We finally sent in a donation to public radio and television this afternoon. I was cleaning up my desk before going, and paying out bills that would fall due while I was gone, and I came on the plea from KMBH that we’d received in December– but which I’d been shuffling to the bottom of [...]

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Wilfred Owen was a relatively young man when he died in battle a week before the end of what became known as the First World War. His experience on the battlefields of Europe didn’t take long to kill the romantic view of battle that was commonly inculcated into his generation and was attempted to be [...]

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A hearty welcome to our friend and fellow Web logger, Fred Drew, whose opinions are widely read and well known. Your commentary will be welcome here, Fred. And thanks for listing NunnaYerBizness Today on your site.
–stan

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Texas Observer is running a very interesting story by Melissa del Bosque on how the border wall is skipping places such as River Bend Resort.
–stan

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Word comes from Indiana that my father, who has been gravely ill for several years now, has gone to the hospital and that there is little hope that he will return home. He may land at a nursing home or hospice, but not home. I may be pulling up stakes for a while and heading [...]

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I saw a clip about this on Alternet this morning, seriously concerned folks talking about the disappearance of the French(!!!) and Latvians and other “traditional” European stocks, all because white folks (we may hate the French, but they’re white, right?) aren’t reproducing enough. You can use other verbs, too. So I googled Demographic Winter, and, [...]

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My sister-in-law sent these videos in. The first is a story in two minutes. Enjoy.

The second is a 1982 short by Tim Burton, one of my favorite story tellers.
Apparently I am not the only part-time dilletant in the family.
And here is a third, just discovered (at the end of the list on the Vincent [...]

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If you have five minutes to spare, here’s an entertaining and mildly elucidating look at evil. I’m reminded of Fractured Fairytales, actually, for those of you old enough or young enough to know who Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle Moose might be.

See what I mean?

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A sincere welcome to some new users. Ed Stapleton, whose acquaintance we made some time ago at musical gatherings at Jack and Penny Hartwell’s house. Welcome to you, sir. We look forward to your input.
Psuedonomynous users include challengertx and Political_Outsider. And thanks to Political_Outsider for his kind words on the poem we posted this morning. [...]

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I recommend Paul Krugman’s column today for some straight discussion of an often skewed topic, poverty.

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News today from the Public Works department, two weeks later: I need to file a request for information with the city Secretary.
Now why didn’t I think of that?

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Here’s a poem I wrote for my father-in-law. Bill Trenfield was powerfully interested in history and the good of society. He was a professor of education at Ball State University, a profession he chose because he believed he could help make his country a better place by helping it to become better educated. We had [...]

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One needs space from time to time. Today for me and possibly tomorrow.
Ciao.

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Racontourism: Tales Told in Blues, Roots, and Heart Music to Heal the Spirit and Make the Body Dance by Lozelle Jennings
I like this album. It grows on you. What are we to make of the title, an odd, portmanteau word? One guesses we must be in the land of the storyteller, but a storyteller [...]

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Calls to the City of Brownsville Public Works Department have not produced answers to the basic questions about the cost of repairs to Pablo Kisel Boulevard. When I called Monday afternoon, however, an unnamed woman told me that Mr. Santiago Navarro had “left a message for you,” she said. “He’s going to get with you [...]

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It appears that the super delegates are elected federal officials–representatives and senators–and members of the Democratic National Committee. I was directed to a site called 2008 Democratic Convention Watch by a friendly Obama staffer recently arrived in the Valley where there are lists of committed delegates. The whole of the South Texas contigent who [...]

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Here’s a breakdown of where contributions to Solomon Ortiz’s campaigns have come from since 1989. The original data, from Opensecrets.com, was organized by zip code. I’ve reorganized it geographically into three groups: the Corpus area, the Valley, and others. It is interesting to note that the Congressman has received as much from San Antonio than [...]

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All of south Texas’s super delegation have committed to Hillary Clinton–Henry Cuellar of San Antonio, Ruben Hinojosa of McAllen, and Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi, and Silvestre Reyes of El Paso.

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If neither of my readers has figured it out yet, the hoy mismo articles are about the daily life of a fifty-eight year old retired teacher, former hippy, guitar player, would be poet and painter, occasional actor and singer, one-time smoker, golfer, tennis player, and perpetually nosey guy who thinks about a wide range of [...]

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Here’s a video of an interview with an Irish news woman that didn’t get much play here at the time. Can you imagine one of our news clowns standing up to Mr. Bush as this woman does?
Interesting, huh?

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As noted last week, the Art of Brownsville is featuring weekly doses of collaborative art for a while. When I saw the notice last week, I sent in the artwork I’d used for the cover of a chapbook of poetry which had come, originally, from a pastel drawing which Cris Soto and Joseph Raines [...]

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We hope you aren’t too shocked at the new look today. It’s cleaner, we think, and we’re developing a pleasant look. The first job of art and design, to let you know where we stand on a very old question, is to decorate pleasingly. For those who believe that the first duty of art is [...]

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Celebrate!
An Essay
Think of your body as a convention of cells
drawn out of each other
Each with its life, its struggles and needs,
shuffling through twisting strands of functions and excretions,
honey to their brother and sister cells,
in tumbling exchange of molecular delight.
All for one and all for good for you.
And which of those cells expiring,
giving its all to [...]

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Who are the superdelegates? Here’s a little exposition from the Nation magazine.
Of course, then the question is, who’s automatically selected in these parts? Don’t you want a list if you’re interested in Democratic Party politics (even though the concept of superdelegates seems thoroughly undemocratic)? How can you not be, living in these parts?

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I’ve been pleased to see Laura Tillman’s series on teen pregnancy in the Brownsville Herald over the last couple days. (the weekend’s stories, “Knocked Up” but looking for more and At Lincoln Park, an answer, but no solution, and today’s story, Lessons untaught, unlearned). She’s done a good job of highlighting the need for [...]

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