Daniel and Janelle are long time Mendocino County devotees. Daniel began visiting Anderson Valley over twenty years ago. He brought Janelle here for the first time thirteen years ago, zig-zagging her through the bucolic, tree-lined…
Posts published in “Essays”
The third weekend in June each year means music festival time in Boonville, in the form of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. The SNWMF is so titled as it began 23 years ago in…
When Bernie Saunders informed Rolling Stone last year that he “really loves music” and that his tastes were “eclectic,” I believed what he said. In his short interview with the magazine there was no evidence…
Over half of Tuesday’s Mendo votes remain uncounted. We’re not surprised to see the now annual vote count disclaimer from the Elections office, and will spare you, dear reader, the County Clerk's implausible annual litany of…
Thank you for Bob Dempel’s article about Judge Manning and the old Sanel Justice Court in Hopland (AVA, May 18, 2016). Like Mr. Dempel, I have listened to Judge Manning’s sentencing lecture. In the early…
Ah, bed. Clean, crisp sheets, a good book, and the prospect of eight restorative hours freestyling the Lethe. As a person who has spent roughly 5,000 nights on hard prison cots, another couple of thousand…
Freely admitting I’m a country bumpkin that doesn’t get to the big city very often a recent trip to Chicago to attend the American Booksellers Association convention drew me into a megalopolis. I had to…
At the age of 96, Dr. Henry J. Heimlich had occasion to save a woman who was choking by using the famous maneuver he had developed for that purpose and which bears his name. This…
The year is 1990. I'm standing on the Amtrak station platform in Lafayette, Louisiana. We'll be here for ten minutes and then roll on to New Orleans. I sniff the air and wonder which direction…