I asked for life advice about turning 60 and a bunch of you shared wisdom or perspective. Or jokes. I share some of that commentary, with some of my own, in my Wednesday column — before taking the rest of the week off.
Photo by Gustavo Arellano
I had dinner in Santa Ana two weekends ago with journalist and LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano, writer Susan Straight and journalist Cynthia Rebolledo after Gustavo and Susan’s event at LibroMobile, the subject of my column last Friday. Gustavo, seated across from me, asked to take my photo after our food arrived but before I dug in. I agreed, without asking why.
Well! On Saturday morning, a week later, I opened Gustavo’s weekly newsletter, to which I subscribe, to find that he’d featured me. Gosh! He wrote about the event, our dinner and our long association. And he used the restaurant photo seen above. Ha! I like the picture; I think it captures my amused tolerance.
Gustavo’s write-up about me is very generous, with lines like these: “He’s the best type of columnist, too – the one that gets better as the years go on, that continues to learn and documents a region until you don’t know a region unless you know the columnist.”
It’s not for me to say if any of that’s true, but certainly I continue to learn, I like to think I’ve gotten better and if I’m a must-read, well, that’s a goal, albeit one that to my mind remains elusive. (Especially given the very poor reader numbers for my column on the Santa Ana event, cough.) You can read his newsletter here and judge for yourself.
And Gustavo: thank you!
Five weeks after release, I saw “Oppenheimer” on National Cinema Day and “Barbie” the day after. You may well have seen one or the other by now, if not both. I highly recommend each. My moviegoing experience is the subject of my Friday column.
(Writing this one was a reminder to myself that not every column needs to be reported in some way and that they can just be for fun — especially at the start of a holiday weekend when fewer people will be reading.)
My Wednesday column is absent, more or less, due to a cold. I wrote a few paragraphs anyway to explain. I hope to be back Friday!
Highlights of my visit to Minneapolis include the Mary Tyler Moore statue downtown, a Bob Dylan mural, Hmong food and a Twins game (Ballpark No. 16 for me). I write about that in my Friday column.
In Wednesday’s column, I visit San Francisco, where I watch the Giants, climb stairs, browse for books, eat well, gaze at gardens and reject the doom spiral narrative for the city. It’s troubled, but it’s still a great place. (The headline will make more sense when you see the accompanying photo.)
If you have an hour to kill, and morbid curiosity, here I am speaking to the La Verne Historical Society on a rainy Jan. 9, reading from “100 Years of the Los Angeles County Fair, 25 Years of Stories” and taking semi-audible questions! It’s the first time someone has filmed one of my presentations (and possibly the last). Thanks to LVTV’s Claudia Gonzalez for the filming and editing. If nothing else, it’s a keepsake for me.
I’m recovered from my mild case of COVID — although I could use a nap. (Couldn’t we all?) Many of you responded by email, phone or social media to my column last Friday about it, including a few “never-hadders.” I excerpt some of your comments in this Friday’s column. Stay safe out there!
I escaped COVID for nearly three years until testing positive this week. Well, it was a nice run. I write about it in my Friday column and mention all the events I would have attended the past few days. Now you know why my Wednesday column was absent.
What did I do on vacation in San Francisco, the one to which I flew from San Bernardino? A lot of walking, as well as bus riding and train hopping. I focus on the walking aspect, including a self-guided tour around one neighborhood with a mystery writer connection, in my Sunday column.