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Posts published in “Essays”

Sonoma County Rebuffs Disability Needs

Sonoma County has now almost eliminated the need for disabled parking spaces in front of highly special needed spaces. The County has advertised that Covid-19 sites were available to all county constituents by circulating a…

AV Laundry Day, Over 100 Years Ago

On laundry day, the first settlers in Anderson Valley would fetch buckets of water from the spring or the hand-dug well in the back yard. By the early 1900s, some people had a windmill and…

Playing Third Bass Guitar, Jim Ray Hart

What remains of a once fine (and big) record collection sits upstairs, and even in its current emaciated state will leave dents in the floor when I remove it. Vinyl is heavy.  I’d like to…

How Not to Buy a House

A recent experience with a buyer brought to the fore several issues around home purchasing that I think are worth sharing. One of these has to do with due diligence on the part of the…

Candidates for County School Superintendent Exchange Views

Candidate Nicole Glentzer: The Anderson Valley Advertiser asked me to respond in writing to the question, “What is not happening at MCOE under the auspices of Ms. Hutchins that you think should be happening?” As…

Our Friend The Poet

Poetry, exhausted by the heavy burdens of sensitive emotions conjured up by dreamy sentimentalists, today is mostly found on dusty shelves in old libraries, none of which are in Ukiah. The poems of today are…

Himself

I never met him, never even saw him, though my formative years in the Bay Area were inextricably entwined with Charles McCabe. McCabe didn’t occupy the celestial firmament claimed by fellow San Francisco Chronicle columnist…

The Place To Be

After clubs and concert halls shut down in March of 2020, the enterprising and exuberant pianist Emmet Cohen invited the cameras and microphones into his Harlem apartment for weekly Monday night jam sessions that brought—and…

Play Ball!

With the 2022 major league baseball season barely begun, a starting player on a prominent team lost his job. Though not in itself unusual – professional teams make on-field adjustments all the time – the…

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