On the run from a drug cartel in the Crescent City, there’s still time to discuss Wilde, Heloise, Abelard…and waffles.
Former Miami federal criminal defense lawyer, Mexicana Airlines cargo station rep and oh yeah, Saudi Arabia.
- 99 year lease
- “As if it were sovereign”
- Condominium
- Shanghai-like extraterritoriality
- SOFA
Dans lโHotel Lafayette
Alternatives to Conquest
Or should I say Anschluss?
January 11, the Draft and Max Factorโs brother Jake
Today is January 11.
In 1942 the war wasnโt going well for the Allies. The US tightened rules for its draft, requiring all able-bodied men to register. My grandfather duly registered, listing his birthday as 11 January, which in fact was not his โฆ
Venezuela and Napoleon
I hope that Maduro takes Napoleonโs advice concerning Louis XVI. That is, Louis should not have recognized the French courtโs jurisdiction to try him, he should not have participated in the proceedings.
Noriega, unfortunately, โฆ
Electronic Signatures
The Danish post office announced that it will no longer accept or deliver letters. The writing has long been on the wall: paper documents are deprecated. Given that a forty-page contract would probably not qualify as a letterโbut then again, thereโs โฆ
Happy Holidays
The Fire: Thai-Cambodia Border Skirmish, December, 2025
When I was in Riyadh, Houthi missiles would fall from time to time; now I am in Bangkok where a new war threatens.
Following a peace conference between Thailand and Cambodia held in neutral Kuala Lumpur, Thailand and Cambodia accuse each other of โฆ
German Fanta has 3% fruit juice, real sugar and natural colors. American Fanta has no fruit juice, corn syrup sweetener and Red#89. According to European legislation, American Fanta can be sold in the EU but must carry a warning label.
Adm.Doenitz' order to machine-gun survivors of U-Boat attacks rather than take them as prisoners was the basis for his Nuremberg war crimes conviction.
Business Dinner Ice Breaker
It’s not uncommon to be at a business dinner, a wedding guest table or another venue where you barely know or do not know the people you’re sitting with. Breaking the ice with, “How about those Cubbies?” doesn’t work if โฆ
Test
Pachamama
None of that mattered. I had to do everything. Only in the mountains could the prayer be heard. I would need the fetus of a llama to build the mesa, the altar of sacrifice. We took a bus to go deeper into the mountains, deep where the roads were โฆ
Donald Mark Schoff Tried to Kill Me
Karma is a universal force that balances accounts. The need for such balancing crosses all cultures. In the West, we call it Justice and build courthouses, temples where accounts are balanced; where justice is dispensed. For a long rime I worked in โฆ
The Missing Piece
I have been thinking a lot about “what if”' scenarios. I also have been thinking about how precarious things are at the moment. The last time I felt this way was August, 2001. I had just started a new job in Riyadh. All my financial โฆ
Thanksgiving Terror
Kenshin vs. Satan
Wittgensteinโs Odd Classmate
Ludwig Wittgenstein, the author of Philosophical Investigations and the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, a don at Cambridge, and one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, was a Catholic Austrian Jew who fought as an officer for the โฆ
When Clients Don't Pay
Annals of Attorney Billing, Episode #432
Most firms only count collected hours, not mere billed hours. A certain percentage of your clients will try to stiff you.. This happens at all levels: it’s not just new clients, not just small clients. โฆ
Paying Attorneys Fees with Story Rights
D.C. Bar Rule 1.8(c) says,
" (c) Prior to the conclusion of representation of a client, a lawyer shall not make or negotiate an agreement giving the lawyer literary or media rights to a portrayal or account based in substantial part on โฆ
The Joan Anderson Letter: Copyright Conundrum
UPDATEDโOctober 31, 2025
An article in The American Scholar recounts the genesis of Jack Kerouacโs novel, On the Road. (https://theamericanscholar.org/scrolling-through/)
Tsk, tsk: the author fails to mention the long-lostโbut recently foundโJoan โฆ
Revisiting Half and Half
Returning to Bahrain. The street they call the American Alley, near the US Naval Base, a place of interest to the Islamic Republic of Iran, just a short way across the Persian Gulf. Spies from a hundred countries try to capture overheard โฆ
Smollet: Yes; Santos: No
I just watched a documentary about Jusse Smollet, the gay black actor who claimed to be a victim of a hate crime, a simulated lynching at 0200 in downtown Chicago several years ago. Smollet became a joke, a rehearsal for George Santos who was such an โฆ
How Trump gets a Third Term
Bannon says โrun anywayโ: the Supremes will interpret the 22nd Amendment to add the word โconsecutiveโ and youโre golden.
Lawyers say, โrun as V-P with a deal with Vance to resign.โ You get a third term automatically since you wonโt have been โฆ
How Trump Gets a Third Term
