How to destroy Mexican corn, reap maximum profits, and buy a university in one easy lesson... Seated on the balcony of his appropriately professorial office upon a sun-stroked hillock in the midst of the Life…
Posts published in “Essays”
Across the last 30 years it’s hard to think of a Democratic candidate seemingly assured of his party’s nomination who has had less of a baptism of sewage in the primaries than Senator John Kerry.…
The year its destiny was altered forever, 1919, Camp Hill — part of the old Mexican land grant bought by William Randolph Hearst's father, George, in 1865 — was just one more surge in the…
In political circles, small as they are, the argument of late has been over whether or not 2004 is a déjà-vu-all-over-again of 1972. As political writers repeat past the point of tedium, Presidential campaigns are…
My friend N. is always asking, “When’s the party start?” N. is a convivial sort, learned on the subject of cakes and ales. And if there is a woman or bookmaker at the table to…
I was out of luck this time. I was one of the special residents chosen for the Albatross Stew. We were a select group of old timers given this wonderful opportunity. Luckily they didn’t tell…
When I ordered my last group of remaindered books from Edward R. Hamilton, I included one called “Death of the West,” thinking it had to do with environmentalism. I hadn't noticed that the author was…
1963. August 1st, San Francisco North Beach. I met up with a guy named Sky King. He wore all black and a long cape with a stiff Victorian collar. His hair was black, curling down…
My dear friend and late Nation colleague Andrew Kopkind liked to tell how, skiing in Aspen at the height of the Vietnam War, he came round a bend and saw another skier, Defense Secretary Robert…