One of my childhood friends was from a blue-collar Catholic family. Trade unionists. The father was a house painter. The sons, a plumber, a glazier, another painter.... One exception was the music teacher, and of…
Posts published in “Essays”
My eye doctor for over 20 years, Dr. Clayton Anderson of Ada, passed away this winter at age 80. Norman Rockwell missed out when he didn’t paint a picture of Doc Anderson, the very model…
I attended the recent Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association (MCERA) board meeting. Even though we do not elect these folks (i.e., they are not responsible to us), I did it as Supervisor Smith told me…
The two home buyer tax credits are expiring at the end of April. To take advantage of them, besides meeting their general requirements, you need to be under contract to buy a home before the…
For the last few weeks, newspapers around the North Coast have been calling on State Senator Pat Wiggins to resign her office. The worst of them adopt a pleading sort of tone. First they fire…
Many of us traveling into late middle age have by now laid our parents to rest and/or moved them in with us or into transitional facilities. In so doing we have come face-to-face with the…
The snow was already dusting the Organ Mountains of New Mexico fringing this high desert town, promising a hard winter further up the spine of Obama's America. I ride the Mexican bus (officially doing business…
Former Humboldt County Prosecutor Allison Jackson says she has a wide-ranging base of support that’s united in the belief that the District Attorney’s Office needs to change for the better.
With the winter rains soaking deeper, evaporating, and draining into the Navarro River, the ground is nearly perfect for digging post holes and setting the timbers. It amazes me how there can be standing water…