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Posts published in “from the archives…”

The Cowboy Capitalists and the Bureaucrat

According to John Mayfield, president of Microphor Inc., Dave Faulkner, the county’s Air Pollution Control Officer, is a “power-monger” and “an incompetent” who should be “terminated.” Mayfield also thinks Faulkner’s agency is “atrocious” and engages…

Mary Who?

I am Kurt Vonnegut. Oh, Kurt Vonnegut may appear to be a brilliant, revered male novelist. I may appear to be a mediocre and virtually unknown female newspaper columnist. We may appear to have nothing…

Coming Home

Supérieur — The French named it: the highest, farthest, deepest, oldest of the Greats: we know the lore. The mind may help or hinder, sometimes better be bypassed. The afternoon sun reflects from the waves:…

Wild River

Jerry puffed on his Marlboro. A raven swooshed down from behind, alighting on an old fir stump maybe 50 yards across the tiny meadow. The bird shook its sleek, jet wings, drawing them along its…

Bill Clinton, Ireland, and SF Politics

Limerick, Ireland — On Cecil Street in the ancient fortress city of Limerick, there is a pub called Bill Clinton, named after the American you-know-what. Above the doorway Irish and American flags are wrapped in…

Broken Backs and Bottom Lines

A week into the Teamster strike against UPS we visit the picket line put up by Local 70 outside the big UPS hub on Pardee, a mile or so from Oakland Airport. It’s a sunny…

Just a Guy Named Joe

Highway 128 is a favorite drive of mine, winding through the Alexander Valley from Napa County (though the prerequisite here is that you must like the looks of vineyards), then on from Cloverdale to the…

Knafta Knees

A fat man in a pin-striped Yankees t-shirt comes out of the Podiatrist's office across the street. He stops on the sidewalk, takes out a pack of cigarettes and lights up. He fills his lungs…

Part-Time America & The UPS Strike

Just past the stroke of midnight in the Monday pre-morn of August 3, Ron Carey, Teamster president, called a strike against UPS. What we have here is a struggle over the basic tilt of the…

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