Kids Today: The (Young) Poets Speak
Unless you have teens in your family or work with them in some capacity, it’s easy to lose touch with what being a young person is like. But as the true cliche goes, the youth are the future, and if...
View ArticleConfessions of a meat addict
The New York Times Magazine‘s “Ethicist” just held an essay contest with the theme “Is it ethical to eat meat?” The judges were an all-star roster from the modern foodie writing world – Michael...
View ArticleA needle in my arm (again) – and it’s great! (an unsolicited pitch for blood...
This is a repeat post, but I will be at the blood bank again today and sometimes can’t help being an unpaid shill for blood donation. It’s the easiest good deed I know of, and the most powerful; how...
View ArticleTaxing tobacco: Clearing some smoke, or, vote Yes on Proposition 29
If all the millions of dollars raised by the proposed tobacco tax increase proposed by California Proposition 29 were gathered up and poured down the proverbial “rathole,” it would still be a good...
View ArticleProposition 29: good vs. evil
Did you pay any taxes last year? If so, and even if you don’t smoke tobacco, some of your money went to pay for the costs of tobacco-related disease – and helped put money into tobacco industry...
View ArticleThe 15 greatest American musicians?
Music (and other) geeks tend to make “best of” lists. When invited to write about music for the local magazine Common Ground‘s theme issue on that topic, I did some “channeling” of the “greatest...
View ArticleA Premier Poet and Reggae Star’s Rare California Show: Linton Kwesi Johnson
To my ears and eyes, the musical event of the summer, if not the year, will likely be the upcoming appearance in Mendocino county of Linton Kwesi Johnson, a singular cultural figure. It will be his...
View ArticleYour Health and Our Environment: A New Era?
In California, Governor Jerry Brown recently moved to restrict the use of some chemicals used as flame retardants, due to their impacts on human health. The resulting scenario is a now-familiar one —...
View ArticleThe Haight Recycling Center Saga: Leave Good Enough Alone
Strolling through my longtime Haight/Ashbury neighborhood with a pal (a bigshot lawyer) the other day, we passed the recycling center near the old Kezar stadium on the corner of Golden Gate Park. “You...
View ArticleFinal post
Dear Readers: This is my final “CIty Brights” post; it’s been fun. When I started with this sfgate blog, two former City Brights bloggers, both fairly famous (unlike myself), warned me that the...
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