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Dancing Jones

A few weeks ago I was lamenting that I had not been out dancing in a long time, so last night at Mimi’s with Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue playing, I cut a rug. Mostly I danced by myself but T actually got up and danced two slow dances with me and then Dancing Man and I danced a few songs as well. As I said earlier, Gal’s on her way to California…

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People coming and going and always too soon

I learned that Gal Holiday is moving to California – big bummer for us who were used to getting to see the band plenty. Like T said, “They always make feel good.” We’re going to see them tonight at Mimi’s, because very soon, we won’t have the luxury of just picking a day and going out dancing. I told her that California will be good for her, will make coming home (she will) that much…

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Politics aside

We just finished the fourth season of the Wire and like the seasons before this one, there are indelible images now fixed in my mind about local and state politics. I think through four seasons of the Wire I’ve learned that life in the projects is bleaker than I imagined, inner city children need a strong parent to survive in the most challenging conditions, the school system run by the government, any government, is FUBR…

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The dear old sun

Tin is very taken with the moon and stars and now is branching out to include the sun and sky and clouds in his repertoire. When we see the moon, we always recite what my mother taught me, “I see the moon, the moon sees me, god bless the moon and god bless me.” And we sing twinkle twinkle for each star. Today I saw a woman wearing a tee shirt that said: The sun…

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Headline: Fall arrives and so do I

We woke this morning to an almost twenty degree temperature drop – WALA! – fall, we hope. The dogs and I went for a longer walk than usual and tried to start the day off on the right foot. Then I come home to the headlines – John Mayer quits Twitter (read: just got a clue), Oprah’s gift creates a frenzy (revised: money corrupts even Oprah), Obama’s message is garbled (interpretation: it’s the economy, stupid).…

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Turkey – two steps to the right

I keep wondering who this guy is – Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was elected Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003 threatening the longstanding secular tradition of that country (since 1937 the Turkish constitution adopted secularism and gender equality as explicit state policies). But more than 70% of the voters turned out recently to reform the government and give Erdogan even more power – but will it be to move the country to the right a…

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The royal gems

We’re very fond of our zoo here at the LaLa despite the fact that Heidi the German Shedder has left a coating of dog fur from one end of the house to the other and barks at anyone who deigns to walk by, and despite Loca’s vertical jumps that have left deep grooves in the solid mahogany window sills, and Bam Bam’s grey fur that has coated the one chair on the screen porch and…

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The eyes of an angel

I’ve been going through photographs of my mother trying to select the best one for a porcelain cameo like the one of my grandmother on her headstone. In doing so, I’ve been looking into her eyes over and over, so much so that she is in my dreams and drifting in and out of all my thoughts these past days. I can tell you that I’m shaken by her beauty, her deep green eyes and…

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New Orleans on the edges

I’ve told many people that you could come visit New Orleans and not see a trace of the Great Government Levee Failure of 2005 or you can see it appear through every nook and cranny – just depends on how you are looking. I took the truck in for repairs on Bienville this morning, taking the dogs with me so that I could walk them back home. I walked down Bienville, crossing Carrollton on my…

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