When I was in charge of the Navy’s Shore Patrol battalion in Farragut, Idaho in 1944 I received a call from my commanding officer. He wanted to scold me because I had given permission to…
Posts published in “Essays”
October, 1879 — Four men rode into the woods east of Mendocino. They unsaddled their horses then set up camp in an old hay shed. There they waited for their leader to bring supplies and…
We’ve been hearing “change is good” for so long some of us believe it, but the more changes I see the more things get worse. The newest and greatest improvements do not make for a…
New Year's Eve, 1971-2, my consort and my first in Anderson Valley. We had moved here from San Francisco on April Fools Day, been in residence for nine months, had made a few friends among the…
The first time I heard Rush Limbaugh was on my father’s car radio decades ago. Rush was lecturing away on some topic, I think illegal immigration and the horrors thereof, and went on and on.…
Ah, San Francisco…greatly beloved since the very day of my sixteenth birthday, when, with the ink barely dry on my driver’s license, I sallied forth to begin years of rock concerts, strolls down Haight and…
Last week’s adulatory piece on Carl Hart’s book “Drug Use for Grown-Ups” evoked disagreement from AVA reader Terry Miller. Her comment —”A horrible horrible book by a man who should not be teaching students”— was…
Ten-year old Robert, “Bobby B,” so-called, because there were two other Robert/Bob’s in his third grade class, was seated in the first row in Miss Fritz’ classroom. He was particularly fidgety that third day of…
It was a Pat Benatar kind of day, a day when I knew I would say, at least once, “Hit me with your best shot.” I was scheduled for a vaccination, my first, and I…