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For 40 years I honored an imperative that every other book I picked up to read would be a non-Twain book. This little rule of mine kept me from going down the rabbit hole and not coming up. But now that I’m retired and contended in welcoming small
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There are powerful places here on Mother Earth that can attract and even create formidable interfaces. California produced gold, Nevada produced silver. California attracted Steinbeck, Nevada attracted Twain. And for Twain, his most powerful interface became the river, the raft and Jim. This powerful trio gave us Adventures of Huckleberry
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Dear celebrants of America 300, It saddens me that I cannot be there to honor this cordial occasion with you, but I have been called home, and will have to witness your grand arrival to pier 300 from afar, don’t ask me where… First, may I congratulate you on
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Only a moment ago, I was enjoying a jazz recording from some sixty years ago, when I noticed credit was given to the drummer, Buddy Rich, whom I idolized sixty years ago… A delicious memory came flooding back to my mind’s eye of a night out on the town,
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In the spring of 1803 President Thomas Jefferson was suffering buyer's remorse. He had just handed Napoleon 15 million dollars for Purchase of the Louisiana Territory that nobody knew anything about, including the president. So Jefferson asked Secretary of State, James Madison, "Jim, what exactly did we
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There’s a tree outside my bedroom window that speaks to me. Yes, speaks with a perfectly symmetrical spray of pine needles that welcomes me when I rise in the morning and bids me adieu when I retire at night. It’s the very same constellation that welcomed me when
Around 1793, Philadelphia was laid low by a yellow fever epidemic. Five thousand lives were lost. A 24-year-old Dolley Todd lost her husband, John. But Dolley soldiered on. Somehow she managed to maintain a sunny disposition that was recorded by one admirer: "Dolley’s radiance raised to
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While downsizing here at home yesterday, I came across a 1983 article from the Maui News that I had not seen since the day it appeared. The author is Doctor William James, and for those who like analytics, let us quote the good doctor here… One example of the amazing
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Sometime early on in my career as an impressionist of Mark Twain, around 1988, I was invited to speak at the new Lloyd George Federal Building in Las Vegas, and once I passed through security, I saw a spectacular portrait of Judge Lloyd George, whom I supposed was long-gone,
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Once upon a time I had the best job in America. At 16 years of age, I was the gas jockey of Orinda Union 76. At closing time, it was my job to swab the bay, which was more fun than you might think. I weighed 140 pounds at the
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With thanks to the Banned Book Club at St. Patrick’s, I was invited to speak in Huckleberry’s behalf, so I thought I’d like to pass my thoughts along to you, the gentle reader, while they’re fresh on my mind… Olivia Clemens wanted her husband to become
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So brief is life, I feel compelled to take this moment to save the world. Necessarily I will need to call upon everything I have learned from our generation to address this daunting task, but here goes… How can we avoid a Third World War? We can avoid the scourge