We now live in a house whose stove is fueled by gas. There’s nothing unusual about this–it’s just different, that’s all, and requires a bit of getting used to. Things heat up more urgently, somehow, altering my cooking routines and confirming one saying while debunking another. I can now appreciate that when you’re “cooking with […]
Tulare County yet again leads the globe in agricultural production. This is a wonderful achievement, attributable to all involved–and for his contribution, State Assemblyman Devon Mathis (R-22) has vowed to “continue the fight for farmers.” By whom he means not those who actually do any raking, but those who rake in the profits. A quick […]
As I sit with what amounts to a sundowner in these parts–a cold beer–I can’t help but reflect on the five-night safari I endured last week standing guard in the husk that was our house. I’ve been on a real safari, and it was a much easier enterprise. Of course, we were cosseted and driven […]
Until 8 July of this year, I never gave large ag burns any serious thought. They were ubiquitous when we lived in Mexico, and they are commonplace here in the Valley. In the Bay Area, where I grew up, they were unheard of. I’ve only had one experience with a big ag burn, and I […]
No fear pertained, but a loathing still is palpable–like the proverbial bad taste left in one’s mouth. More than a week after having attended, feeling the need to be…I don’t know, scraped off, say, remains. This is the take-away from April 27th’s Tulare Local Health Care District (TLHCD) board of directors meeting. TLHCD’s has been […]
Rich Text Editor, editor1, Press ALT 0 for help The warden now gives me 14 months. That is to say, at roughly this time next year our fifth–and last–child will be readying herself for graduation from high school. Which means that–having been in harness since 1987, accumulating 127 father-years to my 54 years of age–the […]
I’m fairly certain you know how this famous Shakespearean line ends; if not, Google it. I am–with no small irony–misappropriating it for my own purposes. I’d like to apologize for the fact that the delivery of our 17 March edition–Erin go bragh–was, for a few hours, postponed. It was my doing. I had been receiving […]
Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird— 1961’s Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction–died on February 19 in the same town in which she was born in 1926, Monroeville, Alabama. I have never read her novel. More properly, I was never assigned to–although I attended a truly great high school. If you Google “the […]
Dear Max– I hope this letter finds you well, but given the state of the postal service these days my hope is simply that it finds you at all. Maybe this is why nobody writes letters anymore. So–if this has indeed found you–know that I’m also sending my love to Anne and the Mongol Horde. […]
I’m writing on the eve of the Iowa caucus, the results of which will be old news by the time you read this. But, precisely because I want to write about the Iowa results, some waiting is entailed–and it gives me the perfect opportunity to make a few predictions. OK–this is not, as my wife […]