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RUN BEFORE YOU WALK, PART TWO: Walk

Before I talk about how my knee began talking to me, I want to mention some of the places I ran, when I was running. It’s a modest list compared to others who have run in every state and every country in every hemisphere,  but I’m proud of what I’ve done. Los Angeles, Chicago, New […]

RUN BEFORE YOU WALK

Part One: Run On July 17, 2022, I finished a half-marathon, 13.1 miles from Napa to Sonoma in Northern California. This is the story of how a tall awkward uncoordinated young man became a tall awkward uncoordinated half-marathon-finishing senior citizen. I never played team sports. Not that I haven’t enjoyed watching them. I loved seeing […]

Does Self-Help Help?

“Hello. My name is Mark, and I’m a self-help bookaholic.” “Hello, Mark,” answer thirty million people. Like so many buyers of self-help books, I see a title that promises to address something I’m feeling in the moment, an emotional need. So I buy the book. By spending money on a book, I have helped myself. […]

A Slight Obsession with James Bond

Speaking as someone with no qualifications whatsoever to discuss childhood development (aside from having once been a child), it seems to me there’s a point in a person’s growth—around age nine, ten, or eleven—when parents or parental figures are no longer the most important adults in said person’s life. Young humans then turn to the […]

The Funny Thing About Dreams

“Comedy is not funny.” So said my perceptive, plain-spoken, quotable friend Domenic Bucci. I couldn’t agree more. Understand, I love comedy. Good comedy. I’ve made it my career.  Domenic was referring to comedy that works too hard to make you laugh.  Hard-working comedy can annoy you, in the same way someone saying, “Relax!” can make […]

LAS VEGAS: An Ironic Appreciation

Viva Las Vegas with your neon flashin’And your one arm bandits crashin’All those hopes down the drainViva Las Vegas turnin’ day into nighttimeTurnin’ night into daytimeIf you see it onceYou’ll never be the same again Viva LasVegas/Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman When I say I love Las Vegas, people shake their heads and say, “But Vegas […]

SILLY

“Don’t be silly.”  A dismissive comment. A put-down. Years ago, I was chatting with Eric Idle of Monty Python fame. His daughter and my son attended the same pre-school in Los Angeles. He’d just read a screenplay I’d written with Boyd Hale and Tom Wolfe, Edwards & Hunt: The First American Road Trip, later filmed […]

MOTEL LIFE

Some people think I’m joking when I tell them I grew up in a motel. Other people can’t believe Nutter is my real name. Sometimes these two groups of people intersect, in a Venn diagram of skepticism. Nutter is my real name. I suppose people think that because I write comedy, I changed my name […]