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Posts published in “Essays”

London Calling

There are cranes everywhere in London, and not just down in the financial center, the City of London. Cranes crowd the south bank of the Thames and the north. They are upriver and downriver. No quadrant of the skyline is without them in large quantity.

Physician-Assisted Dying: Honest Choices

Physician-assisted dying (not "suicide" — a term that is not truly relevant here) is a complex and emotional issue. Here is a perspective done with a leading physician with much direct experience — and who has quit one of his professional medical associations due to their lack of integrity on the topic.

The Stony Lonesome: Stereotypes

If I were a big game hunter, one place I would absolutely not ply my trade would be a zoo. It wouldn't be an honest…

Road Notes: Denver-Las Vegas

I'd been to Reno and found it thoroughly unpleasant, what my friend Dave would call a "real dump." And, my old buddy Bob ended his life of substance abuse problems by overdosing there. He was a talented musician with an equally if not more talented rich & famous musician brother who had stayed home and practiced while Bob went about getting fucked up. Yep, that's pretty much how it works.

Cover Stories

I recently got a letter from my editor at Counterpoint Press, the daring publishing company bringing out a paperback edition of my book Buddha In A Teacup in early 2016, saying he would soon be sending me samples of their cover ideas. So I held my breath for a few days and recalled my book cover adventures with publishers of my previous books. This helped temper fantasies of a superb cover for Buddha In A Teacup. Indeed, after reviewing my history of book covers, I decided to hope for legible.

Hiking The JMT

By the time you read this I should be somewhere on the John Muir Trail, most likely in Yosemite National Park. This will all be…

How ‘Sustainable’ Is The Wine Industry?

Sonoma County Winegrowers recently bought an expensive, full-page, color ad, using tax dollars, in the July 12 daily Santa Rosa Press Democrat and in various…

The Garden of the Jesuits

Opposite the house where I now live is the school my young daughter Irene attends; where I pick her up Tuesdays and Thursdays, and two…

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