On the list of non-pejorative words or phrases that could be useful in describing me, the ones besides things like irresponsible, felonious, untrustworthy, boneheaded, criminally negligent, morally deficient, unhinged, whatever — really, any random selection…
Posts published in “Essays”
My memory isn’t as sharp as I wish.
I remember the changes in New York City in the 1980s, but don’t remember when or how they started. It seemed like overnight the city became flooded with homeless people.
Within a month of my 18th birthday, the draft notice arrived in the mail. It was 1964 and I knew nothing of Vietnam, but had no intention of going into the army. Besides not being…
Saturday morning I awoke later than usual, with a headache after a night at the Buckhorn. Some wedding party had arrived from the Boonville Hotel across the street, mostly people in their mid 20's from…
I’m beginning to know John. Not completely, of course, for who can entirely know another when we seldom wholly know ourselves? Nevertheless, when it comes to politicians, it’s best we give it a try. Like…
Last week I grabbed my cell phone, pen, and a notebook and trudged up University Avenue to the Berkeley campus’s west entrance. I was there to check out the kick-off day for Berkeley’s Freedom Speech…
“I declare the earth is hollow, and habitable within; containing a number of solid concentrick spheres, one within the other, and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees; I pledge my…
Fort Bragg’s Monday evening City Council meeting started off as a dazzling affair. It ended up in a shocking true life confession of the lust for power. Beats any soap opera going. The meeting began…
I'm going to climb up on my soapbox right now and declaim, if for no other reason than I've got one, on something that may seem rather picayune and would therefore make me look like…