Yearly Archives: 2010

A brutal but well-timed 17 hour trip, from LAX to Heathrow London, and then on to Athens. Left in the afternoon, got to London in the morning and Greece in the evening. Time goes by in that strange airport way. Spent my time at Heathrow marveling at the Starbucks— like an American Starbucks, but not […]

* Heard of ’em? Let me elaborate, let me pontificate about these priceless archeological artifacts. You see, Lord Elgin was a British ambassador who took these ancient marbles from the Parthenon in Greece. He had them removed to the British Museum. And now the Greeks want their marbles back. These marbles were intricately carved, small spheres, […]

Son’s last day of school. Potluck party in the 2nd Grade. I signed up to bring an entree-ish dish, and thought of chicken with cashews in a carved out pineapple (no, no, Doug, it’s easy, really) but shopping for the ingredients at the grocery store Benj suddenly decided that he wanted me to make dumplings. […]

In Los Angeles, the wristband is king.  Encircled with the right color, your wrist can get you into anything. Doors will magically open for you; frowning, burly men in black with earphones snaking into their ears will step aside and let you past the metal barricades, where smiling women in sensible skirts and clipboards will direct […]

All right, I told myself I wouldn’t be writing about too much family stuff… privacy issues, unfair to the kid, etc. etc…. but this just begs to be shared. The Sex Talk is upon us! Maybe we shouldn’t have been playing “FutureSex/Lovesounds”to Benjamin at age 6,  but at age 8 he’s got questions. Lots of […]

As you may have heard, I’ve written a novel. It’s called Liberace Under Venetian Skies. Ta Da! It feels like I’ve been working on it almost as long as Flight 815 has been stranded on that island with the polar bears. The book’s been revised, scrutinized, analyzed, and truth be told, I’m crazy-cakes about how […]

Tony Perkins.  James Dobson. Michelle Bachman. George Rekers. Congressman/Philanderer Mark Souder and his “Abstinence Video.” BP. That judge in Malawi. BEGONE! You have no power here. Today, you are NOT going to get to me. I’ve found something that, unbelievably, makes me happier than a James Bond sighting in a gay bar: Apparently, this was a birthday surprise […]

My Personal Arsenal of Procrastination Weapons Name: How Smart is Your Right Foot? Type: Useless, yet oddly fascinating, brain test. Origin: Forwarded on from, believe it or not, from my Zen Buddhist Abbot/teacher. My Roshi! Isn’t she supposed to be teaching me how to free my mind from distraction? Damage: Minimal. Takes barely a minute to […]

Way back in the day, when I was starting my acting career in Chicago (I’m talking waaaaay back, in the Dark Ages of pagers and dot matrix printers) I got sent out on one of my first commercial auditions, for Ace Hardware. You know, the place with the helpful hardware man? They were looking for […]