LARRY’S BIRTHDAY It was Larry’s birthday. We were standing at the end of a long line to get into the Tulalip Buffet, which was where he had chosen to eat. I don’t like lines and was checking email on my phone, when this guy joined the end of the line. I don’t recall when I became aware that he and Larry were talking, but at some point I joined the conversation. The stranger was a Canadian. He had been born in the Philippines, but emigrated to Canada with his family as a boy. He lived mostly in Vancouver, BC now, but said he and his family had a house on the “res” here. I took that to mean the Tulalip Reservation. He owned residential rental properties in both Canada and the United States. His business was best in Marysville, Washington, he said, because of the higher percentage of renters in the population and the amount of rent he could charge them. His hair was black. He looked younger than both Larry and me. Turned out he was older than Larry. He liked the United States for many reasons. The one which struck me most was because in cities like New York and Las Vegas “the parties don’t start until Midnight”. I told him my “midnight party days” were over. And as we waited in the slow moving line our conversation evolved into what this pleasant Canadian Filipino gentleman liked about the United States and why its citizens should not talk … Continue Reading