In Carson City, where a man may still commit an honest day’s work if he can find the time and the paperwork, a young gentleman of sixteen has distinguished himself by declining idleness altogether. While lesser youths waste their days on schoolbooks and part-time employment, this one undertook a diversified portfolio of enterprises that would…

In Carson City, where the roads are straight and the expectations modest, a Reno man of 34 set out to prove that arithmetic is a flexible science, especially after dinner. A deputy observed his pickup wandering northbound on South Carson Street like a tourist looking for a moral compass. It crossed the yellow line twice.…

There are men who cannot pass quietly through life, and then there is Mr. Kenneth Francis, age thirty-six, who appears to have tried traveling with a full assortment of bad decisions so as not to be caught unprepared. It was a Thursday night in Washoe County, one of those evenings when a man ought to…

In Fernley, where a man may call himself a “teddy bear” and expect to be judged by his intentions rather than his hands, a substitute teacher gave a classroom demonstration that will not be featured in any respectable curriculum. The gentleman, forty years seasoned and reportedly soft of disposition, announced to his pupils that he…

In Nevada, where the land is flat, the sky is vast, and the truth is often elusive, there sits a patch of desert called Area 51. It is the only place in America where a man can stare at the heavens all night, and come away more certain of aliens than he is of his…

In Gardnerville the other evening, a gentleman undertook to improve modern medicine by blinding it. It was about 9:10 p.m. when a medical helicopter, one of those noisy angels that descend with mercy and a bill, reported that a blue beam from the earth had taken a personal dislike to it. The pilot, being a…

There are many ways to spend a quiet Saturday evening in Carson City, and most of them do not involve a knife, an argument, and a deputy with a notebook. Yet a 50-year-old gentleman on North Roop Street chose the more theatrical option, which proves that while wisdom is said to come with age, it…

Reno keeps a tidy collection of corners, and most of them are agreeable so long as a man approaches with humility and a working respect for gravity. One of these corners, stationed near Plumb Lane and Humboldt Street, was minding its business Thursday evening when it was set upon by a motorcycle traveling with more…

A horse walked into a saloon in Virginia City, which is not as unusual as it sounds if you have spent any time in Virginia City. The town has always been hospitable to creatures of uncertain judgment, and on a warm afternoon, a horse fits right in between a prospector and a politician. Now the…

Mom had just polished the floors and dusted every surface in the house, and she’d gone on and on about company coming. She strictly forbade Adam and me from setting foot outside. Now, any sensible boy would have obeyed. But Adam and I were not sensible. We slipped out the bedroom window like two tiny…