November 2011

2010 Darwin Awards (Presented each year for the most stupid actions imaginable.)   Eighth Place                 In Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.  Seventh Place  A 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who “totally zoned when he ran,” accidentally jogged off […]

Mexicali Rose, Stop Crying! A Tale of a Tune and a Town By June Summers   Who was Mexicali Rose? Jack Tenney, ex-California legislator and composer of that timeless Spanish waltz he named Mexicali Rose, said you would have to go back to the early days of Mexicali to answer that question. The dry laws

Sayulita’s Desert Brother By Duncan Aldric duncanaldric@yahoo.com   There is a place in the high desert well known to many of the inhabitants of Sayulita, that is to say, well known to the Huichole, whom inhabited Sayulita in days of old and new, and to a great few of us interlopers as well.  To the

Lakeside Science Fair Association Progress Submitted by Charlie Smith   For the first time the Centro de Estudios Tecnologicos en Aguas Continentales (CETAC), a high school in Jocotopec specializing in water related technology, had a science project accepted at the Guadalajara Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), in September. ISEF is a prestigious international

Sandwich  Insecurity By Bernie Suttle   It was 1939 and I was going to start grade school where, as my mother said, “You will learn something new everyday, and meet many nice children, just like you.” The first part was OK but I didn’t know about the second part because I was sure there was

LEARNING YOUR DOG’S ALPHA By Ed Tasca       If there is one thing that unites many here in Ajijic, it is dog-ownership and understanding dog behavior. Even those without dogs seem to have a certain natural affection for our furry companions, and an equal curiosity about how dogs think. Now, one of the

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSERVATISM AND LIBERALISM By Richard Rhoda   An interesting article on the psychology of conservatism: “[People displaying] measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism and gun control,” the team wrote in its report, to be published in

The Higher We Went, The Higher We Got By Carol L. Bowman   A plastic bag filled with oval shaped, dried, green leaves made the rounds among the ten of us in the van. We were instructed to take four, crumple them up into a small ball, place the wad between our back molars and

THE GAME OF THE NAME By Mildred Boyd   It is not clear why today’s society seems to consider the word “drunk” taboo. It was not always so. Cowboys and working stiffs used to get frankly drunk on Saturday nights, but such overindulgence was certainly not confined to the lower classes. There must be some

DON’T ASSUME By Mel Goldberg   Angela walked from the hospital toward her car at the end of the dimly lit staff parking lot. She hated the long midnight walk at the end of her Saturday night shift when many of her friends were partying. To save expenses, the hospital had reduced staff to a