A very pretty one, too. And not particularly impressed with her looks, either.

Which brings me to another thing you need to know about Courtney Sheppard. On second thought, we’ll get to that information a little later.

From Kennedy Airport I caught a cab to my apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I live mostly out of my suitcase, and that’s a good thing because my apartment isn’t all that much bigger than one.

Clearly I’m not in journalism for the money. Who – besides maybe Thomas Friedman of the Times – is? I don’t mean that Friedman doesn’t love what he does, merely that he makes a lot of change doing it.

Anyway, when I was eleven years old I saw the movie All the President’s Men with my parents. My father loved it because he despised Richard Nixon. Like Pavlov’s dog, he would always blurt out “That crook!” at the mere mention of Nixon’s name.

My mother was gung ho on the movie as well, but I’m pretty sure her motivation was a crush on Robert Redford. And maybe the young Dustin Hoffman, too?

My parents had no real intention of having me tag along. I was supposed to stay home under the evil eye of my older sister, Kate. Instead, I smooth-talked them into taking me. “Who knows, maybe I’ll grow up and be a famous news reporter one day,” I said, pleading my case. “I could be another Woodward, another Bernstein.”

Of course, that was a ripe load of bull. I was only in it for the bucket of popcorn, a Mountain Dew, and maybe some Raisinets if my dad was in a chipper mood.

But as I sat there in the theater munching and slurping away, something amazing happened. Magical, almost. Up on the screen were two young guys who were on the biggest treasure hunt of their lives, only they were searching for something more valuable than gold or diamonds, or even the Ark of the Covenant. I was only eleven but I got it – and till this day I’ve never wanted to let go.

They were searching for the truth.