In late autumn, my garden requires a lot of care. Grape vines, roses, and pomegranates need drastic pruning, and the dense mat of fallen fig leaves cannot be ignored. Yet amidst all of these signs of degradation, there is a sparse crop of guavas and a bounty of lemons. The kumquats are still ripening on … Continue reading The Approach of Winter
The Shattered Mirror
Considering how many times Donald Trump has pointed to the representatives of the press and declared, “Fake news,” there is still a lot of handwringing in some quarters. In the pre-internet world of my childhood, I started reading newspapers regularly when I was about 12-years old. Walter Cronkite, the anchorman on the CBS Evening News, … Continue reading The Shattered Mirror
An Obvious Choice
Back in the days when I worked at the coffee store in Berkeley (see Flying Blind), I met a German nurse. She confided that, some years earlier, her brother-in-law had been in the painful end-stage of terminal cancer and, at his request, she injected him with a lethal dose of morphine. I wasn’t sure why … Continue reading An Obvious Choice
Flying Blind
The first sound I heard when I awoke yesterday was the honking of the Snow Geese passing over my roof. I went outside and observed wave after wave of them, flying in formation above my house. There must have been hundreds. That’s the great thing about living directly under the Pacific Flyway. A couple of … Continue reading Flying Blind
Wishlists and Woke Roulette
Big Hollywood and Big Beer have taken heat for pushing wokeness over common sense, but the literary world seems to be flying happily under the radar. Since most publishing houses don’t accept submissions directly from fiction writers, it is necessary to go through an agent. For many good reasons, a screening process is required. During … Continue reading Wishlists and Woke Roulette
A Wimbledon Match
Today is opening day at Wimbledon. If my stepmom were still alive, I know I could find her sitting on the couch in front of the tv, savoring every moment. To her credit, she didn’t just like to watch tennis matches. She played tennis until she was well into her eighties. Another tennis aficionado was … Continue reading A Wimbledon Match
Music and Memories: Living Along the Void
Just before my father turned 80, he decided to sell his ocean-front condo in Florida. Dad was living in an over-55 community, and he was getting depressed seeing so many of his friends and neighbors become infirm or die. His kids expected him to move to a smaller condo in an independent living residence. To … Continue reading Music and Memories: Living Along the Void
Guavas on the Ground
It’s one of those cool, damp, dreary days that I might find delightful, if I was walking on the Cornwall coast. Botallack Mines, Cornwall However, when I am in my back yard, I only get inspired to return to the house and make a cup of tea. The garden is beautiful but overgrown. Any motivation … Continue reading Guavas on the Ground
Seizing the Moment
If the news articles about Rishi Sunak becoming the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom would only add a simple graphic, we would not need to read the entire story. At a glance, we would see which boxes are checked. Among other bits of trivia, most of the reports point out that he is … Continue reading Seizing the Moment
Lord Rockingham’s Passion
Liz Truss made history by resigning as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on October 19, 2022, after only 44 days in office. It was 240 years ago, on July 1, 1782, when the second term of Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham, ended after only 96 days. The flu epidemic of 1782 took the … Continue reading Lord Rockingham’s Passion
Roxane Gilbert 