7th Calendar Year
Archives
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Past Issues 2005 |
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Monday May 9, 2005
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I didn’t see this day coming. But it’s here. The time has come to bid a fond farewell. Sometimes friends move away. Eventually the mission is accomplished.
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Monday April 25, 2005
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When Stone Phillips devoted the full hour of his weekly newsmagazine Dateline NBC on Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, you can conclude it is because he found some intriguing information he was eager to share. Intriguing indeed.
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Monday April 18, 2005 |
The Eli Lilly Foundation made a grant to encourage a nearby university to establish internship programs. It’s based on the notion that academic pursuits should be accompanied by real world experience. It’s not enough to write the papers and pass the tests, so the theory goes. We need to get out of the library and into the workplace.
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Monday April 11, 2005 |
A week later, the impact of the deceased Pope on the world extends further still. It is a stunning development, really; a turnabout of the highest order. Not even a year ago, perhaps months, the Roman Catholic Church seemed to be drowning in a tempestuous sea of controversy, scandal and a general sense of irrelevance in the modern world. One would think, from the universal acclaim and media preoccupation with St. Peter’s Square and all the pomp and symbol and tradition, that the world, at least for a week, embraced Catholicism as its own.
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Monday April 4, 2005 |
Who would have imagined scale of the global outpouring of grief over the death of Pope John Paul II? Who in the media world makes these choices? Who decides to run non-stop coverage from St. Peter’s Square on the steps of the Basilica? And how is it that all the networks follow suit? Which comes first? Do the media captains decide and then the crowds follow or is it the other way around?
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Monday March 28, 2005 |
I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. I’ve hardly made an effort to conceal my identity, or my whereabouts. For seven years, it is quite true we lived in the back country - well off the proverbial beaten path. Upon arrival at our former place, some wondered out loud from what or whom I might be hiding.
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Monday March 21, 2005 |
I’ve got my list of favorite writers. Lance Morrow is on that list. A favorite writer for me is one who writes in an engaging fashion. There should be a freshness about the work, an unpredictability. There ought to be plenty of surprise phrases and poignant metaphors. A good writer brings clarity, not confusion. Some define intelligence as the capacity for obfuscation. I’ve never bought into that theory. True intelligence illuminates. As you read, you say, or more often think, “ah-hah!” You get it. .
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Monday March 14, 2005 |
Brian Nichols jumped at the opportunity. His instincts kicked into high alert. A deputy walked him down the courtroom hallway on the way to face the judge. Nichols had been charged with a crime. A serious crime. Rape. He believed he had been falsely accused. Then something snapped. .
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Monday March 7, 2005 |
They call him “The Flying Dutchman.” And anyone who watches him work will tell you: he soars. This different kind of aviator has the uncanny ability to take you up there in the clouds with him.
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Monday February 28, 2005 |
One might conclude that biography is romanticized when the mastermind of the Protestant Reformation is played by the lean and charming actor who starred in the award winning amorous drama, Shakespeare in Love. In life, the frumpy German theologian, according to paintings from the era, looked more the chunky Monk than captivating heartthrob. It’s a minor complaint. There’s lots of history packed into the feature length film that bears his name.
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Monday February 14, 2005 |
It was our turn to bid farewell. Ted and his daughter Jo Ann were there when Dorothy transitioned from this world to the next. Jo Ann, an accomplished vocalist, sang to her mother there by her bed as she breathed her last. Ted and Jo Ann stood on either side, each holding one of her hands and then across the bed they held each other’s - the circle complete. Somehow, Jo Ann wanted her mother to know she had permission to let go. So, gently she sang a sweet refrain, in a tender but clear voice, “Come home, come home; ye who are weary come home…”
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Monday February 7, 2005 |
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances… Wm. Shakespeare (As You Like It)
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Monday January 31, 2005 |
How does one bid farewell to a partner of over sixty years?
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Monday January 24, 2005 |
By now you know. We’re in transition. It’s been a long time, it seems. We bid farewell to our friends in our little country town around Thanksgiving. It was a bittersweet moment. Farewells are like that with people you love.
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Monday January 17, 2005 |
I didn’t say much about the Inauguration of 2001 (election 2000) in that week’s LeaderFOCUS, maybe because it was, perhaps, the most muted Inauguration in history. I referred to it then (327 words), and on review, my mention of it seems to reflect the ambivalence of the entire nation. It happened in the aftermath of the Florida fiasco. The nation, bitterly divided, grudgingly accepted the decision of the Supreme Court, and placed George W. Bush in office.
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Monday January 10, 2005 |
From the first word I had that there was a secret airplane kept under guard somewhere in the Long Beach Harbor, Howard Hughes became a mystery man to me. I was a youngster then, and the engineer who revealed just that little bit of information was a reliable friend. My imagination stirred. I wondered what sort of flying machine might be hidden back there behind the barbed wire under twenty-four hour watch.
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Monday January 03, 2005 |
Tsunami is not a common word, at least not until the day after Christmas (2004). If you lived in Hawaii, you’d be familiar with it, or Japan, or Indonesia, or Southeast Asia. It’s one of those natural phenomena that become the stuff of legend and lore. The History Channel (long before the current event) produced an hour long piece on the recorded Tsunamis of the past in their Wrath of God series.
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