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Posts published in “Essays”

Screen Time

Dipping into the national news for the first time in some months, I found several articles about the American Academy of Pediatrics rescinding most of their previous suggestions that parents limit the number of hours their infants, toddlers, older children, and teens interface with media-blasting computer gizmos with screens. The pediatricians decided they were being too alarmist about how damaging computers and other television-like devices can be to the brains and psyches of infants and children and teens. Now, say the pediatricians, basing their new guidelines on no credible science, parents should feel fine about children watching as much media garbage as they want.

Anna’s Treasure

Late last May, out of a clear blue sky, and seemingly normal health, I developed a head ache one morning. The headache grew by noon into a pounder with shivering feet unaccountably accompanying sweat beads…

Charles Shaw Fishing

My friend and client Ed Beard told me about a new couple in the Napa Valley. They had bought a small parcel and built a small winery and home. Ed suggested to me that they…

Flattery Will Get You Somewhere On Hwy 20

So, you've gotten old. (If you are young, please disregard; clip this column and place it in the family Bible where you're likely to come across it in your dotage as you search for solace,…

Sailing Out Of Willits

I’m sitting here in Aero Puerto Mexico City waiting for my flight to Ziuatanejo so I can meet up with Chris and Donna and get my sea legs for our sailing adventure down to Panama, but my flight has been delayed twice and I don’t want to have to spend the night here.

Bach On The Election

Even amidst the bluster, lies, and anger unleashed by the presidential election—the last of these captured this morning in a vivid photo essay in Germany’s leading daily, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, I often hear the calming…

No Biz Like Showbiz

“Hey Weinstein”, says Zuckerman, his wannabe director Monte Nido neighbor one sparkling summer Sunday, “I’ve got a commercial to shoot out in the desert. It’s for a Mexican brandy client, La Rosa Fina. I need…

The Talented Mr. Black

Check that. How about The Omni-Talented Mr. Black? Or The Mysterious Mr. Black? Or The Charismatic Mr. Black? They all apply. A tall, fit-looking man who looks like one of the good guy gun slingers…

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