

Live! Laugh! Love!

Live! Laugh! Love! has been the constellation navigation Big Dipper guide to my carefree journey through life.  Nothing but severe diarrhea touches me so deeply as the simple, affirming message of “Live! Laugh! Love!” Together…

Catholic Segregation

It is axiomaticaily true that the Church of Rome moves slowly. But it has been on this earth almost 2,000 years, and it has yet to get around to doing anything serious about implementing Christ’s…

Brazilian Cabbie

Another entry for my bulging file of cab-ride tales. Slipped out early from work and went book shopping, emerging into cold winds on lower Van Ness in San Francisco, with no 47 or 49 bus…

Max & His Mom

Journalism takes its practitioners to some strange places. It took me to Willits one gray winter morning almost 30 years ago in response to a call from “Mrs. Roberts, Darlene Roberts, and you can call…

Too Many Dams

There are those who would argue that the West should have been left pretty much as it was. At the distant other end of the spectrum are the water developers and engineers who cannot rest…

Bobby’s Kid Moves Up On The Rail

In late April Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced that he is running for President, challenging Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. In May a poll put his support among rank-and-file Democrats at 20%. In June…

Carny

As a kid I loved carnivals. They were bright, flashy and noisy, and everywhere you looked there was a promise of instant gratification: eat this, throw this, win this, ride this — all designed to…

Trampling Out the Vintage

The turn-off from New York State Route 86 towards the parking lot at the northern entrance to the Adirondacks High Peaks Wilderness comes in the town of North Elba just past John Brown’s farm. The…

Adirondack’s Hiker’s Hell

The trails of the Adirondacks Park are a disgrace. For years I’ve been coming with one or both of my daughters to these mountains for an annual thirty-mile circuit around the Great Range, a loop…

-