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Huey Long.... Reincarnated!!??
I've recently seen commentators liken Bernie Sanders to early 1900's political figures Eugene Debs and William Jennings Bryan. Both these figures ran multiple presidential campaigns, Debs as a Socialist and Bryan as a populist Democrat. Not a bad comparison,...
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Do Not Hump
Wayne Iverson came across this sign in big letters in a freight train yard and described the meaning in his book Hobo Sapiens. He wanted a copy of the sign for his home. What it means in train lingo is this. When coupling cars together in the yard to...
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What's Wrong With Unfettered Capitalism?
~~ Op-ed column Jan. 29, 2016 by Edward Lazear titled "If Only Hillary and Bernie Would Recall JFK" To Dow Jones & Company Inc. - my response to this Wall Street Journal article - emailed to their letters editor. Mr. Lazear from the Hoover Institute...
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WOODSTOCK
I have a copy of the original Woodstock movie filmed live at the 1969 New York 3- day festival. Billed as 3 days of peace and music, it certainly fulfills that label. But "where have all the flowers gone"? I think, coming 24 years after the end of WWII,...
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote the above novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Set in the fictional town of Macondo, somewhere in South or Central America, it's a bad combination of possible reality and unbelievable fantasy. I think Garcia Marquez wanted...
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A Day of Infamy
Today, December 7, 2016, marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese surprise bombing of the U.S. fleet stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the subsequent entry of the U.S. into World War II. Franklin Roosevelt said that it was a day that would "live...
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Is Anything Unchanging?
When I ask myself, is anything unchanging?, I am wondering particularly about literature, ideas, things like that. The bible, of course, BASICALLY doesn't change, although through the years there have been NUMEROUS translations - I read once there are...
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Camino de Santiago Compostelo
Friend Doug hiked the whole 500 miles of the above across the north of Spain, starting in the French Pyrennies and ending in western Spain, at the Cathedral of San Santiago - St. James. James is said to be buried in Spain, probably in that cathedral....
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My Man Godfrey
Just watched an old, 1939, movie titled My Man Godfrey. Godfrey was a Harvard grad who went downhill due to a failed romance, ending up in a bottle on top of a city dump by the river near the bridge. He had company. Others, including a bank owner who...
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Time to Write Another Blog!
Dude, I've been slacking off in this area. I do have some excuse. In case you don't remember, or know, yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Joe Hill's execution by firing squad in SLC, Utah. To commemorate the event and give due honor to Joe's memory,...
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PENSEES
Pensees is the title of one of Blaise Pascal’s major works. It means “thoughts”. In Spanish, the word is pensamientos, while we use the word “pensive” in English to mean thoughtful. Pascal, besides being a brilliant mathematician, was a man of God, a...
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The Colorado Trail - again!
I visited 2 portions of the Colorado Trail in the last 2 weeks, one atop Kenosha Pass and the other by the Platte River. Kenosha Pass, as passes go in Colorado, isn't all that high, maybe 9000+ feet or so in altitude. But if you're driving over it, you...
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Randolph Bourne
Randolph Bourne was an anti-war intellectual of the early 1900's. Although he had was deformed, a hunchback, apparently women still found him attractive. One of his most famous - and poignant - quotes was that war is the health of the state. Economically,...
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Hobos
For Halloween when I was a kid, my brother and I would "dress up" as hobos - which we did by wearing old clothes an old hat of my dad's and smearing burnt cork on our faces. Since that time, I haven't heard the word mentioned very much. Except, Rod Stewart...
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Stinky John
Captain John Hartley passed away very recently. He was our English teacher at Culver Military Academy, and more significantly, our British Literature teacher as well. He had a great love for the literature of the United Kingdom and a vast knowledge of...
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Ok, Is It Time Yet for Any Humor???
YES! It is. I just have to get myself into humor mode here! Remember the sitcom All in the Family? Archie Bunker, Meathead, Gloria? Well, and this was back in the late 60's, early 70's, Meathead and Gloria come in to Arch, dressed in headbands, hippy...
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Droogies and Grudies
~~ A Clockwork Orange, writen by Anthony Burgess in 1962, is a fictional piece that deals with free will and the lack of it. Alex, a fifteen-year old gang leader in a large, unnamed metropolis like New York City, Moscow, or Manchester, England, has the...
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Bang WHAT Drum??
I watched the movie Bang the Drum Slowly based on the novel by Mark Harris. Set in the big leagues of baseball circa 1970, it is the story of a friendship between two players, one a pitcher and the other a catcher. The two room together on road trips....
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Suffering Suffragettes... or "Suffering Succotash"?
Well, it's going to be the first one, the suffering suffragettes. But lest there be anyone among you who doesn't remember the phrase "suffering succotash," it was often spouted by a favorite cartoon character in the 60's. I'm pretty sure it was Sylvester...
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Jose Ortega y Gasset
Sr. Ortega y Gasset was a philosopher/historian from Spain. In 1930 he published his most famous work, La Rebelion de las Masas, or in English, The Revolt of the Masses. I have just read bits of it, but he doesn't appear to be in favor of any revolutions...
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Not More Dostoevsky!!
I can't help it. I find Dostoevsky interesting - his life as well as his writing. Recently, I read through his short novel Notes From Underground. I was sitting in an Italian café in Philadelphia and the servers saw what I was reading. One wanted me to...
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Australian Rules Football
The Aussies have finally done it! Not only do they have their own brand of football/rugby, but they have their own language to describe its every move and play. I suppose we in the U.S. have our own football language too, we just don't think of it as...
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Birth of a Nation - Part Two
Again, I want to talk about historical perspective, now in relation to the new movie Birth of a Nation directed by and starring Nate Parker. Nation has the same title as D.W. Griffith's 1916 film extravaganza which looked at the founding of our country...
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Let's Get a Fact Check Here
Politicians like Donald Trump have made the seeming necessity of having an independent source check the veracity of their statements. Hillary Clinton is not that far behind. But again, what IS a fact? Does such an animal really exist? Certain statements...
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Subway
I think Subway give you a good value and a healthy choice. They're trying to be extra friendly and give new deals all the time to attract customers. I like their 6-inch sub with egg whites and cheese (your choice of 5 or 6 cheeses). You get some 5 choices...