I've never been one for heeding others' advice. I'll listen politely, acknowledge its validity, speculate on how to apply it to my situation with the best of intentions. But believe it: tell me the stove is hot and not only will I touch it once, but I will return and do it a few more times in case the first one was a fluke.
Posts published in “Essays”
“Once, during prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.” — W.C. Fields This just in: Ben Affleck, the movie star, is going to try to survive for five…
“… for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night’s revels… But He, that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my Sail!…” —…
On April 20th each year, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park are arguably our beleaguered planet's ground zero for what is loosely referred to "cannabis culture." Why that date? It's a long hazy…
Speaking of speculators and the Greeks, hundreds of thousands of the most highly educated and technologically skillful people in Greece have fled that country in the last two years, and more are leaving every day. Why? Because the austerity programs imposed by the European Union in response to Greece’s speculator-caused debt crisis have created such a severe economic depression that there is little hope of an economic recovery in Greece for many years to come. Greece only has ten million people, yet in the face of this massive brain drain and the elimination of tens of thousands of public sector jobs, the European Union has just decreed that Greece must amplify her austerity campaign and get rid of tens of thousands more public sector jobs.
A handful of tax resisters lingered outside of the post office in downtown Ithaca on Monday into the early evening when I walked by, my return already filed electronically earlier that day. The protesters formed…
Traveling may be thrilling, exhausting, dangerous, mind-opening and, occasionally, boring. But more than anything else, going to faraway places is easier talked about than done. Thus, we find history riddled with quiet rumors and full-fledged…
A tragicomedy featuring the US Treasury Department, industries reliant on hemp, and the American Medical Association. Continued from last week’s AVA.
To live outside the law you must be honest. — Bob Dylan I love a good man outside the law, just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law. — Woody Guthrie…