The summer road trip seems to offer the chance to catch up on all those recordings accumulated over the previous year. Depending on your perspective, the endless government pork ladled out onto the highways of…
Posts published in “Essays”
A few days ago, Marion Crombie, our musical neighbor and fellow fruit forager, reported that two of the most promising and easily accessible stands of blackberries hereabouts have begun to fulfill their promise, so the next morning Marcia and I set forth with our knapsack full of glass jars (with lids) to harvest the luscious berries pursuant to making blackberry jam.
August 28th marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, but it’s also the anniversary of Midway Atoll formally becoming a United States possession. The proclamation was made by Captain William Reynolds of the…
This is one of hopefully many letters from Myanmar discussing what I am seeing and experiencing as an aid worker or English teacher in the midst of a complex ethnic struggle.
My favorite sister was the middle child of five. For want of a boy on their third try, my folks issued her the male spelling of a name they’d already selected: Kerry Lynn. Born at sunrise…
A lot of valuable real estate was going to waste. That is the crux of the matter. Imagine if you can, a mile of waterfront property in the tourist mecca of Sausalito, Marin County, occupied by pirates, artists, fishermen, counterculture and other social ne'er-do-wells, living on all manner of floating objects with the permission and approval of the property owner.
One of my big regrets about the Potatomen — yes, I’ve had a few — was that we never finished a song we started back in 1994 or so called “Going To Humboldt.” And when…
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and medical advisor to the masses, doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of history. On August 11 Gupta narrated a “Special Report” on CNN that provided dramatic examples of…
Originally published thirty-five years ago, my first novel has been out-of-print for thirty-two years, and this wholly unexpected revival has inspired in me myriad dreams and memories, some of which I hope to share with whoever shows up to listen.