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Posts published in “Essays”

A Letter to the Defense Bar

A number of the lawyers at the Office of the Public Defender have communicated certain innuendos about your trusty courthouse correspondent, namely that I am too friendly with law enforcement personnel and the lawyers from…

Sexual Harassment At Sonoma State

By the time that I arrived in the English Department at Sonoma State University in 1981 the party was largely over. No more nude encounters between students and faculty in the swimming pool, and no…

Autumn Reminiscence & Baseball Ramblings

In the land of the free and the home of the brave, when the golden days of autumn turn to cloudy, dingy days in December an American's thoughts can yearn for the halcyon afternoons and…

Travelers Then & Now

When I see the travelers on the street today I think about how different it was when us hippies poured into Garberville in the early 70s alarming and annoying the rednecks with our casual airs…

The Proto Object Of Desire

In the annals of Americana there is a particularly virulent and widespread trope infecting the memoirs of boyhood, the one about the Object of Desire, its discovery, what it symbolizes, the sacrifices one makes to…

A Modest Proposal For Rebuilding Santa Rosa

As Sonoma County gets ready to rebuild its burned-out neighborhoods I would like to make a modest proposal: that no regulations whatsoever be imposed on builders, contractors, plumbers, electricians, carpenters and the like. My proposal…

Teenage Wasteland

When I was a teenager, older men followed me on the street, offering me drinks in the middle of the day, occasionally muttering obscenities in my ear. Something about me, some kind of vibe I…

Our Boy Bob

Lots of Manson publicity since he died, and it's notable how many people had some sort of connection to Charlie. Musician friend of mine showed me a pair of moccasins Manson gave him, when his…

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