DEMOCRACY –  WHERE WILLS COLLIDE Virgil, the Roman poet, wrote “the greatest wealth is health.”  During 2012 elections, I’ve no doubt the question of the nation’s wealth will be examined in terms of health care. The question will be asked: “Is good health vital to the we

KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON I bought another book at the Dollar Store last week. This one is called “PANIC: the Story of Modern Financial Insanity” by Michael Lewis, a bestselling author on the stock market. Mainly, Lewis gives us stories from the 1987 crash. While they are interesting as

THOUGHTS ON EDITING LIFE I don’t remember which painter was guilty.  I think it was Toulouse Lautrec who used to visit the Louvre with his box of paints to dab at his canvas’ imperfections. It happened so often, the museum had to instruct their guards to escort him off the premi

Hi Jon, Got your message.  Thanks for stopping by.  Thank your mom too.  I’m not very electronically saavy but will try to follow the link routes you suggested. 

WHEN HOPE BECOMES ENTRAPMENT The first in a disturbing series of films by writer / director Nincenzo Natali came out during the late 1990’s. In “The Cube” Natali creates a Kafkaesque world where people find themselves trapped inside a giant receptacle. They have no idea how they

THE MISCHIEF IN ME  Alan Sillitoe wrote touchingly about a boy sent to a British reform school in “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.” The director of the reformatory discovers this borstal boy is a talented runner and makes his charge an offer. If the boy wins an upcom

v:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} LIFE AS A PUZZLEMENT There are good reasons why libraries carry magazines as well as books. Many showcase some of the nation’s best writers and

A BASIC EDUCATION – FEMININE STYLE The September issue of “Vogue” features a profile of Christine Lagarde, the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She is the first women to hold the position. The article recounts the usual vital statistics: married twice a

WOMEN WITHOUT DIMENSION “The Help” must have been a difficult novel to write because though its story is told by a woman about women, black and white, the temptation to create stock figures must have been great: the bitch, the idealist, the follower, the rebel, the timid�

THE SACRED MATRIX Every day science reveals more about the workings of the human brain. We now accept the idea that the mind functions like a computer. But while machines work from a series of 1s and 0s, the mind’s inputs read “well-being” and “ill-being.” (“The Politi