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Posts published in “Essays”

Learning Curve

[Ed note: We were saddened to learn that our long-time correspondent, Bruce Brady, died on Wednesday, July 17th, at a care home in Oregon. Bruce…

Hiking the Burns

In late July I spent four days backpacking in the Marble Mountains, entering the wilderness at the Haypress Meadow trailhead. Getting to that trailhead requires…

Paul Krassner Dead at 87

The tabloid he founded in the 1950s, The Realist, violated every taboo. If you discovered Mad in your early teens, at 17 you were mad…

An Oldie but Goodie

I’m sure readers everywhere pick up a book they remember reading a decade ago, are interested enough to read it again, and remain firm in…

Why I Write Murder Mysteries

The other day at Peet’s Coffee on Broadway in the town of Sonoma, I had a conversation with a young woman I have known for…

Big in the Bungalow of Believers

Free tickets from a friend sent my companion and me to a production of the musical Big staged by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre on a…

Paul Krassner, American Satirist

“He’s gone. Feel free to spread the word,” Michael Simmons said in an email that went out to a few dozen or so of the…

Riptides

In the fall of 1848 San Francisco was in a curious state of suspension. Gold had been discovered in January, but the San Franciscans hadn't…

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