Oakland, California — John Cortez isn’t a kid anymore. So why is he still trying to survive on the same part-time job that he got when he was young and single? Because he works at…
Posts published in August 1997
William S. Burroughs has an imposing appearance. He looks down on one from a height of more than six feet, but he seems even taller than he is. The man is slender, almost to the…
According to John Mayfield, president of Microphor Inc., Dave Faulkner, the county’s Air Pollution Control Officer, is a “power-monger” and “an incompetent” who should be “terminated.” Mayfield also thinks Faulkner’s agency is “atrocious” and engages…
I am Kurt Vonnegut. Oh, Kurt Vonnegut may appear to be a brilliant, revered male novelist. I may appear to be a mediocre and virtually unknown female newspaper columnist. We may appear to have nothing…
Supérieur — The French named it: the highest, farthest, deepest, oldest of the Greats: we know the lore. The mind may help or hinder, sometimes better be bypassed. The afternoon sun reflects from the waves:…
Jerry puffed on his Marlboro. A raven swooshed down from behind, alighting on an old fir stump maybe 50 yards across the tiny meadow. The bird shook its sleek, jet wings, drawing them along its…
Limerick, Ireland — On Cecil Street in the ancient fortress city of Limerick, there is a pub called Bill Clinton, named after the American you-know-what. Above the doorway Irish and American flags are wrapped in…
A week into the Teamster strike against UPS we visit the picket line put up by Local 70 outside the big UPS hub on Pardee, a mile or so from Oakland Airport. It’s a sunny…
Highway 128 is a favorite drive of mine, winding through the Alexander Valley from Napa County (though the prerequisite here is that you must like the looks of vineyards), then on from Cloverdale to the…