It's raining in July at the Macdonald ranch. Here it proves a welcome sight, damping down dusty roads and dry grass. Any rain in drought years seems precious. We are almost certainly undergoing some sort…
Posts published in “Essays”
I grew up where men seldom touched other men, beyond a handshake, and everybody was happy with that arrangement. But, when I came out to the coast, well, people hugged. You see the guy from…
Much ado about the death penalty lately... Some places want to reinstate the firing squad, which is interesting if only because one or more of the gun wielders can deliberately miss the target if they…
My brother died in 2000. He was 51 years old. We had been estranged for over 20 years. We had lived much different lives. When he died (killed) some of his acquaintances had his ashes…
It appears that Native Americans are currently part of the national cultural conversation and I — well, wait. I should probably qualify that by saying that the concept and conception of Native Americans is being…
It's a funny mood around Peggy Templer's house in the northern California woods, a mixture of dread, relief and fear. Shock waves are still in the air. Lions'll do that to you, this lion in…
The Fourth of July has always been a mixed bag for me. As a boy, I loved the barbecue and fireworks party in our neighbors’ backyard. My friends and I ran around in the dark with sparklers, ate potato salad and burgers and corn and watermelon, and a man smoking a cigarette and drinking a martini set off spectacular fireworks smuggled into California from Montana.