“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Jesus, Acts 20:35 John Steinbeck’s preface to his wonderful The Log From the Sea of Cortez is a celebration of Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck’s friend and…
Posts tagged as “essays”
While the greatest musical dynasties ruled over vast empires of the imagination, their geographic domains were small. The Couperins held the organist post at the church of St. Gervais in Paris for nearly two hundred…
When you see me talking to myself, it doesn’t mean I am crazy, it means you are blind and have no idea about the multitude of ghosts following me either on foot or weightless bicycles…
This time of year always puts me in mind of World War II. A little known story of that “good war” concerns Wake Island. The entry of the United States into the war seemed a…
“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” — Bo Derek So…immediately following and ever since the re-election of President Obama, we have been told day and night by the…
We had a two-day delay in our flight from Atlanta to Johannesberg. Several months prior to leaving SFO, I was instructed by a person at Delta to call a month before leaving to book the…
During World War I, my maternal grandmother grew up on a ranch in the sand hills above the North Platte River of Nebraska. My great-grandparents, Dennis and Mary Emily Ward, raised my mother’s mother as…
Immortality is a bummer for a genius. It lasts too long and it's very noisy. It's hard to rest in peace when millions praise you day and night, on full volume. Not shabby, Herr Mozart!…