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Posts published in “Essays”

The World Has Gone Bananas

The US government wants Cuba to convert to capitalism. Cuba wants to stay socialist. Cuba accuses four dissidents of plotting to stop foreign investment from coming into Cuba; that is to stop capitalism from developing…

Spring Hopes Eternal

O the excessive wretchedness! O the cold and sallow breath of moneys grim and monopolistic temper, the libertine specter of suicide curtsying nigh in the shadow of death, there by the punchbowl and curling a…

“Use My Name and You’re Dead Meat”

A grim-faced Dominic Affinito, flanked by a pair of attorneys from the Ukiah law offices of Jared Carter, appeared in Fort Bragg’s Ten Mile Court Tuesday morning to answer charges that he’d assaulted Fort Bragg…

DA, Feds Fiddle While Fort Bragg Burns (Part 5)

In September of 1987 the Fort Bragg library was burned to the ground at the corner of Main and Laurel. The arson also destroyed the adjacent Ten Mile Justice Court. Just down the street, the…

Banker Dunham as Metaphor

Banker Norman Clow takes a bit of umbrage at Part I of “Fort Bragg Fires” where the AVA outlined Savings Bank Manager Bill Dunham's predatory acquisition of the Cliff House Restaurant. Dunham arranged a $400,000…

Lying

When I worked for the American Petroleum Institute (the AMA of Big Oil) I was asked to evaluate a “documentary” on the smog in Los Angeles, which opened with a shot of a diorama of…

Who Burned Fort Bragg & Why (Part 4)

Superior Janitorial's distinctive red van was a familiar sight in late night Fort Bragg. Peter Durigan, Superior's owner, went to work about midnight with his wife Irene, formerly Irene Specie. The two Durigans were assisted by a series of young people who helped the couple sweep, mop, scrub, and tidy up businesses as various as several restaurants and bars, both branches of the Savings Bank of Mendocino in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, and even the Pacific Bell Telephone facility in downtown Fort Bragg.

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