As every story is a meandering road, each road is also a story, or, more accurately, an infinity of stories. An abandoned trail that leads from nowhere to nowhere, with no wayfarers, only a rare…
Posts published in “Essays”
The next time you venture to Mendocino you’ll want to step inside Frankie’s Creamery. If you have never been to Frankie’s, what’s wrong with you? — ice cream from Cowlick’s, good pizza, all sorts of…
Continued from last week’s AVA —the House Ways and Means Committee Hearing at which the prohibition of marijuana was considered by Congress. Narration by Fred Gardner. * * * DOUGHTON: Mr. Anslinger, the committee will…
When The Artist Again Known As Prince first exploded into superstardom three decades ago, I had just moved to San Francisco and his music — “Purple Rain,” “Little Red Corvette,” “1999” and so forth, was…
I've never been one for heeding others' advice. I'll listen politely, acknowledge its validity, speculate on how to apply it to my situation with the best of intentions. But believe it: tell me the stove is hot and not only will I touch it once, but I will return and do it a few more times in case the first one was a fluke.
“Once, during prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.” — W.C. Fields This just in: Ben Affleck, the movie star, is going to try to survive for five…
“… for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night’s revels… But He, that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my Sail!…” —…
On April 20th each year, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park are arguably our beleaguered planet's ground zero for what is loosely referred to "cannabis culture." Why that date? It's a long hazy…
Speaking of speculators and the Greeks, hundreds of thousands of the most highly educated and technologically skillful people in Greece have fled that country in the last two years, and more are leaving every day. Why? Because the austerity programs imposed by the European Union in response to Greece’s speculator-caused debt crisis have created such a severe economic depression that there is little hope of an economic recovery in Greece for many years to come. Greece only has ten million people, yet in the face of this massive brain drain and the elimination of tens of thousands of public sector jobs, the European Union has just decreed that Greece must amplify her austerity campaign and get rid of tens of thousands more public sector jobs.