MAY 11, 2012 5:00PM

Bring It On . . . the Rain, I Mean

 

See that body of water in the left center of the map? [This blogging software does not accept embedding of iframes, which is rapidly becoming the only embed code you can get.] That is the reservoir. It is referred to here generically as… Read full post »
24 Comments
MAY 9, 2012 4:04PM

Oil Companies Paid Off and Bid Adiós

 
Lázaro Cárdenas became involved in the ten years of chaotic civil war that we call the Revolution of 1910 when he was 17 years old in 1912. He was the youngest of those who made names for themselves during the bedlam and profligate bloodshed of those ten years and one… Read full post »
20 Comments
MAY 8, 2012 12:42AM

Put My Body on Which Gears?

In his 7 May column at Salon, Andrew Leonard bemoans the reported fact that consumer debt now balloons again “just as signs are accumulating that economic growth is losing steam.” In setting the scene for his distress with that, he writes this:
Generally speaking, we like to see evidence… Read full post »
23 Comments
MAY 6, 2012 1:38PM

Moon and Sixpence--and Only a Sixpence

Language is supposed to convey meaning. In order for it to do so, there must be some fundamental agreement among those who use the language as to what the words in that language mean. What underlying ideas are properly associated with what words for example. It is no

… Read full post »
24 Comments
MAY 4, 2012 6:41PM

By way of Explanation but not Apology.

In my case it came about in my evolving relations with my own three beggars, two of them old ladies who sit at their stations against the wall along the street, one on San Antonio near the pharmacy and the other on Umaran going up the mountain. Yes, they

… Read full post »
37 Comments
MAY 2, 2012 6:02PM

My Last and Ultimate Love Story (Open Call)

As I commented, Alysa, one's taste in love stories evolves. I predict that over time some other love story will supplant Cyrano de Bergerac, a play with which I myself had a brief affair, in your heart. This is the reason that I found it so interesting that you titled your Open/… Read full post »

17 Comments
MAY 1, 2012 4:36PM

Why the Seconal, Neal?

Neal. Oh, Neal.

Help me to understand one thing. One thing. Why the Seconal at a wedding party?

I know that I sound like a parent. Sixty-five and you stuck now forever at four days shy of fourty-two. I know I sound square. But why the Seconal? At a wedding party?… Read full post »

16 Comments
APRIL 30, 2012 11:13PM

AMERICA: casus belli (Open Call)

 I do not give a shit about politics anymore. The last politically active thing I did was march in the street outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in the summer of 2008. The futility of it was laughable. There was much before that. There will be nothing political from… Read full post »

18 Comments
APRIL 29, 2012 10:43AM

What Can We Say About Living Alone?

In the United States we recently crossed some demographic line relating to the number of people who live alone. I was holding forth on this to a lady friend recently and got the numbers perfectly wrong. Let me simply quote Nathan Heller:
Today, more than fifty per cent of U.S.… Read full post »
52 Comments
APRIL 28, 2012 11:31AM

That Pony

I was thinking about my pony in the afternoon. May, the hottest month of the year, approaches. The mornings are still more than pleasant at altitude in Mexico. But when 2:00 in the afternoon rolls around, there is only one thing to do. Get out of the sun, sit down, and… Read full post »

13 Comments
APRIL 24, 2012 10:42AM

The Ethics of Having Children

I had not previously given much if any thought to the moral dimension of human reproduction. For me Schopenhauer, a man not much interested in morals, had explained it all adequately. He described the dichotomy of the intellect and the “Will.” Man acheives his higher nature insofar as he… Read full post »
56 Comments
APRIL 22, 2012 7:24PM

Deeper? Perhaps.

Tranquility out there in the bush is of a most graceful feminity, including her changeability. I am elevated when I am with her, a better man. I think of her--consider her--when I am not. The temptation to give myself over to her is not to be laughed off.

 

 

 … Read full post »

19 Comments
APRIL 21, 2012 1:34PM

Toilets of Mexico: A Work in Progress





I am not writing a novel or putting together a collection of poetry. I have, however, been working fitfully on a coffee table book that will be entitled The Toilets of Mexico. Photographs and minimal text. I do/… Read full post »
23 Comments
APRIL 19, 2012 10:16AM

A Blown Day

[Let us try this again with the slash and burn editing of a better mood.]

 




Sometimes it is difficult to get these phony, heart-warming shots set up.



Yesterday morning I was wandering… Read full post »
10 Comments
APRIL 16, 2012 3:37PM

Watch out!

The fact that I am in a place as nearly perfect for me as perfect can be in this world, and in the best time of my life, does not prevent me from complaining about this or that detail. The pizza delivery guys screaming through the streets on motorcycles here are… Read full post »

14 Comments
APRIL 14, 2012 12:15PM

Kinship With the Less Fortunate and Other Beings

Recently, I mentioned my growing fondness for the Dalai Lama. In fact you have to love Tibetan Buddhism across the board.

A while back I bumped into the work of another prominent figure in that whole scene, Pema Chödrön, a prolific author and teacher. She is an ordained nun in the… Read full post »

19 Comments
APRIL 13, 2012 3:00PM

An Alternative Revelation?

It is not as if I have never read any of Elaine Pagels' work. Quite the contrary, I'll have you know. Once upon a time I fell under the spell of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, which is actually one large, sweeping novel consisting four separate parts that most consider four separate/… Read full post »

25 Comments
APRIL 12, 2012 10:28PM

The Revelation of Jesus Christ? Really?

The Book of Revelation is one of the most perplexing pieces of literature that I have encountered in my life. Right up there with some of Gertrude Stein's stuff. Primarily because of the incongruity of its context.

Along comes the Jesus of the early portion of the New Testament. He essentially/… Read full post »

19 Comments
APRIL 11, 2012 11:28AM

Depression

On Prozac, Sisyphus might well push the boulder back up the mountain with more enthusiasm and more creativity. I do not want to deny the benefits of psychoactive medication. I just want to point out that Sisyphus is not a patient with a mental-health problem. To see him as a patient… Read full post »
22 Comments
APRIL 10, 2012 7:47PM

Airport Run

Rick and I left San Miguel in the pickup just after 4:00 this morning in the dead of night, off to Leon so that he could fly home. It is a drive of an hour and a half to the little international airport in Leon in the dark.… Read full post »
16 Comments
APRIL 1, 2012 10:33PM

Sharing the Birthing Experience

She's screaming like crazy. . . . You have this myth you're sharing the birth experience. Unless you're circumcising yourself with a chain saw, I don't think so. Unless you're opening an umbrella up your ass, I don't think so!

--Robin Williams

That is pretty much how I see… Read full post »

23 Comments
MARCH 29, 2012 6:53PM

Drop By Sometime, Dalai.

Occasionally, I write a piece full of a weird venom and loathing. It just flows out of me. I do not know why. I feel better afterward--so much better that I rarely end up posting even a toned down version. Under my “Manage Posts” button in the drop down menu up… Read full post »

22 Comments
MARCH 23, 2012 10:44AM

How Is One Supposed to Feel?

Every once in a while I pull my new Medicare card out of my pocket and look at it. It is worthless here in Mexico of course. Rick does the same thing. Perhaps I mentioned this before, but we are both a little confused and disoriented by this—this business of being… Read full post »

29 Comments
MARCH 14, 2012 8:45AM

Consumer News

The Consumer Price Index, consumer affairs, consumer credit, consumer confidence, consumer services, consumer guides, Consumer Reports, consumer news, consumer advocates, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, consumer complaints, consumer privacy, consumer rights, consumer care, consumer this, cons… Read full post »

23 Comments
MARCH 12, 2012 11:39PM

Let Us All Pray for Rick's Safety

I must admit that I was a little frosted when I first heard Sunday afternoon that one of the Protestant congregations in town had joined in a group prayer that Sunday morning for Rick's safe return from Mexico. That quickly passed, however, when I put it into the perspective of my… Read full post »
15 Comments
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