Category Archives: Rants and raves

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

The three stages of the 2024 USA Election

  1. Oh my god! How can half the people think this guy is good for the country? … Lies! Lies! Lies! … Did you hear what he just called Kamala Harris?!?

2. He’s still in the race? How can half the people still think this guy is good for the country. … Lies! Lies! Lies! … Did you hear what he just called Kamala Harris?!? I think I’m going to be sick …

3. And the last voting booths are closing in 5 … 4 … 3 …

So sorry. It was either do this or go out of my freaking head.

Since ALL of my friends are supporters of democracy, decency, and Kamala Harris, I wish you a very happy Election Day.

PS: If you can think of some different captions, post them in the comments section below! Thanks for playing along in 2024!

Standard
Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

The ‘chicken soup’ discovery that has saved 50 million lives

The simplicity of it all is both beautiful and mind-boggling.

Dr. Richard Cash

A little salt, some sugar, and some clean water.

Two American doctors came up with this formula in 1967 in what is today called Bangladesh and – over the objections of other doctors and health officials – began infusing patients suffering from dysentery, cholera, and other diarrhea-related diseases.

At the time, a major outbreak of cholera was plaguing the capital of Dhaka. Worldwide at that time, some five million children a year were dying from cholera and dysentery, according to the New York Times.

Continue reading →
Standard
Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende

Welcome to Dia de Muertos: Any ofrenda mine is an ofrenda yours

The family ofrenda, created by Rose Alcantara.

Tonight in the public park (The Jardine) there will be scores of kids in costume, each carrying a satchel or plastic pumpkin. Arrayed around the park will be ex-pats with bags full of candy.

The twain shall meet.

Halloween is becoming bigger every year, much to the consternation of the grumpiest among us. Perhaps rightly so, there is some concern that the holiday will dilute Mexico’s own customs.

Continue reading →
Standard
fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Trump in exile: To the dacha we go, over wide and drifting snow

He awoke with a sharp grunt. Like someone had kicked him in the balls.

Come to think of it, it hurt down there, too. And he had to pee. Again.

“Driver,” he called to the front of the black town car. “Pull over. I have to piss again.”

“Can you hold it for about 10 minutes, Mr. Trump? This is a pretty bad place to pull over.”

“President. I told you to refer to me as President Trump. I don’t want to say it again.”

Continue reading →
Standard
Rants and raves

I have a dream — Trump in exile

Here is how it all unfolds.

Trump loses. He loses badly. The numbers are so clear and decisive that there is no wiggle room for Trump to claim fraud. The victory is decisive.

Trump does not concede defeat because he and his family are all busy packing.

Trump abdicates his “MAGA throne,” goes into exile in Russia, and sets up a shadow government. The money he has squeezed from the faithful in side scams and the money he has harvested from foreign interests is already safely deposited in Russian vaults and bitcoin portfolios.

Continue reading →
Standard
fiction, Memoirs -- fact and fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Mind doodles: Flights of Fantasy

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

Flying like Superman no longer appeals to me the way it did in my youth. You remember, “faster than a speeding bullet,” – and all that leaping tall buildings with a single bound.

It may be an age thing. 

These days, I could use “stronger than a locomotive.” But I’d settle for just a stronger cup of coffee.

The apex of my yearning to fly like Superman came as he streaked around the world counterclockwise until he created enough counterforce to slow its rotation.  He did do that, right? I could be conflating my own imagination with some comic book or movie scenario.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, Rants and raves, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Free festival lets maestros take San Miguel’s ‘new’ 1875 pipe organ at Templo de la Tercera Orden out for a spin — and the public is invited along for the ride

After today’s concert in the Temple of the Third Order on Calle San Francisco, the maestro David Soteno Jimenez from Metepec in the State of Mexico had nothing but praise for the nearly 150-year-old pipe organ on which he performed.

“It is magnificent,” he enthused. “You see that it has only one keyboard and yet it has such a range of sound.” His one observation was that the stops that provide the keyboard its range take a bit of muscle to pull out — not an easy feat when your fingers are rolling a glissando down the keys.

He laughed as he mimicked a tug of war with the instrument, then showered it with more love.

Soteno Jimenez is the first artist from outside of San Miguel de Allende to “kick the tires” so to speak on the recently installed organ.

Continue reading →
Standard
fiction, Rants and raves, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

The last Christmas movie you’ll ever have to read

News headline: Hallmark has created 42 movies for the holiday.

Subsequently, House Beautiful magazine gushed about the  “comforting predictability of these flicks … No matter which title you switch on, the best thing about a Hallmark holiday movie is knowing that pretty soon you’ll be watching a happy ending.”

I don’t know if people who watch all 42 of these movies get a participation medal or a stay at the sanatorium. And Hallmark isn’t the only one flooding the zone. Somebody, noticing the overwhelming whiteness of characters in Hallmark movies, began putting out ethnic versions with the same insipient stories.

Continue reading →
Standard
Rants and raves, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Lessons learned from watching every Christmas TV commercial for 2023

Tis the season.
For what?
Commercials, of course.
Holiday commercials, filled with tinsel and snow, all merry and bright.
Urging you to get your Christmas shopping just right.

We’re here to help you, they say, with nary a snarky grin.
You see, we know what trouble you’re in with your kin.
The right presents can bail you out.
Listen to our adverts, Bubba, in case there is some doubt.

Continue reading →
Standard
fiction, photography, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende

Deals like this don’t grow on trees, you know

Great news! I’m breaking into the real estate business in San Miguel de Allende. Has to be easier and less-crowded than local foodie and influencer gigs.

Here’s my first offering: a modestly priced fixer-upper on the outer edge of the hot and trendy Colonia Guadalupe neighborhood. It is a mostly flat, — one, two three, four … — 10-minute walk to Centro. And we all know how incredibly important it is to walk to Centro.

Close to bus lines. Very, very close.

Continue reading →
Standard