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The Music Teacher I grew up with music. My father could play by ear, fluently, both hands flashing, the piano soaring.   I play, too, albeit not by ear and with less skill. It does not matter. I love it. When the time came, I wanted my kids to be taught, so we found Verla Cole....

Finding The Great Connectedness  I exercise about four times a week, usually by kayaking when it is warm and if not with a 30-minute routine while watching TV. For years I added a stretching routine that mimics yoga, which I practiced long ago until becoming bored. Yoga was not...

From the Rearview Mirror The off-year elections are finally over, thankfully. It made me distinctly nauseated. Before we leave, however, let me provide a little analysis. First, Laguna Beach Thank you Laguna Beach for being rational.   The winners were Toni Iseman, Kelly Boyd and...

The Madness At Fisherman’s Cove This is the story of the almost laughable madness at Fisherman’s Cove. I say “almost” because you either have to laugh or cry. It begins with Boat Canyon, which drains a small part of north Laguna’s coastal hills and outflows at Fisherman’s Cove....

The Madness At Fisherman’s Cove This is the story of the almost laughable madness at Fisherman’s Cove. I say “almost” because you either have to laugh or cry. It begins with Boat Canyon, which drains a small part of north Laguna’s coastal hills and outflows at Fisherman’s Cove....

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation As lucky readers may remember, I took off all three months of summer. It was to be with my kids (ages 25, 21 and 19), here for an extended time as a group and probably the last time. They are in that stage of life when one accelerates into...

I visited Australia recently to see my daughter, Gabrielle, 21, near the end of her college semester abroad. With me is my girlfriend, Kim Bowen, who grew up in London but moved to Sydney at 23 and was appointed fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Australia. Heady stuff,...

The pace of technological change is accelerating.   We know that.  There is too much money to be won.  Some 21-year old kid in Irvine just sold a virtual reality headset invention for $2 billion. It is the same everywhere, not just the Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, but also the...

Where Newport Got It Right If you have not yet seen the new Newport Beach Civic Center, go.  It is a delight.  More, it is a statement: this is the new Newport Beach, a place where giant international companies like Pimco call home. It is sophisticated and modern. The center...

The evening before the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday, I dined with my friend William.  We met in the bleachers at our sons’ high school games. He is about 45, medium build and black.  If I were politically correct, I would use the term African-American, but I am not....

One of the most unsettling things about Orange County is we tend to believe our own bad PR.  We tend to believe we are “the sticks.” We are backward. The most intelligent, well-educated, successful people do not live here. They live in New York, London, Paris, Silicon Valley,...

The Coming Revolution In Education Lately, it has become fashionable to bash the value of a college education.   This is because recent graduates cannot get jobs.  There aren’t many jobs and the unemployment rate for newly minted graduates in the U.S. is about 20%.   We are...

  This is a true story about arrogance. Specifically, mine. It begins with kayaking. I go almost every day, venturing from one of the coves in north Laguna.  My usual route takes me north along the coast. I paddle to Emerald Bay and sometimes Irvine Cove.  From there, I race...

This summer I really got into kayaking.  Scratch that, I always have loved kayaking, but this summer I got into it as a balm.  I had had many tense days, marked by tense situations, and I would jam home from work, run to the beach, pull out the kayak and pump into the horizon....

Since nearly everyone I know is weighing in on the proposed new village entrance, so will I. But first a note on my qualifications: I am a property developer.  I know how to build parking structures and I know about soil problems.  My opinion about such matters is educated. I am...