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Remember Rome
The people around Donald Trump are dangerous. For them, he is a useful idiot. In him, they have found a vehicle to establish their vision of a grand, civilization redefining project. You’ve got your white nationalists engineering a country purged of those they deem racially inferior. You’ve got your Christian nationalists who imagine a future…
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The Hot is Back
This December, I will mark nineteen years in Palm Springs. I think that qualifies me as a local. So we’re at the start of my nineteenth summer here. People often ask me, “How hot does it get in Palm Springs?” The answer is simple: if your car’s steering wheel doesn’t qualify as a weapon, it’s…
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We don’t serve your kind here
It is June, and that means it is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, commemorating the Stonewall Riots that took place on June 28th, 1969. The patrons at the Stonewall Inn that night had endured enough of being harassed for being “different,” so they overcame fear, they banished shame from their minds, and they fought back against the…
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The curious case of Comme d’habitude
Those of us who practice the ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism have a saying: “the obstacle is the way.” In life, we encounter hardships, loss, disappointments, and failures, and they seem to block our path. Seeing them as “blessings” is more than just trying to put a positive spin on them. I look at it…
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Optimism
I have had a resounding bit of good news with which to begin June and my summer. The burden that has weighed heavily on me these last few months (and even years) has been lifted. It is not hyperbole to say it feels like rebirth. “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and…
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A Cancer Update
Like most things in life, cancer is not black and white. When last we spoke of it, I introduced you to the phenomenon of “scanxiety,” the emotional roller coaster of regularly scheduled CT scans to monitor cancer for spread or a tumor for growth, and I shared that during one such scan, the tumor on…
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What the f**k do you want?
People love to talk about the time they met [insert_name_of_famous_person_here]. My mom had a story about running into Jerry Lewis at an ice cream parlor she told for years. And given where I worked, I had plenty of “sightings,” if you want to call them that, but for me they were just another day at…
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Metonymy
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I spent my career in Hollywood. Both of those things are true, but they are not literal. I was born in Santa Monica, on the coast about 16 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, and raised in Glendale, a suburb of the city located about 10…
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Kintsugi
We live in a culture that is far too quick to discard that which is broken. I think that comes from cheap goods readily available. Growing up, we lived across the street from Mr. And Mrs. Marcus who owned a repair shop called Marcus Electric. A repair shop was a place you took broken household…
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In Memoriam
An 86-year-old retired congressman from Massachusetts died last Tuesday at his home in Maine. He had congestive heart failure and had been on hospice care since April. He had many legislative accomplishments to his name, serving in Congress from 1981 until his retirement in 2013. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in crafting…
Your mileage may vary.