The old folks always loved to tell the story of grandpa Ali’s brother who wrestled a mountain lion to death one night while protecting his flock in the hills of Lebanon. The fact or fiction didn’t matter because the pride was in his strength of resolve and character and my Jiddo (grandfather) seemed to have that same undisciplined…

The neighborhood Little League hardball championship was on the line and the older boys had just lost their shortstop to the measles and were desponded but the wily captain, Fouad, dressed sister Lila for the big game.

She had played shortstop for the team on and off, for two years…

Brother Sam was the oldest and in his last year of high school, he came home one day and sheepishly asked Gladys to sign his induction papers for the Navy.

He did this with greater trepidation and fear in facing Gladys with failing grades and much preferring to run away and live with…

Skating on thin ice from the day he was born, little brother Ghazi, grew up to be the family artichoke with a lot of  tough prickly outer leaves, that if you were brave enough to peel, revealed a tender, loveable inner core and with enough good looks to make his visual reference, Sly Stallone, do a double take while his countless paramours will gladly speak to his big heart and the local cops would certainly attest to his calloused iron hide and short nasty mental fuse…