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Posts published in “Essays”

LWOP & Other Sentences

Your Off-The-Record dated July 30th, 2014 mentioned the percentage of guys incarcerated without any possibility of release at right around 20%. There are those whose release from prison would always be some sort of a…

Big Vision, Small Town

Holly Madrigal made a decision in 2000 that would change her life. She headed home to Willits after college instead of moving to Silicon Valley, where many of her fellow economics majors at the University…

The Little River Logging Fiasco

A couple of weeks back I went on a walk with some of the people who are opposed to the proposed logging plan on Mendocino County's Little River Airport property. I have mixed feelings about…

Uncle Leonard and Fat Man

Whenever the first days of August arrive I think of Uncle Leonard. Actually, Leonard Roy Ward was my great uncle, Mother’s side. He was born at the dawn of the twentieth century and by the time Pearl Harbor brought the US into World War II, Leonard had lived several lifetimes full of adventure as a gambler and rodeo cowboy.

We Are Not Alone (?)

Maitreya is coming to save us. Maitreya? In a word, God; the new god, the god running the UFOs and drawing crop circles and doing a lot of other stuff that modern science has not…

I Almost Bought It

I must admit, I was a fair bit convinced. The preacher had miracles and apostles. His miracles were not indisputable, but they were photographed: images of crop circles and weird-looking things in the sky, videos…

4-H

Soon after I began writing these vignettes of my time in Anderson Valley from the late 1950s to the late 1980s I discovered the Anderson Valley 4-H Club no longer existed. I was surprised, but…

Seattle Hempfest To Add “Adult Use” Smoking Areas

Seattle’s first retail outlet for marijuana opened in July, some 20 months after Washington state voters passed Initiative 502. Legalization as defined by I-502 is now becoming real — but it doesn’t apply to people…

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