"It keeps me from looking at my phone every two seconds."
Posts published in “Essays”
Physician-assisted dying (not "suicide" — a term that is not truly relevant here) is a complex and emotional issue. Here is a perspective done with a leading physician with much direct experience — and who has quit one of his professional medical associations due to their lack of integrity on the topic.
If I were a big game hunter, one place I would absolutely not ply my trade would be a zoo. It wouldn't be an honest day’s work. Not at all sporting, completely unfair, and unthinkable…
I'd been to Reno and found it thoroughly unpleasant, what my friend Dave would call a "real dump." And, my old buddy Bob ended his life of substance abuse problems by overdosing there. He was a talented musician with an equally if not more talented rich & famous musician brother who had stayed home and practiced while Bob went about getting fucked up. Yep, that's pretty much how it works.
I recently got a letter from my editor at Counterpoint Press, the daring publishing company bringing out a paperback edition of my book Buddha In A Teacup in early 2016, saying he would soon be sending me samples of their cover ideas. So I held my breath for a few days and recalled my book cover adventures with publishers of my previous books. This helped temper fantasies of a superb cover for Buddha In A Teacup. Indeed, after reviewing my history of book covers, I decided to hope for legible.
By the time you read this I should be somewhere on the John Muir Trail, most likely in Yosemite National Park. This will all be part of a two week backpacking trip/adventure with my long…
Sonoma County Winegrowers recently bought an expensive, full-page, color ad, using tax dollars, in the July 12 daily Santa Rosa Press Democrat and in various weeklies, such as the North Bay Bohemian and Sonoma West.…
Opposite the house where I now live is the school my young daughter Irene attends; where I pick her up Tuesdays and Thursdays, and two weekends each month. From there, many days—especially when the weather…
Near the top of the list of horrible things I’ve witnessed in my life are the beatings of small weak defenseless people at the hands of big strong brutal people. We had two big vicious bullies at my elementary school, and when I started Third Grade, I was sick with fear for days after I saw those two brutes pummel a little boy. And the more I read about what the international hedge fund criminal banking consortium and their elected lackeys Merkel and Obama are doing to Greece, the more I feel the same disgust and hopelessness I felt when I watched those giants beating that little boy.