Miller Time

UNITED STATES—The case ended successfully for Detective Zorba. A trash collector in the magnetic train stations had emptied the contents of a trash can and turned up a wallet tossed out and a vodka bottle, it turned out to belong to the manager of the smoke/payday establishment, so he got his identity and got his cards back. The culprit...

UNITED STATES—His bosom buddy, who’d dubbed him “the incredible Yanqui,” the exiled Miguel Padilla, retorted, “Well, compadre. I’ve heard of a White House being turned into a bawdy house, my friend.” Phineas Cox sure had inadvertently done a heap more than any soul to stir up a hornet’s nest, that fussy corporate lawyer and former Attorney General, had been the...

UNITED STATES—"I don't envy your position… And what did you do?" "I told him firmly and in no uncertain terms to remove his hands from my eyes." "I'm sure you comported yourself every inch a lady," Mr. Disney said.  "Could you demonstrate exactly what Mickey did?  Please come around my desk. I put my hands over Mr. Disney's eyes, just as Mickey...

UNITED STATES—"Hello, this is the son of Betty Bird, and we'd like Dr. O'Leary to prescribe anti-anxiety medication for our Mom, Betty Bird, here at Wastonville Manor." Davy hangs up his phone with a sigh. "They're out to lunch, I left a message." "Yeah, yeah, I could tell," says Karen. "I can tell when it's your message voice." "The doctor's are out for...

UNITED STATES—Listen, I’m wearing a mask, er bandana until I can find a mask. It’s been weird and amazing these last eight days of quarantine. I see it all from my pinhole, onto the world, Hollywood, USA. Weird times. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody stopped me at Hollywood and Vine and offered to sell me a circus. But I...

UNITED STATES—A dismal jolt shook L.A.'s cinephilic community last week when the Pacific Theater Corporation announced that it had choked during the locked-down as a result of the COVID economy. It was a bracing jolt of reality, a reflection of families and individuals beyond measure, who endure unimaginable pain in silence due to the unprecedented pandemic shutdown, in the...

UNITED STATES—“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” said the wholesome apple-cheeked man in whose meteoric ascent to power Sam the Man Delaney had been murmured to have had a hand. Once upon a time in Louisiana there was a man named Willy Long, and he was a man for the times. It was a Depression, harsh times, and people were...

UNITED STATES—Recently, I had a houseguest who asked, “What do you have planned for today?” and I burst out with my ideas about plans instead of burying them in silence. “Well, I usually have plans for five things,” I said. I feel a bit on the spot when someone asks, “What do you have planned for today?” I feel more...

UNITED STATES—Since Denny wasn't so bright, he had thought he could get the cash for Danielle's fender-bender pay-off at the ATM. It exceeded his daily limit. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) they were in luck (or unlucky) depending if you were in Danielle's Ferragamo's or Denny's Dan Post boots. "One-thousand five-hundred d-d-d-dollars," Denny stammered. The bank teller...

UNITED STATES—So here we were, after two days in the country. We took a depopulated bus. Hey, it was a Sunday and we would learn that Madrid is in summer mode. People leave the city. The siesta is religiously observed, in the land where the siesta was invented, due to the torrid climate. The banks close at 2 p.m....