My wife and I saw Gilbert and Sullivan?s ?Pirates of Penzance? at City Center on West 55th Street last night. I?ve probably seen it three or four times in my life - the last time I saw it Linda Ronstadt played the lead ingenue, and I think Kevin Kline had the lead male role. This performance was by the Gilbert and Sullivan Company ensemble, and although none of the lead actors are household names, it was a terrific show. If you?ve never actually seen it, Pirates of Penzance is a comic opera about ?duty? set in the time of victorian England in the 1880’s. There are some extraordinarily funny bits of dialogue in between the songs.

Being the good citizen that I am these days, I couldn?t take any pictures because it’s prohibited, so you?ll have to use your imagination. But there were some hilarious moments, including one song and dance number that included a take-off on Bob Fosse, with the actors holding silver-sequined top hats. The performance left me with a smile and in such good spirits that they?ve carried over through today.


This has been a good week for me. There are some people who may find this offensive, but I managed to get a very tough judge to give my client probation for selling two kilos of cocaine. I can?t share the details with you for a variety of legal reasons, but the judge did the right thing, and when you do a good job at whatever it is that you do, it feels satisfying.

I suppose that there is an irony in the fact that I often defend drug dealers - alleged or otherwise - since I wouldn?t have HIV if I hadn?t abused drugs way back when, but it wasn?t a drug dealer who gave me HIV - I take all of the credit for it. I don?t want to start a policy debate here, but we?re the ones who create the demand for illegal substances, and while I think it?s necessary to control the flow of harmful drugs, we seem to be very inept at it, and there is a lot of collateral damage inflicted by our methods.

I also managed to get a lot of writing done, which is also satisfying for me. I?ve done a lot a editing on the novel I?ve been working on, and with any luck I may even finish it one of these days. Whether it?s good enough to get published is another issue, but I?m not concerned about that, at least for now.

I’m hoping that we’ll get to see “Sweeney Todd” tonight at the movies. I like Johnny Depp. He’s a terrific actor, and he seems to be a pretty cool guy, too. At least he has enough good sense to avoid the tabloids.

Speaking of piracy, tomorrow the Giants play Dallas for the NFC East divisional title. I say the Giants will pull off an upset and steal the division. At the very least, it should be a great game.