Pandora's Other Box

Well… that line about the tolling bell was already taken, so… Once upon a time, there were two brothers who roamed the plains, searching for great deeds to accomplish in order to gain fame and fortune and, especially, to reach the Holy Grail… well, in their case it could be called the “Holey” one, for it seemed to leak everything. They had made it clear they both wanted the big one, and that each one was willing to do anything that needed to be done in order to get it. In other words, they were ready to duke it out. The prize they both wanted was a job. Yes Virginia, a job. Now, please understand this was not a common job, no run of the mill niner to fiver deal here, no siree. This was a job that brought prestige, fame, fortune, position and power beyond belief. It brought power to control the destiny of the plains ands all the plainers who lived therein. But it also brought with it the opportunity to blow everything around you to smithereens; to embarrass yourself and to...

No, I don’t really believe we will come to a fiery end sometime around midnight of December 12 (or, is it the 21 st ?)… Nor is this about that... Actually, late last night I was watching one of a series of fund raisers for public television ( better than watching the one and only slicer/juicer/vacuum package and coffee maker for $29.99 ) and this particular one had to do with folk music of the 60’s. These years ( late 60’s to early 70’ s) were particularly rough on the country. On the one side, the radical social movements of the left and the Afro-American movement, on the other side the Viet-Nam conflict ( it was never actually declared a war …) which turned out to be a great divide in our country; not to mention the VN issue being a useless war ( I’m not sure there has ever been a “useful” war) where thousands of kids died, on both sides. In the middle, as usual, a throng of somewhat bewildered people just trying to make a living and go on with their lives in the midst of ...

I will take care of the correction first: in this blog’s last entry, it was stated that we, as a country, are over 4 Trillion in debt… I WISH!!! … Actually, that was what president Bush accumulated over EIGHT Years… Our current White House denizen has managed to add well over 5 Trillion in just THREE and one half years… Not the picture of fiscal management that would be approved by a Board of Directors… Now on to better things… When one hears the term “sepia” … What comes to mind? Most likely an old picture, a snapshot of something which was a moment in time… usually many years ago, often in a different part of the country or even, in a different country altogether. Sometimes of generations past… When I look at my life, there are moments which will now take center stage without any hesitations or doubts; moments which I know were defining to my future but that, at the time, were perhaps deemed insignificant. The reason I say now is that before, the moments which would come to...

It’s been a while since I had a chance to (figuratively) sit at the water’s edge… and think a little. It is something I would like to do whenever possible, but it seems to be less and less so of late… Just heard a piece of music I had not heard in quite a while… The Banana Song by Harry Belanfonte… It certainly brought back a flood of memories of years ago, a much more carefree stage of my life. Also heard in the news yesterday that Phyllis Diller has died and gone on to the everlasting stage somewhere, to perform never ending versions of her routines and shticks… She was really unique… I can’t say I was an immediate fan in the beginning, but she won me over with time and her really funny routines… May the ethereal applause be as loud as it ever was here … Politics is heating up… what else is new in an election year? We continue to have very lopsided reporting by a very lopsided press corps. But… what else is new in an election year? Traditionally, roughly 80% of the nati...

It had been a long time since I had a family (of sorts) dinner reunion… -“When we get to Miami, we will get together with the new In-Law branch… they really want to meet you…” said my wife, as we were getting into the car, ready for a 12 hour drive. There are cultural differences among all our societies, including groups which come from the, supposedly, same background. It has been said that Latin America is a compendium of countries divided by a common language; it happens to be ( with the exception of Brasil ) the same language for all… Spanish. Each country -and often parts of each country- has its own inflections, pronunciations, accents, sayings, words of popular misuse… all in all, we barely get to understand each other. I have been away from my country of birth for half a century, time which has been spent mainly in this US of A, where its mores, customs and culture have been mostly assimilated by yours truly, putting what was left of my own childhood background we...

The new social media surveys… will shackle your presence into the cybernetic world. Have you ever received a survey request at some point while traveling through the cyberworld? ( I am getting a red underline under this last word folks… MSW apparently doesn’t recognize this as a valid entry… hmmm!) Of course you received one… or… more likely, a hundred… We all have. And what do you do? ... As most of us, you probably hit the “DELETE” button… in fact, my delete button is blanked out… Overuse perhaps? What you may not know, is that ignoring these requests is causing havoc with the social networks, which rely on these answers to justify their existence and the high cost of advertising, which in turn helps cover the high salaries paid to the hired help…  and, of course, to the executives. So, what do the social networking gurus do? Imagine the following, imaginary ( maybe??) conversation within the sacred halls of Facebook Nation… -“Hey man… we are going to get cut ...

Maybe a bit oversimplified but believe me there are moments when this question comes to mind… and very strongly. During these past two weeks we have had the chance to watch many athletes who, from most of the world countries, come to a central place being this time the city of London, in order to compete their hearts out … not to mention their bodies. Most have worked feverishly to get here; long hours (very) of training, special nutrition (to those who have this extra item available) and constant supervision brings them to what they hope is the apex of their physical conditioning, so as to do their best in the limelight of international competition. So far, so good. So then, what is this entry about? As a long time ago athlete ( yes Virginia, inside this somewhat mature and at times tired body, there rest the remnants of a once fierce (well OK, intensive) competitor ) who spent many hours training and doing less socializing than others my age because of this, there is a ...

I Suppose we’ll do so on the celestial (I hope…) byways… No, not me… Hopefully there’s still some wood left in this particular fire, but too many folks who were a part of my growing up into certified manhood seem to be disconnecting from the earthly networks, hanging up their keyboards and earplugs and reconnecting into the Ethernet… literally!! One such was Gore Vidal… Now, you now that I am not an avowed liberal so… why should I be talking about someone farther to the left than any one with whom I could possibly identify? Well, yes, he was an intransigent liberal mind, falling off the left side of the scope but, what a mind he had! His encounters during the ‘68 elections with William Buckley, as acerbically far to the right as Vidal was to the left were so incredibly fascinating that they spawned a TV show based on debating issues and viewpoints; this show became an instant hit. Whether one would root for one or the other the exchanges were, on an intellectual level, in...