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I'm sick of the election and don't want to write about it anymore. So today I'm writing about compassion, which we will all need regardless of what happens next Tuesday. Five decisive days to go, how will we get through it? 50% of Americans will be unhappy with whoever wins the most caustic election we’ve had. Unhappiness, anger, and the fears that drive us; this is what will surround us next week. How to cope? You do know that a year from now, say two, to be safe, it’s likely we’ll worry about...
It's going around, like December's flu. We're all afraid of it, and everyone's catching it. You're not sure if you've got it; you just sense something's wrong. Feeling anxious? Fear, foreboding, worry. Disquiet. They define it. The antonym's tranquility. Can you truthfully say this election's got you feeling tranquil? Everyone I speak to is worried; the doubts go beyond who'll win the White House. Hillary Clinton took donations from foreign countries to the family's foundation, then gave them...
I’ve been thinking about money. Might be we need to change our attitude toward money. $1.1 billion. Money raised so far by candidates in the 2016 Presidential election. $529 million. Money raised so far by super PAC's supporting those candidates. These figures are the latest FEC figures released October 11, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit tracking money in U.S. politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. What's a super PAC anyway? It's a t...
I love celebrating birthdays. Do you like to celebrate yours? Some people love birthdays. They look forward to their birthday and wake up feeling happy. There are also people who don’t rejoice on their birthday; for them, it’s not a day they want to mark. They just want to get past it. I’ve seen that some of the people who don’t like birthdays haven’t really had a lot of happy birthday experiences. I once learned that a person dear to me didn’t expect any joy on her birthday. So I ordered a s...
“NO OPERATING SYTEM FOUND”. Four frightening words you never want to see on your computer. Debuting on my screen yesterday; my beloved laptop is sick. Which explains why I’m sitting here in the library writing this. What, I’m not the only person who doesn’t have a spare computer just lying around? Yesterday’s grief brings today’s miracle: the library! They have computers (26 of them). They have laptops (yours for two hours). They even have a private room (small) (but with air conditioning)...
Garbage is nothing, right? No value, by definition. Wrong! Let your imagination go swimming: What if garbage had the power to inspire dreams? Garbage is worthless, meaningless. Ah, but we're spoiled, and perhaps have limits to our creativity. Can beauty be cultured to emerge? Favio Chavez saw unlimited possibilities in the garbage of Cateura, a small town in Paraguay next to one of the largest landfills in South America. Cateura's a poor place; people mainly live as gancheros; by scavenging...
Picture yourself on New Year's Day, making resolutions. You look back, asking, "Why did I do that?" or think, "I should never have done that." You know how we think about what we could have done, and we feel bad? And we wish we'd done it differently? Now imagine it's January 1 and you can change things, get the time back. Would you go for a redo? There are 82 weekdays till New Year's, and 33 weekends. That's 2,760 hours. Instead of looking backward come New Year's Day you might try looking...
I was on a bus when I met Hannah and her friend Adari. I sat next to Adari so I could talk to her; she was wearing a full burqa, or so I thought. Her eyes were gorgeous, and the eye makeup was beautiful. Hannah wore an abaya, a robe-like dress, not the full burqa. Well, I looked it up to get the terminology right. What Adari wore was a niqab, a head covering that covers the whole face, except for the eyes. I asked, "Do you speak Arabic?" hoping to practice my Arabic. She didn't speak much...
You know that wonderful feeling you get seeing the Olympic spirit, when you feel heartened and encouraged by those beautiful TV images on the first night of the Olympics? What happened? I was shocked to see the Olympics Opening Ceremony overtaken by advertisements at a speed rate that could have its own category in the Olympics. The Olympic Motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius (Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger"). This year It might as well be "Faster, Higher, Stronger - Ooops, Time for a...
Stop it! Now, stop it, will you? We're being bombarded from everywhere: Trump. Hillary. Bernie. Republican. Democrat. Green. (All of the above). Isis or WasWas? Fear, anxiety, disquiet; pushback to fear again. It's the clutter, Stupid. Make it stop. There's a truck with the words "Clutter.com" on the side; they come to your house and pick up your clutter, take it away and keep it for you. You don't even have to go there, or arrange it in storage. When you want your things, they'll bring them,...
Want an escape from the conventions? Run, don't walk, to the Kirk Douglas Theatre to see "Recorded in Hollywood". You'll feel like dancing from ten seconds in; it's a sexy, catchy break. The music draws you in right away. And it's a good story: Before Motown and Chuck Berry, John Dolphin dreamed of opening a record store in Hollywood. He m ade appointments with leasing agents, but it was 1948, when Trump thinks it was great, and blacks couldn't rent in Hollywood. Dolphin opened his store...
A friend once stood with me inside a closet. I forget right now why we were in the closet. Oh! She was showing me her breasts, and didn't want to do it out in the open convention room. She wanted me to see that she had breasts, since when we first met, she had been a man. Her life, and the things that happened to her, were hard enough. Yet thinking back on that moment, I realize now, it would have been even harder had she also been black. We think some truths are universal, applicable to...
I'm talking with M., a friend in England, about the hideous violence in Orlando. "Well, you know, it's America." he said. That bothered me. I launched into various rational reactions, but inside, I felt hurt. My country right or wrong, and all that? No, I wouldn't. Yet it's undeniable: people in other countries look at us as if we're aliens. OK, in the UK, no one is allowed to own a gun. The police don't carry guns. The news is not filled with gun violence. But we're the United States. There's...
I'm talking with M., a friend in England, about the hideous violence in Orlando. "Well, you know, it's America." he said. That bothered me. I launched into various rational reactions, but inside, I felt hurt. My country right or wrong, and all that? No, I wouldn't. Yet it's undeniable: people in other countries look at us as if we're aliens. OK, in the UK, no one is allowed to own a gun. The police don't carry guns. The news is not filled with gun violence. But we're the United States. There's a...
I'm writing this from my heart. I believe California may get to choose who'll be our next President. It's the first time in 30 years when the California primary will actually count; usually it's just a rubber stamp. I've followed Hillary Clinton closely since 2007; organized for her; supported her. It surprises me that I've decided to vote for Bernie Sanders. Here's why: *But first* here's something important: If you registered to vote without stating a political party, you registered as NPP...
Except it wasn't a pickle, it was a writer. And it wasn't a bar, it was a movie theater...but -- there was a pickle. Well, it wasn't a real pickle: it was a pickle pen: A phallic look-alike with a ball-point pen point sticking out. I walked into a movie lobby...and this guy hands me a pickle pen. Why? Sheldon Cohn told me he wrote a movie about a pickle. Now I was curious. "The Pickle Recipe" is a sweet comedy, and hugely funny. A young guy who works as a DJ desperately needs money when his...
This is the United States, after all, not a banana republic. Yet there've been so many "unusual" things happening in primaries around the country that some think Time Magazine should name "irregularities" as its Person of The Year. Here in California, our primary election is June 7. You think you're registered to vote, right? Think again. I still had some questions after reading the excellent website for voting in LA. There were just a few things I couldn't understand. So I called the Voting Reg...
Not kidding. I rode it. It's great. 9am on a 61 degree morning Metro Expo Culver City Station The train to Santa Monica felt like it had always been there. You know when a piece of furniture looks right after you tried it in a few places? That's how this train felt. Of course it's there. Hasn't it always been? It was mind-boggling when I first heard you could go from downtown LA to Santa Monica by train. It defeats the very LA-ness of LA; everyone knows it's hard to get around here. Not...
Win-Win was the music of the night for honored teachers and supporters of Culver City schools at the Culver City Education Foundation's (CCEF) splendid 18th Annual Tribute to the Stars gala fundraiser. It was a night of love from, and for, Culver City. What an evening! A cocktail hour was followed by the awards presentation, followed by a live auction. And then there was a huge street party with food from more than 20 Culver City's best restaurants. After that, dancing under the stars, the real...
Endgame, the new Samuel Beckett play at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, is absurdly witty. Bizarre is a good description for both the humor and the situation the audience gets to see. The acting's exceptional. Do you know anything about Theatre of the Absurd? Most people in the opening night audience loved this play. They laughed - a lot - at the craziness of the characters and the dialogue; theatre of the absurd has its moments of comedy. Certain plays of absurdist fiction are called "Theatre of the...
Men - Listen up! Women do not expect perfection. Just give women a chance... Every woman can relate to this: You meet a man and you just try to get past the things that bother you because he has all the other things. He has everything, let's say, but there's just one negative. Would you let that stop you? It's a problem for anyone looking for love, not just women. Let's say the guy has all the essential parts of the package, but there's one little thing that bothers you. But it bothers you. Woul...
When I was a little girl, my mother would take me into the voting booth with her. There'd be three or four people sitting at a table with voter lists. We called them "Cake Ladies". Every election, they'd be sitting there with cakes in front of them. Last Tuesday, I was one of them. I'd volunteered to be a poll inspector in the general municipal election. Training for about 100 people took two hours. "Listen, First-timers: You'll love it!" the trainer said, then asked how many people had worked...
If you could talk to Mozart's mother, what would you ask? I found myself sitting next to the mother of a young soloist at a concert Saturday night by the Culver City Symphony Orchestra. I hadn't realized yet how special the young musician was. Then Tristan Paradee, the soloist, sat next to me when his mother changed seats. So you're sitting next to a young person about to give a solo piano performance. What would you ask? "Are you nervous before the concert?" I asked. "I do get nervous but it...
The Statue of Liberty must be wincing. I suspect she'd cover her ears if she could, to stop hearing Boombox Trump's loud calls to block Mexicans and Muslims from the U.S. Do you think she's crying because she feels like a hypocrite? Emma Lazarus wrote her famous sonnet to raise money for the Statue's pedestal. Now the Statue's cringing with fear people won't keep her on that pedestal once Boombox gets elected President. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...
Out by sweat, bathroom, metabolism, anxiety. In, you all know about. To my surprise, a speaker at a conference once started by totally changing his topic. Instead of addressing a legal subject, he told us to watch our weight. "You're all smart, you know what to do," he told us by not telling us. He credited us with being able to figure out how to do this. Then he gave us a five-second exercise to calm down. You can do this. Sit straight, look straight ahead. Take a deep breath, to a slow count...
