About The Author

“In all the arts, it’s the surface that people appreciate most easily, like an apple chosen for its shiny skin.”

(Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, p. 171)

• The author has stood with Muslims on the Temple Mt. and with Jews beneath it.
• In his younger years the author fell asleep running a laser while it cut stainless steel.
• In his later years he had a newborn baby named after him.
• He made a woman cry tears of joy with his 176 word note as she lay hurt in the hospital.
• He speaks English fluently, struggles with Spanish (despite his locality), and can say several phrases in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew and Italian.
• He loves the city but won’t take up permanent residence there.
• He and his wife are exact opposites as per the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator test.
• He has the personality type Abraham Lincoln had.
• He lived in 6 temporary dwellings of some form in 6 years to avoid starter homes.
• He finally bought a starter home and then put it up for sale. He sold it after it was on the market for 7 days, for more than he paid btw…in 2009.
• He told a millionaire he would edit his sales letter for $300; when he finished…the millionaire tried to hire him permanently.
• He asked questions to 10 of the world’s best copywriters that they’d never heard.
• He had a 65-year-old ad agency executive optimistically say to him after his presentation, “I’ve never heard that before.”
• He would like his own personal tailor on Savile Row in London.
• He resists television and can’t find time for the movie theater.
• His personality type is the same one that Mark Twain and Dr. Seuss each had.
• His wife could have led the troops to victory at the Battle of Trenton…much like George Washington.
• He’s gotten a forklift stuck in grass.
• His baby knows the English alphabet, the Spanish alphabet, some Robert Frost, some of her Daddy’s poetry, most of the books of the Bible, several Commandments and lots of rhythmic music at 22 months.
• His baby girl watches Caillou in foreign tongues, mainly Japanese &/or Spanish.
• He likes it that she calls clouds “whipped cream.”
• His left arm shakes when he’s tired.
• He thinks himself funny and often makes jokes so he can laugh with himself.
• He simultaneously read the Scarlet Pimpernel & listened to the Scarlet Letter.
• He conceived a men’s clothing line at 18, started it at 19, tried to ramp it up in his late 20s and let it fizzle in his 30s; he’s always planning a re-launch for women.
• He’s been to 15 countries and plans to go to at least 5 more.
• He wrote and produced the best radio ad in the world but no one heard it.
• He believes fairness, as a human imperative, is mostly a distraction.
• He’s been comatose 23 days and without conscious awareness for 40.
• He made a 1.5 his 1st semester of college.
• He has a treasure chest his wife can’t see.
• His clothing designer’s 21 year old sister made a comment so profound at dinner…that it knocked his baby, his wife and himself all out of their seats.
• His graphic designer is a dictator.
• His wife is more beautiful than a super model.
• He bought three bottles of wine and three cheeses to meet the best architect in the world on some of his property.
• He always appreciates toys made in China.
• He prefers ties of Chinese silk, which are woven in England and made in the USA.
• He doesn’t have cable TV and owns a Nintendo Wii, but only b/c his brother gave it to him.
• The author has 12 Starbucks cafes within three miles of his home.
• The author’s local grocer has a self-checkout express line, and its touch screen doesn’t ask him which language he wants to use to conduct his transaction.
• He is a certified Master Gardener and doesn’t have a garden.
• He embraces respect, & so has talked about liberty in the mind to high-security prisoners.
• He loves simplicity, & called his two-year old, ‘The Golden One.’ Now that she’s four he calls her by an American-Indian name ‘Bounces Lightly.’
• He needs delight, & so his wife has not had an UltraSound to find the sex of their next baby.
• He seeks tranquility, & says he shall stand yet again with both Arab & Jew upon the Temple Mt.

“All systems (music, mathematics, baseball, a tulip), complex or simple, have a poetry.”

(Margaret Magnus, GODS OF THE WORD, p. 12)