Editor, Dateline San Quentin State prison, South block, Alpine section, entry 2: Play now, Pay later. Picking up the pieces one day at a time. I find myself stranded somewhere between nowhere and goodbye. My…
Posts published in March 2011
Having passed the bar exam earlier that year, in late 1984, the Mendocino County DA, Vivian Rackaukas, interviewed David and offered him the job. Although he had never even been to the County before, he…
The seventh-grade classroom fell silent, before I noticed it and then it was too late; the teacher was standing over me and all the other kids were staring. Some were smirking. “Give me that little…
Everybody has their horror story about unions. “Of course, he's union, so you can't get rid of him,” is the usual punch line after a story about some guy who wouldn't lift a finger to…
When my teenage son and I bounced from Boonville in the middle of January we were merely embarking on a visiting mission — a vacation, so far as we knew. For that reason we packed…
Few things are more entertaining than defenses of the indefensible, as was proven by the charge of the lite brigade into the blathersphere earlier this month to defend the honor of the United States’ National…
Although very rusty, I'm range-qualified on the M-1 rifle, .30-caliber carbine, recoil-less rocket-propelled anti-tank weapon (bazooka), .30- and .50-calibre machine guns, M-2 flamethrower, Thompson “Tommy” submachinegun (beloved of Dillinger-era movies), and the Browning M1911 automatic…
“The poet’s only responsibility is to write fresh lines.”--Charles Olson With all due respect to the organization known as Poets & Writers, I have always felt that if there’s no poetry in the writing, who…
From Washington DC we hear brave talk about Uncle Sam leading the charge for democracy across the Arab world, and thus restoring himself to high esteem in Arab eyes as something other than the sponsor…