The current clan occupying the English throne came to it not through military conquest but the generally less trying expedient of marriage. The route laid out by this marital union was circuitous: two generations after…
Posts published in “Essays”
Sitting here tonight, I am remembering a man of great vision, compassion and an entrepreneurial drive that transformed your community. This visionary developed a keen ability to build teams and connections that enlightened, informed and produced results for the common good. That man, Homer Mannix, as well as his wife Bea, and son Joe and daughter Sue. As I tell you this story, I want to frame it with why I was in Philo, and how my relationship with Homer developed.
Martin "Tate" Laiwa remembers the day he was formally accused of the murder of Joe Poe.
"David Eyster saw me in the jury box prior to being arraigned that day back in 1992, and he comes up to me and says, 'Tate, I read the case and they want me to take it. I told them no, and from what I read there is no evidence and I know you did not do it.' I broke down and started to cry, and he says, 'I believe you and you should be home as soon as the investigation is over.' I believed him, and I was surprised to hear that come from his mouth because he didn't like me and I didn't like him much. I was sure that the truth would clear me, and I would be home soon. Even a man who didn't like me could see that I was not the one who killed the man, and he read the reports!"
(February, 1965) — To John Gschwend belongs the honor of constructing the pioneer sawmill in the Anderson Valley township. He built the first sawmill in Anderson Valley in 1856. At that time there were no…
The barren summit of Yosemite's Half Dome is 8,836 feet above sea level, more than 4,700 feet higher than Yosemite Valley directly below. In 1868 Josiah Whitney, the noted geologist for whom the highest peak…
While reading Peter Roderick’s account of the dismantling of Britain’s National Health Service in the latest issue of the London Review of Books, I put on the relevant Bach cantata. Bach has many lessons to…
Last night Marcia and I watched Seymour: An Introduction, a documentary about the pianist and piano teacher Seymour Bernstein, who was eighty-five at the time the film was made and is eighty-eight today. The film, directed by Ethan Hawke, the actor, is certainly about classical music and pianos and playing the piano, but the movie is also a fascinating and ever-surprising portrait of an extremely thoughtful person with an extraordinary talent for teaching.
We've all suffered to some degree, have we not? We all have our share of pain and misery and loss in our stories, some to greater and others to a lesser degree. A common error…
One of the men who helped make Jim Jones and The People’s Temple a powerhouse in the 1970s and then turned against him just before Jones killed more than 900 people in Jonestown, Guyana, has…