I just spent two weeks with my tiny 86-year-old Dutch great aunt in Pasadena. "Omi," Dutch for grandma, is all-American, except for her heavy... More >>

According to folks in the know, a new San Francisco club called Slide was opening last week and it was simply the place to see and be seen. Being... More >>

There are currently eight guinea pigs living in my house, the piercing squeaks from which would give even Krzysztof Penderecki pause. They... More >>

Dude, I picked the wrong night to look like Debi Mazar. I had my hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and was wearing big hoop earrings, a... More >>

Josephine Tey was a mystery writer best known for her book The Daughter of Time, in which the protagonist detective does all of his sleuthing... More >>

Hodgepodge. You gotta like the word hodgepodge. Not only is it somewhat onomatopoeic, but it reminds me of Fred Sanford if he were a hedgehog.... More >>

I lost an autistic person in the woods this week. We were hiking in Marin, which is one of the cool things I get to do at my job, which is... More >>

When last we spoke, I had posited the question as to whether or not a perfect evening out had to meet the same criteria as a good work of... More >>

Common wisdom holds that in fiction there are only seven basic plots that recur repeatedly. These story archetypes are all pretty much the same,... More >>

Here is the center of my universe these days, the thing that makes me tick and tock, my motivation for getting out of bed in the morning: I am... More >>