Paul Luvera Journal

Our best Christmas wishes to each of you, your families and those with whom you have special relationships. To my friends who celebrate a significant religious holiday: Hanukkah Sameach or Happy Hanukkah. Hanukkah 2019 will begin in the evening December 22 and end in the evening of Monday December 30th. The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah or Chanukah is an eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights,” celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and gatherings. The Hanukkah menorah, is a nine-branched…

Read More Read More

Lita and I wish everyone a peaceful and enjoyable holiday season. From November 1st each year, until January 15th there are about twenty nine holidays for seven of the world's largest religions, so we wish them happy holidays. For Christians, we wish them a very holy Christmas. Here's a family photo – amazing isn't it?   

This is the time for making New Year's resolutions, so I have given it some thought and offer the following as a minimum of a large number of worthy resolutions I should adopt. They are adopted from these sources: "Prayers of an Aging Jesuit –http://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/Prayers-for-Aging.cfm, the writings of Roger Rosenblatt, Rules for Aging http://englishwithhemi.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/3/6/13368575/rules_for_aging.pdf and the writings of Dale Carnegie.http://www.csus.edu/indiv/l/luenemannu/pdf/communicationprinciples.pdf With full acknowledgment to these sources here are my minimum list of resolutions for 2016. 1.     I will daily appreciate the fact Lita…

Read More Read More

A Merry Christmas to all.  My gift to  you is a short story by a famous writer.  William Sidney Porter was a famous short story writer who wrote under the pen name O. Henry. One of his famous stories was "The Gift of the Magi," a Christmas story. I'm sure you have read  it sometime in the past, but I think you will enjoy it again. Porter was born in 1862 in North Carolina. He worked at the First National Bank of Austin. In 1894 he was accused by…

Read More Read More

We enjoyed Thanksgiving at our home in Scottsdale Arizona where the weather couldn't have been more perfect. All eight of the children, their spouses along with most of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were here with us. My sister Anita Mayer also was with us this year and it was a wonderful occasion.   Thanksgiving day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. George Washington proclaimed a national Day of Thanksgiving in 1789 even though…

Read More Read More

When we are very young time seems to move ever so slowly. When we are in our teens we are anxious to be grownups. When we are in our twenties it seems there are so many goals  we must accomplish before we are "old." Then middle age comes upon us and each birthday with a zero in it makes us worry about getting old. If you are blessed to live as long as I have, you notice that after sixty…

Read More Read More

Congress has created a number of regulatory agencies and given them specific roles to protect the public interest. It’s my belief that when Congress creates such a regulatory agency, the President has no right to appoint people to senior positions in the agency with a hidden agenda of intending to undermine or frustrate the agency purpose. Many such appointments do not require approval of Congress and a President is free to appoint anyone he wants whatever their lack of fitness…

Read More Read More

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer was created by Robert L. May in 1939. May was a 35 year old advertising copy writer for the Montgomery Ward department store in Chicago and was instructed to create an original Christmas story in booklet form. The store wanted to give it away as a free gift to shoppers during the Christmas season. May ended up writing about Rudolph. Originally, the reindeer was to be named Rollo and then Reginald, but both were rejected…

Read More Read More