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Posts published in “Essays”

Culinary Chaos in History

“Drunken Woodsmen Wreck Cookhouse-Raise Hades at Little Valley Camp.” That’s what a headline in the Mendocino Beacon reported in the November 23, 1918 issue. This is the story about cooks and their customers.  North of…

Defending the Mutineers

A soldier being court-martialed is entitled to an Army defender plus “counsel of choice.” Fourteen of the 27 Presidio stockade prisoners who had been read the mutiny article during their sit-down in the Presidio stockade…

The Stealthy Suicide of the Self-Styled Left

Three things have bothered me about this panic-demic from the beginning: One was the realization that the reaction to the novel coronavirus was far greater than its actual impact in sickness and death, which, so…

Ancestor Dreams

Even though the nights have been quieter, I have been dreaming more vividly. Across the self-isolated populace there are reports of widespread nightmares—stress, fear, change of routine cited as likely causes. Maybe the lack of…

When Birdies Sing Like The Fat Lady

Spring is popping now with a ferocious energy that can only remind the sullenly sequestered masses that life is going on without them. Every living thing is busy making-and-doing out there, except the poor humans, idled…

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