Articles 2015

Garden Variety Birds By Dale Ingrey   There I was comfortably ensconced in my chair that Wednesday on the covered patio overlooking the beautifully manicured tropical garden of our casita. Beyond the bougainvillea and hibiscus hedges the Sierra Madre Mountains loomed in the distance and Lake Chapala spread out across my field of vision from […]

Profiling Tepehua By Moonyeen KingPresident of the Board for Tepehuamoonie1935@yahoo.com   Michael Johnston wrote in Forbes 2009: The links between corruption and poverty affect both individuals and business, they run in both directions, poverty invites corruption while corruption deepens poverty. Corruption causes and thrives upon weaknesses in key economic, political and social institutions. The corruption

Bridge By The Lake By Ken Masson   One of the first lessons we all learned at bridge was to plan the play of the hand before calling for a card from dummy. South didn’t do all his planning early enough in this hand played in a team game at the Lake Chapala Duplicate Bridge

CHICO MENDES: Gandhi of the Rain Forest By Dr. Lorin Swinehart “Chico is alive in the things that he did, the things that he stood for.”   On the evening of Thursday, December 22, 1988, Brazilian labor leader and environmental activist Chico Mendes was brutally gunned down before the horrified eyes of his four-year old

The Ghosts Among Us By Fred Mittag “Cognitive Dissonance: When Truth Is Difficult”   “A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” So wrote

HELL EXPLAINED—By a Chemistry Student Courtesy of Margie Keane   The following is an actual question given on a University of Arizona chemistry mid-term and an actual answer turned in by a student. The answer by this student was so ‘profound’ that the professor shared it with colleagues via the Internet which is, of course,

I Shall Return! By Jim Rambo   There’s been considerable discussion during the past year about the use of torture by agents of the United States. The recent release of a damning Senate report has confirmed that the torture of those deemed terrorists has been commonplace since 9-11. Two men have been identified as those

Anyone Can Train Their Dog By Art Hessartthedogguy@yahoo.com The Other End of the Leash   For the most part teaching basic obedience to the average dog is not difficult. We get their attention. Name, Focus. We use positive reward based training so we use a treat to lure the dog into position and reward the

The Fairly Tragic Story of “Bjorn Bjork” By John Ward   Bjorn Bjork was born in 1866 and had become known as his country’s most revered author, and with books like: I am Unhappy Snow, My Favorite Color is Clear and I Will Not Hang Myself Today amongst others, Bjorn Bjork showed the world that

Welcome to Mexico! By Victoria Schmidt Vehicular Conundrums   Driving in Chapala has been very difficult for the last four or five months, and it doesn’t look like it will get any better in the near future. I know there are many of you who have been dealing with your own problems in Ajijic, and