Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

The Wilds of Ten Mile

The final song on the Eagles' Hotel California album is called, “The Last Resort,” and Don Henley's closing line says, “You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.” At the risk of invoking that truism,…

Taste

Years before the dawn of tweeting and texting, I ran a summer writing program for high school kids who wanted to become professional writers. The teachers I hired were accomplished, open-minded, inspiring writers who could clearly communicate their ideas about the craft of writing.

The San Francisco JAZZ Center

The SF JAZZ Center opened its doors little more than a year ago in San Francisco’s once seedy Hayes Valley, a place now bustling with boutiques and restaurants. Come evening and concert time, there are…

My All-Too-Brief Career as a Male Escort

Uh-oh; any time Gordon called me it tended to mean trouble brewing. He was a man-about town with "no identifiable means of support" who lived high on multiple hogs. People speculated he was a drug dealer,…

Medic!

My years in Anderson Valley, from the late 1950s through the late 1980s, included a fair share of medical issues for my parents, my siblings and myself. When my parents’ summer camp, El Rancho Navarro, was in session, medical issues multiplied — perfectly natural with an additional 120 children on hand, even with a nurse on staff. Stuff happened and when it did, we depended on local and — on serious stuff — regional resources, with the hope that they were up to the challenge.

-