Never been one for admiring myself on the mirror except perhaps for my thick, formerly dark brown mane, especially after most of my friends began losing theirs regardless of the color. Losing one's hair is a clear sign of creeping, or galloping, old age, one that makes you concentrate on the sink drain rather than …
Impotence at the border, with no pictures
Short of being locked up in a Turkish prison on charges of smuggling heroine, nothing makes you feel smaller or more powerless than crossing an international border even if one of the sides is your own country.Last week on the way to San Antonio Stew and I congratulated ourselves on making such good time, about …
Broccoli and universal health care
During oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court two weeks ago Justice Antonin Scalia derisively compared the mandated insurance requirement of President Obama's health care law with a theoretical government mandate for Americans to buy and presumably eat broccoli. If the federal government can impose one mandate, why not the other?It was supposed to be …
Bloody Week
Although I consider myself a triple-plated Roman Catholic, one who attended Catholic elementary and high schools, plus college, and was even attracted—albeit very briefly—by the idea of joining a Benedictine monastery, I’ve never fully understood the RCs’ obsessive fascination with suffering. Not suffering as a concept, as in Buddhism which posits that suffering is an …
Uneasy rider
s, Two news bulletins most mothers don't want to hear are "I'm having a baby," from an unwed teenage daughter, or "I just bought a motorcycle," from a son, probably of any age. When you think of bikers, sober-looking CPAs or Episcopal ministers don't come to mind. Bikers are more like Hell's Angels and other …
Cuba on my mind
Omens and premonitions about my homeland have been tap-tapping on my mind, and also on my heart, for the past several weeks. They want attention, resolution.On Saturday night Stew and I walked through the kiosks of the annual Festival of Cuban Culture in San Miguel's main square. The wares were generally predictable and sad: Dusty books …
About the birds and the bees
If the level of partying and fornication--and the number of stings inflicted on nearby humans and animals--reflect the health of a beehive, then Stew's is a doozy. He had installed the bee box, custom-made by a local carpenter, six weeks ago but the actual bees, about seven or eight thousand of them, didn't arrive for …
Inca contraband
One of the biggest surprises during a trip to Peru several months ago was the breadth of its cuisine including one of its signature dishes, broiled guinea pig. We both tried it. It doesn't taste like chicken. Actually I don't recall what it tastes like. It's one of those dishes you order on a dare--"I'm …
Misión imposible
One of Stew's most annoying habits--to retailers and manufacturers of all sorts, that is--is his meticulous filling and filing of all guarantee cards, along with the documentation required for any claims. Quite often a nearly microscopic message at the bottom a "lifetime guarantee" card may warn that to claim any refunds or replacements you need …
Mexican party tips
The centerpiece of the celebration of the baptism of Félix's baby, Edgar, didn't come until the day after the church ceremony and took place outside the family's barebones, one-room home, in a dirt patio under cloudless skies and a huge pepper tree, with a view of the fields farmers had just started to cultivate.The two …
El Rancho Santa Clara 