THE HUMBLE TORTILLA By Bill Frayer   Every day I visit the small market. Every day I see the battered cooler. Get there early, or they’re gone. I open the lid, the sweet smell. The humble tortilla.  Corn masa Mixed with water, flat and round. They cook ‘em on a griddle Flipping with fast fingers. […]

THE VANISHING MARTINI By Robert Sconce   One of the staples at our house for 30 years or so has been the martini, straight up with a twist of lemon peel. Word has got around that I make the best martini in the West which helps my social life. That’s because lots of casual friends

GREAT WRITES AND WRONGS By Tommy Clarkson   Last month, I wrote of James Thurber whose birthday, December 8th, was one day before mine. Well, F.T. Eyre has – once again – reminded me of yet another humorist writer whose works, as well as his last name, are singularly “Brilliant” – Ashleigh Ellwood generally precedes

WHO WAS SHE—AND WHY THE SONG? By Bob Tennison   Last night I heard an old recording by Lena Horne about “A Ms Otis regretting she would not be able to dine today.” As Pago would have questioned, “Who in the blue-eyed world was Ms Otis and why was she so important that the song

THE TILLY & TOMMY  REPORT By Anonymous Contributor   In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. The dog had been locked in the shed and abandoned.  It was dirty and malnourished, and had quite clearly been abused. In an act of kindness, the police took the

SIMPLE TRUTHS   Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash with his best friend, Wylie Post, was probably the greatest political sage the US ever has  known. Enjoy the following: 1. Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco. 2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. 3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither

Notes from San Blas By William Haydon The Cracked Tiles Of San Blas   I have lived in Mexico for well over a year now. I have experienced Mexican weather through good seasons and bad. From virtual non-existence, my Spanish language skills have progressed to a sort of primitive fluency. I have eaten bad chorizo

HAROLD RUSSELL –The Best Years of His Life By Roderick MacDonald   In late 1944, as the Second World War was struggling to a close, the legendary film producer Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to make a movie that would tell the story of returning service veterans trying to adjust to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former

CUTTER ANT APOCALYPSE! By Ed Tasca   Our garden, a lovely house-front apron of flowering plants, shrubs and fruit trees, has been under siege by cutter ants, with no hope of a diplomatic settlement. They’ve been turning new and old-growth vegetation into confetti for weeks and carrying it through endless parades over my garden day

AS THE TACO TURNS (And takes the world with it) By Beth Berube   There is a store in Seattle called Chicos. Their clothes buyers have a brilliant philosophy.  If a woman wears an off the rack size eight at every other store, she can try on a frock at Chicos in a size two. Voila!