Having interviewed many famous people over the years, much of my knowledge about life comes from them. For example, I recently interviewed Alanis Morrisette, a woman as thoughtful as she is talented. She also knows something about automobiles. At the height of the mania on her Jagged Little Pill tour, she realized certain dashboard instruments do not work as well when you are a major celebrity. Says Alanis (in an interview for Angeleno):

“I remember being on tour and people throwing their bodies on the windshield of the car as we were driving. All I could think was, ‘What do you do? Windshield wipers don’t work for that.”

This is amusing, though a colostomy bag would have been a nice touch. Vanity Fair “Cover”

See my powerhouse move into blogging? So many ideas! So much to report on the awesomeness of my daily life! Yes, let’s go!

Or not.

I know how this works, having seen so many of my brethren and sistren in the blogging trade blast off only to fizzle out. Just as you’re getting into reading about their mission to visit every strip mall in LA or sell everything they own on eBay or see what happens now that they’ve started taking steroids…the entries stop. What? Last updated May 23? But it’s December.

Anyway, so I make no promises.

But I will update you to say I’ve gotten many nice responses about the site itself, and I give all credit to Ava Savitsky, my web designer. She’s patient and smart and can be reached at Ava[.]Savitsky@Gmail[.]com.

My writing week this week is filled with brains and Scots and premature grandpas, among other things.

Writing a column for Women’s Health on the latest brain research on male and female brains and how it all translates at the breakfast table.

Spent a few hours at home (his, not mine) with Ewan McGregor for a Best Life cover. He showed me a car that cost more than every car I’ve ever bought combined.

Writing about a very amusing ailment for Details in which otherwise healthy young guys start kvetching about how loud everything is and that they can’t figure out “The Facebook.” Can’t say more than that.

Rosario Dawson cover for Angeleno. She rocks.

Met Christian Slater yesterday. I couldn’t figure out how he looks exactly like he did ten years ago. He told me he doesn’t like tofu.

Had a good conversation with Upod’s own Chrys Wu yesterday for her blog, Ricochet, where she’s doing some interesting work. Among other things, she’s compiling a list of post-print journalism gigs people are finding. That’s at Ricochet

Project X continues to gain momentum.

Now that you’re here, I thought I’d give a quick update on the latest news. Continue to watch this space for projects in progress, book updates, readings, classes and general thoughts about the writing life.

This week, our children’s book, The Potty Train, sold its Israeli rights and soon children from Eilat to Haifa will be shouting “Chugga Chugga Poo Poo” or however that translates in Hebrew.

This Sunday, Ruth and I are finishing our month of no spending for a Reader’s Digest essay I’m writing and it’s been an astonishing month. All told we’ve spent $92.23 on essentials and made it through without buying gas, toilet paper, lattes, presents or anything from Amazon. So far, we’ve saved about $3,500. I’ll be blogging about it on RD.com.

Our tree planting (for another Reader’s Digest essay) began in earnest this week. Sebastian and I blanketed the neighborhood with leaflets announcing our plan to line Bonaparte Avenue with trees this October. So far the responses have been good — better than I expected on a treeless street that hasn’t seen much change in 50 years.

We volunteered yesterday at an amazing place in Venice called Bread & Roses cafe, which serves three meals a morning to homeless clients in a cafe setting. Ruth and I worked with chef Derrick Walker, a former chef at Bastide in LA, to turn out 150 servings of pasta bolognese. An amazing, moving experience.

In the afternoon, I was on the other end of the spectrum, writing about a fancy, funky “maid cafe” in Culver City for The New York Times. Also, my Forbes editor is having me pick 10 places in Los Angeles ‘dialed-in’ Angelenos should know about. You don’t realize how big a city this is until you write a story like that.

In terms of almosts, I almost went to Survivor in West Africa this week and then to 24 in South Africa. And I almost had to go to London next week and still might, to interview Ricky Gervais. We’ll see what happens.

The proposal for Project X is almost done and it’s a doozy. Stay tuned.