Most artists are unknown or little known outside their neighborhood or town or small circle of friends. This is not a bad or good thing, but merely the way of the world. My favorite poets are known to only a handful of people, and many of the finest musicians and painters and actors I’ve had the good fortune to hear and see will never be known outside the little kingdoms inhabited by their personal friends and acquaintances.
Posts published in “Essays”
There is an old adage about the cobbler's children going unshod that makes me wonder what trade or profession, if any, breeds the most problematic children. Is there a segment of the population, career-wise, that…
Governor Jerry Brown has signed the package of bills known as the Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act. The very name implies that the herb is dangerous. Two weeks ago Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, a Sebastopol potdoc,…
Apropos of the recent Roseburg, Oregon, school massacre that left nine dead, President Obama said, “We’re going to have to come together and stop these things from happening.” That’s an understandable sentiment, and the president…
I read with interest the online comment on growing up with the simple pleasures of small town Ohio in the 50s and 60s. Real eggs, a milkman and all the rest. There is something to…
Sometimes the museum where I docent gets a donation that opens my eyes with amazement. The “Family Worksheets” for six months from late 1949 into 1950 from a local funeral home came into the museum’s…
Californians have just won a right that we all hope we will never need to use: The right to physician-assisted dying. Governor Jerry Brown signed California’s End of Life Option Act last week after what…