Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

Beetles & Birds

Sitting in the morning sun on the front porch of my house next to the Cascadilla Gorge in Ithaca, New York earlier this week, I listened to a cardinal singing to the accompaniment of the…

Journal of the Plague Year (#4)

Berkeley, 13 April 2020 — It had to happen. And now it has. People, not statistics or anecdotes, have died. They’re people, caught up in the pandemic, who my family knew. One, in his early…

Logan’s Run for President

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned what follows here in this space before, and I hate to repeat myself, but it has particular relevance now. I'd hate to be one of those people who repeats a…

This Too Shall Pass

Would the AVA's resident expert on the media, Flynn Washburne, regard this story as newsworthy? Probably not! After all, it’s not about his backyard and not about anyone he knows. Chances are, you don’t know…

Days Numbered For Noyo Cabal?

That ominous cracking sound you hear is the Noyo Center For Marine Science cabal falling through the ice. Can't hear it? Maybe you're not in the club. The Noyo Center, Fort Bragg’s ocean-oriented, not-for-profit whalebone…

The Pioneer Burkes

Ever see the sign for Burke Hill south of Ukiah and wonder who Burke was? Here's part of the answer. Alexander Burke was born in Sparta, Tennessee in the summer of 1813. At age twenty…

-