We wuz robbed!” Or, as my English teacher at Immaculate Conception School, Sister Mas Grammatica, would have said, back in the ‘50s, “We were robbed!”

And if my sixth-grade homeroom teacher were still around, how would she react to this question, relevant this month? The question is: “What does a London barber do? Answer: Eclipse

On the robbery matter, I believe many of us missed a chance to view the much-touted eclipse, which apparently came by around noon last Monday. The biggest to-do about eclipses in general came when I worked for a large newspaper in Aurora, Ill., in the early ‘60s.

The entire staff, of about 50, gathered on an elevated lawn, at the Aurora Beacon-News. Some spent more than an hour viewing the once-in-a-sometime phenom.

I recall that most of the newspaper crowd stood facing the eclipse but used a newspaper, a baseball cap, or their hand to shield their eyes. I never learned whether any of the newspaper staff suffered ill effects from their Trump-style imitations (remember, the presidency gives The Donald amazing powers, including immunity from eye damage from staring at an eclipse). Continue reading →

Only a few months ago, Bonnie and I flew to Iceland to join our son, Stan, his wife and two daughters, for a dip into their many hot lakes and to see first-hand what the country has done to maximize solar power.

It was surprising that for a land so far north; we sweated in some of the many steaming swimming areas. We’d read about the geothermal and hydraulic energy, geysers and volcanoes.

We’d flown to a city called Reykjavik, where we discovered that their late-winter temperatures were comparable to those in Las Vegas. Although we need to wrap ourselves in light jackets, we never felt overly chilled. And we’ll do it again, as Iceland is a convenient mid-point between New Mexico and Denmark, where our son’s family lives. We usually trade visits each year.

What impressed us considerably was the organized way in which the Icelanders plan schedules. And it seemed as the entire city — much smaller than Albuquerque — was on a simultaneous break.

Let me explain: Continue reading →

For now, let’s simply call them “Kitty” and “Tookta,” the second name pronounced with a long “o,” as in Tuke-tah.” We Trujillos have done it again; we’ve accepted two more foreign exchange students whom we understand are the only two such students in Las Vegas.

Two years ago we took Phaedra, from Belgium, and Ana, from Spain, into our home and “adopted” them for 10 months while they completed their 10th and 12th school grades, respectively, at West Las Vegas High School.

Each time we’ve dealt with their sponsoring agency, AFS-USA, Bonnie and I have wondered, “Why are we among the few in town to host foreign exchange students? It is so much fun and so enlightening, and besides it keeps us in touch with the school community.”

We’re proud of the caliber of students who’ve joined us. Yet we continue to wonder why geography has been scratched from the curriculum almost everywhere. Ana and Phaedra were surprised to learn that several students regarded them as sisters even after being told that they were from different countries and ethnic groups. Continue reading →

Back in fifth or sixth grade at Immaculate Conception School, Sister Mary Espantosa, ran us through the reading curriculum by telling us that books are generally divided into two classes: fiction and non-fiction. We’d wonder: Is that all? Either it’s fiction or it’s not?

Well, literature in the form of short stories, usually in prose, and consisting of “made-up” stuff, constitutes a mammoth genre. And what is the counterpart of fiction? It’s non-fiction. How many geniuses sat around a table coming up with a label that covers just about everything else?

There’s biography, historic literature, drama, essays, memoirs, science fiction, poetry and much more to the literary canon. And all we can come up with is made-up stuff or non-fiction?

Let’s say we’re discussing things we’ve been reading. Someone says, “I loved the role of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.” Most will recognize the work by F. Scott Fitzgerald as fiction: it’s something Scotty made up, about some fast-living, free-flowing, fun-loving, fool-hardy, fancy-dressing, financially fit friends and philanderers in the early 1900s. Continue reading →

Back in the olden days, in the era of black-and-white movies and TV-less households, the weekend highlight for many Las Vegans was going to see a Western, or at least something with lots of action, but no romance.

We had three movie houses in Las Vegas: The SERF, which has been transformed into a dance-dining hall but still retains its marquee; the Kiva, closed for decades, on Bridge Street, whose favorite flicks were in Spanish; and the Coronado, at Sixth and University. The building stands but no movie has been shown in decades.

I have a somewhat fuzzy recollection of a black-and-white movie about a newspaper mogul, possibly William Randolph Hearst, whose favorite line seemed to be “I only believe what I read in the newspapers.” Continue reading →