Hey Guys, It Doesn't Cost a Fortune to Look Good

It's 2:30 in the afternoon and at the Marshalls near La Canada, California, (the town where the Disney executives live) you can see attractive, affluent Korean-American women accessorizing with their St. John suits. You can't get a St. John suit at Marshalls, just as men can't get a Brioni or Armani suit, but these women can find items to complement their outfits.

For women, shopping at Marshalls has limited possibilities, but for a guy who isn't afraid to wait for the right month, he can score a Hugo Boss sport coat or a Ralph Lauren Polo suit. In fact when I think of Ralph Lauren, I think of Marshalls. A guy who wants to look well-dressed can buy Polo shirts, ties and underwear there. Surprisingly, I picked up a Cole Haan trenchcoat that  wears like iron.

A lot of women who dress well go to Marshalls and get disappointed. But because guys aren't very good shoppers you don't have much competition and it's a movable feast.

Here's how it works. Suppose Polo contracts with someone to produce 130 suits for them. The factory will make 150 and sell 20 to Marshalls. Since men's clothing varies much less than clothing for women, frequently (just like with a Lexus) last year's model will be hard to tell from this year's.

This is not the place for guys who shop at Barney's. Marshalls isn't going to carry menswear that is that avant-garde. But, especially if you can live with a modified preppy look you can come up with good-looking clothing all year round. It's the best place to shop for cashmere sweaters. They're all made in China anyways, so you have nothing to be embarrassed about. And since the Macy's Cashmere sweaters, which cost more, all end up pilling, you're way ahead of the game.

Great Mystery Series on Amazon

After I received my PhD, back when Lincoln was president, I read nothing but Agatha Christie for three months. Exhausting that series, I finally was ready to get back to my scholarly activities.

There are great series to be discovered on Amazon (some on Kindle Unlimited and some just cheap) and I'd like to share some of my finds with you. The first is Freeman Wills Crofts, who outsold Christie in the 30s and is a great mystery writer. His output was prodigious and his plots are great.

Sheldon Siegel has written a seven book series featuring Mark Daley and Rosie Fernandez and costarring the city of San Francisco in some great courtroom dramas.

Scott Pratt writes about a lawyer named Joe Dillard who works among the crackers and nasty judges who seem to dominate small-town Tennessee.

There are the British Mystery Crime Classics which truly vary in quality. I would download a preview of each one before putting out any cash.

A great series by Catriona King features DCI  Craig. As you immerse yourself you become involved with the lives of the Murder Squad as they evolve and change with the seasons and the suspicious deaths they encounter. The series is set in Northern Ireland where the "troubles" are over but not forgotten.

My favorite series, however, is that of inspector Skelgill of England's Lake District, a man who would rather fight a pike than be a detective. He is the creation of Bruce Beckham.

You probably already know about Mark Gimenez. He writes about the Texas Hill country and is the equal of John Grisham at half the price.

A Medical School Which NurturesThe Heart As Well As The Brain

There are days when I get discouraged about the future of the country I love. However, my experience on Saturday filled me with the belief that many are working hard to maintain our values and facilitate healthy change.

My wife and I went to our daughter's medical school to walk her across the stage as she received her M.D.

This medical school tries to steer its students into family practice, where they will do a lot of good and, unfortunately, make less money than those who choose a specialty designed to make them wealthy. These people are the antithesis of those working for big banks who cheat and steal to make big bucks.

I watched the Latinos walk across the stage, followed by the Korean-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Vietnamese Americans, and Indian Americans. They stood next to the Irish-Americans and Polish Americans and showed how immigrants make this country a better place.

The commencement speech (the best one I've ever heard) was delivered by an African-American who has delivered medical care to an area of San Francisco which had been previously under served. Her rousing address made me wish I had miles to go before I'd sleep.

I privately thanked God for letting me see how much could can be done by people who color outside the box and believe that America can only get better.

California Has a Water Crisis, but Los Angeles Doesn't Care

California's water crisis is severe, but the people of  Los Angeles aren't taking it seriously. And while places like Beverly Hills had their water use cut over 30%, the water allocation for Los Angeles (through the Department of Water and Power) was only cut 16%.

Why you wonder did this come about. It's simple. While the people in Compton (who are served by the Department of Water and Power) can't afford to water their lawns, the people on the Westside of Los Angeles can use as much water as they want, as long as they're willing to pay for it.

In my neighborhood, called Little Persia on the Rand McNally maps of Los Angeles, people don't care about controlling their water use. The area, not far from Westwood, has seen property values increase dramatically. The people who can buy the houses in this area have a lot of money.

For the last seven months I've watched one house that's on a corner lot. The people there run their sprinklers even during our occasional rainy days. Every day there is standing water on the corner until late in the afternoon. The Department of Water and Power didn't care.

I called the public relations people for the department and told them if they didn't deal with the amount of water used by this house, I was going to put the address on my blog site. After a week of no change, the last few mornings there has been no stationary water at this corner. I guess they took my threat seriously. But why did it have to come to that.

If you've seen "Chinatown" you've seen a fictionalized version of what happened in Los Angeles. Here's what happened in fact. William Mulholland and his associates went to the Owens Valley, then a beautiful area which was blessed with runoff from the mountains. Lying to the farmers, who owned the water rights, they purchased all the water rights in the Valley. They then built an aqueduct to the San Fernando Valley. The San Fernando Valley, at that time, was an ugly area with no water. In 1913, when the aqueduct was completed, Mulholland said, "here it is. Take it." The Valley had recently been added to the City of Los Angeles.

The Department of Water and Power is an incredibly rich  and influential organization. They have the money to pay inspectors  to stop the rich people of Los Angeles from watering as much as they want. But they don't want to bother. Their philosophy is based on the thought of William Mulholland. And they don't care if California has a water crisis.

Whites Don't Want to Know

To some people, the situation probably looks normal. After all, you don't expect an Armenian to feel sad because a Turk is in pain. A Protestant Irishman shouldn't be expected to feel for his Catholic neighbors. But, wait a minute. There never was a war between Black and White Americans.

The history shows White people treating African American people as if the latter were inferior. So now that some of us know that Black people are being targeted by our police it's having little impact. Most white people don't want to know that the fiction of racial harmony is a lie.

When I was a college professor, 30% of my students were African-American. They would tell me about DWB (driving while black) where you might have a nice car, nicer than the Sheriff's deputy, and you'd be pulled over just for driving something that new.

The experience which reified this involved an all American girl who was in one of my classes. The daughter of a preacher, and a Navy lifer, she was someone who had all the qualities you look for in a young woman, and her boyfriend was an upwardly mobile guy who went to church with her. It was irrelevant to me that her skin was darker than mine.

She told me she'd been pulled over by a member of the Inglewood Police Department, and when she asked why she was pulled over, the officer said: "you were driving a new car and you're Black." I quickly called the Inglewood Police Department and called a friend who was on the monitoring committee for the Department.

A week late later, the young woman came to see me during office hours. She said, "my father would like it if you stopped pushing on this issue. He's afraid they'll come after me." I of course pulled back from my activism and never tried to right this wrong.

I've got a million stories my students have told me, and I know White people are hearing what they want to hear. They want to believe there's racial equality in America, even though it's a myth.