Slaving Away While I am no archeologist or anthropologist, I think it’s agreed that man as we know him (homo sapiens) has existed for some 300,000 years. If we conservatively consider a generation as lasting an average of thirty years, that means there have been 10,000 generations of humans. If I stretch Malcolm Gladwell’s concept of expertise using the 10,000 Hour Rule, one might suggest that the human species should have learned a thing…
When is a Lie Not a Lie? I’m sure that some of you will LOL about this, but I really do try not to write every blog story about how outraged I am about Donald Trump and the gang of Republican lawmakers and administration cronies that continue to stand up for the man. Today the situation has yet again shifted. As the parade of credible, patriotic career diplomats and intelligence professionals gets longer and longer…
Growing to the Sky Have you noticed that there is a lot more talk these days that involves the word Trillions? I see that the largest IPO ever, the public sale of the Saudi Arabian oil company called Aramco, is being debated as valuing the company between $1.5 and $2.0 Trillion. Let’s put that into perspective for a moment. Aramco is touted as the world’s largest company with revenues of over $350 Billion and…
I’ll Be Back While I’m not a big Action Movie fan for the most part, I do have fond memories of some, including the Terminator series. And like everyone else on the planet, I remember Linda Hamilton’s original role as the tough-as-nails mother of John Connor as too good not to admire. Any actor who can show themselves as all muscle and sinew and still look and act tough gets lots of respect from…
Untamed Heart I believe the best movie ever made by Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei may be the obscure 1993 Untamed Heart. He was 24 and she 29 when it was made. He played a quiet, questionably intelligent young dishwasher who was an orphan with a severely damaged congenital heart problem. She is a working-class young woman who works as a diner waitress, trying to better her position and who has her share of boy-problems…
The Clown Show I argue every day about who are the bigger clowns in Washington. All my readers know I have strong views on the happenings on Capitol Hill. Too many people these days default to the notion that bad behavior is matched by the antics of the opposite side. In fact, it seems to be used as a response to, if not a rationalization for, the bad behavior altogether. This is simply not…
Donna Azucar In 1974 I was a student at Cornell majoring in Economics and Government. My studies had taken a decided focus on development economics and third-world government. It’s not complicated, my mother was a UN diplomat living in Rome and serving as a director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). She was the dominant force in my life, my role model, my muse. I assume I wanted to follow in her footsteps. …
Limping Towards Greatness We all want to believe that the path to success is about moving in a straight line towards our goal, gaining momentum as we go and charging across the finish line with a building sense of certainty and satisfaction. That may happen for some people, but I would like to meet them. Success is far more often a four-cushion shot or even a random walk. I have even seen people accidentally…
Why So Serious? As of today, the fifth-ranked movie of 2019 is Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, the non-Marvel prequel to the Batman franchise. I went with my youngest son, who has been addicted to the Joker character ever since Heath Ledger made it his swan song for all intents and purposes. The trend in movies has clearly moved to a combination of Disney animation blockbusters for kids and Marvel superhero blockbusters for adolescents. In fact,…
Downtown Bombshell Yesterday was another day of rest for me. I was enjoying being back home after three weeks away, so I just lazed around opening mail, sorting through motorcycle gear, organizing stuff, watching a bit of MSNBC to catch up on the news (though I must say these days none of us is further away from it than our smartphones) and waiting for our evening adventure. Kim had booked us for another SAG/AFTRA…