MEMORIAL DAY – America’s Day of the Dead

Yuji: Did you hear Mari’s gone to New York for a week?

Dane: Really? She picked a bad time to go.

Yuji: Yeah, she might come back with the swine flu.

Dane: The swine flu? Forget about it!

Yuji: Well, why is it a bad time to go?
Dane: It’s the Memorial Day three-day weekend. A [...]

FORGET ABOUT IT

fō-gé-də-bow-dit
Most of my Japanese students swear by their dictionaries.  They take so much stock in the translated word that they often lose touch with what’s really going on.  This is really ironic considering the fact that second guessing the speaker is the art of the Japanese conversation.  Those who lack the skill are [...]

A KISS IS STILL A KISS

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss,
a sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
.

Hope you have a love filled Valentine’s Day
Binnie Hale – 1932
Dooley Wilson – 1942 (Casablanca soundtrack)

Ingrid Bergman
Stephan Grappelli
L Y R I C S
WIKIPEDIA

THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

SALVADOR DALI – L’Age d’Or  (Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
No mention of The Man of La Mancha is complete without hearing the show’s most renowned piece, The Impossible Dream.  This inspiring song has fallen victim to its own success; suffering abuse from so many pretenders from Elvis Presley to the local elementary school drama [...]

LIFE AS IT IS

Watching our new president take on the greedy CEOs, raging republicans and all the sordid demons that plague our land, I couldn’t help but think of another unlikely champion who dared to fight against impossible odds — Don Quixote, Cervantes’ gallant Lord of La Mancha, the defender of the destitute and the slayer of windmills.
I [...]

GREED IS GOOD

“Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.” — Albert Camus
Richard S. Fuld, Jr. (62) Former CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings

Our friend greed is back in the news. Dick Fuld, the guy who folded Lehman Bro’s, joins the ranks of Blagojevich, Thain and Bernie Madoff, crooks who just won’t go [...]

PICK YOURSELF UP

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the remaking of America.” – Barack Obama January 20, 2009
In his inaugural address, President Obama urges Americans to improve the economy by taking positive action.  Is it a coincidence that he uses a quaint expression from a depression era song?  Take [...]