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Surprises Behind Cuba’s Socialist Curtain, Part 2   Jandres Burgos was born in the worst ghetto of Puerto Rico. His father abandoned his family early on. His mother, quite beautiful, became the mistress of the biggest drug lord on the island. Jandres, as a 10-year old, remembers...

Editor, I read Mr. Tyler response to my tongue-in-cheek column about Cuba.   To be specific, I knew and know about Cuba’s reputation.  The CIA’s website says this specifically:  trafficking in persons: current situation: Cuba is a source country for adults and...

Surprises Behind Cuba’s Socialist Curtain When you enter most undeveloped countries, your bags are checked by rough guards armed with Uzi machine guns. When you enter Cuba, your bags are checked by unarmed, startling young women. Their uniforms are skin-tight, low cut,...

‘Lost’ is Days Away   My daughter Gabby graduated from college in Portland this month and we were at dinner with her friends. At the time, the “kids” were two nights away from their graduation ceremonies and they were done with freaking out. That was three months ago. They also...

  Tokyo Again Two weeks ago, I was back in Tokyo again. The skyscrapers were even bigger and more ornate, and beautiful. The people, always well dressed and fashionable, were even more so. The economy, after 20 years of unwinding too much debt, is buzzing. The Olympics are...

Adventures in Yoga Land As readers of this column may recall, last summer I began taking yoga lessons from a hot young thing named Kyrui Lin. She worked me like a beast and she introduced me to Shavasana, the touchy-feely spiritual thing where your mind wanders into space and you...

The Front Porch: NannyVille Laguna Beach is paradise and we want to keep it that way. To do so, over the years we created a series of laws, commissions and public bodies, each with admirable intentions. Sadly but predictably, most followed the usual Darwinian imperative and...

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...