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Posts tagged as “essays”

Chips

In pre-Covid times a hungry American was on a tour of a monastery. A familiar smell from the kitchen drew him away from the rest of the tour group. In the kitchen he spotted a…

The Navarro Saga: More Memories

Well, it's been a longer journey than I anticipated through my recollections and reminiscences warehouse 49 years of residence in Navarro has provided me. My original plan was three articles; this one is number ten.…

Journal of the Plague Year (#21)

Berkeley, CA, August 10, 2020 – Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” is an angry book. If you’re not angry after reading it, the reason may lie in the subtitle. Are you part…

If You’re Going To Do Something, Do It Right

My dad's motto was, "If you're going to do something, do it right." He had a thousand inspirational clichés, but that was the one that stuck with me the most. "If you're painting the wall,"…

Letter From America: An Empire Unglued

It is an odd thing to live in the United States right now. The greatest empire in the history of the world has devolved into a twisted, macabre, grotesque caricature of itself, and the world…

Skinnier Isn’t Always Faster

Ed was a stocky 150-pounder I used to train with back in 1979-80. He figured the reason I ran faster than him was because I was skinnier. I tried to tell him that 150 or…

Porgy & Bess in the Time of BLM

Last Friday night while protesters were being shoved into unmarked vans in Portland by federal paramilitaries, PBS broadcast George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in its Great Performances series. The opera was a strange choice for these times.…

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