Old memories
It’s seven o’clock on Saturday morning and in my head I hear “No more rehearsing and nursing a part. We know every part…
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Guns drawn in downtown LA
Couldn’t sleep. Sitting curbside at an all-night cafe in Downtown LA eating messy, mediocre chicken wings. An LAPD sergeant stands a few feet…
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When the US Navy’s first black female captain fell off her chair and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff helped her up
(Warning: Contains coarse language.) The news last week brought word of the death of the retired Air Force General David Jones, who served…
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My wedding
On October 10, 2008, the Governor of California married Calvin Phelps and me. That transaction was legal back then, though within several weeks…
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When I told Leo Buscaglia I loved him
Chicago, February 1986. I was selling men’s shoes at Marshall Field’s Water Tower Place store on Michigan Avenue. Back then the Trib included…
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Mama’s day
Mama died five Aprils ago. I still wonder a little if she arranged her demise so close to Mother’s Day just to spite…
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The end of a chapter
Aboard the TGV to Paris I could exhale a little. After the morning’s frenzy and the schlepping of my five bags onto the…
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Farewell, Fitou
The time came for me to go home. After 85 nights in the so-called Yellow Apartment that I had found on Roomorama I…
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The bar tabac and my Norwegians
There is a French institution called the bar tabac. It exists in the smallest villages, such as Fitou, and the largest cities, such…
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A very interesting man I knew
It was the spring of 1996 and I was selling men’s shoes at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chicago. The suit department was next…
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