This Author's Website is
This is a journal about many things.
Welcome to My Blog!
“Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. . . To me, awake is to be alive.” (Walden Pond, 1854) Yes, I Like That!
I just read David Barstow’s expose’ in the Sunday NYTimes of Wal-Mart’s latest shenannigans, “Vast Mexican Bribery Case Hushed up by Wal-Mart After top-level struggle.” It was three-pages long in pica print and exposed bribes, pay-offs and cover-ups as Wal-Mart was developing their monster chain in Mexico. Horrors!!! Did you know that one out of five Wal-Mart’s is in Mexico. Do you think Wal-Mart may have something to do with Mexicans coming here–they fear a Wal-Mart takeover?
Now, I don’t like Wal-Mart, and I won’t shop there. I don’t like the way they treat employees, especially women–but people still work there and lots of women; I don’t like the way they crowd the ‘Mom and Pop’ stores–but that’s what capitalism is all about. I could give you a page full of reasons that I don’t like Wal-Mart–in pica print–but the thing I dislike the most is what I see as an arrogant attitude as they change communities in a self-serving, self-righteous manner–this annoys me mightily.
I read the article with relish, eager to read bad stuff, smirk abit and nod my head knowingly, but I was disappointed, it sounded like old news and I doubt that I’m alone.
Over more than a decade, we have been bombarded with Enrons, irresponsible bankers, an unrestrained Wall Street, unscrupulous Hedge Funds, private interest groups, a paralyzed government encumbered with self-serving bureaucrats, and worst of all, a sad and sinful war. Wal-Mart seems little by comparison.
After all we’ve been through, it’s easy to want to say, “They all do it, WalMart just does it bigger”; but we can’t. If we don’t address BAD then how we expect BETTER. I’m going to remember that the next time Wal-Mart is naughty. And for that, I thank the press, and in this case the NYTimes and David Barstow for reminding me. That’s my 2-cents.
He died in 1892 but in 1895 the Montgomery Ward Catalog was selling Union Suits for 10 cents a piece. I like that! 
When our daughter and son-in-law invited us to go to Paris for New Year’s, they said that they would get the plane reservations and the hotel but “You plan it!” Hmmmmm? Plan 5 days, and my daughter had never been there, her husband had only been there on business and my husband and I hadn’t been there in over 30 years–we took the sightseeing route.
But New Year’s Eve–that was the key to the holiday, and it had to be a memory of Paris that we could only get in Paris. We decided to dine elegantly on epicurean masterpieces concocted in a quintessential French restaurant, and with the help of our hotel concierge–contacted before we left–we chose Le Crystal Room Bacarrat –it’s also a Bacarrat Crystal museum–where we were served a 7-course meal from 9pm to almost 1am.
Bon Appetit
Bon Jour,
I went to Paris for New Year’s! It had been over thirty years and a lot of Frequent Flyer Miles since that visit and I was eager to re-see it.
Don’t go for New Year’s; it’s crowded with foreigners! 6. Do make dinner reservations for nine pm. This is the time to eat inParis. I know what you’re thinking, but it will be worth it. By that time they are fully staffed and ready for you. If it helps, be glad you are not inSpain where it is at least ten before anyone will want you. Almost any café or bistro will do but this is also where your hotel concierge comes in handy. Remember, FOOD is what the French do well and they take pride in it.
7. Do hang out in the Montmartre. It’ll be crowded but you can still find your own space. For example, sit on the steps of the Basilica Sacre Coeur and think about where you are, stop by Renoir’s home, and wander around the artists at work in the square and wonder if another Van Gogh, Renoir, or Degas is waiting for you to spot them.
8. Do hang out at Le Père Lachaise. Just about anyone who was anyone in France is buried there. Get a map and begin your search for them. (I put an app in my I-Pad.) Here’s a starter list: The tragic lovers Abelard and Héloïse share a canopied tomb, Frederic Chopin is buried with a small urn of Polish soil and a red rose on top, Edith Piaf, Balzac, Bizet, Colette, Corot, Daumier, Max Ernst, Pissarro, Proust, Rossini, Seurat, Stravinsky, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, and even Jim Morrison—a treasure trove of immortals to whom you may pay your respects.
9. Don’t take a Dinner Cruise unless you have planned for
transportation afterward. We took one with Bateaux Parisienne. The sights were lovely and the food was good enough but it was somewhat ruined when there was no transportation at the Quay when we disembarked and the boat people were just interested in getting home themselves. Plan ahead.
10. Do spend lots of time with the Eiffel Tower. It is soooo French and simply magical, especially at night when it’s lit up. In fact, if you stand near it, close your eyes, sing a little of Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris”, and click you heels 3 times, well who knows what it might bring. I wish I had thought of that when I was there–let me know.
Bon Voyage.
(In my next blog, I’m going to tell you my menu for New Year’s Eve. A French eating experience. Look for it.)