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Posts published in “Essays”

Panther Soccer 2010

Last Wednesday afternoon (Sept 22nd), against Santa Rosa against Roseland Prep — arguably the league’s strongest team — the Panthers were greeted with the usual intimidating atmosphere provided by close to 150 opposition fans hugging…

Jewels Of Silent Film Music

There are few things worth giving up a perfect fall after­noon in Upstate New York for, but Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman with live music is one of them. A din­ner break and a return for…

Meaning of Meaning

“A serious and good philosophical work could be writ­ten consisting entirely of jokes.” — Ludwig Wittgen­stein I first encountered the writing of Ludwig Wittgen­stein in 1967 when I was 19, a freshman at UC Santa…

Beam Rider

I should have been an experimental physicist or per­haps even an astrophysicist. One disadvantage to the latter profession is that you can't really get close to the explo­sions you're studying. “A good explosion,” a friend…

Remembering Fetzer Clan Matriarch Kathleen Kohn Fetzer

I didn’t know Barney Fetzer, a lumber executive turned legendary wine entrepreneur. He had already died when I arrived in Mendocino County 25 years ago. But over the years I have had the privilege of…

One Deadly Cobra To Go, Please: A Short Story

“I did not come from Paris for le Wharf of Fishermen or le Tower Coit or ze Rights Gay of Homozekshools. I come to your bootiful San Francisco for les bagels de Ze San Francisco…

Remembering Ben Sonnenberg

There was a memorial for Ben Sonnenberg last week. Ben died on June 26 at the age of 73 — and a substantial crowd of the people who knew and loved him were invited by…

Bird’s Eye View

Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably I shall begin. Thanks to my ace team of investigative reporters, along with various Valley sleuths and histori­ans such as Pat Hulbert and others, I can…

Panther Soccer 2010

The first home league game of the season saw the Pirates of Point Arena come to the Valley last Wednes­day for a 4.30 match-up with the hometown Panthers. The Pirates are always a decent team…

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