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Posts published in “Essays”

Crazy Drifters

Sometimes it’s worthwhile to step back and let the boggling wash over your dome, reflecting on all the types who have somehow found their way to Humboldt County. How do they find us? Why do…

Last Call At The Vapor Room

As the sun was going down over Twin Peaks on the last day of July, two staffers took down the Vapor Room sign. Handpainted and hung on a wrought iron bracket, the sign had not…

River Views

Bruce McEwen’s July 18th article in the AVA detailed the ill-fated trip of Kevin Dirksen and his two children after parking their van near Ukiah’s Walmart on the way to the Sierra Nevada World Music…

Goff & Krishnamurti

I would not have gone to see Krishnamurti (since I didn’t know who or what he was) had not my Philosophy professor Robert Goff urged his students to go; and Goff would not have been my Philosophy professor had I been accepted into a Creative Writing seminar

The Richmond Fire

In '66 and '67, I worked in refinery's “ISOMAX” unit, their newest, showcase plant for squeezing the last drop of fuel-oils out of what had been “waste” (asphalt).

Shaded Parcels

The issue of shaded parcels — properties whose legal status is in doubt — has intensified in Southern Humboldt, where numerous landowners have been put on notice about suspected subdivision violations. County Planner Cliff Johnson…

Alexander Cockburn, 1941-2012

I last saw him in person a year ago in San Francisco. He looked thin and drawn but, as always, he was in good spirits. I'd been on long hikes with Cockburn where he walked…

River Views

Quicker fellows than me at the AVA noted online in the July 14th “Mendocino County Today” (“Mendocino County Today” appears in the AVA’s print version as “Off The Record”) that the comment section of the…

Jehovah’s Witness

A friend recently wrote to me about his philosophical discussions with a Jehovah’s Witness, and his letter brought back boatloads of memories of my friend Woody, an African American Jehovah's Witness, an elder in his…

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