Thunder boomed, lightning flashed that Thursday night as our ride dropped us off at the Caretaker's Garden, near the old Boont Berry farm where we planned to spend the night in the yurt I built…
Posts published in December 2015
Film maker Ron Howard has stated several times that the sneak preview of his 1995 movie Apollo 13 produced one comment card that totally trashed the film, alleging a typical Hollywood ending because no astronaut…
California has been extremely fortunate in terms of the timing of its urban earthquakes. The San Francisco earthquake of 1865, the Hayward quake of 1868, the 1906 San Francisco temblor, the 1971 San Fernando quake, and the 1994 Northridge event all struck in the early morning hours, when most Northern and Southern Californians were either home in bed or preparing to go to work or school. Even the tsunami generated by the 1964 Alaska earthquake that devastated downtown Crescent City in the northwest corner of the state arrived in the predawn hours. During these events people were scattered about, for the most part in single-family residences.
The rich drop bombs, the poor plant bombs; armies crush their enemies en masse from above; terrorists counterattack from below in blind spasms. Above all this hatred lies The Milky Way. Missiles use it to…
Frigid Mornings;
Firing Squad;
Post Offices;
Bye-bye Mattress;
Yesterday's Catch;
O'Malley Rally;
MCB Gardens Events;
M5 Closed;
Priorities;
Yazzle Dazzled;
Important Test;
The Nothing;
Warrant Wednesday;
Favorite Book;
Credit Rating;
Ukiah Friday;
New Year Doggerel
Just got the annual news from Social Security about how much they will be sending me each month in 2016. Last year, they upped me from 565 dollars to 575, not much of an increase, but this year the powers that be have declared: there was no increase in the cost of living in 2015. Thus zero increase in Social Security for me, though my Medicare payment is going up, so actually less money for me.
John Ross was a man who lived as he chose and wrote it as he damned well pleased. A reporter with a cause in the time-honored leftwing American tradition of John Reed and I.F. Stone, Ross chose to live most of his life in Mexico in a kind of exile from his native United States.