I drop in to see my pal Ahmed at his antique shop slash junk store. Unlike Barak Obama, he is a Muslim and sports the post-Ramadan weight loss to prove it. Ahmed loves old stuff and artists; a pot-puffing peacenik who unlike most of the downtown types I’ve known, has an innate faith in people. He trusts that they will pay him when they can (we do), pours mint tea and practices love and acceptance for all. I find it hard to swallow that when he showed up in a big-city hospital emergency ward as a non-denominational kidney stone wracked his slight, sweet, dark-skinned body, the ER doctor told him to get the hell out of Canada.

Rage. Despair. Mine.

I ask Ahmed if he filed a complaint, he shook his head and told me that everyone in the room heard the doctor, and no one said a word.

My chest is pounding as I type. Ahmed may have passed the stone, but I want to hunt down this disease-of-a-doctor with my Jewish psyche, the force of my fury and the brute power of love. Desperate for the world to be a better place – for people to heal – I will strap the mad doctor into a hospital bed for a week (the time Ahmed spent in a corridor with a morphine drip), and pump love into his veins to dissolve his hate.

(Rescued and lovingly restored by Ahmed, in the center of our home)

GOOD NEWS FLASH: Mazel-tov to my hogtown bud and super scribe Andrew Kaufman (All My Friends are Superheroes) who just signed a two-book deal with uber-publisher Ann Collins at Random House. Write on, A!!

MORE GOOD NEWS: My whip-smart producer pal and NYC indie gal Mridu Chandra is about to world-premiere her latest feature film POUNDCAKE at the prestigious AFI FEST in LA in early Nov. They are honored to be the only US film in competition. Catch it if you’re in LA, spread the word and join the premiere party!

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FAN THE FLAMES

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