A man is interviewed in his living room in Aleppo, Syria about the war. On the wall behind him hangs a velveteen painting of dogs playing poker. He wears a North Face jacket. The BBC interviewer seems oblivious to the odd aspects of this scene, and really wants to know more about how the man has survived … More The Absurd Optics of Globalization
In the summer of 1986 a movie was released called “Top Gun” . It’s about naval aviators, staring Tom Cruise. It’s about testosterone. And it is about a time when my cohorts and I were still young men. And leaving the theater we all wished we had made other career choices. During this time I had client … More Top Gun Call Sign: Maddog
I can’t really say I was there, but there seems to be a striking resemblance between the fall of Saigon in 1975 and going to COSTCO on a weekend 40 years later. The press of the people, the indiscriminate objects left behind, the palpable sense of panic all smells the same. It is as if … More COSTCO Weekend 2015
We live in an episode of 24. Life today is like watching back to back the entire first season of “24”. Never have I been so scared in my own living room, and begun to look over my shoulder and blanche at the slightest noise the old house made. There is a shooting at a … More We Live In A Episode of “24”
Because I have $300 I can leave in savings, I am not charged a $12 fee by the Bank of America for a checkless checking account. I am reviewing the bank records of a woman who doesn’t have the $300 to leave in a savings account, so she is taxed $12 a month. This disproportionate … More Because I have $300 in Savings
It’s winter, and the wrecks are piling up at the Swamp Creek Interchange. The term “interchange” is the short version of the confluence of Interstate 5, Interstate 405 and Highway 525. Like great rivers meeting the tide of commuters, the crossing is dangerous. More and more it seems I find cars and trucks discarded on … More The Swamp Creek Triangle
It must be hell down there. Abandon all hope, all ye who enter the on ramp. Souls trapped in cars, bladders screaming for relief, precious fuel burning while the motor wears as it idles. Trapped in the end game of the myth of the open road. Some bought the fast car, when the truth is … More The Airborne Traffic Report
It is a year later, I ride the bus to the next annual installment of the same seminar. I alight from the bus and head toward the convention center in a light rain. A man with an electric guitar presides at the covered entrance to a retail shop, not yet open, and his long lingering … More Blade Runner
This year, 50 years after becoming a lawyer, my Dad had his right knee replaced. He said it was due to all those years carrying a briefcase in his right hand. I believe this to be true as the literal and figurative weight of lawyering tends to damage the body. On October 4th Dad was … More Lawyers Knee
Like most of Europe, when not in war Cordoba is a charming town. Only when you stroll around the narrow streets and consider the various tribes and religions that have occupied the space does the Disney of it wear off and one comes to grips with how much blood must be in the ground here. … More Cordoba
Lawyers Road Review 