Category: Essays

I have no idea why certain words come to me, usually between three and four in the morning. A friend of ours who’s studied strange phenomena, says it’s ‘woo-woo’…

I started writing this column, featuring ‘screwy,’ late Wednesday, with something about reality shows in the first draft…

They had not yet learned to speak English, making it difficult to learn much in any of their classes…

I was talked into binge-watching a series of shows on cable TV, featuring totally dysfunctional — totally nuts — characters…

Even large birds that, this time of year, hunt for small fish in the lagoons, were kicking back for the moment…

“This is what I do,” he said. “I make stuff. I give it away…”

Let’s use the word — ‘clarifying’ — as an adjective to describe communication…

His hair was pretty long, as I recall – this was back in the late, swinging 60s of the cultural revolution – and his attire wasn’t at all corporate…

The media trumpeted a “retired Dade County detective”, not involved in the investigation, who publicly criticized the police department in North Port, Florida…

There’s this guy, with his back to us, who, in my mind’s eye, isn’t wearing a mask…

In his many writings, Hobbes repeatedly affronted the clergy. A bishop accused him of atheism, possibly punishable by death. The allegation subsided, then flared again…

A man in the hall told me to watch my back as I headed back in. I made sure not to walk to my car alone when the meeting ended…

Michael Finney, who delves into consumer issues during his ABC-TV ‘7 On Your Side’ telecasts, is an institution, out here in the San Francisco Bay Area…

General Russel L. Honore, in the news discussing Hurricane Ida recovery efforts in Louisiana, brought to mind other people I’ve known…

On TV a couple of days ago, an architect and a filmmaker couple, in Vermont, were preparing food an age-old Peruvian way…

My inner voice was swearing like a sailor…

Suddenly I’m curious in a real way. I just turned… 75. There’s a significance to that number that isn’t abstract, and I’m having a hard time ignoring it…