Scene and heard

The following two posts were written 3 weeks ago. This one was today. I had a lot of catching up to do, so it is short and sweet:

For the thirds and last time, I am a married man. There is so much to write about the ceremony, the party, the Honeymoon, the people, our families, the trip and more. It will take a while, as I also have a lot of other catching up to do. Also, I haven’t yet got the professional pictures. But I do have some great ones lifted from Facebook, posted by various family members and friends. Please bear with me.

It was an amazing 3 weeks which will live with me forever. And those who joined us have similarly raved.

For now, it’s back to reality and the need to make a lot of money!

I’m writing this 19,000 feet up in the air (and climbing), on my way from New York to Los Angeles on a futuristic and very comfortable Virgin America Airbus. I had thought I might also send it from up here, but decided I don’t need to pay the $12.95 Internet charge which will be good until my battery dies…. About an hour and a half.

Jan went out to LA on Tuesday morning. She found a one bedroom condo for a short term rental, which is ‘on’ the beach. I expect to take a morning dip in the Pacific tomorrow. By the time I arrive tonight, I’m not sure I will be quite up to it!

So it is a week until the big day. On Wednesday, my mother and sister arrive; on Thursday, my kids and 3 cousins arrive and we have the bachelor party, which will basically just be drinks in a nice bar somewhere. An aunt will come on Friday, the day of the rehearsal dinner. And on Saturday morning, at 9:30am, most or all of us will gather at a location as yet to be determined, and watch Tottenham Hotspur v. Manchester United live. What a way to start my wedding day!!! I hope the lads do me proud and start my big day on a positive note. Whatever the result though, watching it with that many of my favourite people will be unique and special.

The wedding itself is at 6:45pm on Saturday. Somewhere between 50 and 55 people will be there and the work involved in putting it on seems quite disproportionate to the hours it will last and the size of it, but it will be a lot of fun. Jan has put in so many hours to put this whole thing together. Who knew that selecting the type and colour of dress worn by the bridesmaids; the flower that they will wear and the flowers on the tables could possibly be so complicated! Selecting the tux certainly seemed easy enough!! 

Relatives start to filter home on Sunday, ending with Mum and Jackie leaving on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, we go to Maui for our Honeymoon for a week.

I will take pictures and will post some, along with a wedding shot or two, here. But please bear with me – it might be a while.

Now at 38,000 feet……

I’m really not sure how much patience I have left for the place. I still love the positive energy and walking around some areas at certain times. But either the bullshit level is on the rise or my tolerance of it is on the decline.

One commute home began with a complete selfish idiot running through the revolving door exiting the PATH station at Pavonia Newport in Jersey City. Never mind that I was in the door and he suddenly more than doubled the speed. I pushed ck a little and was sorry I hadn’t jammed my foot there and sent him crashing into it. Next time!!

Then on 6th Avenue in in Manhattan, as I started to cross the road I heard “watch” from a distance and paid it no mind. A couple of seconds later, more urgently, “watch! Watch!!” And I turned to see one of the great menaces of New York, the Chinese delivery man on a bicycle. They observe no rules and I wish they would be stopped and fined more by the Police. Maybe, just maybe, they would observe some common decencies then instead of practicing their headlong pursuit of faster delivery and extra tips. Not that I blame them for wanting more than the meagre money they probably make. But I do resent that happening at the expense of my safety.

And just a day later, on 14th Street approaching Trader Joe’s, a young lady was twirling her oversized umbrella completely oblivious to the people with whom she was sharing the crowded sidewalk. When she slung it sideway over her shoulder, I was forced to grab it so as not to be hit. When I informed her that this was Manhattan and there were other people around, and that I nearly got got, she responded “No shit, Einstein! Well you should stay away from me!” Like I would ever think of not doing so!! Really no point in continuing any discussion there, as people with attitudes and mouths like that will refuse to back down even if they know they are in the wrong.

Pity these assholes and all of those who walk out of restaurants and stores without bothering to look and see if anyone else is around (it’s Manhattan. Others are around!) then stop, blocking the pavement; and all of the other mindless folk who inhabit the streets here spoil it for the decent majority. But certainly, by the time Hannah is more established in her independence, there’s every chance that I will move from the area for the last time. Before then, maybe it will be back to New Jersey for a while.

I just got a Spam mail that surely only a complete and utter moron could possibly fall for, so maybe I shouldn't be so angry that I want the senders to choke on their own spit overnight and not wake up tomorrow morning. After all, surely, people who are stupid enough to fall for this aren't capable of feeding themselves, let alone negotiating the Internet. Anyway, this is the email, which I have reported to Spam@uce.gov, an FTC website:


Yahoo account users,

All yahoo free account owners,

We are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of yahoo accounts so we are shutting down some yahoo accounts and your account was among those to be deleted.We are sending you this email so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account.If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below. Your Username, Password, Date of Birth and your Country information would be needed to verify your Account...

Due to the congestion in all Yahoo users and removal of all unused Yahoo Accounts, Yahoo would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 48 hours for security reasons.

* Username:
* Password:
* Date of Birth:
* Country Or Territory:

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences. Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two days of receiving this warning stands the risk of lossing his or her account permanently.

The Yahoo Management

A super fast moving and violent storm passed over here. The sky is now blue, but more ominous clouds are rapidly approaching. So we are in the eye. Then I thought of how storms break up the faster they move and the further in land they go, so it is possible that storms may have more than one eye.

I imagine that storms with 4 eyes must be quite a spectacle!

A couple of weeks ago, a man in his 30s got on the B train, two stops from where I was getting off, and stood just in front of my seat. He rested his heavy brief case against my leg, which I promptly moved. The brief case came to rest against someone else’s leg. This forced the man to pick it up and rest it between his own legs. He wasn’t happy.

And when I stood up, he had to not only pick up his brief case again, but also move a little to let me off. He looked at me as if I was the biggest pain in the ass he had ever encountered. Somehow, even though he was obviously a lovely fellow, I didn’t feel guilty.

Their new commercial has been on for a couple of months now…. long enough for me to hate it almost as much as I hated their previous efforts. Gone are the obnoxious happy yet empty stereotypes. They have been replaced with a couple whose relationship is based on the New York Times; people for whom the New York Times is the highlight of their weekend; people who are “fluent in” sections of the New York Times (yes, the woman is fluent in the Style section!) and a man who knows beyond any argument, that the very best journalists in the world work for the New York Times. In other words, shallow people who don’t have a life beyond the New York Times, plus an opinionated idiot.

As before, the commercials come on all too frequently and feel more like harassment than an attempt to sell me a product. They come across as an attempt to lose the traditional customer base and run the paper into the ground. If there are many other people – advertisers nightmares – who, like myself, tend to use commercials more to determine what not to buy than what to buy - the criteria being that if they are aiming at morons they can’t be trying to sell me anything so I won’t buy it - then their strategy is probably doomed to lose them readership at an even faster rate than modern trends would otherwise predict.

Some of you may wonder how these could possibly be linked. But you will know from your own secret thoughts, that memories can take our minds on wild tangents. And so it was with me.

I moved in with Jan a couple of weeks ago. She had inherited a mattress which was somewhere in age between considerably older than 15 years and post civil war. It was brutal. I realised after I replaced it with my wonderful 2 year old but good as new firm memory foam model, that I shouldn’t have dumped the thing. I missed an opportunity. I should have donated it to the American torture camp program. Suspected bad people could have been confined to it for 22-23 hours per day. I tell, you, they would have broken even if strong enough to withstand water boarding. And there’s not a convention in the world that would call it torture or consider it illegal!

I was convinced that this was the worst mattress I had ever slept on until my memory dredged up a long forgotten number that I slept on a few times in my Aunt and Uncles place as a pre-teen. It was old, but suited me well enough. Until one day, my Uncle’s Mother stayed over. She was a lovely lady with a truly enormous belly. The next time I slept on the bed, there was an indentation in the middle which directly corresponded to her girth, and which I had to curve my body around for fear of falling in. At the time, I always slept on my front, and this really wasn’t conducive to sleeping in semi craters.

How my mind took me from this to Swedes, which are known in the US as rutabagas, even I’m not willing to guess at, other than both were awful memories. At my Primary School (for US readers, this goes from ages 4 or 5 up to 11), the school dinners were also torture (maybe this memory is linked to Jan’s old mattress and not my uncle’s?). And we had to finish every bite, because “children are starving in Biafra”. The swede was boiled down into a mush, which was somewhat lumpy and watery – remarkably similar in texture to what they called mashed potatoes, which were so traumatic for me that I couldn’t eat mashed potatoes again for 30 years – but with a strong flavour I will never forget but couldn’t begin to describe.

I believe I blogged once before about a moment indelibly etched in my memory. The headmistress of the school, who we all thought was incredibly old, had an enormous gap between her two front teeth. One day, I was sitting in the front of the lunch room, and she decided to speak, or rather shout at all of the kids. I watched in horror as a huge gob of her spit landed in the middle of my mashed potato and slowly disappeared into it, and my usual laboured eating of this dreadful stuff became an exercise of trepidatious picking around the edges.

When she asked me why I wasn’t eating, my young (9 or 10 year old) mind understood that telling her I couldn’t eat my mashed potato because she spat in it could only end badly for me. So when all the other children went out to play, I went into her office to finish my lunch. And I continued nibbling until a dinner lady came in and took pity on me. And no, in case you are wondering, this is not the reason I couldn’t eat mashed potatoes for 30 years. Even without the Miss Kohn spittle incident, these were quite disgusting enough to have left their mark on me.

Mayor Bloomberg is on TV constantly. It’s almost as if he is running against himself in the Mayoral race. He certainly present a compelling case for himself. But I have two points to make.

You can either believe what he and his political supporters say about City schools, or speak with teachers, who, in my experience, hate the man.

And second and far from least, the reason why he absolutely must not be elected. A vote for Bloomberg is a vote against democracy. I will state and restate this. The New York City electorate voted twice to maintain term limits and Bloomberg overturned these democratic decisions claiming there was a financial need for him to be given another 4 years. After he claimed that the economy here was picking up, a journalist asked him if the conditions for him overturning the will of the people still existed. He not only didn’t respond to the question, he was rude to the questioner. Because the truth is, economic problems or not, he is so conceited, he would have put forward legislation to overturn the public votes and run for a 3rd term.

Please, if you believe in democracy, do not vote for Mike Bloomberg, no matter how you rate his performance as Mayor.

I saw an article about this on cnn.com today. Apparently, President Obama has pledged $13bn to the cause and there is a split between those who say it will be financial self-supporting, those who say it can never be so and those who say that talk of financial viability is beside the point.

Of course, the last of the three is the right answer, and those who oppose it on financial grounds are the type of dinosaurs who should just hurry up and turn into oil already, like their far more interesting ancestors. But I digress.

The talk seems to be of trains in excess of 110mph. England had the ‘Inter-City 125’ over 30 years ago. In 2007, France broke the world record for a train, at 357.2 kph, which translates to a little under 225mph. So I would seriously question why the country which prides itself as being the greatest in the world is looking to upgrade to 30+ year old, and obviously inferior trains.

My vision is of 300mph trains on all new tracks, built through a combination of corporate and government financing with bond issues allowing the public to also invest. And I want to see these trains run from East to West and North to South. Yes, the cost will be hugs, but the cost of not doing it would be considerably greater in so very many ways.

First, a couple of reasons why this would be a good idea: If you could get from New York to Miami in under 4 hours, would you bother driving to the airport, leaving your car in the long term parking lot, checking in an hour or more before the flight time, waiting for the almost inevitably delayed take off, and then taking a cab from the airport to your destination, when the stations these trains will run between will be in City centres?

You can walk on these trains. They have proper refreshment cars. People who are very long legged or very overweight will not need to choose between travelling first class in order to fit into the seat or upset those sitting in front of them (that person being unable to recline their seat – I know this, because I was that person once) or next to them.

Would you consider a 10-hour train ride between California and New York when the plane supposedly takes about 5 ½ hours? But how long before your flight do you leave home? What is the actual door-to-door journey time? I suspect the actual difference in journey time would be closer to 2 hours than 4 ½. But how much more comfortable and hassle free would those hours be?

Are you perhaps an environmentalist? Think of the savings in gasoline and aviation fuel!

But the recent talk has been about intra-State rail links, connecting major cities in California and Florida to each other. For these routes, perhaps 300mph trains would be overkill, even though a mere 110 seems pointless and redundant even while being planned. But if you could get from LA to San Francisco in 2 ½ hours, or Jacksonville to Miami in 2 hours, might it keep you out of your car or be a far more attractive alternative to flying? Traffic on roads would improve, meaning better air quality, less traffic, less stress and less road works. There would be less delays in air travel, which would also become safer.

And the cost, while undoubtedly high, will be mitigated by a few factors that the status quo people are too blinkered to think of. Many people would work on these projects. A proportion of the jobs would actually pay decently. These people would put money back into the economy by spending. They would pay taxes. They would have health insurance!

And here’s another way this should and probably will be partly paid for: tax on air tickets and higher tolls on roads where these routes coincide with the new high-speed rail lines. True, people would scream that they are subsidising others against their wish. And true, the airlines would scream that their business was being strangled. But times must change.

We are killing our planet and clogging our roads, airports and airways. The cost of gasoline will only go one way in the future, and this plan would relieve the upward pressure. And ultimately, apart from the cost of fuel in dollars and cents at the pump, there is the very real, if less easily discernable cost of dealing with increased asthma and cancer rates and other health issue directly related poor air quality, as well as the cost of attempting to clean the air. Yes, whatever the dinosaurs say, times must change. And the sooner we get real and accept these changes, the healthier we, our children and grandchildren will be.

This has been a VERY busy time, and I am now on the home stretch, but not done yet.

It all started with Memorial Day weekend. Jan and I went to Amherst, Massachusetts for Sean’s graduation, which was on the Saturday. We actually stayed the night before and the night after at the Springfield Sheraton, about 40 minutes away. We lucked out with the weather. Apparently, not too distant Boston had most uncertain weather while we were bathed in unbroken, glorious sunshine. And with 4000 kids graduating, we were wonderfully surprised that the ceremony was fast moving and very enjoyable.

The college, UMASS Amherst, had a cook out for students and relatives, after which we went for a wonderful meal at a really beautiful brook-side restaurant nearby. Our party was interesting. Sean and his parents, one of whom was with his fiancé; the other with her mother and step-mother, the latter of who was with her new husband, who was the only one I hadn’t previously met.

We went to Boston to spend Sunday evening through till Monday afternoon with my friend Heidi and had another wonderful day. I had hoped to post pictures here. I certainly took enough. Alas, somehow, somewhere, certainly at the end of the Boston stay, I lost my camera. I can still not quite believe it is gone, and I am most upset about that. I will have to get another as soon as I can afford it, but those moments have gone. And the camera was a gift. It’s worse to lose gifts than things we buy for ourselves.

The busy-ness continued. Jan was here for 3 weeks, but has now gone to California to finalise arrangements for the wedding. That entailed two lots of packing. And on Friday, I move into her place on the Upper West Side.

The mountain of things I have to do is tormenting me. I should have been getting to them rather than writing this blog entry. I am selfishly grateful that it is cloudy out, as I now have to go through everything I own to determine what comes with me, what goes into storage, what can be recycled or donated and what ends up in the garbage. And all the while, the new project I am currently learning, to eventually rescue me from a 9-5 existence, beckons.

A few weeks ago, walking outside of Fairway on Broadway and 74th Street, I locked eyes with a clear eyed 80-something woman with perfect skin and a youthful spring in her step. Her classic, Bohemian beauty was undiminished, suggesting that she used to turn many more heads than just my own; her eyes told stories of depth and a fascinating life. Our eyes didn’t disconnect until we passed each other; each of our slightly crooked half smiles mirroring the other.

Those few of you who, like me, constantly look at the people passing you by on the street without shying from eye contact, will understand why this moment felt so magical. Those who keep their eyes averted will never experience similar moments on connection and may simply shrug as they read this.

I received an email today from an address stated simply as IRS. The title of the email also was only IRS. This suggested that their records show me to be a non-resident alien, and I am to fill in and fax a form either confirming or correcting this information.

I opened the form. It turns out that this is a modified version of a real form. However, it asks for bank account information, which the IRS would never do. Further, if the IRS wants to contact you, it will do so by snail mail, not email.

When you open this email, the address shows up as noreply@irs.gov. Out of curiosity, I hit the reply button and this address came up: info@nvinternational-ltd.com

For more information on this scam, please go to this website: http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/cmosby/archive/2009/04/22/fake-form-w-8ben-used-in-irs-tax-scams-trendlabs-malware-blog.aspx

And don’t just lie down and take it! This is a scam of the most heinous proportions, which makes the stupid letters we all get from Africa look like kids stuff. Forward whatever you receive to your State Attorney General’s Office. In New York, that is: internet_fraud@oag.state.ny.us

I was tempted to send a nasty email back to this scumbag, but didn’t want to tip him off. I want him to have a knock on his door from the Police, as he is taken into custody. I understand that this person may not live in New York or even the USA, but that should stop nobody from doing the right thing here.

DO NOT fill in and send off this form, or you will have enabled someone to steal your identity. DO report this email and let the law deal shut this person down.


Here is the form I was sent. Unfortunately, the formatting was not compatible with blogger:



FORM W-8BEN (NRA Recertification)
Request for Recertification of Foreign Status
W-8BEN Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner
(Substitute form) For United States Tax Withholding
Part I Identification of Beneficial Owner
(JUNE 2009)
1. Name of individual or organization that is the beneficial owner
2. Sex: x male □ female
3. Type of beneficial owner □ Individual □ Corporation □ Complex Trust
□ Simple Trust □ Grantor Trust □ Central Bank of issue
□ Government □ International organization
□ Tax-exempt organization □ Private foundation
4. Date of Birth
5(a). Nationality: 5(b). Place of Birth:
6. Country of permanent Residence
7. Mothers Maiden Name:

8(a). Spouse Name: 8(b). Spouse date of Birth:
9.Permanent resident address (street, apt, or suite no, or rural route).Do not use a P.O.box or In-care of address

City or town, state or province, include postal code where appropriate
Country (do not abbreviate)
10. Mailing address (if different from above)

City or town, state or province, include postal code where appropriate
Country (do not abbreviate)
11. Social Security Number.(if any) / Cedular de Identidad no
□SSN or ITIN □EIN
12. Profession: 13.Day time phone/ fax Number
9. 14.(a) Bank Name(s):
15. Account number(s):
16. Branch Address:

17. Date Account(s) was opened:

18. How often do you come to USA and when did you arrive last?
19. ATTACH PHOTOCOPY OF PASSPORT FOR PROPER IDENTIFICATION
Part II Certification of Beneficiary Owner
Under penalties of perjury, I decided that I have examined the information on this form to the best of my knowledge and believe it is true, correct and complete.
I furthermore certify under penalties of perjury that:
. I am the beneficial owner (or am authorized to sign for the beneficial owner) of all the income to which this form relate.
. The beneficial owner is not a U.S person.
. The income to which this form relates is not effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business in the United States or is effectively connected but
subject to tax under an income tax treaty, and
. For broker transaction or barter exchanges, the beneficial owner is an exempt foreign person as defined in the instructions.
Furthermore, I authorized this form to be provided to any withholding agent that has control, receipt or custody of the income of which I am the beneficial owner or withholding agent that can disburse or make payments of the income of which I am the beneficial owner.
The Internal Revenue Service does not require your consent to any provisions of this document other than the Certifications required to establishing your status as a non-U.S person and, if applicable, obtain a reduced rate of withholding.

Sign Here ____________________________________________________ ___________________
(Signer #1) signature of beneficial owner or individual authorized to sign for beneficial owner Date

Sign Here ______________________________________________________ ___________________
(Signer #2) signature of beneficial owner or individual authorized to sign for beneficial owner Date

SEND TO FAX NO: +1-206-203-3379
JUNE 2009


Dear Sir,
Our records indicate that you are a non-resident alien. As a result, you are exempted from United States of America Tax reporting and withholdings, on interest paid you on your account and other financial dealing to protect your exemption from tax on your account and other financial benefit in rectifying your exemption status.

Therefore, you are to authenticate the following by completing form W-8BEN, and return to us as soon as possible through the fax number: +1-206-203-3379


If you are a USA Citizen and resident, this form W-8BEN is not meant for you, please indicate “USA Citizen/Resident” on the form and return it to us. We shall then send you a form W9095.

When completing form W-8BEN, please follow the steps below

1. We need you to provide your permanent address if different from the current mailing address on your Form W-8BEN , you must indicate if a non-USA resident, your country of origin to support your non-resident status (if your bank account or other financial dealing has a USA address for mailing purpose).

2. If any joint account holder are now USA residents or Citizen, or in any way subject to USA tax reporting laws, Please check the box in this section.

3. Please have all account holders, sign and date the form separately and fax it to the above-mentioned number.

Please, complete Form W-8BEN ‘attached” and return to us within 1 (one) week from the receipt of this letter by faxing it, to enable us update your records immediately if your account or any other financial benefits are not rectified in a timely manner, it will be subject to USA tax reporting and back up withholding (if back up withholding applies, we are required to withhold 30% of the interest paid to you).

We appreciate your cooperation in helping us protect your exempt status and also update our records.

Sincerely.

I just finished reading E. H Gombrich’s ‘A Little History of The World, a surprisingly enjoyable book once you get past the first couple of pages which seem to talk to children and not adults. It actually is aimed at pretty much all ages and reads that way beyond the opening. The book was first published in 1936 but only recently did the author add a final chapter and translate it into English.

A quote near the end caught my eye, as it surely demands that we all look at ourselves and our respective countries, and ask some serious questions. It is from an unnamed Buddhist Monk the author knows.

He would “love to know why someone who boasts that he is the cleverest, the strongest, the bravest or the most gifted man on Earth is thought ridiculous and embarrassing, whereas if, instead of “I”, he says, ‘we are the most intelligent, the strongest, the bravest or the most gifted people on Earth’, his fellow countrymen applaud enthusiastically and call him a patriot.”

Perhaps if a few more people thought this way, we would have less conflict and would treasure our neighbours instead of thinking many of them beneath us. I will not point fingers at individual countries. Most or all are guilty to some extent, and certainly, some more so than others. I can think of one where the crowds go wild every time a politician proclaims it the greatest country on Earth. As a sound bite, it certainly works. But just consider how those listening think of others when they proudly take this message to heart and how they (perhaps you) view the outside world as a direct consequence of believing this. It really isn’t possible to put yourself on a pedestal of any kind without all those who don’t share your pedestal being beneath you. And if you think that last statement isn’t true, I respectfully suggest that you are fooling yourself, but not others.

I have some material lined up to write, but I haven’t had enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do, so unfortunately, the blog has suffered a little. And it may stay like that for the next couple of weeks. Bear with me, folks. I’ll be back!

With 200+ cases of this virus confirmed in the entire U.S., a mass hysteria is sweeping the world. I have even seen a very few people in New York and Jersey City wearing face masks! OK, a couple of dozen of those cases were right here in the City, and there are undoubtedly quite a few undiagnosed people walking around as carriers. Yes, more people will get this flu.

A baby died so we have a serious pandemic? I feel dreadful for the parents and family of this baby, but put into perspective, every year, flu viruses claim lives of very young, very old and very sick people. If this virus starts killing otherwise healthy people, it is time to get worried, but this is at most a remote possibility. At least wait until a few people you know get sick before starting to worry. Then again, what flu season has ever passed by without you or people you know getting sick from it? I will only start to worry when reports have it that the number of reported infections is growing exponentially and low-risk people are winding up in the hospital, or worse.

In the meantime, take your hand sanitizer with you. If you see someone in a confined space who seems ill, get at least 6 feet away from them. In New York at least, don’t worry about touching the hand rails. So few people here sneeze into their hands that these might be more germ free than they should be! (I wish that was nothing more than irony or sarcasm, but unfortunately, it happens to be true!) Just don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth with the same part of your hand that you use to grasp hold of the rail. However, this is sound advice for every day, even if there is no health scare.


On a slightly different and certainly lighter note, now that we are hearing this virus being called H1N1, am I the only person who can’t get the Gorillaz song M1 A1 out of his mind?

Labels: H1N1, Swine flu

I somehow manage to pick out very good books for myself. Most recently, I have read Broken by Daniel Clay, which American reviewers don’t seem to like, but I thought was excellent; and The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright, which I thought was more accessible to more people than Broken and another excellent book. And then I picked up Soul Catcher!

The story dates back to pre-Civil War America, when Slave Catchers were called Soul Catchers by Black people and White abolitionists. It is a high adventure trek from South to North and back again, first in search of and then in the company of two runaway slaves. The book is billed as a story of redemption, which it most certainly is. But the style in which it is written, the depth of the various characters, the description of the journey and the complex relationships of all of the characters set this book apart from most.

Yes, I have read many books that I would recommend to people; many that I have thoroughly enjoyed. But this captivated me in a way that very few books ever have and moves into the upper echelon alongside Birdsong and above such notables as The Secret Life of Bees, To Kill a Mockingbird, Water for Elephants, Tuesdays with Morrie….

When you see this described as an important book, believe it! As avid a reader as I am, I would describe few books as ‘must read’. This one deserves that accolade. Read it!

You may be an asshole if you don’t make room for people to get off trains, particularly in the rush hour.

You are an asshole if you barge through the crowds trying to get off said train.


You may be an asshole if you stand in front of a turnstile in a train (Subway, Underground, Metro, etc.) station fumbling for your commuter pass.

You are an asshole if you stand in front of a turnstile in a train (Subway, Underground, Metro, etc.) station fumbling for your commuter pass in the rush hour.

You are a mega asshole if you stand in front of a turnstile in a train (Subway, Underground, Metro, etc.) station fumbling for your commuter pass in the rush hour while your friend or kid is standing in front of the neighboring turnstile either doing the same or waiting for your pass.


You may be an asshole if you come out of a store onto the pavement/sidewalk without looking, forcing those already there to have to stop in order to not clatter into you.

You are an asshole if you come out of a store onto the pavement/sidewalk without looking, forcing those already there to have to stop in order to not clatter into you in a busy place or during the rush hour.


You may be an asshole if you drive around corners without signaling.

You are an asshole if you drive around corners without signaling, especially when pedestrians who are waiting to cross could have done so if only they knew you wanted to turn.

You are a mega asshole if you drive around corners without signaling, when pedestrians who are waiting to cross could have done so if only they knew you wanted to turn and it is bucketing down with rain or is freezing cold or otherwise dreadful out.


You may be an asshole if you sit on a park bench near people who aren’t smoking, and light one up yourself.

You are an asshole if you sit on a park bench near people who are eating, and proceed to light a cigarette.

You are most definitely a mega asshole if you light up a cigarette before getting all the way outside, while crowds jam the exit staircase and nobody has any means of not breathing your second hand smoke other than holding their breath.


You may be an asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth when anyone else is around you.

You are an asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth while in any enclosed space, such as a train or bus.

You are a mega asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth while in any enclosed space, such as a train or bus, when it is crowded.

You are a multi mega asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth while in any enclosed space, such as a train or bus, when it is crowded and there is fear of a pandemic.

As with my other film reviews, I will not give away the story beyond what you would see in any other review. This film is, for the most part, the story of a young Mexican gang member whose conscience gets the better of him. He winds up running from his old gang, who are determined to kill him. Before his flight, he introduces his 12 year old brother to the gang, and while on the run, he meets a young Honduran girl who is on her way to the USA with her father and uncle. Although we see her before the two meet, there is no doubting who the story is really about.

And what a story! To be sure, this is not easy viewing. It is tense and violent with no shortage of conscience-free sadism from the gang members. But it is so gripping, you might feel exhausted when it is over.

I consider this to be the best film I have seen in a very long time. Certainly considerably better than Slumdog Millionaire, which I loved. I have to say, if this was an English language film, it would be unlikely to not win the Oscar. Will there be 5 better films than this in 2009? I doubt there have been 5 better films than this any year ever! But such is the way the Academy works, it will be a pleasant surprise if it is one of the nominees.

This isn’t a date movie; at least not for early in a relationship. But it is a film that will have you wanting to talk about it, once your superlatives stop flowing and the stunned feeling you experience lightens.

Is the true mysterious genius of sexual attraction rooted in the beauty of women or in the fact that men find them beautiful? After all, do male goats not find the females of their species to be overwhelmingly attractive? And yet few Humans share this attraction, and those who do, are unlikely do be a discerning as your average gigolo kid (the tail chasing goat that never grows up)! Indeed, how many goats would be aroused by Kate Moss or Halle Berry. Or would a dog be more attracted to Angelina Jolie than Rosie O’Donnell? Just a thought. Some might think it a weird one. :)