6 days agoThe T-ShirtI first encountered Dar on a job site. The contractor had moved me there so he could meet affirmative action requirements for females on the job. This was a popular practice. Rather than just hiring more women, the company would hire one woman and move her around from job to…Feminism5 min readFeminism5 min read
Dec 31, 2022Don’t Bleed in the Shark PoolBook review — Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood by Hilary Peach, Anvil Press, 2022 A woman navigating the challenges of the male workplace makes a good story and Hilary Peach does the genre proud in her new book, Thick Skin. A Canadian from BC, Peach writes of working…Book Review3 min readBook Review3 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Dec 14, 2022Celebrating Solstice a Bit EarlyWinter Solstice 2022 — My regular pagan holiday letter from Hyland Drive, Santa Rosa Years ago, my wife Holly and I invented a solstice ritual we named the Twelve Days of Solstice, starting on the solstice, December 21, and ending with New Year’s day. We made up our own daily rituals and customs, observing the natural world and the changing of the seasons. Our…Pagan Holiday6 min readPagan Holiday6 min read
Nov 14, 2022OTTERS Thank President CarterFor the past several years I’ve been meeting on zoom with a group of old women trades workers and organizers as we discuss and record our collective history. We call ourselves the OTTERS (Old Tradeswomen Talking Eating and Remembering Shit). Since the 1970s we have fought to open jobs for…Tradeswomen4 min readTradeswomen4 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Nov 1, 2022Racism and Fascism Target Us All: Gay, Trans, Cis, StraightThis letter from a friend helps explain why I’m angry — The letter: With all due respect, with incidents like Proud Boy types storming the San Lorenzo library because a trans lady storyteller was holding story hour, to the latest murder of a Black man, Jason Walker, by the police with no consequences (what a surprise, not) the continuous denial from…Racism4 min readRacism4 min read
Oct 29, 2022Who Put the We in Halloween?My Regular Pagan Holiday Greeting — Samhain 2022 Dear Friends, Halloween might be the one pagan holiday that neither the Romans nor the catholic church could suppress or usurp, even after centuries of trying. The Celt holiday of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) celebrated the end of summer and the start of winter. Celts believed that on the…Pagan Holiday4 min readPagan Holiday4 min read
Sep 20, 2022The Middle Way and the EquinoxMy Regular Pagan Holiday Post Autumn Equinox 2022 Dear Friends, I’m writing this during a gentle rainstorm that has elicited delight among denizens here in Santa Rosa. Our weather station says it has brought a little less than an inch of rain. We are humbled when we think of raging…The Middle Way3 min readThe Middle Way3 min read
Jul 30, 2022Dancing at LughnasaMy regular pagan holiday post — I first learned of the August Celtic harvest festival, Lughnasa, from the play Dancing at Lughnasa. Written by the “Irish Chekhov” Brian Friel and first produced in Ireland in 1990, the play examines the cultural war between the catholic church and the old pagan religions it sought to destroy. …Lughnasa4 min readLughnasa4 min read
Jun 21, 2022Sirius and the SolsticeMy Regular Pagan Holiday Post Summer solstice 2022 Dear Friends, I think of summer solstice as the start of the dry season here in NoCal, but in ancient Egypt it presaged the start of the wet season when the Nile River began to flood. Nile Valley civilizations acknowledged and celebrated the solstice, when the sun…Summer Solstice2 min readSummer Solstice2 min read
Jun 16, 2022Who We KillSonoma County Sheriff Election Dear Readers, Votes are still being counted but it’s clear now that the regressive forces of the police and sheriff unions and right wing organizations who have rallied against police oversight have won the June 7 sheriff election. The killing of 13-year-old And Lopez by a sheriff deputy in 2013…Police Oversight2 min readPolice Oversight2 min read
