The froggers would arrive in the mornings, having driven in from their night hunt in Central Valley wetlands, bullfrog country. They'd carry burlap bags, wet and heavy, into the front building, talk for a while,…
Posts published in “Essays”
Detroit Dark Red Beets and January King cabbage are the only vegetables still worth harvesting at our farm this time of year. The beets’ flavor has remained sweet, their texture soft when steamed or sautéed.…
I'd just encountered Glenda Anderson, journalist and prisoner of love when, only minutes later, just around the corner on West Church, Ukiah, there was the dungeon master himself — Mike Sweeney, Mendocino County's trash czar,…
Every fortnight, the San Francisco Chronicle publishes something it deceptively brands a “magazine.” Before they achieved their monopoly, said pamphlet was a weekly — go figure. Overall, we’re talking sorry product, particularly in a city…
Tuesday 5:01 a.m. — I’m scribbling this in the dark as we drive down 2nd Avenue towards the Midtown Tunnel, so I hope you can read this should my body never be found. The livery…
Just when I thought there could be no further desecration of those who perished on Sept. 11, George W. Bush appoints Henry Kissinger to direct an investigation of the government's failure to prevent the terrorist…
Dear Diary: 7:44 a.m. — My analyst says I should keep a diary so I can get closer to my emotions. What a crock. But I don't want the little jerk telling my employer I'm…
I’ll get to Botox and Iraq in a bit. Let’s start with the Naked Empire. Naked in the sense that those who decide on American policy and those whose job it is to sell that…
It's Saturday morning Labor Day Weekend and I wake up early thinking about where to ride. Hmmmm. Crater Lake? That blue caldera, impossibly blue, and that beautiful 35-mile ride high around its rim? Last night…