[July 2009] Some time in early or mid-1949 a CIA officer named Bill (his surname is blacked out in the file, which was surfaced by John Kelly in the early 1990s) asked an outside contractor…
Posts tagged as “essays”
We recently watched the movie version of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Our main motivation for renting the movie was to see the village of Mendocino as she was captured on film in 1954. Mendocino exteriors were used to represent Monterey circa 1917, and if you’ve ever been to Monterey and Mendocino you’ll wonder why anyone, let alone an acclaimed filmmaker, would do such a thing; and if you’ve never been to Monterey and Mendocino you won’t give a hoot.
I’d prefer not to call the cops. I don’t have anything against cops and I don’t fear them. Some of my friends and relatives are cops, like most people probably. It’s a big industry. I’d…
Unusually balmy weather haunted Anderson Valley at least through the end of November, a phenomenon I witnessed first hand touring the gardens of friends who still had tomatoes and peppers blooming and fruiting after Thanksgiving.…
One of the longest milliseconds I ever lived through came before the beginning of the Dies irae from Mozart’s Requiem. The members of the Stanford Chorus crowded onto the risers at the back of the…
A couple years back at an abundant Memorial Day Weekend party on Mendocino Ridge, I noticed winemaker Arnaud Weyrich of Roederer Estate sampling the random red wines on Anne Fashauer’s table with a Champagne flute instead of a regular wine glass.
I hate committing crimes. I really do. It's scary and nerve-racking and guilt inducing and, well — wrong. This is why I fling myself headlong and heedless into the most doomed, idiotic, high risk, low…
The “Torture Report” is finally public, at least much of it, and it's been front-page news, and it is horrible, disgusting, shameful and embarrassing. Other nations not known for their respect for human rights such…