I can’t count the times, down the years, that after some new outrage friends would call me and ask, “What happened to Christopher Hitchens?” — the inquiry premised on some supposed change in Hitchens, often…
Posts published in “Essays”
“As you walk, you cut open and create that riverbed into which the stream of your descendants shall enter and flow.” — Nikos Kazantzakis In 1965, when I was 16 and deeply unhappy, I went…
After almost two years of work, the county has taken a conservative approach to regulating medical marijuana, approving a restrictive indoor growing ordinance and a 45-day freeze on dispensary applications. The dispensary moratorium and a…
In May 2011, if you had asked pretty much anyone in Anderson Valley why it was that the ancient redwood groves of Hendy Woods State Park had been spared the axe and sawmill fate that…
Hi, It was definitely stupid for me to mutter at the council meeting that the seven protest letters that we received were “not very compelling.” I absolutely own that. It was a comment that could…
Dear AVA, I don't know what all the fuss is about. “Awesome” is the most phenomenally iconic word ever. Actually I buried and mourned it long ago, interred it with a host of other cheapened,…
When in doubt, wheel on Teddy Roosevelt. It’s in every Democratic president’s playbook. TR was president from 1901 to 1909. He was manly, ranching in North Dakota, exploring the Amazon and nearly expiring on the…