Australians call them muttonshells, but we say abalone; the term deriving from the Spanish abulón. However you say it, the flesh of the abalone is such a commodity that its reputed black market value in…
Posts tagged as “essays”
Originally published thirty-five years ago, my first novel has been out-of-print for thirty-two years, and this wholly unexpected revival has inspired in me myriad dreams and memories, some of which I hope to share with whoever shows up to listen.
Our boat was tied up to the commercial dock at Half Moon Bay where I sat on the engine room hatch-cover tying trolling-gear. Looking up from my work I saw a seagull trailing a wing…
I was told it was only going to be a journey of a few leagues. As my league work wasn’t up to snuff I figured it would take a while longer. I loaded myself up with the stuff of the classic poseur. A handbag a duffle bag, new shoes, an over-the-shoulder bag and a shopping bag flaunting that it’s Heavenly.
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” — Mark Twain I realize it is not, in Buddhist terms, skillful speech to call anyone an idiot,…
Coincidentally or ironically or naturally, of the nine adults I encountered on my way to this place on the sand overlooking Mendocino Bay, eight were enormously fat and the ninth was a woman so entirely void of excess weight she appeared to be a member of an entirely different species than her behemoth brethren.
How did I get into this? That’s the inevitable question of concert day, one that has been gnawing at the performer’s nerves through the preceding night, perhaps for days before. You’ve practiced for weeks on…
Like most people, Billy came to prison scared and with good reason. See, this wasn't some “Camp Snoopy” joint where wanna-be tough guys dried out from their last meth run. Not a place where you just laid around for 8 months, swapped lies and told bullshit war stories until you paroled.
We’ve slid down a long, slippery slope since the days of the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley and mainstream reporters like Dan Rather turning President Nixon’s own words around to sarcastically imply that the leader of the free world was running from grand jury and congressional investigations.