Ethnobotany
a.nolen Harvest, 2012 Around August, I forgot about my garden. By the time I realized that I had a weed problem, the garden was so overrun by volunteer corn and prairie grasses that I left it for dead....
View ArticleWormwood
Last fall I bought a scraggly little plant at a nursery-sale; it only had three leaves, which were fluffy and frost-colored. These lonely leaves stuck out over a knot of dead, straw-like fibers. I...
View ArticleA Tangled Web
Storyteller, by Donald Sturrock. Have I got a good one for you today folks. :) I read Roald Dahl’s authorized biography and despite my intention not to talk about the seamy side of his life, something...
View ArticleIs the Devil a German?
If I could buy anything I wanted, it would probably be… Last week I promised to explain why Bulgakov drew a parallel between Kaifa’s/Pilate’s government in Jerusalem and 1930s Moscow in his masterwork,...
View ArticleThe Schultheis Notebook
Herman Schultheis A long time ago I wrote about Soyuzmultfilm and the Russian animation tradition– in my opinion, these cartoons are a national treasure and among the best things to come out of the...
View ArticleAre you sure you’re sleeping well, Mr. Appelbaum?
Mr. Jacob Appelbaum, representative of the Navy-funded Tor Network, spoke on behalf of Edward Snowden during the 2013 Whistleblower Award ceremony on Aug 31st. The ceremony took place in Berlin, and...
View ArticleComparative Literature
…and representing California… Sometimes the best thing a writer can do is to sit back and reflect. I spent the last few days doing that, and I realized that there’s something big about the Snowden Saga...
View ArticleThat Reddit Dude
Whistle a little tune for me… Alexis Ohanian was on David Gregory’s Meet The Press television show this morning. (Right after Dianne Feinstein!) Guess what he’s saying? The NSA is harming US tech...
View ArticleNot Many Layers to that Onion
The thing about third generation companies is that ‘the grandkids’ usually haven’t had to work as hard as grandpa did. They’ve had a whole heap of goodies fall into their lap, thanks to granddad’s...
View ArticleEdward Snowden and William Colby
Several months ago I wrote about Edward Snowden’s usefulness to those in the ‘intelligence community’ who feel threatened by rampant outsourcing. I speculated that Snowden’s position as a...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....