Long Before Coinstar

It was late 1986. I worked as a courier for a company that obtained travel visas for clients. I attended L.A. Valley College part time. I drove a Mazda GLC hatchback. “GLC stood for “Great Little Car.” I was 22. I was living in my first apartment. A second-floor single in Van Nuys. On Fulton …

To The Busman At Philippe’s Who Found My Wallet That I Left In The Booth We Sat In For Breakfast And Instead Of Keeping It Turned It In To The Lady At The Register By The Front Door Who Had It Waiting For Us When We Returned After Driving All The Way Back Home And Realizing I’d Forgotten It:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.Thank you. Thank you. …

Cha-Ching-A-Ling

Well, I’m glad I asked. Last week, something made me wonder where my bike-commute subsidy moola might be for the months of March/April and so I sent an email to the Howard Hughes Center’s transportation coordinator. Typically it arrives a month or so after logs are submitted, but here we were nearing the end of …

Bicycling Pays

Having just crossed La Cienega Boulevard on my ride home tonight I sighted a folded up dollar on the street and stopped to celebrate the find. She’s nothing but a buck and a mangy, beat-up one at that but she’s still legal tender and she’s all mine mine mine.

Buddy Can You Spare A Dime?

Sometimes you need a little rejection to discover something worth keeping. This morning in need of a snack at the office vending machine I kept dropping a coin into the slot that kept working its way into the coin return after each of several attempts to deposit it. Delicate and sensitive must be the vending …