Ripped Van Winkle strolling through the hills Known for herb the local pub distills Decided he would just step in and hoist a glass With some conscious members of the peasant class The barkeep was Peter Van DamRecently…
Posts published in “Essays”
To my mother I said, “I asked you, told you more than twice, please Mom, no ‘welcome home’ party, please,” but she stared at me and smiled and said, “This isn’t a party. It’s a…
Red-white-and-blue chauvinism is running wild. Yet there are real diplomatic alternatives to the collision course for war. Fifty-nine years ago, Bob Dylan recorded “With God on Our Side.” You probably haven’t heard it on the…
Bob Lorentzen has died. He is best known in this household for authoring a series of guide books, including The Hikers hip pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast. That book details over fifty strolls, walks,…
On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi army to invade and occupy Kuwait in an operation that led to Iraq’s defeat in war, rebellions crushed in blood, 13 years of UN sanctions, defeat…
In the spring of 1995, Paul Farmer was in San Francisco to take part in a weekend conference on resurgent TB. This interview —all too timely today— was conducted for the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Paul…
Do readers know Oregon has a “Lost Forest”? Excuse me, the state is covered in forest, how could some of it become “lost”? The answer follows as adventures on Oregon’s back roads are shared. Rockhounding…
I pretty much burnt out on beatniks and their writings long ago. They’re mostly a young man’s fancy, as in, what can seem adventurous, romantic and yes, even cool on the page in one’s youth…
Is mural fever once again sweeping Ukiah? Ukiah went a hundred years without murals, and today you can hardly spit without hitting one, hint hint. Having learned nothing from the examples that festoon city exteriors,…