A couple of days ago I returned from Izmir where I went to decide about a job offer and in my mailbox was an envelop from my old, dear friend Ren Weschler with a sales receipt from my old bookstore, Intellectuals & Liars, for books he purchased for $11.73 (including tax) dated 3/8/80 (just 2 months before I lost the store to the recession that year and a greedy new landlord who more than doubled my rent from 75 cents a square foot to $1.60) and a postcard with the picture of a hot dog (my professed all-time favorite food) with red, white, & blue toothpaste as a condiment. And the message contained the Yiddish word verklempt, which, of course, was what I felt, shared with Ren, even now as I write this post.

LA. A foreign country, much like New York and San Francisco, in what is America, though…