Top posts
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Camino a La Paz - The Road to La Paz
Camino a La Paz showed at the Sie Theater in Denver recently as part of their CineLatino Fest. Filmed in Spanish with English subtitles, it was mostly about a young man driving an older one to the city of La Paz, Bolivia. The trip is filled with the unexpected....
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"Out of My Life and Thoughts" - More from Albert Schweitzer
"To the question of whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic. I am pessimistic because I feel the full weight of what we conceive to be the absence of purpose in the course...
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Paterson
The movie Paterson was filmed in and about Paterson, New Jersey. In fact, the main character in the film's name is Paterson - no other name is given for him. Paterson is a bus driver in Paterson. But he's unusual in that he writes poetry, often before...
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Portrait of a (Dysfunctional) Family
"The Godfather." Great movie, bad "family." Why are we so enthralled by violence? We must have a violence gene, no matter how hard we try to overcome or overlook it. Must be related to anger and self-righteousness. Anyway, the Corleone family has to rank...
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Rockies Baseball!
I went to the Colorado Rockies baseball game yesterday against the San Diego Padres. AND THEY WON! 5-3. The Rocks aren't normally noted for winning, but this year I guess they're not doing too badly. This is my first attendance in 2 years. We had a small...
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Personal Essay titled "The Whole Person"
~~THE WHOLE PERSON By Roger Karny My life has been a combination of the physical and the intellectual, sometimes more of one than the other, but I would guess overall pretty close to fifty-fifty. (This is not counting the other two areas of life that...
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Count Dracula, anyone?
~~ SCARE ME SPITLESS By Roger Karny Did anyone ever kiss you on the neck? (Sure they did.) How about give you a hickey when you were a teenager? Or maybe even bite you on the neck in the throes of passion? (Why not?) Well, what about it, you say? I’m...
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Benedict Joseph Labre - homeless dude
~~Author: Roger Karny Benedict Joseph Labre was an unemployed transient who beggared around Europe for some thirteen years. He ate the refuse that other people didn’t want, clothed himself in rags and was infested with vermin; he smelled bad. Yet less...
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Truth Comes to the Archbishop
Recently, the Catholic archbishop of Denver wrote a column in the local Catholic newspaper asking the same age-old question that Pilate asked of Jesus before washing his hands of him: "What is truth?" It's a vital question always. However, all the archbishop...
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"Revisionist" View of Lincoln - NY Times
Sunday Book Review 'Lincoln's Melancholy': Sadder and Wiser By PATRICIA COHEN OCT. 23, 2005 LINCOLN'S MELANCHOLY How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness. By Joshua Wolf Shenk. 350 pp. Houghton Mifflin Company. $25. Can the generally...
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A short story I've written
~~ A WOMAN HIKING (ALONE) I’m 26, in good shape, and I love to hike. Usually I hike with June or Sharon or both – they’re also good hikers – but today I’m going it alone. The trail is long but well-marked, always semi-deserted, but beautiful. It’s rugged,...
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"What is Truth?"
"What is Truth?" is the famous question Pontius Pilate asked Jesus just prior to pronouncing his crucifixion sentence. What was Jesus' response? He remained silent... but his whole life and teaching prior to that gave his solemn answer. But what happens...
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Cuba Libre
Now that the U.S. and Cuba want to restore diplomatic relations, the descendants of the Cuban elite in this country who fled Castro's revolution are up in arms. One would suspect, looking at who fled, that they were the Batista-sympathizers with money...
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Recalled to Life
Charles Dickens popular novel "A Tale of Two Cities" begins with the story of Dr. Manette who's been a prisoner in solitary confinement for over 17 years. When his bank and friends finally secure his release, he's no more than a corpse, barely alive....
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Fire in My... (Lead) Belly
Lead Belly! I for some reason have been running into this dude so much lately. Maybe because some of his songs are coming out courtesy of the Museum in Wash. DC. I first encountered him, or better said, his name, on the back of Led Zeppelin's 3rd album,...
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"We Will Bury You"
These words, attributed to Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev during the 1960's appeared on numerous posters in the U.S. with his picture during that time. I remember seeing them. I also remember him being shown pounding his shoe (with a hole in the sole)...
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The Last Picture Show
Last night I saw the above movie from 1971 made by Peter Bogdanovich... at the old-time movie festival at the Mayan theater. Almost walked out on it, until I remembered what the host said about it at the beginning: it was a movie about people in a small...
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LaGuardia
Actually, googling his name yesterday, I found that someone had researched the story I told previously re: above mayor of NYC. This person claims that LaGuardia gave his hatful of money to a little old lady who stole the bread for her grandkids! Even...
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Writers on the Storm
The above title, of course, is a play on the Doors song “Riders on the Storm” from the early 1970’s. But American (and Russian, as well as many others nationalities) have had writers who had to ride out political, cultural and social storms because of...
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Adams County Social Services
Well, here's to all my friends at ACDSS: miss you all and hope you are staying afloat, albeit barely, as always. Some I hear have gone to the great beyond... beyond ACDSS that is! Some have graduated to Deloitte, others have made a "lateral" to other...
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Swats
Am right now visiting my old college alma mater, Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa. After 39 yrs., things look amazingly different. But then, why shouldn't they? Even people look incredibly different after that period of time. I do too. Anyway, the...
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Simone Weil
Simone Weil was a French woman, a philosopher and Jewish. She died at the age of 34 of starvation in 1943. She is not to be confused with Simone de Beauvoir, fellow philosopher and mistress of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, although the three of them were...
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Joe Hill
Joe was a radical, song-writing union organizer for the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). He was executed Nov. 19, 1915, 100 yrs. ago this Nov. by the State of Utah. Most believe he was framed for the murder of a storekeeper and his son. The state...
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Joe Hill, songwriter
~~ Verse #1: G C G Long-haired preachers come out every night G D Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right G C G But when asked how 'bout something to eat G D G They will answer in voices so sweet Chorus Type #1: G D You will eat, bye and bye D7...
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More on Joe Hill - courtesy of Catherine C.
~~ With three bullets to the heart, the State of Utah executed Joe Hill on November 19, 1915. In one of the most disputed cases to date, Joe Hill, the most prolific songwriter in the history of the Industrial Workers of the World, was convicted of murdering...