The following piece appeared in issue #8 of Hard Crackers, which can be purchased here. I get to work late and hung over. I rush past the reference desk, past the remaining display of Black History Month books that Eleanor is replacing with a “queer movements in the 80s” theme. Clocking in, I say hi […]
Rain Day Blues in Frisco Town
When I arrived in San Francisco in May 2021, I brought with me three umbrellas, which had been useful in Sonoma County where it often rained 40 to 50 inches in a year, though there were also years of drought. Extreme weather was the norm. Two of my umbrellas, one black, the other red, would […]
From the Vault
The Hard Crackers project is just over five years old. During that time, we have published almost a hundred articles in nine issues of our print journal and posted more than 350 articles on our web page. It had always been our intention to keep the two types of articles more or less separate, but […]
Indigenous Peoples’ Day – Isandlwana, The Mother of All Battles
This particular written project got percolating in my head when one of my co-editors, John Garvey, told me this. John recently asked his granddaughter whether she had Columbus Day off from school. She corrected him, “Grandpa it’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” Now that the script has been adjusted to fit the current politically self-righteous […]
Eric Garner, the Informal Economy, and the System’s War on Those Who Depend On It
When Eric Garner was murdered by New York City police in July 2014, the cops had targeted him on suspicion of selling “loosies” – single cigarettes taken from illegally untaxed cigarette packs. Witnesses claimed that Garner hadn’t been selling loosies that day and had in fact just helped break up a fight – the incident […]
And the Wrecking Ball Best of All!
My temp assignment as the inmate law librarian of a county jail promised to be an encounter with the unknown. Up until that point I’d worked in many different kinds of libraries, but this was the first job in a jail. This jail, 14 stories tall and able to hold about 1300 people, was in […]