![Damian Thompson](http://spectator.auth.zephr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Damian_T.png?w=176)
Stephen O’Leary, my brilliant friend
One afternoon in June 1995, I found myself trapped in the Bodhi Tree, a stucco-fronted bookstore on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood where New Age wisdom-seekers sip herbal tea while discussing the latest ravings of Shirley MacLaine. I was freaking out because the professor I’d travelled 6,000 miles to meet had apparently stood me up.
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