I had my radio on this morning, and without realizing it, a huge smile drew a half-moon across my face. Suddenly I started to croon along with Carly Simon:

Nobody does it better

Makes me feel sad for the rest

Nobody does it half as good as you

Baby, you’re the best.

Written as background music for the opening credits of The Spy Who Loved Me, the James Bond movie of the moment, “Nobody Does it Better” was also background music for my love affair with the man I would later marry, Charles G. King.

Charlie was a Supervising Fire Marshal for the New York City Fire Department when I met him. Soon after, he became a special agent for the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation. The commission had been formed when gambling came to Atlantic City, and it was Charlie’s job to investigate everything from crooked judges, to tax fraud in the construction industry, to gangsters running trucking companies. I also seem to remember him doing something vaguely sinister with donuts in a coffee shop across the street from a courthouse, but maybe he was just eating them.

Charlie conducted surveillance, interviewed witnesses, chased hooligans, went undercover at casinos, and photographed thugs.

I wasn’t lookin’ but somehow you found me

I tried to hide from your love light

But like heaven above me

The spy who loved me

Is keepin’ all my secrets safe tonight