I have the wind knocked out of me right now. I am saddened, sickened, and unbelievably proud simultaneously. The maelstrom of emotions that I am experiencing is having a physical effect on me. The trees are duller, the grass less vibrant, the birds sing lowered songs and they offer no respite to our sadness. On Sunday of...
Berlin, at the end of the Cold War, was a den of spies, vipers, and other miscreants. It was a beautiful place. A cold martini and a cold blade were in equal abundance and the one constant in this cloudy world was a lack of constants. Light might serve as an antiseptic, but in...
Fear and Loathing is subsiding in Paris. For that matter, a collective sigh of relief is being heard across most of Europe. Russia winces in disgust, but is not particularly surprised. Most Americans are completely oblivious. A week ago Sunday, the French had an election… well, to be fair, a “second election”. The French system has a general...
“Congratulations on your promotion, Colonel!” The newly minted Lieutenant Colonel looked up from a brief he was reading. With some degree of difficulty, he shifted his weight in the leather wing-backed chair and forced himself to rise. In his left hand he clutched the brief he was reviewing, while a smoldering cigar delicately was held...
Barmaids can be interesting people. Typically they have deep histories and disturbing tattoos. Their presence can be both intoxicating and disquieting, depending on one’s sense of vulnerability at the time. When they don’t speak… or choose not to speak… English things become even a bit more mysterious. A few years ago I found myself on...
1907 was a so-so year. The century was just starting out and, frankly, to a somewhat perilous beginning. The dark forces, that would make the 20th century the bloodiest in human history, were getting their groove on and setting up the architecture to unleash pure hell and misery on Earth. It was also the year that...
Winter air pours through the expansive openings of the tropically decorated bar. It is April in Southern California, but remnants of winter still claw to the shattered promise of a wet season. It was mild in Orange County this year, mild when it came to the weather, if not mild in the passions that...
This has been “a week”. A good “week”... but a “week” nonetheless. Actually, more appropriately, I should say it’s been a “two and a half years”... and technically we are not done yet, but the Sword of Damocles has been removed. (Thank God.) For those of you who are not aware, the Law Offices of...
Last week I received a call from a distressed client. He had just been subjected to a federal search warrant, and he was… and continues to be… terrified. Anyone would. His bucolic life was instantly turned upside down. He will never be the same. What portends of his future remains in question, and the trauma of...
Oftentimes in marriage we lose ourselves in the identity of the collective. I am not Steven… I am Sandy’s husband, and vice versa. There is a Hallmark card romanticism in this, of course, because it plays off of a basic insecurity that most of us feel: But for our partners, we are lost, uncompleted,...
