Tag Archives: life

9/11 Plus 25

Twenty-five years ago, I watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center from my office window.

What I remember most is not only the horror, but the strange quiet that followed—the empty streets, the smoke over the city, and the way people instinctively looked out for one another.

A quarter-century later, I find myself thinking less about what happened that day than about what we learned from it—and how much of that lesson we seem to have forgotten.

I wrote about that morning, the days that followed, and why September 11 still matters. Continue reading →

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Dolly Would

A long layover, a Dolly Parton rabbit hole, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, and one uncomfortable question: how much of our happiness are we willing to hand over to politics?

Dolly had a pretty good answer Continue reading →

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The Powerball Presidency

I didn’t win the Powerball, but somewhere around the twentieth virtual floor of the Empire State Building, I realized America may be running a different lottery. The prizes increasingly flow upward, the ladders below keep disappearing, and the biggest jackpot may now come with an oath of office in Washington. Continue reading →

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The Ted Lasso Way

Six years ago, when everything felt broken, a fictional football coach showed up with a yellow sign that said BELIEVE.

This week, watching Washington turn grievance into theater yet again, I found myself thinking about Ted Lasso, Anthony Fauci, optimism, and one line that feels especially useful right now:

“Don’t fight back. Fight forward.”

New piece: The Ted Lasso Way Continue reading →

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Cheeto Dust

Went for a walk to clear my head. Came back with a eulogy for my cat, some inherited wisdom about fairy dust, and a working theory that Cheeto dust is its evil twin. New essay is up. 🧡🪄 Continue reading →

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It Could Have Been a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

The week gave us screwworms, algae, and a Qatari Air Force One. Thursday gave us something the Grifter-in-Chief will never have Continue reading →

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Six Years Ago, Today

Six years ago I flew home from pandemic lockdown in Brazil believing America still knew the difference between leadership and a late-stage infomercial host with a persecution complex.

I was wrong.

A little jet lag, a little heartbreak, a little rage, and just enough dark humor to survive reading the headlines. If you’ve ever looked at the news and thought “how did we get HERE?” — this one’s for you. 🇺🇸🔥

Read before they replace the Statue of Liberty with a gold-plated grievance monument. Continue reading →

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The Absolut Worst

This week I had lunch with the guy who literally wrote the book on Absolut advertising. And it got me thinking: what if I pitched Absolut today?
So I did. With a little help from AI.
The results are… something. 🍸 Continue reading →

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America, We’ve Been Punk’d

“After two Chopin Martinis, six blue cheese stuffed olives and forty-five minutes of listening to me list the indignities perpetrated by the Trump administration this week, he turned to me and with a wicked grin said in mildly slurred speech, ‘What if this is a very elaborate episode of Punk’d.’ Imagine this…” Continue reading →

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Making Airport Lines Great Again

After 3.3 million miles, airports once meant escape and possibility. Now they feel like a monument to Trump’s ego—longer TSA lines, performative fixes, and policy driven less by competence than by the refusal to ever admit being wrong. The magic didn’t fade. It was suffocated. Continue reading →

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