An exchange I had with a black bouncer at a Hollywood night club showed the tangle Americans get into when talking about race and ethnicity. A singer-songwriter friend was performing, and my partner Bill and I were on the list...
Read MoreAt first, I blamed my two pre-dinner margarita cocktails for the man who wasn’t there. Remember the rhyme that gin makes you sin, whisky makes you frisky, and brandy makes you randy? Well, here in the US, tequila, the main...
Read MoreI’ve just been to a posh pot shop. I had to show ID at the door and allow staff to input my details on their system, but after that it was like going into an Apple Store. It was sleek, respectable, and legal – well,...
Read MoreThe sight of the Stars and Stripes gently fluttering in the blue sky has always enchanted me. I’m not sure why. Maybe the psychic who told me I’d had a turbulent past life here in America was right? He reckoned I’d been around...
Read MoreOn the sunniest days in Southern California, my mind takes me to the dark underbelly of Victorian England conjured up in one of the most chilling scenes in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Scrooge sees a vision of the future in...
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