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Posts published in “Essays”

Over-Reactions

The human brain is an amazing organ, and capable of some genuinely astonishing things. I'm not even talking about Einstein-y super-genius level insight, which is of course amazing but not exactly evenly distributed among the…

Humco Sheriff: Jail Assault Reflects ‘New Reality’

The attack of a corrections deputy by inmates has led Humboldt County Sheriff Billy Honsal to call attention to the impacts of the state’s public safety realignment and increasing crime and gang activity. Honsal held…

Know Your Snitch

The letter arrived in the mail. They turned me down. Mendocino County refused to issue me a business license for short-term rentals. The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors must be high-fiving on that. Brown and…

3,768 Miles Of Backroad America

I’m weird. I admit it. I go on a 3,768-mile car ride through Eastern and Midwestern back roads and I find the strangest darn things to get excited about, or question. After two weeks on…

Manfully Hanged

The history of Mendocino is dotted here and there with mortal crimes. In the broadest sense, the early years following the California Gold Rush filled the calendar with mass murder of the indigenous population. After…

That Clancy Sigal Sound

I learned of Clancy Sigal’s death on July 16th only on returning home Saturday to Ithaca, New York after five weeks on the road. I owed him an email. I’d meant to write him back…

You Get What You Pay For

I was on the yard yesterday morning, alternately running and walking laps — it's just too blasted hot for uninterrupted running, even at eight a.m. — and saw a chap of my acquaintance presenting a…

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