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Posts published in February 2011

Report From Indiana: Happy Valentine’s Day

“What's the matter with you?” they keep asking. “Why on earth would you come to Indiana from California in the middle of the winter?” The beer is cheaper, I tell them. The beer's cheaper, but…

The Forgotten People

A computer engineer by profession, Salam Talib had moonlighted in Bagdad as a translator and driver for foreign progressive journalists during the early years of the US invasion and occupation.

Georgian Wine

They came to California by FedEx in September, two dozen grapevine specimens collected on a government fruit-collecting trip to the Republic of Georgia. They will eventually be rooted at the US Department of Agriculture’s tree…

When They Came For The Navarro

The North Coast wine industry has long acted out a pathological conviction that it is entitled to virtually every single drop of water in every watershed it touches. As in the case of Sonoma County's…

First The Downers, Then The Uppers

Using music as medicine goes back to Antiquity and beyond. The Greeks were not alone in recognizing that music was powerful stuff, capable of not only calming the body, but also of rousing it. Administered…

Dead Airplane Kerouac Caen

When my wife and I joined forces four years ago, she came equipped with the nicely aged Toyota pickup I’d always wanted and I came with a Toyota station wagon ideal for toting cellos, so we swapped.

Music For The Sickbed

Using music as medicine goes back to Antiquity and beyond. The Greeks were not alone in recognizing that music was powerful stuff, capable of not only calming the body, but also of rousing it. Administered…

The God That’s Failing

Turn on the TV and you hear the predictable bray from predictable types like Mort Zuckerman, Zbigniev Brzezinski, John Bolton and the Israel Lobby passim that, say what you will, Mubarak and Tunisia’s ejected president…

Letters To The Editor

PULLING TEETH Editor, I was born in 1938. In that year the American Medical Association got the legislation it wanted from the FDR Administration here in the USA. A day that should go down in…

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