By producing such extremes of wealth, big tech is returning us to a kind of feudalism, with a few powerful figures accountable to no one. Here’s Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who — after…
Posts published in “Essays”
San Francisco. Sentimental expatriates say, “You can leave it—but it never leaves you.” It has three approaches by land, only one of which is free. It is full of fleas that bite only tourists and…
Witnessing the hundreds of militarized police being deployed to round up student protesters, many people in the United States and across the world may be wondering what the difference is between supposedly progressive, liberal government…
In a lifetime filled with exciting adventures and thrilling escapades, only two have involved nicotine. Both these tobacco-related encounters were also thrilling and exciting, but with an added component of nauseating. And most memorably by…
1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..." 2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a…
In the summer of 1983 Ted Kaczynski was feeling hemmed in even in remote Lincoln, Montana. “There were too many people around my cabin,” he later wrote, “So I decided I needed some peace.” In…
With the demise of the print version of this newspaper I’ve written for for over a decade I thought about what I’d like to contribute to the last issue. I write a lot about local…
The older I get, the more I realize the truth in the Latin saying “Tempus Fugit”; time flies. Plus a second truth: “As time flies, the world changes.” I’ve read the Anderson Valley Advertiser for…
During my last stretch home in Ukiah I promised myself a leisurely trip out Mountain House Road. I cashed that promise in and left Hopland, heading south. I’ve lived 40 years in Ukiah, and like…