I was standing at the edge of the public park in Point Arena. The two friends I had come with were walking ahead of me, immersed in their own conversation. I had gotten my two…
Posts published in “Essays”
Journalists are drawn to their underappreciated profession for the same reason all artists are—by a compulsion that has to be wrestled to ground in long hours of solitude between the afflicted and a mess of…
I realized I wanted to be a voice actor at my mother’s funeral. Dramatic, but true. I had been playing with the idea for quite a while but it was this event that pulled my…
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Opening Day 9-8-19, Steelers at Patriots, pregame – As often happens here in the South Shore, sugaring starts right around Super Bowl time, early February, when it’s below freezing at night, but daytime…
A group of international writers, all of whom were Spanish speakers, was invited to an academic conference recently held at New York University. During the conference, a woman from the audience suddenly intervened. First she…
In T minus a few days, in the middle of the middle of the night, I will be forty years old. I know it's just another day and I know it's just a number but…
Sometimes San Francisco really sucks. It sucked one cold, foggy day last week when I tried to get into George Washington High School to see the controversial murals painted in the 1930s, under the aegis…
Vallonia, Indiana, Labor Day, 2019 — "Do you believe in that there 'global warming’?" asked the lady whose husband dropped off a port-o-pottie at our Hoosier homestead back in early June when I still entertained…
In response to Julie Beardsley — “Regarding potential power outages by PG&E: if it is 103 degrees outside, and the power goes off for extended periods, there will be people who will experience high levels…