So: guns. Quite the prevailing topic of conversation these days. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the subject, no one is shy about expressing it, and given the general ubiquity of opinions and how…
Posts published in “Essays”
The most famous string quartets of the present age take their names from diverse sources: the Emerson from an American transcendentalist whose first name is Ralph; the Juilliard from the famous conservatory where it is…
My grandfather arrived in Northern California in 1900. He'd left Delebio, his home town in northern Italy, primarily, he said, because he didn't like to be told when to farm by the Pope, who prohibited…
There's quite a bit of consternation brewing on the Mendocino Coast about a Caltrans project to possibly replace the highway bridge over the Albion River near its mouth. The Caltrans view is that the project…
Nature must love mysteries. Why else would it have so many? Some of them are huge, like how the earth evolved. Some are small, like how individual species adapt to a changing environment. Nature in…
There are lightning rods and then there’s John Sakowicz. Sako, as the ubiquitous County gadfly is widely known, regularly pops up in the local media and he has been the subject of national news stories.…
A good friend came to visit me from Connecticut back when I was still working in San Francisco. She told me the one thing she wanted to be sure to visit was Coit Tower. Her…
Once they were on the trail a ways south from Usal, Standley, however, did unlock Jerry Bailey's right hand and fastened the left cuff to the pommel, making it more comfortable for Bailey to ride.…
I was getting ice cream at the Baskin-Robbins at Pear Tree, feeling a little uncomfortable and out of place. Ice cream parlors, with their brightly-lit, colorful interiors and excited children milling around experiencing the pre-sexual…