Recently I was sitting on a little bitty chair at a café, back hunched over, neck scrunched down. “Why is this table so low it hits my knees?” I squawked. Squishing my lower end around I grumbled, “And why is the back of this chair... Continue
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Each month, various governments, groups and organizations, raise awareness on a variety of issues. For instance, the month of September is National Yoga, National Fish, National Prostate, National Chiari Malformation, Life Insurance Awareness and National Hispanic Heritage Month. The focus of this week’s column will... Continue
Dr. Galen Burdell, a noted Marin County dentist, accidentally killed his mother-in-law, Mrs. James Black. The year was 1864. Let’s start at the beginning. The scene is what is now Olompali State Historic Park, located between Novato and Petaluma on Highway 101. In 1843, Mariano... Continue
The season is changing. You’d think after 65 years, I’d be used to it, but I’m not. I was born in September, so perhaps that’s sharpened my attention. Whatever the cause, I can feel it. My wife and I recently spent a week by the... Continue
Soon, school children will be visiting our mission and learning about the Native Americans who lived in the area. Fall seems to be the season for teachers to address Native cultures and November is recognized nation-wide as Native American month. Traditionally, Fall equates to harvest,... Continue
What would we do without statistics? Newspapers would actually have to report on events, sociologists would talk about feelings and baseball commentators would have almost nothing to say. Such is the state of the world. Statistics are particularly appropriate to our digital age where every... Continue
President Barack Obama has often stated that he seeks to be a transformational president. Assuming that the landmark Affordable Care Act (ACA) survives the Tea Party plan to shut down the U.S. government in order to force him to relinquish his signal achievement as the... Continue
In his children’s story “The Lorax,” Dr. Seuss presents a parable about greed depleting the richness of nature and the enduring power of human longing. In his tale, beautiful Truffula trees cover the land and display a soft and colorful foliage which is exploited to... Continue
I was minding my own business when a friend came up and asked, “If you’re building a building and you find a burial ground, that stops everything, right, or if you find some arrowheads, or if you...” I took a sip from my coffee cup and,... Continue
By all accounts, particularly his own, poet Charles Bukowski was a miserable wretch. I attended one of his readings in my youth, and from the mini-fridge next to his stool on stage, he extracted beer after beer; as the evening progressed he ended up falling-down... Continue