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Posts published in “Essays”

A Short History of the Twentieth Century [Dec. 1999]

In June, 1900, troops of the Western powers broke the Boxer siege of the embassies in Peking, looted the Empress Dowager’s summer palace and thus destroyed for a time the valiant nationalist effort to halt…

Food? Cooking!

I first tasted food in the crowded but livable Brooklyn neighborhood where my parents rented a small, dark one-bedroom apartment. My mother didn’t have to buy or cook the food since it came directly from…

The Cruise

The travel brochure promised happiness and a trip I’d never forget. That promise was more than fulfilled in August 1959 when my Grandmother asked me to join her on a ten-day cruise to Nassau in…

Chinatown, Our Chinatown [1950]

The biggest Chinatown outside of Asia. Where 30,000 people are crowded into a few blocks, so they can attract tourists and disease. Chinatown. Beloved indulgently and condescendingly by the rest of San Francisco—as long as…

Senior Benefits: Low Income Housing

The HUD low-income senior housing complex in Garberville is a cute assortment of one bedroom cottages, between the hospital and the library, on the edge of town with views from benches out to the canyons…

The ‘Joy Of Cooking’

A cookbook taught me the joy of cooking for others… When I graduated from college, a family member bought me some of her favorite kitchen essentials for my new home: three sturdy casserole dishes and…

Tourism: Joke Without A Punchline

Tourism in Mendocino County is the ship that never docks, the train that never slows, the freeway exit always closed for repairs.  Tourists in Ukiah: the dream that will not die, the hope that won’t…

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