I am a great admirer of the ability of writers to turn a phrase, capture in a headline a story and to find the right metaphor to fit the situation. Newspaper writers generally have that skill and especially gifted sports writers. Today’s Seattle PI entertained me in that way. Columnist Joel Connelly, in writing about the New Hampshire primary, talked about Fox News getting the facts wrong and referred to it as the "We distort, You decide" network. He spoke…
One of my favorite Shakespeare writings is Shakespeare’s Saint Crispen’s Day speech from his play Henry V. The last part of the speech reads: This day is call’d the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say ‘To-morrow is…
I went to Sunday Mass in Tacoma today. My penance for being distracted during the service is to confess it to you. To start with, a young woman of about twenty five came in before the services started to the Choir section. She had with her a Down’s Syndrome youngster in his early teens who looked like he was probably her brother. She helped him get off his coat and sat him in the chair behind her. He had a…
Glen Allen’s poem The Woman I am speaks to me about how many people have a secret inner world hidden by a facade for the world: The woman I am hides deep in me Beneath the woman I seem to be.She hides away from the stranger’s eye – she is not known to the passers-by. She goes her way, the woman I seem, but the woman I am withdraws to dream.The woman I seem goes carelessly- when love goes by…
We see so much discrimination against women in religions around the world . We read about the strict enforcement of the Islamic dress code and the burqa the dress code police enforce in Muslim countries, but we also find all of the major religions of the world putting women in a status below men. This includes major Christian religions. On the other hand, in the Book of Judges we read about Jewish hero’s which includes aN extraordinary woman, Deborah. Here…
The new laws against drunk driving in Arizona are very severe which is one reason we’ve decided to stay home New Year’s Eve. This state has one of the most severe laws in the nation regarding driving while drinking. In June the state passed a new law that requires ignition-interlock devices for first time offenders, increased fines and a minimum of 45 days in jail for DUI convictions where the blood alcohol is .20 or higher. (See chart to calculate…
In December of 1914, Reginald Hobbs, a 24 year old British soldier, wrote a five page mud spattered letter in pencil to his wife on a frosty moon lit night. It was December 24th 1914 and on this Christmas eve he was in a waterlogged trench on the Western Front in the region of Ypres, Belgium. Fifty yards away was the German trench. In his famous letter he told her that the guns had fallen silent along the Western front…
MERRY CHRISTMAS Yes, I did mean "Christmas" and not happy "Holidays" or whatever is being substituted as the current politically correct neutral word in place of Christmas. That’s my gripe for today. I understand constitutional prohibitions against state imposed religions. I agree that a manager scene located on government property could be seen as inappropriate by some. But, I don’t understand all the tip toeing around by people like the Port of Seattle and other government agencies with their wringing…
The role of fate in our lives is a mystery.There is an old fable about fate that involves the story of a merchant in ancient Baghdad who sent his servant to the market to buy supplies. When the servant returned he was hysterical: "Master, Master! As I walked through the market I saw Death. He peered at me in such a way I knew he had come for me here. Lend me a fast horse so I may flee to…
The Sex Lives of Cannibals, a book by J. Maarten Troost, is not what the title would suggest. In fact, the book has nothing about sex or cannibals, but rather is a description of how a young man and his girl friend left the fast city life of the East Coast and moved to the remote South Pacific Tarawa Atoll. Those of us who lived through World War II will recall that the Tarawa Atoll is a series of small…
