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Posts published in “Essays”

The Stony Lonesome: Under the Footlights

In 2010 I was experiencing a period of sobriety and employment and so consorting with my sober friends, one of whom is local (Fort Bragg) man-about-town bon vivant and impresario Joseph Sverko. Joseph is the motivating force behind the annual Footlighters show and as such its writer, director, producer, costumer, and star. In addition to using an established group of amateur thesbians, he regularly enlists his friends to both act in and labor for the production although perhaps “enlists” does not really capture the spirit of force majeure that Joseph employs in his hyperzealous conscriptive efforts; “Shanghai” comes to mind, or maybe “press gang.”

Amish & Hippies

The blanket of snow lingers on into March, with nights dipping below zero, so I have temporarily abandoned the plan to construct a solarium on…

Mendocino Talking: Thomas Brower

Thomas grows crops in several areas around Mendocino County including his main crop, Lavender. You will find him almost every Saturday with his kids during the season at the Ukiah Farmers Market selling the products he makes from lavender.

Unbroken

For some of us it is hard to believe that World War II ended seventy years ago. I am not quite old enough to have…

Boomer

A lot of younger people seem to be under the impression that baby boomers are the selfish “me” generation, who, after a brief flirtation with…

Tons of Books

When I was a kid we used the word tons to mean lots. I have tons of baseball cards. You have tons of friends. This week, however, I really did move tons of books, eighty big heavy boxes, of my self-published opuses Buddha In A Teacup and Under the Table Books, from the warehouse where I was paying to store them, to our house, which now resembles a UPS shipping center.

Pope Tom Melcher

The name Tom Melcher rang a bell. So I did a little research. Isn't this the same Tom Melcher who ran for the KYX Board…

Why I Became an Ambulance Driver/EMT

I never overly applied myself in school, which resulted in some mediocre finals and had the astounding consequence that I could not study biology, the…

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