One thing the American public schools used to teach—or tried to—was the memorization of dates. At the top of that list were 1620, 1776, 1861, 1945. One of my favorite bathroom books remains the Timetables of…
Posts published in “Essays”
The New York Times science writer Gina Kolata is the older sister of Judi Bari, but that’s not the item, as Mr. Caen used to say. Kolata is a serious weight lifter. Perhaps due to…
For a world-famous city, San Francisco has a surprisingly small coterie of so-called “celebrities” (a celebrity being, I would say, someone who is widely known outside his own community and his own field of endeavor).…
John Howard Griffin—a most extraordinary fellow, a one-man-band of virtue and a virtuoso, who was, quite literally among other things, and at all of these first rate—a novelist, essayist, musicologist, theologian, expert in animal husbandry,…
Bumpy Ride, late landing at LAX. Stateside pilots talk about “a little rough air.” In Mexico, they’re more honest and refer to una zona de turbulencia. Fog, air traffic, gate delays. Due in San Pedro…
I don’t want to mention any names, but the author of a recent AVA article describing diddling woes and decrying Amtrak travel seems a tad shortsighted, excusable perhaps, as is the naiveté of a novice.…
I’d been hearing and reading about it for a couple of years and then finally it hit me. I took it personally, though I also knew I was one of many millions of humans around…
“You mind not smoking?” It was the girl with the bags and the stony gaze. I looked for a NO SMOKING sign. There was none. She said, “It kills my eyes.” I put my pipe…
Into the happy assemblage that made up Ramparts Magazine I began to infiltrate dissenters, longhairs, and general shit disturbers who disrupted not only the decorum of the Keating Building, named after the wealthy publisher, but…