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Surviving Olympic Glories

The Olympics have barely begun and I’m almost comatose. Coverage from Milan and Cortina during the afternoon, prime time, and late night have my eyeballs operating in the glued position. Holy biathlon. I’d forgotten how many events are covered. For the first time though, while watching these Olympic Games, I realized that I don’t envy any of the beautiful young athletes anymore. I absolutely, positively cannot imagine attempting any of those death-defying sports. Every surface they challenge is hard. My firm mattress is as far as my imagination can take me. Either they are ...

NY’s New Stance On Life

By Margot Russell This is not an argument against mercy. It is an argument against pretending that power always uses mercy carefully. There is a particular kind of dishonesty that shows up whenever assisted death is proposed by people in power. We are told this choice will remain humane, and rare. We are told to stop worrying about abuse because, by God, the government respects life. But the moment the state authorizes death as a remedy, the argument is no longer about mercy. It becomes about eligibility. And eligibility, once introduced, never stays the same. I call it the big ...

The History Of Valentine’s Day

Today marks another day to celebrate Love, and the feelings we have toward special people in our lives, be it True Love, Puppy Love, Love and Marriage, Crush Love, and/or any other type of feeling that makes us all “googlie ooglie” inside for that someone special. In what has become a holiday which started out as a romantic dinner celebration, has been embellished through time to include, flowers, candy, flowers and candy, a bracelet, a necklace, and bracelet and necklace, a ring, a bracelet and a ring, a necklace and a ring, a necklace, a bracelet, and a ring, a puppy, and if ...

Gorge Is Spectacular In Winter

CHAUTAUQUA GORGE STATE FOREST—It’s one thing to see the Chautauqua Gorge in the summertime. It’s another thing entirely to see it in the wintertime. If you haven’t seen it in the wintertime, you might consider putting it on your list. It’s spectacular. Just spectacular. High walls along the deeper parts of the gorge surround snow-covered pines and hardwoods. In the middle of a sunny afternoon, the blue sky is overhead. Later, as the sun sets, the sky turns dark blue and the brightest stars begin to fill the sky. More stars join them as the sky turns dark blue, then ...

Finding Old Mexico

By Margot Russell I wish more people could see Mexico as it would surely be seen if we lived in a world without corruption. Or greed. The real Mexico is not Cancun. Cancun is a wonderful place if you’re looking for a margarita and a wide beach, but it actually rose up from a Mayan jungle that once boasted a small fishing village and was surrounded by pristine undiscovered shores. Today it looks like Las Vegas but with a lot more water. And like Vegas, the 25 million Americans who visit Mexico each year head to the resorts. And drug cartels do not tell Mexico’s story very ...

USA! How Things Have Changed

A couple months ago, (November 26th, to be exact) as in my usual morning routine I am now into, I woke up about 2 in the morning and turned on the coffee, and then the television and watched reruns of Leave it to Beaver, and My Three Sons, while enjoying my early, early morning first cup of coffee. As I did that, I did a little channel surfing and stumbled onto the showing of the movie, Miracle, the story of the 1980 U.S.A. Olympic Hockey team and their quest for the gold medal which they had waited four Olympic competitions to recapture. This version of that story, which starred ...