My friend Claude-Anne Lopez — “Claude,” to pretty much everyone who knew her — died last week at the age of 92, after a long period of suffering with Alzheimer’s. That this cruel disease would have ravaged such a brilliant mind puts even more in doubt the possibility that a benign deity guides our lives. … Read more
On Monday, Feb. 27, I’ll be performing my comic monologue Ben Franklin: Unplugged at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley — with all proceeds going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. (The LLS runs Team In Training, the wonderful organization that is whipping me into shape to bike the Solvang Century next month.) As far as … Read more
It isn’t easy — at least for someone like me. You move forward into the unknown, guided by those who have gone before. They can tell you what it was like for them, but that doesn’t mean it will be the same for you. You need support, you need the right tools — and you … Read more
Just had one of the strangest experiences of my life: hearing the Rotary Club of Portland sing “Little Boxes.” As a red diaper baby from New York, now calling Berkeley my home, I was expecting at least a soupçon of disorientation at my first-ever Rotary Club meeting — but it never would have occurred to … Read more
Shortly after I arrived here in Portland, Ore., for the current run of Ben Franklin: Unplugged at Portland Center Stage (through Nov. 22), I wandered off during a break in search of coffee-making equipment. (I hadn’t brought my Melitta stuff from Berkeley.) At the popular Stumptown Coffee Roasters I became entranced with the idea of … Read more