More adventures with Stan
A successful Thanksgiving meal at our student progeny’s house, but also a complication in that, being graduate student poor, our children have limited numbers of cutlery and, having corrected a similar problem at our own house recently (where for years and years silverware disappeared nearly just as quickly as we layed them [...]
Entries from November 2008
Shopping Lubbock
November 29th, 2008 · 3 Comments
Tags: Personal · comedy · daily living
thanksgiving
November 27th, 2008 · No Comments
A note from Bill
Bill says “Even a roadkill kitty like me has plenty to be thankful for. What’s the matter with you?
“And remember: it’s not about turkeys.”
Tags: Personal
Thanksgiving trip part 1
November 27th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Traveling with Stan
So Tuesday gets here and most of the day we’re standing around as often happens when it’s time to travel and waiting on someone else to make the move: “Are you going to pack?” “I’ll pack when I see you packing.” “Wait, wait. I just have to write this couple of checks for [...]
Tags: Travel · daily living
Django’s still on our minds
November 25th, 2008 · 2 Comments
A direction from Stan
Go to the NPR site and listen to the little collection of Hot Club jazz a la Django (including a Django with Grapelli and a Grapelli with Grapelli!). Don’t, especially, skip “It Don’t Mean a Thing.”
Tags: music
Downtown Brownsville
November 23rd, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…never, never, do I tire of the several square miles of downtown Brownsville, say from Palm Boulevard east, north to the expressway, east to another part of the expressway and south, ever south, to the river ….
…a rooster crows. I look into backyards; it still crows, and I can’t find it.
…and a mailman [...]
Tags: Brownsville · Language · Personal · daily living
Be happy you ain’t!
November 21st, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…highway worker in north Texas once told me, “Be happy you ain’t!” when looking at a family in a broken-down car, kids in rags, parents arguing …. I try to recall his words, when, for instance ….
- A north wind rips into the bike, and it slows to a wobble. I think of [...]
Tags: Literature · comedy · daily living · drama
Accomplishment
November 20th, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…and the best moment of the day as sleep nears, the greatest accomplishment ….
…saw two teens walking last night, and I asked them if they wanted to see high Jupiter and low Venus; they said they did, so I got them to a clear spot in the tree-lined street and pointed out the [...]
Tags: Literature · daily living
Willacy County indictments getting some national attention
November 19th, 2008 · 1 Comment
A note from Stan
It’s more than blogs, now, although it’s good to see that political observer Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo and Will Bunch have noted the indictments in Willacy County. The Associated Press has a story out as does Reuters and Dan Froomkin has noted the occurrence in a column on the culpabilities [...]
Tags: Law · Politics · Willacy County
Imagine Brownsville public meeting Dec. 4
November 19th, 2008 · No Comments
A notice from Brian Godinez
You are cordially invited to attend the 3rd Imagine Brownsville Comprehensive Plan Public Workshop.
The event is on Thursday December 4, 6:00pm @ the Brownsville Events Center.
Purpose of the public workshop is to provide an update on the Brownsville Comprehensive Plan project and present the core elements of the comprehensive plan for [...]
Tags: Brownsville · Community Resources · The Valley
Not peace
November 19th, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…anger flashes, when the driver zips around the corner, a wide turn, and rips into his divorced wife’s driveway ….
…anger flashes when a woman drives up to a man’s home, dumps a garbage bag full of his clothes in the street, yells at him as he comes out of the house and drives [...]
Tags: Literature · comedy · daily living
The Red Purse
November 19th, 2008 · 3 Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…the large red purse, covered with white dust, is on the abandoned railroad bed. I pick it up, rifle its contents and find some addresses and phone numbers.
I carry it home, and then dump the contents on the living room floor, looking for a number that I can call for information.
I recall my [...]
Tags: Literature · Personal · daily living · ethics
SPI Birding & Nature Center Logo Contest
November 18th, 2008 · No Comments
An announcement from Virginia Gause
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND
BIRDING & NATURE CENTER
LOGO CONTEST
OVERVIEW
Those who are talented in art and graphic designs are encouraged to submit their unique, individual creation to the South Padre Island Economic Development Corporation for consideration as our official Logo. The winner will not only receive area-wide recognition for your work, you [...]
Tags: Community Resources · Design · South Padre Island · The Valley · art
Groceries
November 17th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Observations by Stan
Monday morning and we’ve cleaned out the refrigerator pretty much and the shelves have a lean and hungry look to them, so off to the grocery. It’s a good time to go–not a lot of other customers to contend with although there are a lot of vendors stocking up shelves and blocking aisles.
This [...]
Tags: Brownsville · daily living · ethics
Bush’s Attack on Women’s Health Is Still Bad Medicine
November 17th, 2008 · 1 Comment
A call to action from Planned Parenthood
The Bush administration promised not to issue any new regulations after November 1. But now, it is poised to implement a rule that could allow individual health care providers to redefine abortion to include the most common forms of birth control — and then refuse to provide these basic [...]
Tags: Community Resources · Education · Politics · The Valley · ethics
Saturday Lecture on Dorothy Hood at BMFA
November 13th, 2008 · No Comments
A note from Virginia Gause
AMERICAN ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
AND
TEXAS PAINTER DOROTHY HOOD
GUEST SPEAKER
Dr. Andrea Pappas
Professor of Art History, Santa Clara University, California
3:00pm, November 15, 2008
Brownsville Museum of Fine Art
Dr. Pappas will be speaking in conjunction with the current BMFA exhibition, Dorothy Hood: A Pioneer Modernist. A published scholar of American Abstract Expressionism, Dr. Pappas will be speaking [...]
Tags: Brownsville · Community Resources · History · art
About dogs
November 13th, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…friend, who won’t usually write … letters, emails, name it, told me to write a line or two about dogs. I will.
…how in the hell can people shine their cars, dress to the nines, daintily avoid wet grass, thorn bushes …and also keep their dogs tied in filthy grass, piles of shit, never [...]
Tags: Literature · Personal · daily living
The Source of the Stench
November 13th, 2008 · 3 Comments
A poem by Patricia A.
I went around and ’round
and everybody smelled.
I moved away to a new place,
but everybody there also smelled.
I fled again to no avail
for everywhere I went, everybody smelled.
And then, amid a moment of resigned aloneness,
I smelled myself
and I was the source of the stench.
Tags: Literature · Poetry
One shot
November 11th, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…snow on the frozen fields; one shot, from the fence line, drops the distant deer,
blood on the snow …
…at the Legion and the VFW, the vets drink, and talk war, and they should, it’s Veteran’s Day ….
…mist and fog on the black and wet and twisting road up to Canada, or down
to Massachusetts, [...]
Tags: Literature · Personal · art · daily living
Farmers’ Market and Dorothy Hood, too
November 10th, 2008 · No Comments
A brief report from Stan
Saturday marked the second weekend Brownsville’s new Farmers’ Market opened at Linear Park between Sixth and Seventh Streets, and it appearsto be off to a healthy start. Plus the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts set out free coffee and admission to promote its most recent exhibit.
We arrived fairly early, quarter after [...]
Tags: Brownsville · Community Resources · daily living
The rent’s due
November 9th, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…my uncles, who lived within the same mile all their lives, eight decades plus, had many tales, and I’m starting to feel the same, two decades plus minus a move ….
…the elderly owners of the fruit store are gone, same for younger family members, but when one of the owners, a man, was [...]
Tags: Literature · Personal · Story · daily living
Reflections On Joy
November 9th, 2008 · No Comments
A poem by Gene Novogrodsky
Six women leave a mid-morning study session;
They walk into a drizzle.
They laugh.
A horizontal of six, jeans and skirts and dresses Touching.
Three teen-age girls, cross the bridge, hold hands,
Walk to a city bus, going to a local school,
Three in a horizontal, laughing, hands connected ….
Men: and their hunts, their ball teams,
Even their [...]
Tags: Literature · Personal · Poetry · comedy
To market
November 7th, 2008 · No Comments
From Gene’s Notebook
…harvesting tangerines, oranges, grapefruit, lemon grass and basil for the every Saturday Brownsville Farmers Market, and I know we will plant more come Spring and next Fall, and even plant several more fruit trees …. Exciting this connection with the earth …and may every home in the city have a garden, fruit trees, [...]
Tags: Brownsville · Community Resources · Literature · Personal · Poetry
Delivering avocados
November 7th, 2008 · 1 Comment
From Gene’s Notebook
…did my share of US hitchhiking, and even a little in Canada and Mexico, and a mile or two in Nicaragua ….
One day, out on 281, I was thumbing, and a pickup stopped. The driver welcomed me in, and then said, “Maybe you can help. I have a new job out of [...]
Tags: Brownsville · Personal · Poetry · daily living
New book at Nuevo Santandar on Friday
November 7th, 2008 · No Comments
An announcement from Virginia Gause
Steven Schneider, Professor of English and Director of New Programs and Special Projects in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas Pan-American, has published a new book of poems entitled Unexpected Guests (Blue Light Press, 2008). He will launch the book with a reading and book [...]
Come listen to some tales Nov. 8
November 7th, 2008 · No Comments
An announcement from Virginia Gause
Don’t miss the McAllen ISD storytellers at the STC Quinceañera Community Day Celebration, Saturday November 8th at the South Texas College Pecan Campus library in McAllen. (The library is located at the corner of Pecan and 29th Street.)
Kids Corner (1st floor)
10 – 10:30 am [...]
Tags: Community Resources · Language · Literature · McAllen · art


