The White Leo
“If we practice an eye for an eye,” said Ghandi, “and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless.” --Matthieu Ricard, in his book ALTRUISM
8-3-99 Tuesday, 11:50 AM
It’s a beautiful, hot day today. When the maid arrived at 7:15 AM, Alan & I rushed out of the house so they could do their “thing.” We took our NY Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Wall St. Journal & L.A. Times to Peet’s Coffee. After our morning reading time & coffee, we drove out to Malibu. I couldn’t help but appreciate the breeze + sun on my face as I glanced at the ocean + palm trees, cruising in the Porsche Boxster sports car. I appreciated it more after just completing Tuesdays with Morrie — the book! A true story about a man dying from Lou Gehrig’s disease + how he had such compassion for people, expressing ever so much love along the way. A lot of what I read is what I live by — but I admit to getting caught up in our culture of making money + material things.
All that really matters though is the love we share + the memories + relationships we build over time with family & friends.
I was talking to Alan today about how I sometimes feel I give him so much of my time. (Don’t get me wrong — I enjoy all the time I spend with him.) I just feel I have a lot more to give to so many.
I just came from a wonderful run at the pier & I sweat up a storm. It felt so good. I thought again about that letter from Monty in Thailand, who I met back in Oct. 1989 on an airport shuttle bus. I think he is defecting to Vancouver, Canada. Interesting. Well — time to call mom & share her cousin’s (her first cousin) recent letter (Marie Antoinette Anaya). This evening Alan and I rented the VHS of THE CLIENT. It was an excellent film: When an eleven-year-old boy witnesses a mafia-linked suicide in the woods of Memphis, his innocence is forever altered. Drawn into a deadly game of silence and survival, he finds an unlikely guardian in a fiercely intelligent lawyer with demons of her own. The Client is less about the courtroom than about the courage it takes to speak truth when every whisper could get you killed.
8-4-99 Wednesday
Besides working diligently Alan and I ended the day by watching THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT movie and THE JUROR. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT:
Three student filmmakers vanish in the Maryland woods while chasing whispers of a centuries-old legend. Their footage—grainy, breathless, terrifyingly real—surfaces as a cinematic séance that changed horror forever. In The Blair Witch Project, it’s not what you see, but what you believe you saw, that leaves you haunted long after the credits roll.
THE JUROR
A single mother is chosen for jury duty, only to find herself under the sinister watch of a mob enforcer who wants a verdict fixed—by any means necessary. The Juror is a psychological tug-of-war between justice and fear, where moral decisions must outwit mafia threats and maternal instincts become a mother’s weapon of resistance.
8-5-1999
I had a meeting with Barry Smolev, a former Schwab client. He’s such a talker and wants aggressive investments. I told him I couldn’t do ‘high risk’ on his money. Alan agreed. This is one case where we could NOT accept him as a client. He is also very high maintenance. If an aggressive/high risk stock was purchased he’d be the type to call non-stop and annoy me.
This evening Alan and I went to THE PALM Restaurant in West Hollywood. We saw actor Ray Liotta there dining with a soap actor I recognized from my teen days of watching him in Days of Our Lives: actor Josh Taylor. Our waitress resembled and spoke like Linda Rubin (another former Schwab client). Linda was a handful. Alan and I mutually agreed at this dinner that there is no way we could take on Barry Smolev as a client.
8-6-1999
We saw MISS COCO PERU, the Drag Queen perform tonight. She was a hoot. This was a very different outing for us. We are NOT into seeing drag queens perform. Doing something rarely done can be quite the adventure.
8-7-1999
We did the run along the beach. We also did a hike at Temescal Canyon. I feel fit today. Alan and I went to see a movie at the theater called THE IRON GIANT.THE IRON GIANT:
A young boy in Cold War-era America befriends a massive robot from the stars—a machine built for destruction who learns instead the power of compassion. The Iron Giant is a timeless tale of friendship, fear, and the idea that what you choose to be matters more than what you were made to be. In the end, the greatest hero may be the one who chooses not to fight.
8-8-1999
Today, August 8th would have been my dad’s 64th Birthday. I miss his humor, intelligence and calmness.
This morning Alan and I joined his ex-wife, Susan, and Mady to Nate N’ Al’s for breakfast. I love The White Leo (Lox and Egg Whites and Onions scrambled) there. Mady was a school chum to Alan and Susan as they were growing up. Mady still lives in New York. She was visiting. Mady is the same age as me and we get along great. She makes me laugh. She’s a schoolteacher. I like her ways.
8-9-1999
Once again, we did the Marina Del Rey shoreline beach run. For dinner we joined Gloria and Jack at Madeline’s; then Alan and I settled in at home and watched a funny film before bedtime called THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.
There’s Something About Mary
Decades after a prom night mishap, a hapless romantic hires a private investigator to find the girl who got away—only to discover she’s been turning heads and hearts ever since. There’s Something About Mary is a wild, crude, and surprisingly sweet comedy about obsession, reinvention, and the accidental magic of being perfectly imperfect.
“I have a confession. There’s something mysterious about you,” she said. “don’t get me wrong. It’s not that you’re tall, dark and handsome. You’re just dark and ‘sort of cute’.” --Viet Thanh Nguyen, THE SYMPATHIZER, a novel
