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Posts published in “from the archives…”

UPS Fiasco

Internet shopping — I confess. I did it. Sort of. My old Mac Plus is still a good typewriter, but it’s not internet-capable. (In fact, until today, the spell-checker on this thing didn’t know the…

Y2K? Why Not?

Mendoland is gearing up for the Y2K crisis in its usual ways: inflated rhetoric with a sub-theme of muted hysteria and meetings. Folks as diverse and as, well, grounded, as 5th District Supervisor David Colfax…

Ten Points on Clinton

So the majority supports Bill Clinton. Platonists and small-d democrats well know, however, that majorities have been deadly wrong in the past

A Tart Winter

O the two-edged sword of surviving, the melancholy shawl of never having enough when comparing your crude faith to the sublime shades of the bus shelter come-on.

Synanon Foundation Inc.

We lived in a building called the Delmar Club. The Delmar Club sits at the base of Santa Monica Boulevard. It was once a private beach club boasting an all white clientele including Ronald Reagan. No Jews at the Delmar Club.

Guns, Butter and Inner Preparedness

Mendoland is gearing up for Y2K, stockpiling rice right along with apocalyptic homilies in a sort of mounting purplish frenzy. KZYX is abuzz with end-of-the-world speculations and even the normally well-grounded Ukiah Chamber of Commerce…

The Week that Was

Five years ago this Christmas, an elderly aunt of mine from a little town in Illinois came out to Boonville for a visit. Like lots of Americans of her generation, my aunt’s political views were…

Celebrities as News

Any visit to an American newsstand will illustrate the most widespread phenomenon of the times: The print media are runny with the virus of celebrity. The names and faces of movie actors, rock musicians, rappers,…

Carolyn’s Last Stand

Tuesday, about noon, Carolyn Short, pumped the last gallon of gasoline at the Boonville service station she and her late husband Jeff had begun 37 years ago. Jeff Short had pumped their first gallon the…

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