John Chiang and I have been exchanging letters.  He sending me one, me sending one to him, then back, then forth, and what does it all mean?  It means that deep beneath the fiscal dysfunctions of a waning empire in its self-devouring stage, there are miniscule events, blockages in the capillaries of the body politic.  Which is why John feels obliged in his guise as Controller of the State of California to send me a tax bill for $14.81.  Which I duly pay online.  After which Read more [...]

It rolls around every year about this time, the annual men's conference I attend in the upper Midwest, and the only real difference is this sort of preview, lunch with one of the likely attendees currently in town with his wife.  I should have known that on this August day the San Francisco skies would be dark, fog swirling...in a normal city giving every indication of rain.  But of course, not here.  The only danger comes from the parking brigade sweeping the streets around South Read more [...]

'The first windstorm, and they blow right over.  It's like the roots are in nothing.  Just made up, artificial landscape.'  This from Bruce, fellow first-year university student, speaking of the effects of desert breezes on recently planted saplings at the University of California, Riverside.  He had a point, and I knew what he meant, but something in his rancor struck me personally.  It may have been artificial, Southern California, but it was home.  We were either Read more [...]

'But she can't just stop.  You have to taper off.  No.  I understand.  But it's not up to Julie.'The woman in front of me traipsing down Crane Street has a mobile phone clamped to her ear, the width of her sidewalk-blocking hips swaying from curb to apartment lawn.'But that's what I'm saying.  It's wrong to just stop.  She wants to reduce the dosage.  Yeah.  Yeah.  But what does her doctor say?'It has been a long day.  If this woman only walked at Read more [...]