Beach

“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...

Comics

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...

Dear Mr. Dafoe,

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...

Turnabout

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,...

Crabapathy

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...