Marty Stein and Benny Silverstein operated shoe stores in Oxnard, my California childhood’s small town. Marty’s store (Kirby’s Shoes) was on A Street’s east side, right next to my father’s men’s & boys’ clothing store. Benny’s store (GallenKamp’s Shoes) was directly across the street. Marty carried a marginally higher-priced line, but in a town that [...]
Category Archives: Humor
No Sunglasses, No Service
May 23, 2011 – 12:30 am
I know a woman (she shall remain nameless) who loses her sunglasses repeatedly. A retired attorney, she is neither careless nor insouciant. It just happens. And each time her cheaters go AWOL, she reacts with dismay and a bit of self-directed anger. Then, after a mourning period shortened imperatively by the next glary day, her [...]
Bridget over troubled Waters–1
December 11, 2010 – 10:14 pm
So that the world’s level of good humor may be raised, Violet Charles, my cartoonist/illustrator daughter, has inaugurated the Bridget over troubled Waters comic strip. For all the panels, go to the Bridget over troubled Waters website.
Sheiks on a Plane
May 6, 2010 – 3:19 pm
Ali Balak Qatlar Satif Luwi Qatlar On a balmy Saturday morning in late-1978, two 30-something brothers boarded a Pacific Southwest Airlines flight in Los Angeles. As they walked up the outdoor stairway into the PSA jet, the two men looked suspiciously like Arab terrorists during a time when Arab terrorism was non-existent. They were traveling [...]
Kiss Me, I’m Irie!–St. Patrick’s Day on St. Croix
March 13, 2010 – 6:55 pm
Irie (EYE-ree)—to be at total peace with your current state of being. The way you feel when you have no worries. (Jamaican) The small-town paraders and bystanders were more than irie long before the procession began just before noon. This is a big deal in Christiansted. Everyone knows this isn’t the right day, but we’re [...]
One More Guggle-Muggle for the Road
February 25, 2010 – 10:15 pm
Like most families, the nostrums necessary to palliate childhood ills were administered by my mother and grandmother. One, however, came from my father, and until last night, I thought it was his invention. Winter in Southern California is barely winter. But colds, coughs, and bad dreams can besiege a child in any clime. I was [...]
Fashion Show–1972
August 12, 2009 – 12:22 am
Insouciant and unflapped, the 28-year-old father of two, too sexy for his shirt (and shoes!), does his little turn on the catwalk. The shirt was chocolate. The tie was garish. The suit, of blessed memory, was lemon and taupe. Nuff sed.
Go Sue Yourself!
July 23, 2009 – 10:12 am
Perhaps based upon a well-known, anatomically difficult, consensual act, Wells Fargo has sued itself in a Florida foreclosure case reported upon by foxbusiness.com last week: “Wells Fargo holds the first and second mortgages on a condominium….As holder of the first, Wells Fargo is suing all other lien holders, including the holder of the second, which [...]
The Prime Minister and the Supreme Court
July 2, 2009 – 9:39 pm
Golda Meir (1898-1978) Tonight’s true story. An intelligent, worldly woman is leaning over her laptop late at night, paying almost no attention to the conversations behind her. She is startled out of her browsing by her sister’s voice. “Is there any news about Golda Meir?” She spins away from her laptop and demands, “What’s going [...]
A House Cat Murdered My Wife…That’s My Story
May 24, 2009 – 5:19 pm
Treswick was a big cat, a bad cat. He was, his owners averred, tres wicked. It was 1967. I was a first-year graduate student living in Peabody Terrace, the married students’ housing, a walking bridge across the river from Harvard Business School. These were tall, narrow buildings, four units to a floor, all sharing a [...]
