The Story of Chicken

Her name really wasn’t Chicken; it was Gai, which means chicken in Thai. Thai women have given names as long as your arm, often difficult to pronounce, so most end up with one-syllable nicknames, such as Lek which means small, Dang, which is red, or We, Oi, or Kung. Kung means shrimp. I don’t know […]

I am Not a Gay Man

I was having coffee with a couple of close friends a month or so ago. I forget the context, but one, a very close friend, said, “I am not a gay man. I am a man who is gay.” I thought about it at the time, and have been thinking even more about it lately. […]

One More Day in Laos

Ah, jeez. Chicken feet. I hate chicken feet. They are worse than eating dog. We were on our way to look at some land in Laos to lease for project I am working on. Let’s just say that it is a bit of land, and unbelievably cheap. Thanks to the Communists, I guess. Before we […]

A Working Life Chapter 1

Life was easy back then. It wasn’t simple, but it was easy. I am in my mid-60’s now, and grateful. I worked through one of the most interesting and transformational periods in the history of the United States. I think there were two periods, and they ran sequentially, without a break. My father lived through […]

English or Metric?

I live on my sailboat in the Caribbean. Now I am in Panama. I asked the local maintenance guy to change the zincs (sacrificial anodes) on my boat, a task for a diver. There are zincs on the end of the prop, the rudder support, the prop shaft and the bow thruster. The diver was […]

Nicknames

It was dusk. I was walking through Bocas town with Toni wearing short pants and a t-shirt, a ball cap, and my backpack with chancleta on my feet. Willie stopped his rusty old bicycle next to me and said, “Weed, Weed?” I find it a bit odd that he even asks me, a man in […]

I Hate the Yankees

Baseball rivalries and history have lots of lessons.