All Over the Place: A Dance to How We Rewrite

By Michael H. Brownstein












Here we go into the foray of dance and rhythm,

the purple water fountain, the bragging men, the room of beauty and form.

Everywhere the whisper of life lifts its curious head, everywhere a movement.

But then—but then—the evil men with no skin find a reason to destroy,

Six Years Ago Today: Where the spirit lives

Bilingual dream work

By Ralph Earle

[Originally published on August 28, 2014.]






How we struggle to frame our dreams
in language not entirely familiar, dreams
of finding the way by car to the gathering,
or rolling secretly off a train
headed to the wrong town.

Goines On: Poised for the day

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Goines was in the home stretch of his reading of Julian Barnes’ book about Dr. Samuel Pozzi and France’s Belle Époque (1871 – 1914). The doctor has died (of gunshots fired by a disgruntled patient), and his measure is being taken by many, including his friend the French aesthete Count Robert de Montesquiou. Barnes introduces the Count’s measure by saying:

Nine Years Ago Today: Science vs. religion

David Deutsch

A battle of the memes

By Moristotle

[First published on August 26, 2011.]

A book you might like to read: The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World, by David Deutsch (illustrated. 487 pp. Viking. $30—or borrow it from your local university library).

Goines On: Leveler

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Mostly low in spirits for several days, Goines wasn’t going to turn away inspiration from any direction it approached him, even if he didn’t recognize it immediately. This morning, as often happened, Mrs. Goines was already tearing into the NY Times and the Washington Post on her iPad as he finally finished preparing his own breakfast and sat down to it.

All Over the Place: Can a Jew Join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) against the State of Israel…

Or Can a Jew Be
Anti-Zionist and
Still Be a Jew?

By Michael H. Brownstein






Judaism is my mother – pure and simple –
not my ethnicity, my skin color, my nationality.
I never was a Zionist, but I was proud of Israel,
her history my history, her identity a piece of my identity,
and then I read a chapter in Carolyn Forché’s book

Acting Citizen: Emails from Donald J. Trump

By James Knudsen

I’m willing to bet that most readers of this blog do not receive communiques from the Trump Campaign. Fear not, I am following that old adage, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
    The first thing to be aware of is that you need an email account with unlimited storage, because you’re going to be getting a lot of emails. I can count on at least 10 per day. And please note: I have not contributed a single penny.

Side Story: Alaska Bear Encounter Recorded on Video

With apologies to the 1961 American
musical romantic drama directed by
Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins

Someone who didn’t identify himself emailed me a link to a story about a bear encounter in Alaska that was captured on video. I guess they sent it to me because of my moose story about encountering a bear. Apparently I’m not the only person who has incredibly great luck with grizzly bears. Do you know who might have sent it to me? —Paul Clark

Reply by Moristotle

A Message of Compassion

By Blake Adamson

Sometimes our lives feel meaningless and full of darkness, like we’re dropping endlessly into a hole. Other times, our lives are too bright, like looking directly into a spotlight, revealing all our flaws and insecurities to the world, most of all to ourselves.
    In these times, compassion is our greatest weapon. Not a sword in hand, but a branch held in the beak of a dove – a symbol of mercy and of new beginnings. It’s a lesson worth learning again.

Independence Day in Bolinas (a poem)

By Ralph Earle

Precarious bungalows
cluster
on the headlands.

A big blonde girl
on a cell phone
on a skateboard

West Coast Observer: A Tale of “Murder” in Kings County

By William Silveira

A murder case in nearby Kings County gives off a whiff of the social control of women portrayed in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. A woman was charged with murder following the stillbirth of her baby with toxic levels of methamphetamine in its system.^* The woman sought to have the charge dismissed as a misinterpretation of the murder statute, Penal Code 187, in charging her with the drug-connected stillbirth.

Penny for Her Thoughts: Lock down...Day 123....

By Penelope Griffiths

The struggle is real. My whole body aches with longing to get out of this pandemic prison I’m locked in…Who am I kidding? – it’s a blast!
    So, the coronavirus continues to spread and devastate everywhere. Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, stay three feet away – no, stay six feet away! Don’t socialize or, if you do, be responsible. Think of others, don’t be selfish – this and even more advice is given, but many people are ignoring it.

All Over the Place: When You Die, Can You Still See the Moon?

By Michael H. Brownstein











You told me graveyards are that loud
and you were right. Noise skittles over crab grass
and dandelion greens, over locust stone and devil’s claw
thick with spikes and wooden lures bloody for light.

13 Years Ago Today: A gutsy book about a milestone criminal case

By Moristotle

[Originally published on August 15, 2007.]

Jim Rix, the author of Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out, lives in South Lake Tahoe, California, and Neighbors Bookstore there is the first bookstore to display his gutsy book about the Ray Krone case, a milestone in the annals of criminal justice.
    The second store to carry the book is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Bull’s Head Bookshop, which displays it alongside Sister Helen Prejean’s bestselling The Death of Innocents, this year’s Summer Reading Program selection for incoming Tar Heel freshmen, who will discuss the book in many concurrent seminars on Monday afternoon, August 20. The jacket of Jingle Jangle proudly displays a blurb from Sister Helen:

Goines On: Smithereens

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Goines didn’t know exactly what he was thinking about on Wednesday morning when the carafe of the French press coffee maker he was drying slipped from his hands and shattered into smithereens against the granite counter top to the left of their kitchen sink. He did have the fleeting thought that it more flew from his hands than slipped, but of course it didn’t do that.
    And what did “smithereens” mean, anyway? He said that without knowing (until he checked later) that scholars think “smithereens” likely developed from the Irish word smidiríní, which means “little bits” (the diminutive of smiodar, “fragment”). And little bits of fine glass was what most of the carafe had become upon impact with the granite.