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Posts published in “Essays”

Words Ain’t What They Used To Be

Definitions dreamed up in a slow stretch at the column-writing factory: APPLE: Once defined as a fruit varietal, now best known as a cyber-digital entity, and to a lesser extent as a recording label; see…

A History of the AV Brewery

In 1974 a devastating fire occurred at the Wiese's Valley Inn completely destroying the bar and restaurant. This left a great vacancy in the town of Boonville. After the lot was cleaned of debris from…

The Nomad Van & The Golden Plunger

It’s Sunday and I am unloading my travel van from my trip I took a couple weeks ago. I had already gotten the packed clothes, food, cat food, and cooler cleaned out right after my…

Ian, Lee & Me

Category 4 storm left boats and yachts of all sizes stuck between buildings or tangled in mangrove trees. Others were smashed into cars, or stacked on top of each other like pickup sticks.  Wall Street…

Cancer Treatment: A Brief History and New Horizons, Part 2

Last week we looked at the history of cancer treatment from ancient times to modern day.  We saw how surgery has played the key role in curing cancer if it is detected before it starts…

Rolling Thunder, Horizontal Rain

Clear skies and a sunny summer sun can coexist for only so long here in North Carolina. Temperatures rise. Pressures escalate. Opposing fronts assemble, square off, collide. Things quickly become precipitatious, as they recently did…

‘The YMCA Problem’

(From O’Shaughnessy’s News Service) — In mid-August Dale Gieringer, the longtime director of California NORML, invited some 15 pro-cannabis colleagues to a zoom meeting to discuss what had been dubbed “the YMCA Problem” – as…

On Bombs & Silence

Most tools spend far more time in the toolbox than in the hands of the craftsman. Likewise, most musical instruments are silent not sounding, seen (or hidden in their cases) not heard. This relationship between…

A Westerner Goes Back East

The West Coast and the East Coast of the United States are distinctly different animals and a five and a half hour plane ride is all that separates the two. Last week my husband Bob…

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