Earlier this month I received my first ever “Happy Diwali” card. Diwali, or Deewali, is a five day celebration often referred to as the festival of lights. The following from diwalifestival.org provides the briefest of overviews of this Indian holiday (with much more available at the site): “Deewali is a festival of joy, splendor, brightness and happiness. [...]
Archive for November, 2007
The title refers to a name given by a child to her hearing aids. An article about one 4 year old’s transformation upon being able to hear clearly connected with me on several levels. It was a heartwarming holiday story. I am experiencing hearing loss. The story describes how the parents defined their daughter before they knew she [...]
My friend Jeff and I misspent a good part of high school trying to think up the next idea that would make us fabulously wealthy. In the mid-1970s, $1 million qualified. Here is my latest. I am going to develop an exercise routine for travellers stranded in airports and on planes. The content will be [...]
There have been 2 near misses between planes in the past week. Both due to poor air traffic control. In the first, two planes came within seconds of colliding when the controller put them on a crash course. An alarm in one of the planes followed by great piloting averted tragedy. Yet it seems that the [...]
Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay: Bizarro World Style
Posted: November 20, 2007 in Blogging, humor, KvetchingAccording to Wikipedia, Otis Redding “wrote the first verse of the song, under the abbreviated title “Dock of the Bay“, at a houseboat on Waldo Pier in Sausalito, California.” Have you been to Sausalito? It has gotten a bit commercial now but still a beautiful place to sit and contemplate life. In the mid-1960s it must [...]
More accurately Billy as the 10th and latest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Since no award is complete without an award show, Billy received the award on October 11 at the John F. Kennedy Center. The TV version aired November 12. Fortunately I was in a hotel room that night and stumbled across the [...]
Since the biking season ended I put on a quick 8 pounds. I feel like crap and I look 10 months pregnant. Time to start doing something about it. I’ll let you know what happens. What are the odds of dropping 8 pounds today and keeping them off?
Political Dynasties. The Bushs and Clintons have nothing on the Gandhis. Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the Congress party, in charge of youth affairs a couple of months ago. This puts him on a path to prime minister of India, a role previously held by his great grandfather, his grandmother, his uncle [...]
It is virtually impossible to build complex characters in a movie. Just not enough time. In American Gangster the two main characters have at least two facets each. Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington, is a ruthless killer and drug lord. He also believes in discipline, honor, trust and family. He can be both at the same time. [...]
I saw the movie American Gangster yesterday. Good but not great though The reviewers and some friends of mine thought it was closer to great. This, however is not a movie review. This movie disturbed me in the way all violence, real or cinematic, does whether it is war, suicide bombings, killings of protesters to [...]
