10/27/16 I was amazed to discover that the first owner of what is now known as Beverly Hills was a Black Woman. I had grown up in Beverly Hills during a time when a lone black man walking down the street was enough to summon the magical appearance of the B.H.P.D. Her name was María […]
humaninterest
Life Abbreviated
10/20/16 On my way to work this morning, I stopped by the German bakery nearby. Me: Hi! (Trying my best to greet the young staff with my cheery presence.) Server (20-something male with bleached blonde spiked hair): no response, a simple nod. Me: Plain croissant, please. He reaches inside the display case and from the […]
Steve Jobs’ Hi-Fi System
April 9th, 2015 Young Steve Jobs at his Woodside, California, home, 1982. I’ve written about the late Apple founder Steve Jobs opting to listen to vinyl over mp3s and CDs at home, even after inventing devices like the iPhone and iPod, which have revolutionized the way the people now consume their music. I just started […]
Playing Polo in Haiti
by Carine Fabius (Originally Posted: 01/08/2015 3:32 pm EST on The Huffington Post) Claude-Alix Bertrand, Captain, Haiti Polo Team In December 2014, Travel + Leisure magazine listed Haiti as one of the “Best Places to Travel in 2015.” Wow! That really made my day. I forwarded the link to a bunch of people I know, […]
The Theater of Horror: From Aurora to Abadan
July 26, 2012 On July 20, 2012, I woke up to news of the horrific shootings that took place at the movie theater in Aurora, CO. In the wake of this carnage, we are left with the question as to why this happened? What would possess a person to commit such a monstrous and cowardly […]
Living in Rennes
July 19, 2012 I arrived in Rennes, the capital of Brittany, as an exchange student in September 1975. I was a 19 year old sophomore, who, along with 29 American students from my college, would be living with French families and taking classes at the university. My host family, the Louis, were a clan of […]
Geography: Do you know where you are?
July 12, 2012 Geography: from Greek “geographia,” lit. “to describe or write about the Earth.” It happened sometime during my junior year at college in San Diego. I was studying at the library for a midterm when a handsome boy (a business major in his senior year) whom I’d seen around campus, asked if he […]
The Preferred Path
June 7th 2012 “Sometimes a pattern chosen by default can become a path of preference.” -Mary Catherine Bateson, from Composing a Life My first clay elephant made in kindergarten I recently found an old manila envelope in which my mother had carefully saved what must have been some of her favorite things of my early […]
Repetition Plus Expression Equals Satisfaction
May 10 2012 On a week bookended by a beginning guitar class at McCabe’s Guitar Shop and a painting retreat in Encino, I was buffeted by a key challenge of the reinventing Boomer. The guitar classes were held in a room that does triple duty as concert hall, classroom, and showroom. All manner of stringed […]