From the Archives
The unbearable rightness of being Roger Hedgecock I could try it on as a character study, say; a little third-person warmup, workout; a final stretching exercise before switching (forever) to fiction. The heart of darkness …
Soil, water, light, and money “If you grow chrysanthemums in your garden, they’ll always bloom in the fall,” he explains. “Here we artificially manipulate them to make them bloom according to our schedule. Our biggest …
Members of the Keyboard Nash and I and some 3000 other people subscribe ($8 per month, $3 per hour) to The WELL, a four-year-old computer conferencing system. Such a system permits an individual to sit …
There's trouble down the runway “For the runways alone you need a hunk of flat ground two miles long and half a mile wide. It should have enough acreage to accommodate terminal and parking, and …
You are looking at a free man “The sea boundary of the Soviet Union in the Far East was known to me. I knew that . . . Japan is far, and North Korea extradites …
The long arm of ABSCAM reaches San Diego At 5:15 the morning after his return to San Diego, the phone rang in Gulve’s home. At the other end of the line the emir’s familiar voice …
Gimme shelter: all this for a cot and a meal Someone wrapped a newspaper around one ceiling light fixture to dim the glare. I took a top bunk. Removed my hat and sneakers, otherwise stretched …
The short career of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap It was the following spring that Puckett and his band reached the pinnacle. “Young Girl,” written by Jerry Fuller, was released in February of 1968 …
P.S., your car is gone “Our guy finds [another] wrecked Datsun 4X4 in a junkyard, changes over all the numbers from it to the one he found in the canyon. But when he took it …
Watches and rings and people and things Pawning, generally, is something other than a lopsided contest between loansharks and the destitute. Most of Smith’s customers, he says ninety percent of them, come back to redeem …
Del Mar's horse vet Jack Jocoy has seen it all With that big break — caring for a Derby winner — Jocoy’s career began to soar, other trainers reasoning that if Jocoy took care of …
Not with a flood but with a trickle The city’s per capita consumption of 192 gallons a day in fiscal 1981 is well above the national average of 170. Every day 17 million gallons of …
The last chance “I want the doctors to put me to sleep,” says Albert in a disturbing monotone. Necochea wants to know where Albert is, who is with him, and whether he is on drugs. …
Fear, sweat, and profit By the time the caravan once again pulled out onto Black Mountain Road, only twenty-seven Mexicans had been captured — fewer than, two per agent. But it was still early in …
Absolutely no preservatives One by one the activists have left and the countercultural landmarks have passed away: the OB Rag, the OB Free School, the Community School. The Left Bank, once a cauldron of leftist …
Aboard the Blueback "Our people need to know what the bad guys are going to sound like — if they ever become bad guys .... Excuse me,” Fargo says suddenly. “Chief, do you smell smoke?” …