Tourism in Mendocino County is the ship that never docks, the train that never slows, the freeway exit always closed for repairs. Tourists in Ukiah: the dream that will not die, the hope that won’t…
Posts published in “Essays”
For those with means, there is always too much food at Thanksgiving. Overproduction and overconsumption go hand in hand, or perhaps from hand into mouth. As Sir Thomas Malory, didn’t put it, Enough is as…
As the destruction of Gaza unfolds day after endless day I find myself thinking about my late friend Otto Schnepp. Otto and I served on the board of directors of the local Democrats’ club for…
Is it time to confess environmental crimes against nature? I had decided to expand my pot patch into a new area in the back forty, a cute trick on just one acre, no doubt. I…
The warden of one of the world’s largest and most overcrowded penitentiaries might reasonably be expected to be a burly, hard-spoken disciplinarian, packing a gun as he shoulders his way through the-prison yard and living…
It was fitting that Rafael Puyana, the Colombian harpsichordist who died ten years ago in Paris at the age of eighty-one, should have made his debut—on piano—in 1945 at the Teatro de Cristóbal Colón (Christopher…
“Alright then,” announced Mr. Bumpers. “It’s decided. We’ll open the house to those less fortunate, like homeless-type people guests, right? All in?” Nods of agreement around the table. “It’s great,” said Tallulah, the eldest daughter.…
It was late summer, 1987. A hot afternoon was fading into evening, after I'd spent the day working six games as an umpire in the state softball playoffs, in Wentachee, Washington. I'd blown a call…
The word “melena” can be spelled and pronounced in two ways with profoundly different meanings. With the accent on the second syllable and an “i” instead of an “e.” It then becomes Melina, as in…