The Talented Mr. Trump Twenty-five years ago, a young Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a strangely interesting film called The Talented Mr. Ripley. The story was about an underachiever who has enough education and self-awareness to choose a course of action to improve his circumstances by committing dastardly deeds and assuming someone else’s personality and life. What makes the movie so eerie is that Tom Ripley seems like a polite and…
Wandering the World Wondering A few years ago, Kim and I were recording an audiobook in a NYC sound studio and I watched and giggled as Kim was having trouble distinguishing between the words wandering and wondering. They really are quite different words, but as different as they are, they are also somewhat similar. Do you wander the world or do you wonder about the world…or both simultaneously? I think we do both and I…
Living Dangerously I recall reading about John McAfee, the founder of the anti-virus software company, McAfee. His later life reads like a cheap thriller novel or Dateline episode. After selling his company and declaring its software products scams that consumers should uninstall, he moved to Belize, only to get caught up in a murder scandal that had him running in exile from the small Caribbean country, often referred to as the Mosquito Coast. From there…
Two of a Kind Kim and I are watching all the episodes of Loudermilk and the episode tonight involved the death of Loudermilk’s wayward father. As Loudermilk is trying to get his life back on track, his estranged father appears out of nowhere and Loudermilk is reminded about what a bad father he has. His father was a philanderer of epic proportions. It also turns out Loudermilk’s addiction problems connect directly to his Dad’s advice…
Cybertruck Last night we had dinner with brother-in-law Jeff and his wife Lisa and their friends George & Julie. We have known George & Julie for most of the last four years, almost entirely from going to dinner with them when they and Jeff & Lisa get together. The normal drill is to meet at Sushi Yama in Escondido for their collective fix of raw fish. Fortunately for me, they also serve gyoza and yakisoba,…
Ice Ice Baby Yesterday I planted eight flats of ice plants (technically, a succulent called Aizoaceae) both along the road and up in the Betty Garden behind the garage. I remember reading somewhere that the early explorers of California were attracted to the shore by seeing bright colorful flowers along the coast, so naturally, I assumed they were talking about ice plants since their colors are so very vibrant. But ice plants are natives of…
Buddy Boy We have now had our little Buddy for three months, which means that he has settled into his new territory and made it his home. Both Kim and I have noticed that the blend of fun-loving pup and feisty devilish troublemaker has skewed decidedly towards the former. He still gets those orange/red eyes at times when his blood is up, but for the most part he is a happy and contented little dog.…
Feeling Healthy During our recent trip, I got mildly felled by a stomach bug and knocked it out with a dose of Azithromycin that Kim had with her for that exact purpose. It was a three-day course of a very powerful antibiotic and it did the trick such that I literally only sat out one dinner and was otherwise fine both sitting for all the meals, but also going out to whatever tours we had…
Good Morning Vietnam Good morning, Vietnam (with fond remembrances of Robin Williams). Before heading off to a long 3-hour bus ride to Ha Long Bay, on the northern part of Haiphong Harbor, in the Gulf of Tonkin, (all names that invoke 1960s newsreels), Mike and I went out to find an ATM. The streets of Hanoi in daylight are every bit as ragged as they seemed last night. Suddenly, this trip has changed from a…
Come In Rangoon I don’t remember where I first heard the expression, but like many good jokes, there are two guys sitting at a bar when a large-breasted woman walks in and draws their attention. The joke ends with a man with his hands on the woman’s breasts pretending to twist the dials of an old radio transmitter, saying, “Come in Rangoon…”. In some ways there are few places in American culture other than perhaps…