For some men, it’s a 1969 Shelby Cobra GT 350. For others, it’s a 10-point whitetail buck. What gets my blood moving is different from that of most great American males of the new millennium. Grocery stores make my heart race. Case in point: On...

Before tweens and hillbillies started singing that horrid Nickelback anthem, it was the secret dream of most writers to play in a rock ’n’ roll band. Some authors, including Rick Moody, Stephen King and even (alas!) Barbara Kingsolver, have actually nailed...

Schools have to be creative when fundraising, especially in a tough economy, so I shouldn’t have been shocked to see a trailer and two large metal ramps parked where the crossing guard usually stands in front of my son London’s elementary. As I walked up...

From the Passenger’s Seat: what goes through my mind as my daughter learns to drive 1.    Not bad, not bad. Maybe she could be a decent driver. 2.    Watch out for that assneck pulling out of her driveway. 3.    That abrupt stop did not help my headache. I might...

Uncle Duke’s Beach Bar is a tiny dive hidden in the hippie neighborhood of Leucadia, Calif., just north of San Diego. Duke’s offers what most dive bars need: a good (and deep) jukebox, stiff drinks, a pool table and the type of clientele that provides entertainment...

“Dad, come in with us.” My son London hovered over me, dripping water on A Separate Peace, a book I hadn’t read for thirty years. We had driven over 1000 miles to get to the Pacific Ocean and I wanted my own separate peace just for a little while—soak up the sun, read...

There’s an old Saturday Night Live skit with William Shatner where the former Captain Kirk is appearing at a Star Trek convention and the fanatics who worship the show ask him insanely detailed questions about the episodes he starred in. I couldn’t help but think of...

I feel I need to apologize on behalf of my fifteen-year-old daughter Poppy and three of her pals. From what she has told me (in between fits and giggles), she terrorized you and a friend in both the lobby and parking lot of the Regal 14 Cineplex on the afternoon of...

Note: This week, I let my 14-year-old daughter Poppy hijack my column since, as my wife Lala often reminds me, turnabout is fair play. Usually, I like attending dinner parties with my parents. But when my mom and dad become too comfortable at a person’s house,...

On What Would You Do?, a hidden-camera show on network television, actors play out scenarios in public places to expose the apathy Americans have for, well, just about everything. The situations usually involve some moral or ethical dilemma and, as viewers, we are...