Hispanic Heritage Month is a rare commemoration that straddles 2 months, running from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
At 63 million strong, US Hispanics, who derive from a variety of origins, are the 2nd largest identifiable ethnic group in our population, coming in at 19%, right after white Americans at 59%. Most Hispanics would self-identify either as white or of another race, but are also considered Hispanic because of family background, language, and the countries of origin of their forebears.
Being bilingual and having lived in Latin America, I also identify as Hispanic myself despite my actual bio heritage, so now feel fully entitled to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month along with my friends. My second book title acknowledges this, Confessions of a Secret Latina: How I Fell put of Love with Castro and In Love with the Cuban People. My adopted son born in Colombia unfortunately doesn’t speak Spanish, though I certainly tried to teach it to him and my other kids. He took a college course in Spanish, which was somewhat helpful, but not enough for fluency. He now lives in West Va. where Spanish is rarely spoken.
It now looks like a US government shutdown is going to happen, despite accomplishing nothing except for creating chaos and economic pain.
Below, then-president President Jimmy Carter with me and my family in 1979.
Six-term Senator Dianne Feinstein was not a quitter, stubbornly refusing pressures to resign. As someone approaching her age myself, I supported her decision. We both were getting older, but we weren't dead yet! Now Feinstein really has died, setting off a mad scramble for her seat and the short time still left on her Senate term.
Sept. 23 was officially the first day of fall, in case you missed it.
Local artist Michelle Turner is still drawing houses.
Oct. 1 is family day at the Hill Center on Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from my home. Will that event still go forward?
Some progress has been made in recovering funds stolen from my debit account by a woman I've never met, someone who may have seen the account number on a check that passed her way. However, of more than $20,000 that was taken, some $9,000 still has not been restored. Merchants have been asked to voluntarily return the stolen funds, but not all have complied. I’ve changed my account and now have a print-out of activity being sent to my home every month. This sort of theft targets senior citizens like me who may not even know how to monitor a debit account. I never knew myself before this theft.
Devices thrown at the embassy failed to ignite, so no one was hurt. I’ve visited that embassy to discuss Amnesty International's human rights concerns (in Spanish), but not recently.
Artes Miami
is proud to support the performances of Las paredes oyen [The walls
have ears], October 6, 7 and 8, at the American Museum of the
Cuban Diaspora [Miami].
This play is by young Cuban-American actor and writer Robby Ramos.
From Amnesty International:
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It's certainly high time to have a female American president. But after Haley detailed her views more fully, promising to expand oil drilling and cut social security, I've now withdrawn my support. I still hope to see a female president in my lifetime, but not Haley. It was a rare fluke of our electoral system that gave us Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton, who actually won the popular tally by a whopping almost 3 million votes. On the very next day after that vote, I was giving a prescheduled book talk to a rather dispirited group of book lovers in Hillary’s hometown of Chappaqua, NY. My audience and I had fully expected to be celebrating a Clinton victory there. Instead, on that very same afternoon, we saw Hillary herself outside, taking only tentative slow steps while leaning heavily on husband Bill’s arm.
The
US could now curb ever-rising medical costs by freezing payments
and salaries at current levels. Other developed countries do just fine with a lower pay scale for health-care workers who derive satisfaction from
their work, not just from their pay. Current payments to medical
practitioners in the US cannot realistically be reduced, but salaries could now be capped
lest they continue to soar. I belong to the Kaiser system with salaried practitioners, not those being paid fee-for-service. It was unfortunate that our medical payment system
was allowed to push doctors’, nurses’, and therapists’ salaries into the
stratosphere compared to the compensation being offered in other high-income
nations. While working at the occupational therapy association, I recall that
Canadian therapists would often cross the border to earn much more over on this side.
Despite undergoing the rigors of childbirth and experiencing numerous economic and social disadvantages in most societies, on average, women the world over still live longer than men. Why? It turns out that Telomeres, protecting chromosomes and present in chromosomes at birth, are longer in females than in males from the very start. These Telomeres then become progressively shorter with age, but because in women they are longer to begin with, they last longer. No wonder I now know so few men my age!
Not only are older men in short supply, but some younger
men are finding that virtual girlfriends are more hassle-free than real live ones.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4218666-ai-girlfriends-are-ruining-an-entire-generation-of-men/
The oldest fish in captivity is a lung fish, Methuselah, that enjoys eating figs. She arrived at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco in 1938 from Australia, but had been born years earlier, so may actually be as old as 92.
The world’s largest flower, Rafflesia Arnoldi, is in serious danger of extinction as few specimens still exist. According Guinness, the accolade for the world’s largest single flower of the species now belongs to a rare plant discovered in a forest in West Sumatra, Indonesia, where a parasitic flower of the genus measured 111cm in diameter (3 feet, 7.6 inches) and weighed 20 pounds.
Ayuda a niños como Thiago [online appeal from St. Jude]
On our neighborhood website, the owner of 3 pet cats posted a photo of them all lounging on her bed, commenting, “I love my kids, like seriously.”
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