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Posts published in “Essays”

Mendocino Media

My uncle, the late 5th District Supervisor Joe Scaramella, was an avid reader all his life. He described the county’s media during his tour in…

Hello Baseball, Goodbye Brain

The opening day of the major league baseball season is when I start to live again until October when pro basketball and NFL football take…

River Views

April 10th is our publication date, quite a day in journalism history. First we have to go back to 1866, when a gangly 19-year-old Hungarian…

Fracking’s Many Threats

The gas and petroleum industries have already invaded California with an extremely destructive technology, hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. Fracking is used by oil…

Dig This, Man

Back in the murky pre-history of San Francisco's fabled Haight-Ashbury, even before the fabled “Summer of Love” in 1967, let alone the ever-evolving touristic version…

Dr. Bull’s Musical Alchemy

The intemperate genius John Bull was born in either 1562 or 1563. Let’s choose the later of these two possibilities and duly celebrate 2013 as…

What Really Happened?

The very first course that Norman O. Brown taught when he arrived at UC Santa Cruz in 1968 was Myth & History and I was among the lucky people to hear him deliver that series of lectures. I was also privileged to meet with Norman in his office on two occasions to talk about various things, notably the fifty-page manuscript I composed in response to his lectures.

Starving The Postal Service

On March 18, U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe spoke at a National Postal Forum in San Francisco, prompting picketing by rank and file postal employees…

Realignment Is Working

Public safety realignment — the state’s new approach to dealing with felony criminals — is being met with skepticism but its potential for reducing recidivism…

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