Dear Gato, I"ll tell you some more about Armando Rhon, "greatest realtor in Mexico""Baja California, that is"when I have time. Unfortunately, I have a feeling he and I will be seeing a lot more of each other. It's a shame it has to be in court. Even worse, it's in a Mexicali ...
Dear Gato, The meeting went well. The remake business is thriving. It makes superb financial sense. I never thought I"d say that. Then again, I never, ever thought I"d buy a condo in Rosarito. A high-rise apartment in a half-built development beside an infamously foul town twenty miles ...
Dear Gato, Forgive my disappearing act. The Dalai Lama flew into town nine days ago. Unofficially. Unexpectedly, at any rate. And in so doing he created such a hot ticket, only Oscar Night and the Vanity Fair after-party can compete in terms of the effect on the community. It's remarkable how, ...
Dear Gato, This week it's all about INT. THE DOGHOUSE. Yes, we know it well. And some better than others. I"m familiar with the place. And so are"let's see"Lance Armstrong, O. J. Simpson, Lindsay Lohan...to name a few ne"er-do-wells. What is it, I"m wondering, what ...
Dear Gato, I"m mindful of the time we were rechristened. In Puerto Vallarta. The toothless soothsayer gave us sopa to drink that was foul-tasting and laced with mescal and some local psychedelic. She read your palm and pronounced you "the cat," then she named me "el tibron," ...
Dear Gato" You really should try the ozone therapy"cleans your blood. Kiedis does it. Everyone should do it. Ignore the Wikipedia warnings; it was used in Europe for decades to keep livers from failing. Ask Anthony. Why die young, asking yourself: "If only I"d have tried the ozone ...
Dear Gato, I hope you"re sitting down. If you"re checking messages while driving, pull over. Things got a lot weirder since last time. I waited another hour in the Palacio Azteca's lobby, my eyes peeled for a man of "Indian" descent. Indians in Tijuana are as rare as the Siberian ...
Dear Gato, Bocas del Toro couldn"t be more different than Puerto Viejo. In Bocas, the "Venice of Panama," the only way to get around is by dugout canoe, paddled by genial 15-year-olds smoking weed and accepting beers for payment"a regular dugout taxi service! With barely two ...
Dear Gato: So I made the crossing over to Panama just fine, at least from the legal point of view. Despite the guards’ Rottweiler expressions, they can’t even be bothered to swat a mosquito in that humidity, let alone police the border. And I get the feeling the cartel is doing most ...
Jeet Thayil. Narcopolis. London; Faber & Faber, 2012. 292 pp. Jeet Thayil's debut novel Narcopolis is the book that coulda-shoulda won the Man Booker Prize for 2012. Instead, the prize, announced last week, went to Hilary Mantel's book on Oliver Cromwell, Bring up the Bodies. Thayil, the ...
