I’ve been told I have control issues. They always say it like it’s a bad thing, but I know from personal experience that you can make being a control freak work for you a lot of the time. For example, it takes a bona fide CF like me, who refuses to do drugs in the U.S. because a) it’s illegal and b) I hate the idea of supporting a supply chain that somewhere upstream undoubtedly includes pimps and killers, to insist on going all the way to Amsterdam...

It’s a sickeningly familiar feeling, that deep-gutted fear, that fluttery breathless panic spreading like hot infection through my veins. I’m watching from the wings, about to take the stage as the star of the show, the entire cast already mid­-number under the bright lights as I realize that I have never actually been to a rehearsal for this show. I’ve listened to the music, and I can fake...