Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

Saving Deputy Walker

Mendocino County is broke, and broker by the day. All branches of County government, including the Sheriff's Department, have been forced to cut expenditures. Along with the proposed cuts there’s been lots of talk at…

Summer in the Hothouse

Professional gardeners are a peculiar lot who often seem to make up for their failings at friendship with fellow humans by turning to their mute and tendriled charges instead. Scoffing at amateurs who swear by…

Of Tourists & Mendocino

We are now at the high tide of the summer tourist season in Mendocino, the streets of the village awash in visitors from more populous places — the beach at the mouth of Big River…

The Only Place

My grandfather had a thing for peanut butter. He ate it by the spoonful. It couldn’t be just any peanut butter. It had to be organic peanut butter with a layer of clear grease on…

Progressive Illusions

In retrospect we can see what a lucky fellow Barack Obama was to have had, during his run for the presidency last year, a radical black pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as his opponent in…

Progressive Illusions

In retrospect we can see what a lucky fellow Barack Obama was to have had, during his run for the presidency last year, a radical black pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as his opponent in…

The Waving Game

After ten years and 260,000 miles, the time came to put my loyal and trustworthy Ford Ranger out to pasture. I saved the taxpayers some money by not taking advantage of the cash-for-clunkers program. My…

A Bloody Day in San Francisco

San Franciscans are observing the 75th anniversary of “Bloody Thursday” this year — that day in July of 1934 when open warfare raged on the city’s waterfront, a key day in the struggle of workers…

-