A Shau Valley Archives - Page 2 of 21

From The Wilderness, Article One Hundred Twenty-Four

FROM THE WILDERNESS The Badly Needed Emetic By James Strauss Most people don’t know that Ipecac can’t be purchased over the counter in the United States anymore. That syrup was plentiful for most of my life, as it was used as something that was ingested, usually by...

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter VII

by James Strauss | 52 comments

Saturday morning came early, as I gently climbed out of bed, knowing Mary would awaken but not stir enough to let me know she was. I didn’t require nearly as much sleep after the Nam as I had in my younger years and also had some form of sleep apnea my wife took full...

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter IV

by James Strauss | 38 comments

I drove the Volks down to the Dana Point Marina entrance and, after working my way through the ruts of dried mud, up to Butch’s front door. It was closed, with a note taped to the handle: “If you sell vacuum cleaners or Encyclopedia Britannica’s then come right in.”...

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Three, Chapter XXXVIII

by James Strauss | 50 comments

My time at night, before sleep and thankfully not during sleep, I thought about things that were occurring, and the less sense they made the more I couldn’t stop lying awake trying not to think about them. “I’m not that special,” I thought, lying there, not realizing...

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Three, Chapter XXXV

by James Strauss | 44 comments

Joe Beard sat at Gularte’s kitchen/dining room/living room table, its top cleared and cleaned off as I’d never seen it before. He sat behind a gray plastic box that looked like a small suitcase except for its sharp edges and pointed corners. Joe looked across the top...