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Posts published in “Essays”

To Plea or Not To Plea

Douglas Scott Hirscher, the man involved in the deadly four-car accident on Highway 128 near Yorkville on December 1, 2002, has pled no contest to vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident where…

Trespass

Red canyon walls ended abruptly. I stepped over sagging barbed wire into aspens and cottonwoods and came to a house in a clearing and a new corral made of freshly milled planks set on squared-off…

A Day on the Navarro

Friday, after a light breakfast of fruit, I packed my backpack, tied on a sleeping bag and headed up the River until today, Monday. Creek, actually, because once above the confluence of Anderson Creek the…

Toxic Cocktail Party

An associate in Albion, Captain Fathom, who knows that I tested HIV positive in 1989, has asked me more than once why I think I’ve lived through it all while so many others we’ve known…

The Wrong Kind of Growth

Is it growth or is it cancer? Whichever it may be, we want it, and elected officials and their would-be replacements are out in force promising us plenty of it. They talk as though there…

So You Want to Be a Football Hero

Saturday night, the fairgrounds. The alumni football game against Deep Valley and hordes of Panthers old and new prowl the bleachers and field. I see Don Summit, Deep Valley’s hoops coach, and my old teammates…

Riding Forth on the Fourth

Good idea, a Fourth of July ride. Otherwise I would be home in desultory conversation with family and friends, probably drinking too much, and certainly catching a fireworks show celebrating what we Americans hold most…

My Birthday

JULY 22ND is my birthday, and if any of you say, "I knew you were a Cancer!" you are permanently prohibited from reading this newspaper. I'm way, way too old to care about birthdays. They…

Knock Knock, Who’s There? The FBI

“The FBI is here,” Mom tells me over the phone. Immediately I can see my mom with her back to a couple of Matrix-like figures in black suits and opaque sunglasses, her hand covering the…

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