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Posts published in “Essays”

Charles Manson Was Never A Hippie

Thirty years ago, proud to be a hippie and wearing my new yellow leather fringe jacket for the first time, I was on my way to Woodstock along with half a million others on that…

Cutting To The Chase… In China

Edelweiss Bike Travel tourenfuhrer Werner Wachter wants to go to China. More exactly, he wants to market motorcycle tours in China. Are Edelweissers ready for China? Is China ready for Edelweissers?  To get answers, Wachter…

Starting The Humboldt Independent

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of “The Humboldt Independent” and brings back memories of the summer of ‘97, when a group of us got together to start it. After the “Redwood…

A Short History of the Twentieth Century [Dec. 1999]

In June, 1900, troops of the Western powers broke the Boxer siege of the embassies in Peking, looted the Empress Dowager’s summer palace and thus destroyed for a time the valiant nationalist effort to halt…

Food? Cooking!

I first tasted food in the crowded but livable Brooklyn neighborhood where my parents rented a small, dark one-bedroom apartment. My mother didn’t have to buy or cook the food since it came directly from…

The Cruise

The travel brochure promised happiness and a trip I’d never forget. That promise was more than fulfilled in August 1959 when my Grandmother asked me to join her on a ten-day cruise to Nassau in…

Chinatown, Our Chinatown [1950]

The biggest Chinatown outside of Asia. Where 30,000 people are crowded into a few blocks, so they can attract tourists and disease. Chinatown. Beloved indulgently and condescendingly by the rest of San Francisco—as long as…

Senior Benefits: Low Income Housing

The HUD low-income senior housing complex in Garberville is a cute assortment of one bedroom cottages, between the hospital and the library, on the edge of town with views from benches out to the canyons…

The ‘Joy Of Cooking’

A cookbook taught me the joy of cooking for others… When I graduated from college, a family member bought me some of her favorite kitchen essentials for my new home: three sturdy casserole dishes and…

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