Two nights ago, I watched Don’t Look Up and found it mildly entertaining, full of cliches and thin characters. The Big Short was sooo much better. I wish Adam McKay had made that kind of film about global warming — more absurd dramatization of actual events than satirical sci-fi. …

Last night’s b-day party for Juan was so fun, so full of warm feelings and remembering — who we were together, and recognizing who we are today, in the moments of listening or a laugh, a shared laugh. In the end, isn’t that the most satisfying thing? An eruption of…

I went camping with my nine-year-old daughter about a month ago, up the California coast to Big Sur. We enjoyed hiking up my favorite river gorge to a large swimming hole, and in the evening ate s’mores around the campfire. …

If America was the Titanic And Trump was Captain He would have been the one who dismantled the iceberg-sonar before the voyage…. When the first mate and other officers saw the enormous iceberg in front of them, warning him to change course immediately, He would have said it’s no big…

Did people really drink for pleasure, or just to get drunk? I couldn’t imagine they liked the taste of beer, or malt liquor, Bacardi, gin or whiskey; but adults had these drinks in their homes. My own parents had a big, wooden liquor cabinet-full. On the front, in carved mahogany…

Within months of first trying pot, I developed an urge to grow my own. It wasn’t so much an urge as a cultural imperative among my fourteen year-old friends, who had all grown tired of buying forty-dollar quarter ounces of mumbo from a dealer named Cal, who we never saw…

Saving our lives Swimming in the family pool turns out to be a savior. Even before entering the water, Eden notices a waterlogged mouse on the tile bridge. She squeals, horrified at the thought of sharing a tub with a mouse. I wonder if it’s alive, set out a pool…

Things I didn’t do (as much, or at all) before Pandemtime: Walk around some eight-square blocks of my neighborhood, appreciating each home and yard, pausing to take it in, or even speak (at a safe distance) with a neighbor. Bike along the LA River bike path to the beach, amid…

I imagine you could see anything in cottage-cheese ceilings. We grew up with them in every room of the house — the uneven granular surface, like the surface of some unknown planet. I never knew what I’d see, or where. Generally images appeared in my bedroom. I guess that’s because…