1878 slipped into 1879 along the Mendocino Coast behind a northwestern breeze that blew away the rain showers of New Year's Eve. The flag on the point of Mendocino's headlands snapped with the occasional gust,…
Posts published in “Essays”
Meryl Streep makes a beautiful, heartfelt (“sank hooks in my heart”) speech at the Golden Globes eviscerating Trump for mocking the disabled who lack “the power and capacity to fight back.” Whoa there, Meryl. You’re…
Thursday’s bike ride converted into a series of adventures and misadventures. During the eventful trip, I fell down two times while getting on or off my Cannondale 400 Hybrid, I rescued a damsel in distress…
My husband an I are firm believes in the old fashioned concept of a “Sunday Drive.” We find a road we’ve never been on, make sure it is traversable given weather conditions, pack snacks and…
The importance of tracking and branding Humboldt County’s commercially-produced marijuana is being emphasized as the Board of Supervisors solicits proposals to transition a pilot program into formal operation. The status of the county’s track and…
“OOOOO-eeeeeeeeee!” I shouted, coming down hard on the second syllable and giving it some real verve and brio, the pitch steadily rising into the sensory realm of dogs and bats. It was a full-throated, big-bellied,…
As soon as my wife Judy and I decided to go to Chicago for our vacation I started talking about going to Hammond. Judy understands all too well that some obsessions last a lifetime and…
For someone enamored of success and not inclined to resign himself to his fate, it was a curse to live in a less than aristocratic neighborhood, study in elite colleges through a scholarship, and not be rich but have wealthy classmates and friends. This was the case of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, an attractive and very talented young man, doomed to ply his charm among clans whose slick offspring played polo, danced in the Country Club with rich heiresses who were a bit vain and "had a voice full of money". He would see these women get into the cream and tobacco colored convertibles of their boyfriends, their bonnets tied with ribbons of tulle around their luminous chins, in the shade of chestnut trees on the elegant Summit Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota and perhaps in his subconscious, he resolved to hurl his life against that mirror.
As the inauguration of Trump fast approaches, many frightened Americans talk of moving to Canada, in much the same way frightened Americans spoke of moving abroad when George Bush became President. But Canada and other safe haven countries only want us these days if we are wealthy or possessed of highly desirable technological skills. Thus we common folk must consider other responses to the new regime.