Stew and I believe gray mice are endearing. And apparently so did The Walt Disney Company, who's made billions off Mickey and Minnie, and also Remy, the protagonist of Disney•Pixar's 2007 animated feature "Ratatouille," about an irresistibly charming Parisian rat who aspires to become a chef. A lot of people are unpersuaded by the charm of …
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How I'm going to make 2022 an exciting year
Some people, myself included, make New Year's resolutions that are bound to fail. Take, for instance, my vowing to take up marathoning despite my penguin-like flat feet that keep me from running more than a block at a time. Other people inventory all their defects and deficiencies, the weight of which end up crushing their …
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The strange and sad story of our gardener Lupe
A week ago last Sunday, on the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, or Lupita as she is affectionally called by some Mexicans who venerate her more fervently that even Jesus himself, Stew, a friend and I went to Querétaro to see Steven Spielberg's remake of "West Side Story." We all loved it, although …
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My own curious sidebar to the coronavirus story
During a recent 15-day sojourn in San Antonio, Texas, for Stew to undergo knee-replacement surgery—and for me to play his personal Florence Nightingale during his recovery—we both got the booster Pfizer shot and the annual flu vaccine at a Walgreens pharmacy. Taking both vaccines simultaneously was perfectly safe, or so we had read. That was true …
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Zipping above Mexico's Copper Canyon
Tourism-promoters often resort to grandiose pitches that may not be exactly correct—we've got the fastest this or the biggest that. And so Mexico claims that its Copper Canyon, in the northern state of Chihuahua, is larger in area than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It all depends on how measure them. The Copper Canyon is in fact …
My cameo as a Sports Illustrated cover model
Decades, though it feels more like eons, ago, when I was a junior at St. Agnes Cathedral High School, in Rockville Centre, New York, I had the good fortune of catching the attention of Sister Malachy, a Dominican nun who taught English, moderated the student newspaper and sparked my interest in photography, which burns brightly …
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Moments and teachers that changed my life
Wednesday's Guardian newspaper carried a moving testimonial by famed Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart to Cecil Dormand, a high school English teacher who "spotted" Stewart's talent and essentially put him on the path to a brilliant acting career in Britain and the United States (Remember Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?) In the testimonial, effectively …
Storm warnings: Be careful what you brag about
Yesterday, Oct. 4, we awakened to the umpteenth cloudy/drizzly/gloomy day in this seemingly endless rainy season in San Miguel de Allende. Let us now bow our heads and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness from our friends in Chicago, New York, and points north of Indianapolis, for all our constant hee-hawing about the unpleasant climate in which they …
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The medieval cookie cure for your pandemic blues
It's tough not being at least a bit depressed these days, pelted every day as we are, with news about the Covid pandemic and the paralysis of our national government. To cope I've developed what I call "The Ostrich Solution," to filter out potentially upsetting news and focus instead on the more whimsical, bizarre or …
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San Miguel's special kind of autumn
Tuesday was the autumnal equinox, the official beginning of fall in the northern hemisphere or if you live in San Miguel, the peak of a colorful season that rather feels like spring, with cool temperatures and a cornucopia of wildflowers. Up north, by Chicago, New York or Toronto, people eagerly await the leaves taking on their …
El Rancho Santa Clara 