Blog

Our family spent the holiday commemorating the Birth of Jesus in Las Vegas. Because really, nothing says the Magic of Christmas like eating turkey over a roulette wheel. Traditionally, I go home to St. Louis, where my family still lives, and my partner stays in the LA area where his family resides, since (as I like to say to perfect strangers) he and his mother are joined at the artificial hip. But after 22 years [...]

A recent headline on NPR: Fewer beheadings in Tijuana thanks to Calderon crackdown. The report went on to say that hopes were high among shopkeepers that travelers would soon begin returning to the border city. Now, I could be wrong, but it seems a tad optimistic to position a lower chance of decapitation as a tourist draw. This is like Iran trumpeting, Now With Less Imprisoned Hikers! Or North Korea declaring, Torturing Dissidents Without Electrodes [...]

Sorry for the long blogging absence - my partner and I went on a cruise through the Panama Canal and I’ve just now recovered. Oh, the need for recuperation was not a result of the cruise itself. No flesh-eating viruses broke out onboard. And contrary to popular perception of what happens to me on cruise ships, I did not consume an entire seafood buffet and have to undergo mercury detox. (But really, wouldn’t it be [...]

As a child, did you ever wish you could snap your fingers and change your world? God knows I did. Like many kids, I was alienated. And like many kids, I pretended to be Endora from Bewitched. Okay, friends have advised me that this probably wasn’t the first idea that sprang to the minds of most eight-year-old boys, since it’s slightly disturbing and maybe a little pathetic. But to me, Endora represented power. Fearlessness. A [...]

Last weekend, I went to a wonderful benefit honoring the fine work of a large Los Angeles charity that provides critical services like housing and health care to financially challenged gay kids and adults. It was a beautiful, funny and moving event. But the moment that really made me break down, the moment when I lost all emotional control, was when I won two items in the silent auction.  Perhaps I should explain.  Most benefits [...]

I just finished serving on the jury of a manslaughter trial. Prior to this, the closest I had gotten to a courtroom (since testifying in a civil case as a teenager) was sitting in the potential jurors area smoothing out the wrinkles in my Yoda costume. A jury of my peers always seemed like a group of 12 people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty in time for Judge Judy.  Apparently, I [...]

It seems difficult for many Americans not to stereotype Muslims as violent extremists looking to light their panty shields on fire. Or to label Mexicans living in Arizona as illegal immigrants who enjoy a whimsical desert decapitation. Therefore, in honor of the mid-term elections, I have decided that, in the interest of fairness and inclusiveness, we should begin stereotyping all groups. I am excited about the appointment of so many Republicans to the House of [...]

Juan Williams, you’re not alone.  A while back, I was boarding a flight from LA to New York, and as I moved slowly down the aisle like a hog at a slaughterhouse, I glanced down to see who my seatmate would be. He was a man of Middle Eastern descent. He had a prayer shawl on, was reading what appeared to be the Koran, and was – I kid you not - sweating profusely, chanting [...]