I have my piano tuned once a year. I used to have the beauty tuned twice a year, but that was when a good tuning cost sixty dollars and I was making much more money than I make now.
Posts published in “Essays”
Sanford Dorbin, who died May 27, 2014, will be honored in the jazz-poetry program “Sanford Fare Well” next Wednesday, May 27, 2015. It commemorates his life as Mendocino County resident, activist, long-distance runner, and especially…
For fascinating listening there is “The Great Influenza” by John Barry. It’s available from the County Library and provides hours of informative material on a disease that killed millions worldwide in 1918-19. The book set…
Her name was Cocoa. She spelled it like the beverage, not Jane Goodall’s gorilla. She looked Ethiopian with her cafe con leche complexion, high cheekbones, and yellowish brown eyes—most of the women at the party were Ethiopian. However, Cocoa was from Senegal. She had the poise and the figure of a young woman in her early 20s. He was stunned to discover she was seventeen—the same age as the high school seniors to whom he taught biology.
Good friends Don and Misty are coming up to Bieber for a few April days before we road trip north together. Don is Portuguese and his wife Misty is a lovely Japanese woman. They’re mad…
A friend recently sent me a link to a short movie about a high school art teacher in St. Paul Minnesota whose students are recent arrivals from other countries, refugees from military conflicts. Many of the students barely speak English, so this teacher has devised fun and creative ways to explore color theory without needing much language for the learning.
When we feel gratitude, we give ourselves the gift of concentrating on what's important, and when we share our gratitude, it helps others feel gratitude, and also share it. I am a believer in the…
It was an early spring day and I sat in my dentist's waiting room. The only magazine that looked even half interesting proved to be the latest issue of Field and Stream. What I thought…
When I am not in a condition of employment — and this is a rarer state than you might imagine, given the depth, breadth and vibrancy of my criminal record — I like to hang…