Pre-Owned California Characters (Paperback) 0884964434 9780884964438

9780884964438. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Trade paperback. Language: English. Pages: 271. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 271 p. Contains: Illustrations. Charles Hillinger is back! -- with another collection of insightful, droll stories gleaned from the vast number of columns he wrote while a reporter for the Los Angeles Times for 46 years. Here the focus is on the fascinatingly eccentric, unusual people Hillinger has profiled. Join him as he visits the King of the Windmills; spends an evening chanting with Full Mooners; and interviews Dr. Bronner in a three-story tower atop his soap factory. Shopping Cart Dougherty was on one of the longest hikes in history when Hillinger caught up with him. Attend a psychic fair with Reincarnation Ed; visit the hilltop where Spaceship Ruthie awaits the arrival of flying saucers; and enter George's time machine at Giant Rock College of Universal Wisdom.Much more: Dangle your feet over a crater with the Prince of Pisgah who owns a dormant volcano; travel to the smallest free republic in the world; be a guest of Dr. Tinkerpaw of Nitwit Ridge in a house he's been building 45 years, 250 feet up a rock cliff; meet a woman paid to watch TV eight hours a day, and all she sees is fish! There's Desert Fats, Down the Road Dugan, Allegheny Lu, the Gravy Poet, Roadrunner Mendez, Hubcap Lucy, Dust Devil Dan, and other colorful folks who've chosen to follow their own unbelievable paths through life. This book will entertain, amuse, and enlighten anyone intrigued by those who live on the fringes, people not too different from any of us in the odd ways that humans are everywhere alike. Told with objectivity and compassion, California Characters is not to be missed!