When the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975, I was 15. I was shipped to boarding school in England and, after that, to UCLA.

I jokingly say if there was one great thing about, you know, the Lebanese Civil War was that it forced me to read.

The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, spanned four World Cups. It would have been a more symmetrical five had the Lebanese begun in 1974, but you know, we're Mediterranean, and timing isn't our forte.

Having your adolescence at an all-male boarding school is just crap.

At boarding school there wasn't much time for much of anything except education.

The majority of U.S. high school students don't know within 50 years when the Civil War occurred.