A friend of mine and I recently took our roosters to a feed store to get adopted. Marie’s guy had gotten mean. Just going into the pen meant risking fingers, eyes, teeth. Mine was just loud. Even though we both live in a rural area, the sound carries. Doesn’t sit well with many of the […]
When I was the editor of The Oakland Tribune back in the 1990s I kept a loaded Glock in my top drawer. I take issue with the blanket news reports that the Annapolis shooting at the Capital Gazette, which killed four journalists and an employee, was a “surprise, a shock.” Newspapers in the ‘90s — and even more so […]
When I was in my late 30s, I started to want to have a baby. My husband and I talked to our doctor, who said I should stay off birth control pills for three months to let those hormones get out of my system. We used condoms for a while, but at three months, we […]
As a former copy editor, I love words. I can’t spell them a lot of the time (thank goodness for spell-check), but a while back “kakistocracy” gave me pause. It means: A government run by idiots and incompetents. Simple as that. It was such a great word that I called my twin sons to tell […]
Way back in 2012, this is what happened: AT&T had a panic attack when a new version of Apple’s operating system — which allowed users of iPads and iPhones to video chat people with FaceTime — wasn’t making them any money. So they threw a switch and blocked the newest users from using it for […]
At the risk of beating a comatose horse, let it just be said that I for one am getting kind of tired of the whole sexual harassment fiasco. The #metoo movement (which I joined several weeks ago) is already getting old for me. Let’s get this straight: Women have been sexually harassed ever since they […]
With sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein and now Kevin Spacey all over the news, one might ask oneself: Why isn’t Donald Trump among those walking the path of shame? Many of my friends have shrugged off my theory, but I believe I have an answer: It’s because of Bill Clinton. Allow me to explain. […]
Living in California among mostly fellow Democrats, lately I’ve felt like I’m on Puerto Rico. That’s “an island, surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water,” according to our president. Thanks for the geography lesson! Um, would that be the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean? Or is there another ocean? Maybe we can get to that later. […]
Speaking as the self-appointed president of my hometown – my amazing, admirable, woodsy little un-incorporated town in the redwoods of Northern California – speaking as the president, I think we need to call a stop to this whole Norway rat invasion. It’s a HUGE problem. Huge. They’re everywhere. They’re in our basements, in our attics and mainly […]
It’s not just some white Americans who are phobic and/or racist. Much of the world feels the same way about “their own.” It’s easy to fall into complacency, of sorts, or put on blinders, when confronted with people not like ourselves. Many years ago, while in the Peace Corps, I stopped by a remote stream […]
THE SHINBONE STAR 