Chief of Police of Malibu

So it’s the Day After Labor Day, the first day of school (at least, I think that it ought to be the first day of school).  So it’s time for another overdue update.

A little over two weeks ago, Marcy & I left Brazil.  Three weeks before Labor Day Weekend we had our last day at the beach in Ipanema, then on Wednesday, Aug 16, we got on a plane, and on Thursday we arrived (three hours late, including one hour waiting on the runway after we landed) back in LA.  Friday we picked up a U-Haul in Simi Valley (30 miles from Marcy’s parents’ place, where stuff was, also the ultimate venue of the Rodney King trial, and a reference in the Big Lebowski, and an exurb larger than Cambridge, MA, if you can believe it), goodness knows why we had to go there to get it.  Saturday, after packing up all of our things, we drove up to Oakland, where we are now happily ensconced in our really great apartment where we also help out Sheila, our landlady.  Marcy has started classes (before Labor Day!) at Berkeley for her PhD, and I am facing the last mountain of my PhD: writing my dissertation.

So that’s our life here in lovely Northern California.  I’m trying to adjust, and I think I’m getting the laid-back thing, though I’m not yet wearing flowers in my hair.

The new life of my blog will be some updates on my life, but I’m mostly going to try and devote it to reactions to things I read in the press (especially in opinion pieces) which I often feel need another perspective or additional information in order to be judged accurately.  Thus, positioning myself in reaction to what’s out there, I’m becoming a reactionary, much like the Chief of Police of Malibu.

I’ll try to stay on topics I have some expertise in, though I can’t promise to.  I also can’t promise to stay off of "Times Select", the pay service for NYT columnists.  In fact, although I don’t like to pay for things like that, I’ll begin with a post about why I decided to do so.