Category Archives: Rants and raves

Memoirs -- fact and fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

It is Liberation Day in my head

I’m done with “push” content from newspapers, substacks, pods and podcasters, bloggers, social media platforms, conspiracy boosters, angry MAGAs, fundraisers, revolutionists, ah-has and ma-ha’s, political shamans, alarmists, talking heads, Chicken Littles, grim reapers, Beltway pundits, scribblers, cartoonists, and diatribe specialists.

Or as another noted crank once put it, I’ve had it up to here with “Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m.”

All I am saying is don’t give push a chance. 

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fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Blogger Joe Grappa has some questions and Jesus sits down for a Q&A

Sometimes you are handed a gift, in this case, a funny and talented writer named Papa Joe Grappa. A mutual friend sent me Joe’s Substack column titled “Questions for Jesus When He Comes Back.” It is really funny, as it should be for a guy who was Jay Leno’s head writer for 20 years.

Here’s the thing, as I was reading Joe’s questions, I was hearing Jesus’s answers.

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Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

It’s the game show where online trolls can become kings!

Hi! And welcome back to the popular shame game “So You Think You Can Rant?” where it’s your words against the troll-a-verse!  I’m your host, Seymour Bittame!

For those of you who haven’t played before, the rules are simple:

A scenario pulled from a real social media post will be put up on the screen and our four panelists will have one minute to respond to it in the worst possible ways imaginable. Oh, yes, without violating FCC rules on taste and profanity.

Audience laughs.

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Rants and raves, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Composer Hoppé takes audience on a memorable journey with the help of some talented friends

The theme of Michael Hoppé’s annual San Miguel de Allende concert on Wednesday night was “Together!” And, indeed, even inside the expansive and nearly full Teatro Angela Peralta, it was a cozy affair.

That was largely due to the artist’s engaging reminisces between each of the 21 compositions that were performed and the music itself which is endlessly appealing on so many emotional levels.

But Hoppé had a subtitle to offer: Encouragement. You could see it in the five talented musicians who took turns performing with the maestro and in his own recollections on the trajectory of his career.

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fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Revenge gifts for annoying friends should be simple and subtle — but not a puppy!

A lot of people say to me, “Bob, I have this really annoying friend. Annoying, but not so bad that I want to kill him. Is there anything a passive-aggressive person like myself can do about this situation?”

My first instinct is to say, “My friend, you’ve come to the right place. Have you ever considered gifting them a puppy?

I don’t say that, however.

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#smwc2025, Rants and raves, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

Margaret Atwood has some thoughts on the future, and not just the one she envisioned in ‘Handmaid’s Tale’

Let’s just get right to the point that is on everyone’s minds: Are we barreling headlong into the dystopian patriarchy depicted by Margaret Atwood in “The Handmaid’s Tale”?

Says Atwood: “I don’t think we’ll get the uniforms.”

Ba-boom.

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Rants and raves, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

Dominic Cheli in concert: Stop me if you’ve heard this one (I guarantee you have not)

A classical pianist walks into eight bars …

If you think there is a punchline,  the chaconne is on you.

Actually, it was the “Chaconne in G minor” by Thomaso Antonio Vitali and the pianist was Dominic Cheli in his return performance after two years away to San Miguel de Allende on Friday night at St. Paul’s Church.

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Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

A word, please: The poetic commerce of Fitterman’s pop-up shop

I forget where I first heard of it, but I can’t get Robert Fitterman’s storefront shop in the Bowery out of my mind. This is an old story, starting on May 5, 2010. And the shop didn’t last very long, by design. It closed on May 27. 

It was only open Tuesdays through Thursdays, and then, only from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Worse than banker’s hours.

Now that might not seem ambitious on the face of it, but it is really about what Fitterman was selling.

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fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Atlas once, Atlas twice — but is he tougher than Jesus Christ?

“The Mini – Solve in seconds”

That’s the promise, or more probably, the challenge of the daily five-by-five crossword puzzle on the New York Times games page.

Monday’s second row, down, challenge was “Rockefeller Center statue depicting a Greek Titan.” Five letters.

Obviously not Prometheus – the golden, cast-bronze statue in the lower end of Rockefeller Plaza – since it busts the five-letter wall. But that’s the one everyone knows, even if they have never been to New York, because it is always in the frame with the Rockefeller Christmas tree.

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Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Did you hear the one about the cannibals and the breakdown of society …

There is an old joke about two explorers who are captured by cannibals. One is a Californian and the other is a New Yorker.

The explorers sit at the bottom of a large vat filled with water. Natives run around collecting firewood and depositing it at the base. It is going to be a big fire. It is going to be a big feast.

The chief of the cannibals stands over the two explorers and admires their pale skins. 

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