A May 24, 2017 piece in the AVA chronicled the early history of English sailor William Richardson's arrival at San Francisco Bay in 1822, his subsequent marriage to Maria Antonia Martinez, daughter of the presidio…
Posts published in “Essays”
The Delta Cross Channel is part of the Central Valley Project, a massive federal welfare program for delivering water from the Sacramento and Trinity rivers to agricultural users in the Central Valley. The channel was…
There is a timelessness to Marshall Newman's recollections of the "way it used to be" in pre-urbanized Anderson Valley (not The Anderson Valley you and Jed Steele imagine exists). His perspective, however, on the rarity…
First, I would like to state for the record that my intent in recounting the following tale is not to brag, or preen, or pump myself up and toot my personal horn with the air…
One of the astonishing aspects of our internet-connected world is the ability to discover – and buy – stuff we never knew we wanted. Amazon and eBay have become great enablers, but almost every commercial…
The County fair two weekends ago was a fun one; the nicest weather in a long while for the fair was enjoyable too. My husband and I went down on Friday evening and explored as…
There's a certain beautiful sadness to the Northgate Mall, a mostly deserted collection of modest shops and restaurants featuring the requisite American staples: discount knitwear in 17 shades of pink, three-pound honey-soaked gluten-free cinnabuns and Ethiopian espresso by the jug, kiosk islands dedicated to repairing cracked iPhone screens while you wait, a video game store front displaying the latest vamped-up cartoon princess death-mammas toting laser-guided plasma cannons and titanium nipple bombs, and a few dozen stalwarts like myself, shuffling in blissful catatonia beneath the piss-pop muzak and happy shouts of toddlers climbing aboard the plastic trains in the FunZone, while the ironically smiling kid opens up the Mini-Bungee Jump, conveniently ringed by Wonder-Pretzel, Cookie-Heaven and Monsieur Pizza's By The Slice, free refills on sizes jumbo deluxe and up...
We had a severe fright mid-month when Juan came running to us to report that Kayak, one of our yaks, had given birth. We were unaware that she was pregnant.
In 1856 William H. Norton, arrived in Mendocino City while in his early twenties. He worked as a sawyer and carpenter for the mill company on the flats just east and north of the mouth…