Author | Speaker
John Kralik
I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and went to grade school there and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I graduated from Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio, and then attended the University of Michigan, from which I received a B.A. (1975) and then a J.D. (1979). After that, I practiced law in Los Angeles for 30 years, including at the firms of Hughes Hubbard & Reed, Miller Tokuyama, Kralik & Sur and Kralik & Jacobs, as well as on my own as Kralik & Associates. In September 2009, I was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to be a Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Grateful Thoughts,
An Author’s Blog
The Song that Inspired Me to Let my Freak Flag Fly
In the spring of 1970, David Crosby’s voice persuaded me to stop cutting my hair. Before 1965, my hair had been short, but I was satisfied with it. The barber shop was a friendly place, and a young man could expect to read an entire good comic book and chew a few pieces of sugary bubble gum while waiting.
In the Inland Empire, A Few Good Men. (F3 Continued.)
In my last blog, I explained how I had come across F3, a workout group that seeks to foster the three “F’s” of fitness, fellowship, and faith. There are 3,500 such groups in the United States. There are none in Los Angeles. I thought briefly of filling the L.A. void...
F3: Combatting the Sad Clown Syndrome
On September 25, 2022, I read an article in the New York Times entitled "For Suburban Texas Men, a Workout Craze with a Side of Faith" by Ruth Graham. Two things about the article struck me. First, the fiery epicenter of “F3,” the faith-influenced workout "craze" to...
The Loss of My Mother
My mother, Rita Hennessey Kralik, died February 15, 2022. Though I managed a eulogy, I’ve avoided reflection on her death since that date. Perhaps now it is time to try as there will be holidays without her. The fact of her absence cannot be erased by any amount of...
To Slow the Serious Spread of Supercilious Accusations of Stupidity
On August 29, 2021, Lance Morrow wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “You Are Living in the Golden Age of Stupidity.” I recognized Lance Morrow’s writing, his distinct voice. I had been reading it since his essays in the ‘70’s graced Time Magazine,...
The Comfort of Crowds
The pandemic brought with it a fear of crowds. If a respiratory virus was not scary enough, the crowds that gathered despite it seemed to be instruments of anger, whether destroying public buildings or storming the capital, or just burning things, humans congregated...
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you are (like me I hope), shaking off the dark thoughts that were brought on by the way the world seemed to be going off the rails, the way people were saying things that were the opposite of true, and embracing nonsense proven wrong long...
Fear, Part II
The other things I wrote when I put the word “fear” on the screen: The latest word is that we must live with the virus. Some of us have postponed our date with it, but it will come, and even the vaccines cannot guarantee the outcome of that destiny. Sooner or later,...
Fear, Part I
Fear I thought I’d put that word on paper this week. For a year and a half it has entangled the entire area. The third record album I owned was Déjà Vu, by Crosby, Stills Nash & Young. (The Turtles Greatest Hits and Waiting for the Sun by the Doors were first and...