Outstanding Trainee
Cassidy went on sick call that morning, talked like he had laryngitis, so Prado had to take the platoon. Prado had been…
Organic California 2050
Crops begin with seeds and so do ideas. To thrive, they both need friendly environments and human beings who nurture them…
Barbara Howe Speaks
There comes a point in nearly every hot, irrational blow-up when those involved must surely, in a moment of clarity, set aside…
Jim Jones & the Anderson Valley
On the second day of classes in the fall of 1967 Jim Jones integrated Anderson Valley High School. Walking down the hall…
The Cow in the Driveway
Rancho Navarro is a subdivision of 135 ten-acre lots nestled in the woods northwest of the Navarro General Store. Most properties lack…
Back to the Stacks
Back in the dark ages of my youth, and I don’t mean to say that it was a dark time— quite the…
Searching for Limb Casts
“What’s a Limb Cast?” Any geologist or rockhound can tell you. If you bury any or all of a tree in hot…
1969 & All That Weird Stuff
When my friends ask librarians to recommend a novel by a local author that’s set in Sonoma County they suggest Greg Sarris’s Watermelon…
Time for a Change
I highly recommend that you read the well-written, very easy-to-understand Grand Jury Report titled, “Who Runs Mendocino County?” It’s a point-on discussion…
The Life Pastoral
I’ve been feeling lately as if I should be (or should have been) evolving. Not in the literal sense, although some kind…
Sometimes Things Turn
A February night in 1924, in a Manhattan concert hall owned by the Aeolian piano company… the wailing, warped, and flatted clarinet…
My Time with the Farmworkers Union
From 1968 to 1973 I was Executive Assistant to Cesar Chavez charged with computerizing the United Farm Workers Union. Starting in Delano,…