I'm not sure that William Saroyan, author, playwright, and genius, can be legitimately described as a San Franciscan, but we like to claim him, although he was born in Fresno and now spends most of…
Posts published in “Essays”
Ithaca, New York. Next week brings local elections to this college town in the Finger Lakes region of the Empire State. There will be a new mayor and a new town council. A couple of…
My work site was three flights below ground level, taking me into the bowels of the earth. There, beginning at 6 a.m., I began my shift in the surgical suites at the world's largest Naval…
Why is life so boring in Garberville these days, so boring I’ve been desperately trying to get out of town and drive to Mexico. It’s not just me, a lot of people are bored and…
We are moving to a smaller house and I’m deciding what not to bring. A drawer in a file cabinet contains leaflets and newspapers from the Vietnam War era. These are destined for a library…
My first visit as a would be worshipper to a synagogue in about 75 years took place last Saturday. The visit was inspired by a pervasive feeling that I wanted to pray. But I cannot…
We’d flown into a Mexican coastal resort without hotel reservations. On the wretched stretch of road between airport and town, we chatted up our cab driver — gushing over family photos pasted across his dashboard…
Fall is always the best time to meander around the country. Across the Midwest the corn is being harvested. The browns and golds of stubble and still-standing stalks warm those vast flat or slightly undulating…
By the time I knew enough to know where I was but not how I got there, I was four years old and living in Cleveland, Ohio. I probably shrugged at the news. You will…