Having been born in Santa Monica, California, I haven’t known what it’s like to be from a small country. When someone from a small country accomplishes something on an international stage, it brings a sense of pride to almost everyone from that country. So, when I married Yumiko Hirota in…

Yumiko and I had to put our trip to Cuba on hold until Trump was trounced, so when Marco Palma put out an invitation to all at Miguel Garcia’s place in Whittier, California, to attend his wedding on Valentine’s Day this year in Havana, Cuba, we jumped on it. …

The train was long in coming, had far more miles to travel, but carried an unusual passenger with a message that had been a long time in…

Yesterday, I finished reading Zapata, John Steinbeck a book edited by Robert E. Morsberger who had edited the original publication of Steinbeck’s screenplay Viva Zapata! and was head of the editorial board of the Steinbeck Quarterly. The book includes notes and commentary by Morsberger, notes by Elia Kazan, the director…

I read Deepak Chopra’s interesting piece entitled A Surprising Answer about the Afterlife posted 5 days ago on Medium which you can find here: https://medium.com/@deepakchopra/a-surprising-answer-about-the-afterlife-42e0aca09597. In the article he addresses what I believe to be the scourge of our time, greed. He also addresses the question of an afterlife and…

Utter Bliss While still working as a teacher in Long Beach, California, I found myself parking in a lot to go into a fast food restaurant (I think it was a Carl’s Jr. or something). Just as I pulled my car into a spot, I noticed a young white girl…

In Surfing Ventures 1 I promised my next piece would talk about a time when I went storm surfing in Mexico. This is it.

“We’re so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight. And we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of Illinois’s law enforcement community who have chosen to join us here in the Palace Hotel Ballroom at this time.” – Elwood Blues

I knew the strong, off shore desert winds now whipping spray from the front of my board into my eyes making for a blind take off, would also be a factor allowing waves to stand up long enough for me to make impossible sections of which I normally wouldn’t…