This country is beside itself, wringing its hands and worrying about whom it’s going to offend next. Victoria’s Secret recently had to pull its “Sexy Little Geisha” outfit because someone found the outfit tasteless and offensive to the Japanese. The …

The crime that happened to John and Revè Walsh’s son Adam was a desecration to our collective values as well as an absolute tragedy. Not too long ago, Hollywood, Florida chief of police officially closed the case after 27 years. …

I miss the vending machines that existed when I was a kid. My two favorites were at the San Diego Zoo. After passing the Reptile House on the walkway toward the Children’s Zoo was a small pavilion that featured a …

One of my favorite cat cartoons.

A few years ago, my mother told me something I’d never known or even suspected: she is extremely shy—like me. And so was her mother, Dottie. She told me she had never hidden this fact from me, it was just …

Things. They’re everywhere. They surround us, and they all belong to someone else. Someone owns almost every thing we see; it’s somebody’s thing. A car, a house, an office building, a tree, a garden, it’s someone’s. And that’s not counting …

One afternoon, while I was working at a hair salon in Ocean Beach, a young man came into our shop looking for his dog; he held up a large photograph of his pet. The photo portrayed a brown pit bull …

There are a few very old memories in my head that have endured for many years. Three of them are closely related and I think of them often, although they honestly don’t seem to hold much genuine significance for me, …

One morning when we were living in Louisville, Kentucky for two years, my daughter, Daisy, and I took our Malamute, Buddy, for his daily walk. It was early November and the leaves had already changed into their dying colors and …

My mother introduced the Thanksgiving tradition of chasing my terrified little brother Jason around the house with a raw turkey neck when he was three years old. The cherished custom continued for five years, and I looked forward to it …

Our Halloween carnival at Ramona Elementary was a typical holiday inspired school carnival with cakewalks, games, candy apple stands, a makeshift haunted house built in one of the darkened classrooms, and, of course, teachers dressed up as witches, clowns, and …

I was eight years old when my mother’s side of the family got involved in making Halloween costumes for my cousins, my younger brothers, and me. It became an annual event. My grandmother, Dottie, my aunt Polie, and my mother …

On a warm September morning, my four-year-old daughter, Daisy, and I were preparing to take Buddy, our Malamute, out for a walk. We’d eaten in the kitchen while watching the Cartoon Network on the small TV that rested on the …

We were having fun, Daisy and I, but the knowledge that Honey Badger and the most beautiful squirrel in the world were both missing was still foremost in our minds, which produced a sense of remote longing in us that …

For the remainder of that day we trudged wearily through the zoo. Daisy and I couldn’t distant ourselves from the personal tragedy, and we found it difficult to enjoy our surroundings, and after a few hours we left. We went …

For me to be interested in a bird at the zoo it has to possess either brilliant colors or a quality so exclusively unique that it demands praise and admiration. Birds that I habitually visit when at the zoo or …

The beautiful squirrel, and the Honey Badger too, really made an impression on us. Daisy and I found the beautiful squirrel even more captivating than the squirrels that we sometimes feed peanuts to in Balboa Park. When we visit the …

From that first day we saw them, we always visited Honey Badger and the beautiful squirrel whenever we went to the zoo. This practice continued for almost a year. And then one Saturday everything changed. As we went down the …

The beautiful squirrel, and the Honey Badger too, really made an impression on us. Daisy and I found the beautiful squirrel even more captivating than the squirrels that we sometimes feed peanuts to in Balboa Park. When we visit the …

I wrote this four-parter about a year and half ago. My daughter, Daisy, and I either visit the San Diego Zoo or the San Diego Wild Animal Park at least once a month. One day, at the zoo, while we …