Hardly a Wednesday goes by that Frank Thoms and I don’t turn to each other and say, “Man, we are so lucky. We are so blessed.”
We come to that realization early and often.
We’re both volunteers at So Others May Eat, the hot lunch program in an obscure courtyard of the Parroquia de San Miguel de Arc Angel in San Miguel de Allende.
Continue reading
We were in Mexico City, enjoying coffee and a bite to eat at a corner restaurant just a block off the expansive Parque de Mexico, in the popular Hipódromo, Cuauhtémoc, neighborhood.
The young and athletic hostess Ayse Lang, who had seated us at the sidewalk table of Barrio Café, stopped by to see how our late-morning coffee break was going.
Continue reading
On Tuesday, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched, “the company’s 12th rideshare mission to a sun-synchronous orbit. Onboard are a variety of customer satellites, including 35 satellites integrated by Exolaunch along with 36 SuperDoves and Pelican-2 from Planet Labs PBC.”
On Wednesday, SpaceX launches its “sixth, suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship rocket, a combination of the Ship upper stage (S33) and the Super Heavy booster (B14). SpaceX plans to catch the Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks on the launch tower, but will make a final determination on the catch following liftoff and stage separation.”
On Thursday, a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will launch the company’s previously delayed Blue Ring spacecraft, which is capable of both hosting and deploying multiple payloads.
(Source: spaceflightnow.com See update at bottom of this page.)
Also on Tuesday, space and security expert Dr. Nancy K. Hayden discussed the future of outer space and the increasingly heavy and chaotic traffic that is shooting out of planet Earth like hair plugs out of Elon Musk’s head.
Her talk for the i3: ideas that inform and inspire‘s Conversations with Big Thinkers lecture series at La Casona Event Center was first promoted as “Space: Brave New World or Wild Wild West?” Somewhere along the line, out of respect for the growing congestion on the extraterrestrial freeways surrounding Earth, she added a third possibility — “Close Encounters” — to that title.
Continue reading
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.
Continue readingUpdate: Change of venue for San Miguel PEN Presents! Talks and times are the same, only the location has changed: Nectar at Camino Silvestre, Correo #43, Centro.
Talk is not cheap but it sure is plentiful in San Miguel de Allende during the first couple of months of 2025.
Intelligent, knowledgeable and often-times brilliant speakers will be stepping before podiums all over the city to offer enlightenment on topics like explaining the last U.S. election, explaining the current Mexico president, explaining the media, poetry, Artificial Intelligence, outer space, talking about their latest novels, the history of San Miguel, and so much more.
If you are looking for a modern-day Chautauqua Movement, look no further than San Miguel.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
Imagine getting to celebrate your 70th birthday and the 40th anniversary of your blockbuster debut novel in one night.
Sandra Cisneros did just that on Dec. 20th at Camino Silvestre and Nectar, Calle Correo #43.
And there was cake! Well, cupcakes. Delicious cupcakes. And paper party hats and singing, too.
The book is “The House on Mango Street,” the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Mexican-American girl coming of age in Chicago. Everyman’s Library has just come out with a 40th anniversary edition – which was another reason to celebrate.
Continue reading
Once more, the Mercado de San Juan de Dios is transformed into a wonderland as the Christmas marketplace is open for business.
Extra booths have been erected around the market and they are filled with ornaments, Nativity figures and accessories, decorations, Baby Jesus figurines of many hues and sizes (and gorgeous gowns of swaddling clothes), garlands, pines, sparklers, elf costumes, devil’s pitchforks, cuetlaxochitls, Santa caps, treats, and holiday fantasies.
Continue reading
The Jardin Principal, the towering Christmas tree, and the surrounding streets have been well-lit for the holidays since Dec. 6, That was the night of our first thunder-and-lightning drenching in weeks.
Timing is everything.
And the rains cooperated, stopping within minutes of the official Christmas tree lighting ceremony and the accompanying fireworks. (What would a tree lighting ceremony be without fireworks? Well, in San Miguel, what would any event be without fireworks?)
Continue reading
“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.
Continue reading
Musings, Magic, San Miguel and More 