Friday, July 31, 2009

only the good....

Corazon Aquino
January 25, 1933 - August 1,2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

a bridge too far




from the rim of the lake, a gently winding stretch of highway 232 (this is closed in winter) merges with 138 and you turn right to proceed east. this stretch of 138 is rather peculiar in one way: at about 5000' it is only a few hundred feet lower than crater lake's rim and still in a deeply forested wilderness, but from this point until it abuts with highway 97, it cuts straight as an arrow. and that's where it ends.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

short summer drives




Crater Lake National Park


It's 100 degrees in the valley; time to get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.

I stop at the bank for some cash and to get a pin number for my card. It's Friday so she, the banker, starts with ' What are your plans for the weekend?'
Get out of this heat.
I know, I'm going to Florida myself. What about you?
I'm driving but haven't made up my mind where to go. I'm all packed with nowhere to go. I think I'll spin a bottle, see where it stops and start from there.

After a brief revolution, the bottle points to the east. I take east 62. On the map, it's not a designated scenic drive but it leads to Crater Lake which is a National Park

Monday, July 6, 2009

and on the flip side of the coin

Lt. Mike Stone walked the streets of San Francisco for 21 years. He is not going to be doing that anymore.

For the same amount of time, Karl Malden pitched the catchphrase "Don't leave home without them" to worldwide audiences for American Express. He won't be doing that anymore.

Mladen Sekulovich who changed his name to Karl Malden, to accommodate a career in theater, passed away at age 97. Malden, who appeared in critically-acclaimed movies such as 'On The Waterfront' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire', won an Oscar and an Emmy in a long career in the movies, on Broadway and on television.

He was married to his wife Mona, who survives him, for 70 years.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

all is fair in (cliched) love

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was a once-promising presidential prospect. Then he went on a hike and his political future headed south. Actually, he did too. Went south that is.

He told his wife and his staff that he was going to hike the Appalachian Trail and would be gone for a few days. But unknown to the others, he climbed on a plane and went to Argentina. He had a clandestine rendezvous with an Argentine TV personality named Maria Belen Chapur, described by her neighbor as a beautiful brunette, who jogs, plays tennis and has big gorgeous eyes. She was Sanford's secret lover. They were confident, at that time that their affair was still a secret.

But the shit has hit the fan. And it hit him as soon as he touched down on his native soil.

Confronted by the media and suddenly faced with the unraveling of his political and family life, he confessed to the affair. He also confessed to indiscretions with other women.

But true to his mistress, he professed his undying love for her.

And the point of this post is this:

Politicians are very adept at slinging cliches, their speeches reek with them. Sanford is no different and in describing his circumstance his colors did not change. All is fair in love and politics.

The following is part of what he said in an interview with the AP: (See if you can spot all the cliches in his disquisition. You can stop when you reach the point where you feel like throwing up. I warn you, this one reeks)

There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn't have crossed as a married man, but never crossed the ultimate line. (meaning he did not fall in love)

And about his true love Maria:

This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story. A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.

I will die knowing that I have met my soul mate.

Soul mate.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

palintics

Tina Fey, governor of the state of Alaska, abruptly and without much ado, announced that she was quitting her job at the end of this month and handing the rein to Lt. Gov. Parnell.

She was the Republican running- mate of senator John McCain in last years election. The duo lost to the tandem of Barack Obama and his own running-mate. (Does anybody know his name?)

Fey was considered to be a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Her resignation draws a shroud over her political intentions and sends the future of her party into a whirlpool of uncertainties.

She made the unexpected announcement on Friday outside her home in Wasilla, Alaska.

Wait a minute...

that was Sarah Palin !