rants, reports, raves, and embarrassments from eric trules

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parenting

Turkey Day in the Time of Corona

        Frozen turkey’s in the oven since last night. Special Trules recipe. Last employed almost forty years ago, on 23rd Street and Park Avenue South in New York City, in my clown loft, when my parents were still alive, in the early 1980s. Slow roast. Get the bird to stew overnight in its own juices. Guarantees a moist, delicious feast. Or least it used to, as I said. Let’s see. Forty years is a lonnnnnng time. The times, they have-a changed. Indeed. Bob Dylan, the sage himself, is almost 80. I’m 73. I’ve lived in sunny California…

On Losing Kobe

— Every weekday morning I wake up at 5:45 a.m., to carve out 45 minutes for myself in the bathroom (ok, on the toilet) – before I start my daily “personal homework routine” with my still English-learning, almost 13 year old, son… alternating spelling with dictation, and every morning, reading: “Charlotte’s Web”, “The BFG”… parents, you know the drill.—Ok, I sit and read the newspaper – the old fashioned way – turning the pages to find what I want to read. I have to be judicious, with just 45 minutes at hand. I look at the headlines, page 2 &…

The Big Day, 6th Grade Graduation

The big day. Exsel graduates elementary school! He is in the last 6th grade class in Elysian Heights Elementary School’s 100 year history. (It will become a K-5 arts magnet next year) I remember the 1st day we got there, May 2015, the very end of the school year. I found out that I HAD to bring him to school, otherwise he would be “truant”! So we arrived just down the street from us on Baxter & Echo Park – to this sweet old school, elementary school. He would get to attend the last 2 weeks of 2nd grade –…

“Justice League”: What the Hell Are We Feeding Our Kids?

I went to see JUSTICE LEAGUE a few months ago with my 10 year old son, Exsel, and his 10 year old girl friend (not “girlfriend”, no WAY!). I had to. It was one of the responsibilities of being a parent, no matter what yours, or your kid’s, age. Wake him up for school on time, dress him, feed him, do the homework, arrange for play dates, monitor screen time, play with him as much as possible, cherish his innocence, take him to the current blockbuster, and hopefully, don’t take away most of his beautiful natural instincts. But I felt with “Justice…

Still Alice?

I finally watched STILL ALICE with Juliane Moore on Netflix. I was sitting in my deceased father’s red leather chair in my bedroom, and my 8-year-old, adopted nephew-to-be, from Indonesia, was sitting on the huge, king-size bed, playing with his iPad. I had heard that Ms Moore’s performance, which won an Academy Award for her, was spectacular, but that the movie was only so-so. In fact, I had been warned not to watch it just the day before by a German artiste who absolutely hated it. Nevertheless, I watched it and… I was completely captivated from the start. Sure, it…

the great taj mandela has a baby girl

the great and generous taj mandela became a dad for the first time at age 52 on june 5th, 2006. his almost 9-pound daughter, laila pearl, was delivered safely and miraculously by midwife at five in the morning in pasadena, california, to mother, natasha, after a long and safe home birth. you know how you have this core kernel of friends? a group of 4 or 5 of you that grow up together? bond together? go through the fire of time and place together? you could have a few kernels, a few different places. maybe one from childhood. another from…

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