June2012

Welcome to Mexico! By Victoria Schmidt By-products   Eleanor Roosevelt once said “Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.”  Well then, Mexico has been my greatest by-product. I’ve just returned from that dreaded trip into the land from which I ran.  I was not chased. I was disillusioned.  What I saw happening to […]

A NOBLE DOG STORY   BALDWIN PARK – A line is expected to form at a Los Angeles County animal shelter Monday, when a Labrador retriever who made worldwide headlines for her loyalty will be placed for adoption.  The black Lab is now named Grace by workers at the shelter in Baldwin Park, in the

CHILD of the month By Rich Petersen José de Jesús Cortez Sánchez   Our child this month is 9-month old José de Jesús Cortez Sánchez. He is the youngest of three children who lives with his parents in Chapala. José was born with a cleft lip and palate. You may have seen children with this

THE MEXICAN CIRCUS By Gloria Marthai   There was a time when elephants and prancing ponies paraded through cobbled village streets to announce the arrival of a circus. Today, pickups with loud speakers blare the news. Legendary and glitzy, the mystique of the circus has appealed to both simple and sophisticated societies for hundreds of

FLY CULTURE By John Ward   Like many local ex-pats, I came to Mexico from the US. Naturally, I noticed many differences. I tend to notice differences in unusual things. Fortunately my travels have included most of the globe and I’ve noticed that the ubiquitous fly is an excellent reflection of the local culture. For

Anita’s Animals By Jackie Kellum   Normally this column’s main focus is educational information for pet parents. However, this month, one section is a “hot button” topic. For many weeks I have listened to personal stories from folks who have rescued a cat / dog who had been left behind when their ‘care-giver’ left for

WOLF! By Dr. Lorin Swinehart Jack London’s Tales Continue to Challenge and Inspire      One blazingly beautiful autumn day, my wife LaVon and I bumped and rattled over a washboard road for miles on end in order to visit a wild wolf sanctuary in the New Mexico outback. Later, the staff explained that the resident

Hearts at Work A Column by James Tipton “…rediscovering the inexhaustible here, the remorseless now.”   I recently reread Nathaniel Hawthorne’s remarkable novel, The Marble Faun, so filled with insights about artists and art. Describing Miriam, a central character in that novel, Hawthorne tells us that she had “dark eyes, into which you might look

LAKESIDE LIVING Tod Jonson todoflcs3@yahoo.com Barbara Clippinger clippy1020@gmail.com June 2012 June, is already “busting out all over” and giving us moments to be “singing in the rain.” There is total joy in both things so stay cool and “sing out, Louise!” Vincent Van Gogh painted one of the world’s most famous paintings, “Starry Night” in

THE CHARM OF CREATIONISM By Ed Tasca   Remember when grade-schoolers around Christmas time would craft tableaux, done with finger-size clay people and animals, set in crepe paper and lichen terrain and depicting the venerable stories of the bible and of creation. They were charming and irresistible. I for one miss them. And I suspect