"Saturday Stories" Too Shy for Stardom Disneyland Star My first chance for child stardom took place at Disneyland. I grew up close to Disneyland. Our family couldn’t wait to go to Disneyland when it opened in the summer of 1955. I was four years old. One of the first rides we went on was the … Continue reading I Could Have Been a Child Star (2 Stories)
"Memorable Stories" In 1989, I attended the 2-week “Judges College” for new judges at U.C. Berkeley. We stayed in the student dorms and ate breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria. For dinners, we were on our own. I had a county allowance of $100 for dinners - $7 per meal. (In today’s money that would … Continue reading My Most Expensive Meal Ever
Sri Ramakrishna, was an Hindu Holy Man. This is my version of one of his parables. The story is told of an ancient village nestled in a valley surrounded by towering mountains. The mountains were so high that they blocked the rain clouds. So, the villagers lived a dry and dusty existence. The mountains were … Continue reading “Latter-day Saints” or “Latter-day Saviors” – A Hindu Parable
"Saturday Sermon" We can, and should, learn from other religions “The great religious leaders of the world such as Muhammad, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring … Continue reading Great Lessons from Other Religions – Symbol of the White Lotus
One Saturday, in the late 1960’s, the Garden Grove California Stake President drove to Riverside to retrieve a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles for stake conference. The Apostle was one of my “favorites.” As they drove along Highway 91 in Corona, the Stake President pointed to the church’s large orange ranch off to … Continue reading “Stake Presidents are ‘Dime a Dozen’”
I have handled a few serious cases where the investigators were convinced that they were aided by Divine Providence. The detectives declared: “God wanted him caught.” The Dangerous Stalker I presided over the first case under California’s new felony stalking law. The defendant was obsessed with the female victim. The victim’s life became a nightmare. … Continue reading “God Wanted Him Caught”–Case of the Dangerous Stalker
In Honor of the Fourth of July I was privileged to be the mentor judge for Nho Nguyen, the first Vietnamese-American judge in the country. He is a living hero. A Living Hero In college, he protested the South Vietnam military dictatorship and led a student democratic movement. He risked his life to establish freedom … Continue reading A Vietnamese Judge Reminds Us Americans “What We Have”
I shall never forget a “Dear Abbey” letter I read in 1960’s. It went like this: Dear Abbey: "A few weeks after the birth of our daughter, she became very ill. The doctors said she was allergic to my cigarette smoke. If I continued to smoke in her presence, it could kill her. "I tried to … Continue reading Dear Abby: The Chain Smoker’s Tragic Letter
Late one evening in the 1970’s, the Garden Grove Stake President and I were chatting in his office after a meeting. He shared with me a letter he had received from a less-active non-practicing Latter-day Saint sister. He also shared his response. (He covered the sister’s name to protect her privacy.) The letter went like … Continue reading The Attempted Covert Cancellation of a Temple Marriage
"The Other Wise Man" The best Christmas tale ever written is: “The Other Wise Man,” by Henry Van Dyke. Van Dyke (1852-1933) was a preacher, writer, and professor of literature at Princeton University. The idea for this moving story came to Van Dyke one night “as a gift out of the air,” after a year … Continue reading The Best Christmas Tale Ever Written
The London Edition 