We want cars and houses, and the latest look, so we all look the same. We want the biggest muscles, the shiniest jewels, the newest phone, and we want to be most up-to-date on the […]

For as much as I love nature, it’s remarkable that I grew up in a family that didn’t spend a lot of time there. We were only mild campers, hikers, and beach-goers. That’s not to […]

You know that sommelier who said the only good wine is the kind you enjoy? The guy who told you not to worry about all those weird words on the bottle, such as “France?” He […]

So I’m waiting at a stoplight when another piece of techno-pop skitters across the car radio, and the notion hits me: is romance dead? The question is soon embedded in my brain.
I’m no Cervant….

Hell is other people. Sartre got it, of course. We judge ourselves with the means other people have, and have given us, for judging ourselves. If my relationships are bad, I’m totally dependent on …

The compulsively clean gentleman insisted I try hydrocolon therapy, claiming that I’m in danger of “autointoxication” (Google it). Though modern medicine has debunked this, there may be a grain of tr…

I don’t spend much time at sea–like, practically none–but I’m an explorer. Driving back from a dinner, I pointed at a local casino and said to my date, “We gotta go there at least once, […]

There’s no free lunch. As a person who’s naturally open-hearted and generous, “no” can be an unnatural stretch for me…well, since I’m one of those who really longs to be liked, it’s more than a […]

When I travel and tell someone I’m from Los Angeles, I brace myself for the inevitable question: “Aren’t you afraid of earthquakes?” Of course I am. When you’re nice and cozy beneath the covers and…

Not really. What hotels have to learn about romance could fill a 500-gallon bubble bath. I just returned from an African safari. The trip was fabulous on all accounts, save 1: on our final night, […]

With love, anything can happen–the best and the worst, suffering and bliss. But padlocks on a bridge? The symbolism is obvious: “You and me, bound by our love.” In more or less indelible ink, gid…

It’s difficult to understand change when you’re right in the middle of it. I wonder what people thought during the Industrial Revolution when they rode a train for the very first time, drove a car, […]

As we got closer to Saint Barts, a dream destination, I realized why this is where one finds the most megayachts in the world (who would have thought that at 150 feet, we would be […]

As we approached the center of the 300-year-old city, I saw the golden spire of the Admiralty. We rounded the corner in view of the Tsars’ Winter Palace, and then passed the soaring onion domes […]

While Bejing’s Zhou Dynasty days are ancient history, the city is still an intriguing blend of old and new, with booming development and a healthy respect for old traditions. My gentleman companion t…

Chinese documentation of the exploration of sex and sexuality dates back to the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C. The Chinese have always viewed sex as nourishment to human health; it is considered as funda…