My friend Courtney is a great appreciator of life and all its mysteries -- fitting that he has found a way to spread that interest to others by performing as a magician!

Courtney regularly astounds me with even his most simple tricks and sleights of hand. Do you remember when you saw your first magic trick? I remember an old man who pulled quarters from my ears when I worked as an extra on an unreleased Toshiro Mifune film when I was six or seven. I was so amazed!

BTW, I've been trying to track down anything about that film. If anyone knows about a film that was tentatively called Lost Horizon, about American internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII that was filmed in part on the railroad in Jamestown, CA, please give me a holler!

Anyway, I have to give props to Courtney. I can think of no one better than him to conjure up that childlike amazement and wonder inherent in magic. It's definitely a calling, and I'm glad he's putting himself out there to share his gifts.

Who doesn't love a magic show?