Nothing like having your car repossessed while your mother’s in town for a visit. On a bright sunny morning in June, my life soon became much more complicated in the to and fro department. The…
Posts published in “Essays”
Sometimes I get the feeling I say all the same things in these blog posts. Other times, I go back and read them and realize, yes I am repeating myself. That's me shrugging. I yam…
It's one of the toughest yet most vital jobs of all — caring for the millions of elderly Americans who, though infirm, remain in their homes. There are an estimated 1.7 million of the Home…
“Oh, the women, the women!” cried the old soldier. “I know them by their romantic imagination. Everything that savors of mystery charms them.” — Alexandre Dumas Last Thursday evening, as I was about to go…
Three decades ago, medical and public health students at UCLA were sometimes taken on a tour of an old hospital ward, previously dedicated to women suffering the aftereffects of illegal abortions.
Barack Obama was in Brasilia on March 19, 2011, when he announced with limited fanfare the latest war of his young presidency. The bombing of Libya had begun with a hail of cruise missile attacks and air strikes.
I had to bring a bad alternator over the hill to Ukiah last Thursday. I wasn't sure if it was dead on my first alternator related trip the day before, riding the Mendocino Transit Authority…
I arrived at the camp and waltzed into a private room with my brother and roommates, Artie and Lance. We were on the third floor of B-unit, overlooking the ball field and groves of pine and eucalyptus. Robbin had everything set up for me. He showed up in the middle of my check-in and immediately started harassing the guard (aka “hack”) in the good natured manner at which he excels.
It is surely one of the great strategic screw-ups in the history of war and intelligence analysis. In March, after the second UN Security Council resolution used by NATO to launch its bombing campaign, the…