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Showing posts from 2005

The Leaves for the Trees

For as long as I can remember, I have always had a love for the movies. My tastes in cinema are varied and run the gamut from adventure to thriller, science fiction to historical drama. I can recall many Friday nights at the Village Square theatre, sitting in the dark, munching hot, buttered popcorn as James Bond, Inspector Clouseau, or Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name flickered across the silver screen. As a child and young man I spent many hours in the dark, always at the side of my father. He had a love of movies and the arts that he passed on to me. But, his love of the movies and the worlds they transported us to was just one manifestation of his passion for life, family, and the arts. As a boy he shaped me into the man that I am today by instilling in me a strong work ethic, exemplifying what it meant to be a husband and a father, and encouraging me to enrich myself through the arts. My father was a firefighter in the small-town suburb of St. Louis where I grew up. His de...

Where's All the Help?

As I sit and read the accounts of horror coming out of New Orleans I have to wonder why the world community is doing nothing to aid the people affected by this tragedy? On the Drudge Report website a story from www.breitbart.com is linked running the headline: "World Stunned as US Struggles with Katrina." How about less stunned discourse and more humanitarian aid? It really angers me to read some of the quotes in the story. People who have benefited from the assistance of our great nation seem to only have bed things to say about us. A South Korean woman says: "Maybe it was punishment for what it did to Iraq, which has a man-made disaster, not a natural disaster." Forgive me if I am blunt, but didn't the United States help Korea in its time of need? How many of our military men and women lost their lives trying to help that ungrateful nation? Now that we are in need, now that the world could finally pay back some of the generosity of the American people we have...

On the Road Again...

Dallas, the Big D, Cowboy Town, Glitzy Gulch, whatever you call it the city remains a mystery to me. One would think in a city this size an attractive, slightly overweight, middle-aged man could find some sort of entertainment. Something to whittle away the hours after spending the day imprisoned in a non-discript office building. OK, there are some things to do. A movie, a bar, or the omni-present "Gentlemen's Club" where you are welcome to ogle semi-nude women who pretend to have an interest in you as long as you wallet holds out. No thanks... Or, I suppose one could try to catch a baseball game. It is opening week for the Texas Rangers after all. But, in their first two home games of the season they have been embarrassed by the Angels. The Angels! Give me a break! So, I am back to wondering what to do. I am sure that I will just return to my room, surf the 'Net while watching some fetid television program and then go to bed. Life on the road is definitely not the g...