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Posts published in “Essays”

Chicago ’68

In 1968 my stock in peace movement circles was very high, due to the “success” of the first GI coffeehouses. In late February or early March I got a call from Tom Hayden, who hadn't…

Buying Art With Grandma: My First Visit To Mendocino

The first time I remember visiting Mendocino County was on a road trip to the Mendocino Coast with my grandmother. I can’t tell you the year, but I’m guessing it was in the 1990s, and…

Senior Moments

You can call them senior moments but if they've been happening your whole life then it's time to take stock and realize you're just a damn fool. The other day I was about to take…

Edward Said Dead At 67 [2003]

A mighty and a passionate heart has ceased to beat. Edward Said died in hospital in New York City Wednesday, September 24, 2003, at 6.30 pm, felled at last by complications arising from the leukemia…

What’s In A Word: Weird?

Tim Walz, the Governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris’s running mate, gave new meaning to an old word when he called Trump and Co, “weird.” Leave it to a high school teacher and a football…

Knock Knock Knockin’ On Dylan’s Door

It all started so innocently, a simple ad in some online publication whose name I don’t even remember. Bob Dylan coming to California, it read. Really? THE Bob Dylan? The one whose songs we used…

The KUKI Sale Revisited

Anyone over the age of too old probably remembers the daily “KUKI Sale” that ran mornings on radio AM 1400. It was pronounced “Cookie” sale and was hosted by a variety of DJs, also known…

Surgical Strikes: Eight Decades Worth

The patients in Dr. Wenwu Jin's fifth-floor office on Clay Street in San Francisco's Chinatown are almost all elderly Chinese men and women. I'm one of the few exceptions: a white guy who doesn't speak…

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