Growing up during the Great Depression, my parents understood the value of a job on a visceral level. My father, who grew up in Chicago, recalled that the first thing his father and his friends…
Posts published in “Essays”
Sculpting Donald Trump’s journey into epic poetry or Hollywood screenplay would demand neither exaggeration nor fiction. Trump’s path from 2016 political ingenue to the White House is without parallel, and his 2020 defeat, dealt him…
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II boasts plenty of convincing weaponry and legions of CGI effects that recreate the carnage of the Colosseum and the architecture, if not the vibrant color, of Ancient Rome. Even more amusing…
When I was young, thinking myself oh-so-radical, I read books about the revolutionaries, and wore the circle-A t-shirt. Then I got older, maybe wiser, and figured out that our species is too ugly and cruel…
My family didn’t have a washing machine when I was a kid. Well, at least not one you could wash anything in. See, there was this big white appliance in the kitchen that could wash…
Jane: My first semi-erotic experience happened in our sand box, around age ten, when Jane and I were trying to save an injured chipmunk from the neighbor’s cat named Jill. She was always caring for…
I believe Oswald killed JFK and Sirhan killed Bobby. Lone gunmen both. With MLK, it could be a different matter. And with the infinitely more radical Malcom X it certainly was. The Kennedys were no…
Charles Piller, an Oakland-based investigative reporter for Science magazine, is soft-spoken in person and in print. In his new book, “Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s,” dynamite accusations are professionally…
The current exhibit at the Kelley House Museum, “Northern Pomo: Mendocino’s First People,” explores the history and rich culture of the local Indigenous people through the oral traditions passed down through generations and with stories…