Paul Luvera Journal

In February of 2005 Robert Kearns died at age 77. He was made famous by a movie about his invention of the intermittent windshield wiper and his long legal battle for justice when the automotive industry used it without payment or acknowledgment. According to the 2008 movie Flash of Genius, staring  Greg Kinnear, the story really starts on his honeymoon. While trying to open a bottle of champagne he was struck in the eye by the flying cork and injured it. Years later while driving…

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New Jersey lawyer Tom Vespers sent an email with the the story I'm repeating here because I liked the concept so much. I often let someone else's bad manners change how I feel and, in turn, potentially impact my treatment of others. I hope you find it a helpful perspective to consider in your daily life. Here's the story Tom sent. One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the…

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A helpful reader has shared with me additional information on the story I reported about five young men who disappeared during a storm while fishing in Hawaii. (The Mystery of the Sarah Joe https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2009/02/the-mystery-of-the-sarah-joe.html ) The reader has directed me to a website and a report written by a friend of the missing men about the situation. For more information on this tragic mystery see "Phantoms: a true story" at http://www.writersbeat.com/showthread.php?t=1628. And thank you to the alert reader who found…

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I admit to having a deep seated dislike of the Wall Street Journal as a biased in favor of big business and the rich. However, I don't like passing up a free gift, so when the paper was delivered to us at our hotel in Hawaii while we were there I read it – reluctantly. Every article confirmed economic disaster on every page as well as an intense dislike of our new Democratic administration.  So, why am I telling you this? Well, because I want…

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Buster Keaton was a world renown actor in the 1920's. He made nineteen shorts and twelve full length movies in a matter of only eight years. He became a famous filmmaker and star of his comedy films. He was called "the great stone face" because of the hang dog expression he kept while all kinds of things were happening to him in his movies.Buster Keaton was an amazing movie star. In the 1920's he made nineteen shorts and twelve full…

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Reporter Gary Kubota has written a story in the Hawaii Star Bulletin about five men who went fishing in a small boat, the Sarah Joe, off Wailuku in Hawaii some thirty years ago and were never seen again. What makes the story compelling is that nine years after their disappearance a grave with a cross was found two thousand miles away in the Marshall Islands that held the remains of one of the men, but no one knows what happened to…

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Newman Clubs serve as a center for Catholic students attending non-Catholic colleges and Universities. In Washington Bishop O’Dea, in 1908, invited the Dominicans to serve the students at the University of Washington, Seattle, and they have staffed the Newman Center there since.   I was a freshman at the University of Washington in 1954 and I got involved in the Newman Club where I first met a charismatic priest, Fr. Bill Dooley, who was Chaplin there. Father William Dean Dooley O.P. served as the…

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Many of us can point to one person or perhaps several people who played significant roles in our life. People who made the difference at a tipping point in our lives. Someone whose words or actions changed our attitude and the direction of our life for the better. For me, after my parents, it is a short list: a third grade teacher, a high school basketball coach, a Catholic priest and two lawyers. Each played an important role in moving me forward…

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 January is the month for car auctions in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are four major auctions at about the same time which include the Karuse auction, the Silver Company auction, Gooding and Company auction, the RM Company auction and the Russo Steel Auction. It is also the month for the annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car auction which runs from January 11th through the 18th in Scottsdale. The company also sponsors auctions in Las Vegas and Palm Beach, Florida. The company began in 1971 with its…

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The other night I was flipping through channels looking for something to watch when my interest was caught by a film documentary about Arthur Kane. I had never heard of him or the band he help create. Kane, it turns out, was an original member of the punk bank the New York Dolls and played base guitar. So why would I be interested in a former member of a punk rock band? Because the story of how this man turned…

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