I was interested in Graham Bowley's writing about where world dictators "hide" their money in Sunday's NY Times. He notes that el Qaddafi has stashed away billions in U.S. and other currencies in Libya and the problem he would have moving it out of country in bulk. Imelda Marcos was charged with trying to move 22 crates of Philippine pasos when they fled to Hawaii in 1986. Jean Claude Duvalier and his wife took $33 Million from the Haiti bank…
As I watched the devastation in Japan I thought of one of my favorite quotes from Shakespeare dealing with missed opportunities. Yes, I know he wasn't talking about a tsunami, but it still came to my mind because of the reference to tides: Brutus:There is a tide in the affairs of men.Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.On such a full sea are we now afloat,And we must…
The great twentieth century poet W.H. Auden wrote a poem called "Sext" in the 1950's which captures the idea of dedication and being lost in the moment of what you are doing. In athletics it's called "being in the zone" or being "hot" or "on a roll." Whatever you call it, this poem captures what happens when someone is doing what they love to do and are doing it with utter concentration. it's when we think about what we are doing…
This Sunday’s New York Times had an article about the death of Greg Goossen, a baseball player I confess I had not heard of before. What caught my attention was that he was originally signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers for a six figure bonus, was then sent to the Mets for $8,000 and then acquired by the Seattle Pilots. He lasted one season and was dealt to Milwaukee. The Pilots no longer exist but Goossen led the team in…
My maternal grandfather Peter (Petar) Babarovich was born April 12, 1861 in the village of Splitska on the island of Brac in the Adriatic Sea. He died in Anacortes, Washington March 5, 1935. Peter was the second child Ernest Babarovich and his wife Louise Setelich. The family exported wine and olive oil which they grew in their vineyards and olive orchards. He married Marija Mattia Vulic) in 1888, who was also born in Splitska. Peter's wife, my grandmother, was born September…
I’ve been reading Flyboys: a True Story of Courage by James Bradley about the pilots of World War II and the war in the Pacific. Bradley previously wrote Flags of Our Fathers about the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima. He starts out with the history of Japan. He notes that for two hundred years Japan was a closed book to the rest of the world by national law. A Japanese could not leave Japan and no outsider…
Today February 27, 2011 is the 30th year Lita Theresa Barnett and I have been married. The truth is that it should be considered 60 years since we are both attorneys who have worked together in the same office for more then thirty years. It's been a 24 hour a day relationship that has survived and improved over all these years. I would not have had it any other way. There are many quotes, song lyrics and poems I might…
"Shoot Pirates on Sight"? That was the title of an article by Amital Etzioni for CNN about the most recent Samali pirates shooting of the hostages. http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/26/etzioni.stop.piracy/index.html Certainly, pirates were considered "enemies of mankind" in ancient times because they posed a threat to maritime safety. Therefore, anyone could punish captured pirates and they were ordinarily excuted on the spot. The usual method was hanging them from the yardarm. In 1790 the First American Congress passed a law allowing federal authorities…
I saw a short video clip of the Inuit people of Arctic Canada gathering mussels in the Winter under the frozen sea ice. It was really an incredible thing to watch. After digging a tunnel down to the beach below the ice, they hurried along looking for mussels to take home and eat. This was done at low tide when the ice was resting on the beach, but leaving caves and tunnels through the ice. See the excellent photo taken by Patrice Halley….
On Monday, February 21, 2011, President’s Day, I had my seventy sixth birthday. I have always disliked birthdays, especially those with a zero, and even though there was no zero with this birthday, I still disliked it as much as the previous ones. All it did was remind me I was one year older then the year previous. But, I don’t need birthday’s to remind me of that fact. Instead, I have two total knee replacements plus a hip replacement which make me…
