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POWER TRIP PACKING GOLD

A power trip needs a goal. It also needs a good packer. This could be two weeks or two years. But why go at all?

TRAVEL COMPANIONS PAST & FUTURE

Travel companions come in two varieties: Two legged and four legged. The two feet in the top pic belong to my best road-tripper. Wife travel keeps everything in order, like checking in at the airport. But what if you skip the flying?

MAN’S FAILURE TO THINK DENIES HUMAN EVOLUTION? ASK JOHN STEINBECK

If you want to know more about about man’s failure, read John Steinbeck. He was born in a short span that brought us Fitzgerald (1896), Faulkner (1897), ( Hemingway (1899), Wolfe (1900), and Steinbeck (1902). (Turns out I’m not the first one to notice. Hey, Ed.) They knew plenty about man’s failure. And shared it. […]

WRITING LIFE LOOKS FOR SMOKING WRITERS

Do people in the writing life smoke to show they’d rather die than change bad habits? Or maybe they secretly want to lose a few pounds, although Joan Didion may disagree. The writing life? Please. I hear that and think of droopy people sitting around typewriters with a pipe or cigarette stuck in their face. […]

THE REAL GEORGE MARSHALL, AKA GRANDPA

  George Marshall, George Warren Marshall, Grandpa Marshall, a ground breaker for the ages. He was a logger, a tree feller, of a different stripe.   Once I asked him, “What’s the difference between you and the rest of the loggers drunk and fighting in bars after work?” “That’s not the sort of life to […]