The world is a fascinating place.   In the wake of the Academy Awards, a brief debate occurred about Pink's performance of the Judy Garland classic, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".  There were opinions decrying the blasphemy of the performance and others who thought the singer brought both talent and heart to her version.  

  A friend’s dad passed away last week. I didn’t really know him -- but just how special this man was in life was literally brought to life at his funeral. At the risk of sounding morbid, this was the nicest funeral service I have ever attended.

A few weeks ago New York Magazine was in the news when it published an essay by Alec Baldwin wherein he gave his reasons as to why he was going to leave New York City. The essay was available on the internet prior to the publication of that week’s issue of the magazine. While my urge to read the essay online was strong, I was easily able to resist the temptation as I knew that my copy of New York Magazine would arrive in the mail on Monday.  

On vacation, having already gone bike riding, swimming, golfed and played tennis, we decided to try something completely new and different.  Skeet shooting.  There is a range a mile away where you shoot pigeons.  

"U.S. and Italian researchers tracked thousands of adults during nearly two decades and found that those who ate a diet high in animal proteins during middle age were four times more likely to die of cancer than contemporaries with low-protein diets — a risk factor, if accurate, comparable to smoking. They also were several times more likely to die of diabetes, researchers said." In the study, researchers defined a “high-protein” diet as one in which at least 20 percent of calories came from protein; a “low-protein” diet was defined as less than 10 percent.  

My friend Ennid Berger says, I like to eat almost everything. However, my wife Joanne is far more discriminatingand as the years have gone by I have developed the ability to help her "manage" the menu,i.e., choose something that she will like. Otherwise, if she does not like something she ordered we have to trade plates. I am now thinking of giving a course at the New School or some other eclectic forum called "Menue Management" and lending myself out to fine restaurants.  After all, it is better to give than receive! 

It was time for our grandson, Jackson, to take his nap. Our daughter-in-law picked him up saying “It’s time for me to put Jackson down.” A strange choice of words.

At the risk of engaging in excessive partisan politics,  I just wanted to gauge a reaction to both Sarah Palin's concerns about the potential Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and Mitt Romney's claim that Russia was our primary geopolitical enemy.  Both were actively ridiculed on this forum during their respective elections.