The mystery is at last revealed: why does the field of candidates for president score so uniformly low in trust, credibility, likability? Why are there…
Posts published in “Essays”
Saturday afternoon the blusters of the North plains blasted the Ohio valley relentlessly. Our chickens loitered on the leeward sides of buildings, with sustained gusts…
As I write this, we are smack dab in the midst of March Madness — the NCAA basketball tournament, for those of you disinclined to…
The first week of April marked the centenary of legendary San Francisco columnist Herb Caen, a journalist who mastered social networking before it had a…
THE NUMBER is 686. That’s how many registered nonprofits we have in Mendocino County today. One for every 127 people. As opposed to 2,975 in Sonoma County. One for every 166 people. All of theirs report revenue. All but six show assets. Where poverty is eleven percent. With all the nonprofits here, we should be kicking ass. But we’re not. 385 of our nonprofits — over half — report no revenue and no assets. Our economy ain’t doing so hot either. The poverty level here is nineteen percent.
“Take the back roads instead of the highway.”
Minnie Pearl was right. If you want to take the pulse of America, forsake the interstates of commerce and the stately boulevards where the big shots live. Try a back road to see what’s what.
"Nixon's Drug War Was (and Still is) a Racist Tool to Disrupt and Neutralize Black Communities" was the headline of an article published this week…
The road out of Gualala, at least the road I chose, climbed from a pleasant creekbottom, cooled by tall trees and damp breezes, abruptly and…
As it does on some days in the Richmond District, the 12:00 o’clock siren is blowing, and it reminds me of the daily siren at noon in the small town I was raised in on Long Island. My grandfather, a hardworking German immigrant who farmed after retirement, would put down his hoe and walk back to his bungalow, where my grandmother had lunch ready.
"Guns don't kill people," said my opponent in the "debate." "People kill people." He delivered the kicker with a self-satisfied smirk and held out his…
Reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling for the tenth time in the last twenty-five years, I’ve been thinking about why this novel and no other of the thousands I’ve read calls to me again and again, and why, again and again, I am enthralled from first word to last.