My family was from New York and surrounding areas. I was born in Westchester County where my parents’ families lived and where they met and married. My aunts and uncles lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn.…
Posts published in “Essays”
What’s the value of a forest? Humboldt County’s Planning Commission explored the question at its April 8 meeting and etched the answer into a goal statement that emphasizes both the ecological and economic value of…
Yesterday a tree fell on our car. Fortunately no one was in the car when the wind snapped the top third off the pine tree and a thousand pounds of soon-to-be firewood fell 20 feet…
On March 17, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit delivered a win — but a narrow win — to teens who are determined to protect their First Amendment…
Nothing is more ephemeral than a concert. Once played it is gone. A recording cannot reproduce or even fully recall it. Such documents are at best approximations. Yet concerts both great and ghastly have a…
When Bison Brewing Company’s bourbon barrel-aged brown ale goes to tap late this spring, the brewery’s owner, Dan Del Grande, may be required by a new law to pay a hefty liquor tax to state…
It was one of my first visits to Northern California. Still in high school, I had wandered up thru Marin, Mendocino and Humboldt counties; I'd seen redwoods and the amazing rugged coast for the first…
Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City, by Anthony Flint. Random House, New York, New York 2009. This fast-moving and gripping story, summed up in…