El Ojo del Lago - March 2012 by El Ojo del Lago

Saw you in the Ojo

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

Saw you in the Ojo

Richard Tingen

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alejandro Grattan-Domínguez Tel: (01376) 765 3676, 765 2877 Fax: (01376) 765 3528 Associate Publisher David Tingen Graphic Design Roberto C. Rojas Jazmin Eliosa Special Events Editor Shelley Edson Associate Editor Jim Tipton Contributing Editor Paul Jackson Contributing Editor Mark Sconce Drama Critic Michael Warren Art Critic Rob Mohr Staff Photographer Xill Fessenden Sales Managers Omar Medina Bruce Fraser Office Secretary Lorena Garcia ADVERTISING OFFICE Av. Hidalgo # 223, Chapala Mon. thru Fri. 9am - 5pm Sat. 9am - 1pm Tel. 01 (376) 765 2877, 765 3676 Fax 01 (376) 765 3528 Send all correspondence, subscriptions or advertising to: El Ojo del Lago http://www.chapala.com ojodellago@prodigy.net.mx Ave. Hidalgo 223 (or Apartado 279), 45900 Chapala, Jalisco Tels.: (376) 765 3676, Fax 765 3528 PRINTING: El Debate El Ojo del Lago aparece los primeros cinco días de cada mes. (Out over the first five days of each month) Certificado de Licitud de Título 3693 Certificado de Licitud de Contenido 3117.

Index...

FEATURE ARTICLES

COVER STORY

Carol Bowman, one of the Ojo’s premier travel writers, climbs into the high country of Peru and finds amidst the spectacular vistas much to exhilarate the spirit but sadden the soul.

8 Cover by Cuca Velarde

14 THEATER Jonny Kottler reviews a mini-play written and starring Ed Tasca, an homage to FDR, whom most Americans consider the greatest president of the 20th century.

23 GRINGO VIBRATION William Hayden, after two years in San Blas, now moves on to discover more of Mexico. He calls the move like going on “without his training wheels.”

32 MEXICAN CUSTOMS Gloria Marthai dwells on one of the most beloved customs in Mexico, which is its answer to “Happy Birthday.”

36 FAREWELL & WELCOME We say goodbye to Shelley Edson and welcome Tod Jonson and Barbara Clippinger as the new Co-editors of Lakeside Living, which has long been one of the Ojo’s most popular columns.

72 DECISIONS Roberta Rich, whose novel Midwife of Venice is a best-seller, writes about the abrupt way she and husband decided to move to Mexico.

Reserva al Título de Derechos de Autor 04-2007-111412131300-102 Control 14301. Permisos otorgados por la Secretaría de Gobernación (EXP. 1/432 “88”/5651 de 2 de junio de 1993) y SEP (Reserva 171.94 control 14301) del 15 de enero de 1994. Distribución: Hidalgo 223 Chapala, Jalisco, México. All contents are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the written consent of El Ojo del Lago. Opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of the Publisher or the Editor, nor are we responsible for the claims made by our advertisers. We welcome letters, which should include name, address and telephone number.

COVER STORY

PUBLISHER

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

COLUMNS THIS MONTH 6

Editor’s Page

Uncommon Sense

Bridge by Lake

Joyful Musings

Welcome to Mexico

Child of Month

Anyone Train Dog

Hearts at Work

Viva Vida Loca

New Lease on Life

From the Grapevine

Thunder on Right

Lakeside Living

Magnificent Mexico

The Poet’s Niche

Focus on Art

Front Row Center

Stay Healthy

LCS Newsletter

LAKESIDE LIVING

 D IRE C TOR Y 

42 MAGNIFICENT MEXICO

VOLUME 28 NUMBER 7

Saw you in the Ojo

Editor’s Page By Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez

(

few months ago, the ten-year war in Iraq finally came to an end. Total cost: More th than 4,500 U.S. dead, tens of thousands of wounded (including PTSD), many thousands permanently maimed, 250,000 Iraqi dead, millions homeless and an 800 Billion Dollar cost to the American taxpayer. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. Given that, we thought our readers might be interested in an Ojo editorial that we first published in November of 2002.) Careening Toward Catastrophe During the last presidential campaign, this column opined that George W. Bush was the least qualified Republican candidate in fifty years. The point was easily made when one compared him with far more seasoned leaders such as Eisenhower, Nixon and even Bush’s own father. Since then, nothing Bush the Younger has done has caused us to alter that evaluation. Yet even given his lackluster credentials, we cannot believe that he is sincere in his desire to launch a preemptive attack on another nation, and then commit the US to a long and potentially hideously expensive effort to recreate Iraq in our own image. Has Bush not heard the howls of protest from the great majority of the countries of the world, the wise words of caution from prominent members of his own party, as well as from many military men who distinguished themselves in the Gulf War? Yet he has been deaf to all reasonable objections, whose specifics include: • Even given that Iraq possesses such awesome weapons, it cannot deliver them more than a few hundred miles—so where is this “mortal threat” that Bush raves about? • Some weapons we know Iraq has (such as nerve gas), but for the past eleven years it has not

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

•

used them against us or our allies. Why—because it knows that soon thereafter Baghdad would be turned into a pile of rubble. Is Bush even vaguely aware that if the US occupies Iraq, we will replace Saddam, a Sunni, with a Shia (whose party compose the overwhelming majority and thus would certainly win in a democratically-held election) and thereby make Iraq the natural ally of the Shia in Iran—a country that unlike Iraq can severely damage the United States!? What is this “mortal threat” now that wasn’t there a year ago? Why all the rush? Could it be that Bush’s timetable has something to do with the US mid-term elections? Why can’t Bush handle this in the same bloodless, brilliant way that JFK settled the Cuban Missile Crisis—a threat a hundred times more dangerous than anything Iraq could ever pose? Why Iraq, and not Iran—which is a much stronger country with far better weapons? Then what— North Korea, Syria, China, Cuba? Has Bush even the foggiest of what this misadventure will cost? Independent estimates start at 100 Billion, and go as high as double that figure! Bush says it will cost only some 200 million—and that Iraqi oil will pay the entire cost. Why is Bush so against the idea of sending UN inspectors back in? If they find no WMD, war might be averted; if they do, the effort will help to marshal other nations to Bush’s cause. Why is Bush diverting military resources from fighting the AlQaeda in Afghanistan, which poses a far more serious threat to the US than Iraq? Could it be

that the effort has stalled, and hence offers nowhere near as good a campaign issue as an allout invasion? Surely this is a smokescreen to obscure a faltering economy, a nose-diving stock market, a squandered surplus, all the corporate scandals (including those tainting even the president and his VP), and that Bush has made good on almost none of his campaign promises? But if he is indeed serious, the following is instructive: during the Mexican Revolution, President Woodrow Wilson was visited by a group of U.S. senators, as well as several titans of business. They wanted him to send an army to Mexico to “straighten out those revolutionary bastards” who were threatening U.S. business interests. Wilson offered them a deal. If each man would allow a son or grandson to be in the first brigade sent to Mexico, he would reluctantly accede to their demands. Wilson never heard from anyone in the group again. Bush has two daughters of military age. If he will “volunteer” them for action in Iraq, tens of millions of skeptics like me might finally take him seriously. Hell, I’ll sign up my-

self, even if I have to roll into the recruitment office in a wheelchair. But don’t stay underwater waiting for anything like all this to happen. (Postscript: Many of the same bellicose voices that bullied the American people into the catastrophic ten-year war in Iraq are now clamoring for another war against Iran, which is also “suspected of having weapons of mass destruction.” To indulge in a redundancy, it is déjà vu all Alejandro Grattan over again.)

Saw you in the Ojo

LIFE ON THE ALTIPLANO By Carol L. Bowman

ur driver, Eber and Walter, our tour leader, had no choice. After we endured a jarring one hour ride on a rutted dirt road, the familiar trail ended abruptly. Boulders placed across the dusty path signaled an impasse ahead. A make-shift route wandered off to the right and tire marks furrowed into the earth suggested that adventurers before us had paved a new way. “Vamonos,” we chimed, with that mixture of fear and excitement the unknown brings. The truth was, we were lost and had no idea where this unexplored detour would take us. In this desolate Peruvian altiplano, at 11,500 feet, the only visible landmark, Veronica, guided us onward like a daytime constellation. The highest snow-capped glacier in the Cordillera Urubamba range of the Andes, topping 19, 000 feet, Veronica had become our traveling companion; no longer towering above us but now just slightly taller, like an older sister. Eber maneuvered the van around huge boulders, upward to a flat mesa. Along the steel blue horizon, small dots, looking like a distant village, popped into view; we hoped someone there could provide directions to our intended destination, Pachar, Peru. We came upon a mere lad walking his burro; a double basket bulging with chicha-filled skins, hung over the mule’s back. Walter informed us that Andean highlanders have few sources of potable water; often family members, including children, drink the 2% alcohol-fermented corn mash as their only liquid intake. This traveling ‘chicha distributor’ refreshes thirsty farmers he encounters by chance. The young salesman, deprived of human interaction on his lonely route, greeted our interlude with relief. He soaked up every syllable as Walter spoke to him in Quechua. Today, he had already walked for five hours by the sun, but he hadn’t

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

seen one soul. I felt a twinge of abandonment as the van sped away leaving man and beast stranded in their isolation. A day in the life of an Andean Highlander. The stark terrain changed, as sheep, goats and pigs hogged the roadway. We edged toward the cluster of adobe-brick huts, one displaying a hand-carved pole with a torn red cloth attached to the end, fluttering in the rarefied air. The flag signifies, ‘chicha today’ and remains the universal symbol in Peru to invite passers-by to stop for a cup of brew. We saw three men manually making adobe bricks in a field behind a house. Eber stopped the van and Walter trudged over to ask if he and ten tourists in his charge could watch the process. Twenty-three year old property owner, Miguel, nodded his consent. A rare opportunity to interact with a local family unfolded, as we walked to the back of the two-story casa. Blue tarps, blocking icy winds and rain, covered the home’s paneless windows. In the scruffy yard area, plastic gas cans and five-gallon buckets for carrying water were strewn about. Flimsy, frayed wires attached to the house and stretched from a hand hewn pole, leaning like Pisa, suggested intermittent electricity. What a scene. Gringos bundled up in alpaca scarves, gloves and thermal jackets to protect against the Peruvian winter chill, faced members of a Highland family, each wearing layers of mismatched clothing, but no coats. After a flurry of conversation in Quechua, Walter introduced us to Miguel’s mother, 83 year-old grandmother, and 20 year-old wife, Nayely. We eyed each other with inquisitive stares. Dulce, Nayely’s three year old daughter, hid behind her mother and peeked around at these strangers, her knitted cap pulled tight, revealing smudged, puffy cheeks and large black eyes. I asked Nayely in Spanish, “Han encontrado extranjeros antes?”

(Have you ever met foreigners before?) “Nunca. Es la primera vez,” (Never, it’s the first time). The enormity of the moment sank in; the fruits of ‘being lost’ revealed. Mamá sitting on the hard cold earth and grandma cushioned atop a pile of sheep skins, their petticoats and wool skirts furled around them, peeled dehydrated potatoes called moras and sliced them into pink plastic tubs in preparation of the day’s starchy soup. I peered up at the clay-tiled roof and viewed a crude TV antenna. Nayely announced, with a hint of pride, that they receive two TV stations from Cuzco. “Me gusta las telenovelas,” she giggled. Watching soap operas is a universal pastime for young Latina women. The house had no running water, but it had telenovelas. Nayely explained that Miguel’s parents gave them this farm land as a wedding present. They were building a dining room off the kitchen, to protect the family from the harsh elements of the altiplano. So far, of the 3000 adobe bricks needed, Miguel and his neighbors had only finished 500. Nayely pointed to the blocks baking in the sun. We drifted to the field’s edge to observe the brick-making process. After turning over the soil by hand, Miguel and company, made mushy, dense clay, with water carried in plastic buckets from the pond half a mile away. They added straw to the mix, rolled up their pant legs, removed their shoes and mixed the mud and straw together with bare feet, akin to stomping grapes. Miguel shoveled the adobe into a brick mold, leveled it off as if measuring flour and removed the form; only 2499 more to go, knee deep in cold clay. A day in the life of an Andean farmer. With Miguel’s directions, Eber intersected the road to Pachar and after two jostled hours, we rumbled into town. A barricade of 9 and 10 year-old fifth graders from the Raqchi School greeted us, jumping and squealing with anticipation of our visit. The small-group tour company, with whom we were exploring Peru, donates $10 US per traveler to this high-in-the-sky, school. Former Peruvian President Fujimori, during his pre-scandal first term, ordered schools to be built throughout the Andean highland. A 6th grade education became mandatory. Some children walk an hour one way to meet this requirement. As each of us stepped from the van, a child waited to take our hand and steal our hearts. Tiny Naisha, so small for 10, clasped mine tightly. My gold and silver ringed fingers rubbed

against the built-up dirt, ground into her fragile hand. A blue and yellow uniform showed strain from daily wear and no water to wash it. The anxious smile she wore and her intense longing for attention I sensed, made this moment more powerful for me, than the exhilaration of climbing Machu Picchu. The children led us into the simple concrete building and frigid classroom and offered wee chairs. Workmen, finishing the school’s first indoor bathroom with funds from the tour’s foundation, hammered away in the adjacent room. The teacher, whose daily commute involves a one-hour bus from Urubamba and a mile walk from her drop-off point, looked on, proud of her eager students. As Naisha paged through her school notebook pointing out her ‘favorite’ subjects, she spun my silver bracelet round and round, fascinated by its sparkly finish. Although the people in this region speak Quechua, the children learn Spanish in school and in preparation for our visit, they mastered some English words. Remnants of math class chalked on the blackboard, the square root of 81 and complicated algebraic equations, revealed the depth of their studies. No water, no bathroom, no heat, one computer and one TV for the entire school; yet 5th graders can compute square root. I pondered if these children will ever use algebra. Being able to communicate with Naisha in Spanish offered me a clearer picture of her life. She lives with her parents and seven siblings in a two-room, adobe-brick house on the edge of town. Despite a lack of experience around foreigners, each child stood in front of the class, poised from practice, and gave his or her name and desired adult occupation. When Naisha’s turn came, it was the only time she let go of my hand. She wants to be a tour guide. A day in the life of an Andean child.

Saw you in the Ojo

UUNCOMMON NNCOMMON COMMON CCOMMON OMMON SSENSE ENSE By Bill Frayer billfrayer@gmail.com Collaborative Consumption: Would It Work?

n January, at the weekly LCS Learning Seminar, we viewed a TED podcast from Sidney by Rachel Botsman, author of What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. In a nutshell, she is on a mission to sell the concept of resource sharing rather than individual ownership. She asks, for example, how much sense it makes that many of us own a vehicle which sits idle for 23 hours a day? Wouldn’t it make more sense to share the expense of a vehicle and have it be used by more than one family? Well yes, maybe. In the rousing discussion which followed the presentation, although many people endorsed the idea of collaborative consumption, many were also skeptical about its practicality and even its possible effect on an alreadyfragile economy. How, in other words, could we organize car-sharing so it would be convenient and workable? And to what degree would it lower car sales and slow down the economy? Practical concerns, to be sure. Botsman suggests, however, that, like it or not, we are already heading in this direction. In part it’s a generational movement driven by the open sharing opportunities on the Internet. The young “gen-xers” have wholeheartedly embraced the sharing culture with open-source software and on-line music and movie sharing. Even those of us in the older generation use collaborative consumption in the form of Wikipedia and libraries. With the worldwide economic downturn and the pressure that a rising population puts on the environ-

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Bill Frayer ment, Botsman argues that we have little choice but to move from what she calls “ultra consumption” to collaborative consumption. Why should we own so much “stuff ” that we only use occasionally. Usually, she points out, we don’t really need the object as much as the capability or experience it provides. Most of us own electric drills which may only be used a few hours in our lifetime. We don’t really need a drill. What we need is a hole! Likewise, we don’t need CD’s; we just want the music. We may not need a car if we could have reliable transportation. Entrepreneurs are already responding. There are a number of car/ride sharing companies allowing consumers to get transportation without owning a vehicle. Websites like Swaptree are already allowing consumers to swap items. Companies like EBay and Craig’s List have been making money for years putting consumers in touch with people who have items to sell or swap. Of course, people enjoy owning things, and many would not find such “sharing” arrangements appealing. Yet, as resources become more scarce, and more expensive, we may see a resurgence in such old collaborative concepts like public transportation systems which would allow more families to make the choice to avoid car ownership. Perhaps our “ownership” society is going to fade, to some degree. The younger generations care just as much about quality of life but seem to be more content to share resources and avoid owning as many things. For a long time, status has been demonstrated through ownership. Perhaps this era is ending, as more people decide to live in rental units, participate in communal child care and take advantage of jobsharing opportunities. If this happens, maybe our idea of what brings us status may change as well. We may no longer be able to impress people by owning lots of items which we use only rarely. Perhaps our future status might be enhanced by consuming less and living in communities which share recreational space, laundry facilities, and even transportation.

BRIDGE B RIDGE B BY Y THE THE LAKE LAKE By Ken Masson

he Annual Ajijic Sectional Tournament was once again held in the Hotel Real de Chapala in mid-February. With a good mixture of local players and visitors from other parts of Mexico and abroad the friendliness and good competition for which this event is known was evident once again. As always, there was a great selection of hands to provide aficionados with hours of discussion over margaritas and cervezas after each session had ended. Norm Smith gave me the illustrated deal which he and his wife Fran had the pleasure (!) of playing against Ed Lewis and Mary Anderson in one of the pairs events. Mary dealt and opened 1 club which would probably be the choice of most players holding these cards. Fran passed and Ed bid 1 spade which proved to be a headache for Norm as this was his best suit in a hand holding 21 high card points. This is one of bridge’s imponderables: what to do when you hold more than half the deck in your own hand and both opponents are bidding freely? Norm felt he could hardly pass with this monster so he started with a double, hoping to somehow reach a workable contract with his partner, or at least push the opponents beyond their limit. Mary rebid her good seven-card suit and Fran passed again, uninspired to action by her pitiful, pointless collection. When Ed now showed his heart suit, Norm began to wonder just how many points were in this deal. Not seeing any clear way to continue bidding, Norm reluctantly decided to pass. However, to his astonishment, rather than letting the auction die at a low level, Mary’s next call was to jump

all the way to 6 hearts! How could this be, thought Norm? I have more points than Ed and Mary combined, surely there is no way they can make a small slam? When the bidding got back to him, Norm quickly doubled and led the diamond ace. The dummy did not prove to be a thing of beauty for the Smith partnership. Ed ruffed the opening lead, drew trumps in two rounds, set up six club winners with one ruff and eventually made his thirteenth trick by trumping dummy’s solitary spade in his hand. Only an opening lead of a high spade could have salvaged one trick for the defense but Norm had naturally led from his shorter suit believing it was less likely to be ruffed. North-South’s 19 high card points had triumphed over East-West’s 21 showing perhaps an extreme example of the power of distribution. The 5-5 trump fit, a near-solid 7 card club suit and a void in each hand made for an unbeatable combination. Of course it also took two highly skilled players to realize the potential of the cards they were holding that got them to the slam in the first place. Norm and Fran emerged from this battle bloodied but unbowed. It is a measure of their character that they found humour in this debacle which will stand them in good stead in future contests. Who knows, the next making slam with 19 points that comes along may be dealt to the Smiths! Questions or comments: email: masson.ken@ gmail.com Ken Masson

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Letter to the Editor Dear Sir: The January issue of El Ojo Del Lago contains letters to the editor that present incomplete explanations and/or misleading representations of the facts. One writer misleadingly infers that Google, in its official capacity, makes specific opinionated statements about a variety of issues, which of course Google never does. Google is a repository of billions of opinions posted by millions of people or organizations that can state just about anything they want to. This does not mean that Google endorses or agrees with those opinions. As an example, the writer says that Google states that the Washington Post was described as “Pravda on the Potomac”. That was nothing more than someone’s opinion posted on Google and certainly didn’t necessarily reflect what Google officially may or may not believe. Another writer in response to what he believes has been misinformation about the similarity of benefits available to Federal employees as well as members of Congress (who are also Federal employees) lists the benefits that are similar for both groups (with some major

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exceptions as he notes). As far as the writer’s list of items go, he is correct, but he fails to list some very important items that benefit members of Congress that are not applicable to regular Federal employees. Specifically, members of Congress are vested after just 5 years of service and a full pension is available to members 62 years of age after just 5 years of service, 50 years of age after 20 years of service, or any age after 25 years of service. As a retired Federal employee I can state that these generous conditions for retirement are not available to regular Federal employees. In addition, members of Congress can get free outpatient care at military hospitals in the Washington, DC area (Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD and Walter Reed Army Hospital in DC (which may be closed at some time in the future). By the way, this information can be obtained through Google. Sincerely, Frank Mallalieu

Joyful Musings By Joy Birnbach Dunstan, MA, LPC, MAC Love Isn’t Always Enough

n my counseling practice I see many couples who come in hoping to create a more harmonious relationship. I can help them improve their communication skills. I can help them safely discuss delicate or difficult issues. I can help them get more in touch with their own feelings and become more empathic to their partner’s feelings. Together we can explore and discover what might be the real issue underlying frequent petty arguments. These are all skills that can be taught and learned. But a crucial factor in a good relationship is something that cannot be taught: compatibility. The dictionary defines compatibility as “being capable of existing or performing in harmonious, agreeable, or congenial combination with another or others.” Not everyone is compatible with everyone else. More importantly, we are not always compatible with those to whom we are initially attracted. Couples get together for a variety of reasons. Sexual attraction, that thing we call “chemistry,” is often the first draw. A handsome or beautiful new someone with that special spark can fuel passion and make your heart go pitter-patter – for awhile. When couples are dating, they generally get together and do something. They both may enjoy similar activities and have fun doing them together – for awhile. The sex is good and you enjoy doing things together—this must be love, right? Well, sometimes love just isn’t enough. A long-term committed relationship is more about being together than doing together. Values, perspective, and life goals determine a couple’s compatibility far more than hot sex and enjoying the same activities. It’s great if you both love to travel or go bird-watching, but if one of you values family above all else while the other treasures independence, you are in trouble from the get-go. Conflicting values, standards, morals, ethics, and ideals with your partner makes compatibility impossible. For example, if you and your partner have major differences in deeply held religious convictions or beliefs about

spending money, then compatibility reaches an impasse. Things that don’t matter very much while you’re dating can become deal-breakers when you’re trying to build a life together. Compatibility is vital for romance to sustain itself over the years. If daily life is filled with frequent disagreements, you may not feel very romantic because you’re often harboring angry feelings. You don’t have to agree on everything, but you do have to feel respected, safe, and accepted. This is the foundation upon which trust is built. If you’re exploring a new relationship, avoid trouble down the road by talking about those deeply held beliefs that guide how you live your life. It is much more effective to choose a compatible partner now than it is to “fix” something that is “broken” later. Find out if you share basic values and life goals. If you don’t hold mutual values, go ahead and enjoy dating if you like, but don’t expect you’ll be able to live together long-term without a lot of bumps and disagreements. What if you’re already in a longterm marriage and you’ve discovered you’re incompatible? You have three realistic options: One, you can learn to accept things as they are. Two, you can work on yourself and the relationship. Three, you can leave the relationship. And of course, there’s option four: you can stay and be miserable. Option four really isn’t much fun, so (to paraphrase the Serenity Prayer) I suggest learning to accept the things you cannot change and working hard to change the things you can. Much of the wisdom to know the difference is in remembering that you can only change yourself. It’s unreasonable to demand that another person change when they don’t want to. The key in relationships is not finding someone to love, but in learning to love that someone you find. Find someone who shares your core values and ideals, and learning to love each other will be a breeze. Editor’s Note: Joy is a practicing psychotherapist in Riberas. She can be contacted at joy@dunstan.org or 765-4988. Check out her new website: http://joydunstan.weebly.com.

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A Stage Review of FDR: the Man Who Gave America its Future By Ed Tasca Reviewed by J. C. Kottler

n honor of Franklyn Delano Roosevelt’s 130th Birthday celebration, the Lake Chapala Chapter of Democrats Abroad presented a marvelous celebration of his life, the one act play, FDR: the Man who Gave America its Future. It was no easy task to condense 20 years in only 20 minutes. Writer Ed Tasca solved this problem by giving thematic unity to the play, concentrating on FDR’s unflinching optimism in the face of intractable problems. FDR bravely conquered one Gargantuan dilemma after another, fighting through disabling polio, unwinable elections, the Great Depression, and WWII. FDR’s outstanding quality was his unflinching optimism, and this is what the play celebrates. The play’s writing was constantly entertaining, humorous, and surprising in its twists and turns. The cast was uniformly excellent. Ed Tasca obviously loved playing FDR, and had the time of his life portraying him. FDR loved the center stage, a one man party who made other politicians look like they were attending a wake by comparison. Mr. Tasca was so enamored with the role that after the play was over, he sat in the wheelchair, not in a regular chair. I had to remind him that he wasn’t FDR anymore. Mr. Tasca sighed and then smiled. What could be more fun than becoming the spirit of FDR? Valerie Siegel, as Eleanor Roosevelt, captured her personality, proper but caring, accommodating yet incisive. I truly believed she was Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR’s constant support, his “eyes and ears” to the public, and, just as important, his conscience. Harry Walker gave an intelligent reading as Harry Hopkins, emphasizing his humanity and world weary attention to detail. As the lesser known Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member, Curly Lieberman gave an incisive performance, concentrating on her industriousness with just a touch of maitronliness. Fred Koesling, as the narrator, set the proper tone by sounding just like a narrator from a 1930s newsreel. Director Betty Lloyd Robinson kept the action moving briskly, keeping the attention on character. The consistent excellence of the performers is a sure sign of a good director. The play starts with an introduction to the roaring 20’s, and what better

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way to do it than with a Charleston. The dancers, Alexis Huff and Valerie Jones, are obviously professionals. They wowed the audience, ably supported by Daphne Peerless. The play then shifts to a week before the 1936 election. The opposition is calling Roosevelt a “socialist“ (reminding us of the same charge against Obama). The author humorously references many modern day problems to FDR‘s problems, emphasizing their universality. Pollsters have decided that Roosevelt doesn’t have a chance in the coming election. Eleanor is concerned. Secretary of Labor Perkins is downright pessimistic. But Franklyn Delano Roosevelt never doubts the outcome, his infectious optimism overcoming all obstacles. The play points out that the greatness of Roosevelt comes from the strength of his character, like our other greatest Presidents, Washington and Lincoln. Their character traits were amazingly different. Washington was the military man with so much integrity that he refused being King of the Americas. Lincoln, the most intelligent of the three, suffered from depression, which he carefully kept from the public. Roosevelt was the aristocrat who “betrayed his class.” His radiant personality sustained him and the entire nation through many of its darkest days. They all had the most important quality in a President, the ability to never lose sight of the ultimate goal, no matter what the secondary problems. Whether it was starting a new nation, preventing that nation from breaking up, or saving that nation from the Great Depression and Nazis, our three greatest Presidents never gave up. They never lost sight of their ultimate goal. Luckily, FDR: the Man who Gave America its Future, never lost sight of its ultimate goal, quality entertainment. A longer version of the play will be performed in Puerto Vallarta in May.

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By Victoria Schmidt Maintaining Perspective

ver the holidays friends of mine had a very disturbing experience. They left for 24 hours to visit with family in a nearby town. Upon returning they discovered their home had been broken into and that all of their computers, televisions and electronics had been stolen. It was such a shock. With the economy so bad, burglaries have been on the rise. Even increased police patrols haven’t seemed to stop the break-ins. My friend said that she was angry and felt violated, and didn’t even feel safe in her own home. She blamed the police and said they didn’t care. She was so upset that she and her husband began to discuss moving. Did I tell you my friend lives in Minnesota? She lives in a community the same size as Lakeside. This whole thing sounded familiar. So I went online and started comparing the statistics for crimes. Based on the statistics, in some categories Lakside is running ahead of the curve, but in others we are far below the curve. On average we are equal. Robberies, assaults, burglaries, and thefts (including auto) as a total ran at 6282 over the previous six years in that Minnesota community. This is a peaceful city--it was awarded the title of “All American City.” I’d lived there once, I felt perfectly safe. Yet there was the truth in black and white. That got me to thinking about crime here. I don’t believe that crime is worse here, although I do believe there has been an increase in crimes of property because the economy is so bad in Mexico. A poor economy creates higher crime statistics in any country. As ex-pats, we are in the minority here in Mexico, and I think that makes us feel vulnerable. Anyone feels vulnerable and violated when they or their friends become victims of crime, but perhaps because

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

we are foreigners, and in the minority, and because we sometimes find it difficult to communicate our frustrations and fears, we tend to see crime disproportionately. The majority of Mexican citizens and the police who work to protect them, are good people doing the best they can with limited resources. We can make ourselves feel safer by being aware. The Mexican government has recently instituted a new crime tip line based on the Crime Stopper model. Dial 01800-839-1416. The call is anonymously routed to a bilingual operator in Canada, and the call cannot be traced. If you see a crime, or are suspicious of some wrongdoing, report it. If you are a victim of crime, file a report with the Ministrio Publico. Become familiar with the system and how it works. Know emergency telephone numbers, and practice “situational awareness” to protect yourself. Situational awareness means paying attention to what goes on around you. New neighbors with a lot of strangers going in and out constantly? Could be innocent, or it might not be. Alert the tip line and let the authorities check it out. Know your safety areas. Sometimes we get caught up in the charm and pleasantries of life here, and forget to be diligent. Don’t leave your wallet or purse unattended, don’t wear flashy jewelry, carry only the amount of cash you need for your day. Learn to be careful--not afraid. Here at Lakeside those responsible for the latest burglaries have been caught. The police are doing their job. Stay aware, and enjoy your life at Lakeside, it is a wonderful place to live. I remind myself that crime is a fact of life, both in Mexico, and a sleepy little “All American” town in Minnesota. Victoria Schmidt

WHERE I’VE BEEN Courtesy of John Marshall

have been in many places, but I’ve never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can’t go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. I’ve also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there. I have, however, been in Sane. They don’t have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work. I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I’m not too much on physical activity anymore. I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often. I’ve been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm. Sometimes I’m in Capable,

and I go there more often as I’m getting older. One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get! I may have been in Continent, and I don’t remember what country I was in. It’s an age thing.

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CHILD

of the month

By Rich Petersen Mario de Jesús Móntez Oliveros

ur child this month is Mario de Jesús Móntez Oliveros, now 5 years old and sitting in his new wheelchair. On his right is his mother Carmen and his new little sister, Sinaí. Mario lives in Chapala with his mom, sister and stepfather. The others in the photo are Linda Henley and Elaine Cooper, both of whom work with “Pasos Milagrosos,” a group that helps many children in the area through equine therapy. We are giving a special “shout-out” to “Pasos Milagrosos” this month because Mario, among several other of Niños Incapacitados’ children, are being or have been helped greatly by being able to ride on a horse each weekend. Linda is Mario’s “back rider,” i.e. she sits behind Mario in the saddle and helps to keep him upright and balanced. We brought you Mario’s story about four years ago and decided to have him return to our monthly meeting in February so our members and volunteers could see the improvement he has made. It is beyond fortunate and bordering on the miraculous that Mario has survived to this point and we can bring you his story. A little history ----Little Mario was born at 25 weeks gestation (5-1/2 months) and weighed less than one kilo at birth. In addition to such a premature entrance to the world and the problems accompanying it, Mario was born with hydrocephaly (sometimes referred to as ‘water on the brain’), retinopathy (a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants weighing two pounds or less), pulmonary distress, and as if these weren’t enough, his right leg was malformed and the doctors thought they might have to amputate the limb. For the hydrocephaly, Mario underwent surgery to place a drainage valve in his head, a common procedure that fortunately was successful in this case. He spent over three months in the Hospital Civil in Guadalajara recovering from this surgery and allowing his immature lungs to develop so he could come off a respirator. He was at home for a month and then had to undergo two surgeries on his right eye to repair the damage to his retina caused by the retinopathy. Fortunately the malformed leg healed and amputa-

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tion was not necessary. When his mother first brought Mario to a Niños Incapacitados intake session, he could not hold his head up, was very pale and listless, and did not seem to react to his surroundings. He had also developed an allergy to regular milk and was not eating well or gaining weight. With excellent care by his doctors, as well as his mother’s love and attention, Mario began to improve. He still has the drainage valve (which has had to be replaced once). He did react to voices and movement, however, and now with constant (3 times a week) therapy at Teletón (Mexico’s very competent therapy clinic), he is making good progress physically. For about a year Mario had to wear eyeglasses to assist his vision, but fortunately his vision has improved and the glasses are no longer necessary. A big turning point in Mario’s development was his entrance into the “Pasos Milagrosos” program. He is more confident in his surroundings and seems to enjoy being around other children. His mother—and the volunteers at Pasos-noticed almost immediate changes in his motor and mental skills and ability. He loves attention and hugs and kisses, to which he responds with a big smile. He is now even able to say a few words. We are Niños Incapacitados have been very gratified to see the progress made by this little guy. If you would like to learn more about what we do and meet one of “our” children in person, please attend our regular monthly meetings at 10:00 on the second Thursday of each month in one of the meeting rooms at the Hotel Real de Chapala. And for more information about Niños Incapacitados, see our website: www.programaninos.org.

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Letter to the Editor

ear Sir: I do not often comment on Paul Jackson’s columns, but I must respond to the letter by Carol Bowman and Ernie Sowers. I must agree with Carol Bowman and Ernie Sowers about Paul Jackson. I also argue for his right to voice his opinions. I have even found myself in agreement with a few of his opinions. However, he does not have the right to state his opinions as facts, which he does in virtually every column. Of the hundreds of examples, I select the column in the Ojo del Lago of January 2012, page 66, where he states that in 1812, “President James Madison decided to attack Canada” and that “Canadians burned down the White House.” The facts are these: some Canadian historians maintain that Americans had wanted to seize parts of Canada, (a view that many Canadians still share), while other Canadian historians argue that the threat was a tactic against Britain which had blocked American trade with France and had impressed U. S. seamen into the Royal Navy. (See the ChesapeakeLeopard affair, after which many Americans called for war with Great Britain. Jefferson used this anger to threaten the British government to settle differences diplomatically.) Which brings me to the second fact: In 1812 there were no Canadians; there were only British colonial subjects. Canada did not officially become The Dominion of Canada until July 1, 1867. In fact, Canada did not officially become a country until 1982. So I say keep writing, Mr. Jackson. But please refrain from confusing your opinions with facts. Mel Goldberg Mister Jackson replies: I have rarely seen such goggledygook, gibbberish and jiggerypokery as Mel Goldberg’s comments about Canada and our federal government’s plans to commemorate and celebrate our success in fighting off the invasion in the War of 1812 in which President James Madison had his troops invade our country and try to annex it into the USA. Goldberg makes the fatuous claim that Canada did not “officially become a country until 1982.” How come then I have held Canadian citizenship

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

since 1964? Goldberg displays his ignorance of what occurred in 1982 and this is it: In that period the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau decided to ‘patriate’ Canada’s Constitution from Westminster (London) and add to it a new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a codified constitution which has made a lot of money for a lot of lawyers, but been a pain in the rear-end for the rest of us. I covered the ‘patriation’ constitutional talks for my newspaper chain in Canada so am extremely familiar with the situation. Goldberg undermines his own argument on this score about Canada not “officially becoming a country until 1982” when he refers to the Dominion of Canada being established in 1867 when Sir John A. Macdonald became our first de facto prime minister. Unlike the 1982 scenario, I can’t say I covered the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences in the 1860s leading up to that event, but have been told there was a doddering old fellow at those meetings by the Fathers of Canadian Confederation who looked suspiciously like Mel. One can see how age addles us all eventually, and this may explain poor Mel’s confusion and misreading of events. But perhaps he is also one of those Americans who can’t accept that a smallish but canny group of Canadians, true, with some help from the British, fought off a land grab by a vastly larger nation of 7.5 million. As an aside, one of the great victories in the Second World War was the storming of the German-held Vimy Ridge by Canadian troops. No military expert will deny this was not an historic event, and one of the turning points of that war. Mel, please don’t try and tell any Canadian living at Lakeside (which I do not) that our heroic troops at Vimy Ridge were not “officially” Canadian - unless, of course, you want a well-aimed punch in the nose. Cordially, as William F. Buckley would say. Paul Jackson

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Anyone A nyone C Can an Train Train Their Dog By Art Hess artthedogguy@yahoo.com

ASIC VOCABULARY We hear wonderful stories about dogs that know 250 words and the following week there will be a report of a dog that has mastered 500 words only to be upstaged by an African Gray parrot who knows and speaks this many and a bunch more. I’m not here to suggest you and Buddy need to learn quite that many but you need to have about twenty words. Some are a combination of several words but for the most part it’s easier for the dog if we keep things short and easy to understand. Remember when we run off at the mouth, it’s more difficult for him to know for sure just what we want. The following list starts out in order of importance and then adds some that are used regularly but they all fall into an equally important sort (of ) list. NAME—if properly taught, the name eliminates the need for those extra words like, attention, look at me, etc. NO comes in a variety of flavors from “Psst, hey don’t do that,” to something louder and more forceful, depending on the severity of the infraction. SIT—is everyone’s favorite and introduced very early in the learning process. Sit is forever useful because a dog with his bum on the ground can’t jump up, lunge, sniff inappropriate places etc.

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

COME—is the next of the “no compromise” commands. If you’re only going to teach a few words, these first four are must do words. This next group is pretty standard in most dog’s repertoire but not quite as important as the first four. DOWN is obvious and is a great position to have the dog assume when you want him to relax or cool out and let the air out of tires. STAY is self explanatory and I also teach WAIT at the same time. Their uses are somewhat different and I prefer WAIT if we want to literally wait briefly before resuming an activity whereas STAY to me is used to indicate a longer duration. Go to your BED or some other place is extremely valuable in teaching the dog to relocate and sit down on his bed as opposed to continuing to perform some undesirable activity. Such as barking or begging. HEEL or the less formal LET’S GO mean let’s go for a walk and the dog is to be beside the handler in the correct heeling position. Coupled near the Heel category I have to include LEAVE IT and DROP IT. These are two more of the “no compromise “ commands. These last few are useful but not up near the top of my list. OFF. Most people put this one up near the top but I personally believe in teaching my dogs that jumping up is never an option so I almost never use the word off. STAND is useful particularly for your groomer and sometimes at the vet. JUMP or HUP are handy when loading the dog into the van. BACK UP or GET BACK are pretty useful when working with big dogs even if it’s just to get them back from a door. Some people teach SPEAK. I don’t, but I do teach QUIET. The last two apply to starting and ending schooling sessions. I start with an enthusiastic, “ARE YOU READY?” and I use a release to tell the dog that we’re done. I use whatever is natural as long as I am consistent. I find myself usually using, “THAT’S IT. WE ARE DONE.”

THE OJO INTERNET MAILBOX BOX (Wherein we publish some comments about our previous issues.)

HEARTS AT WORK - FEBRUARY 2012 rebecca Mr Tipton, I love you xxx THE IMAGE OF MEXICO Hennie A very interesting article. I enjoyed reading it. Very informative. Thanks Herbert. VILLAGE VIGNETTES/MAGICAL MOMENTS Jaime Charming article! VILLAGE VIGNETTES/MAGICAL MOMENTS Lorraine

Very romantic Micki. Just in time for Valentines Day. THE IMAGE OF MEXICO John E Well written. I grew up in Central California and saw the icon presented seemingly everywhere, but never fully understood the significance. Thank you. EDITOR’S PAGE - FEBRUARY 2012 julian Dunlop Conan Doyle was a Scot, born in Edinburgh and educated in Scotland, not Irish.

AN A N AMERICAN AMERIC CAN MIGRANT MIG GRANT IN IN MEXICO MEXIC CO By William Haydon

once described San Blas, my seaside home for more than two years now, as a mosaic of broken tiles, and I considered myself to be the most broken tile of them all. It must be regarded, then, as a great measure of this town’s ability to nurture and to heal and promote growth that this self-described broken tile now feels bold enough to step out of the niche which has housed me so unconditionally for so long, and to move onward in my journey to discover Mexico. My love for San Blas remains fully intact, but I find that I have fallen into a fairly predictable routine here which involves regularly drinking too much, which doesn’t particularly bother me, but I also find that I am enjoying it less and that scares the hell outta me. I have to admit that I am growing bored. I arrived in this village back in November of 2009 with no friends, no language skills, and an off-putting sense of humor that alienates far more friends than it ever wins over, and in spite of all that, I now find myself with a profusion of friends, an ability to converse and even make bad jokes in an effective if crude version of Spanish, and also with a sense of having graduated to the status of Mexican citizen, in spirit at least, if not in any binding legal sense. I feel comfortable here. This life feels familiar. I find myself with a desire

William Haydon to move on to the next step. For me, the next step is Compostela. I have decided to exchange my easy beach access for mountain views and cooler temperatures. Did a $4,000 peso CFE bill caused by excessive air conditioner usage during San Blas’ last, blistering summer heat wave have something to do with this decision? Perhaps. Was I influenced by Compostela’s abundant charm—the duck-filled lake, the pristine plaza, the bucolic surrounding countryside? Absolutely. Am I enticed by the challenge of living in a town where I will be one of only a small handful of gringos? Very much so. In fact, I am reminded of when I was a child getting ready to ride my bike without training wheels for the first time, because the absence of a gringo support network is actually why this move to Compostela feels like the perfect next step for me: it feels like Mexico without training wheels. Exhilarating. Scary. Perfect.

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LLETTERS ETTERS FROM FROM FAMOUS FAMOUS PEOPLE PEOPLE

n 1951, E. B. White—the novelist responsible for, most notably, Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little—was accused by the ASPCA of not paying his dog tax and, as a result, “harboring” an unlicensed dog. He responded by way of the following delightful letter. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals York Avenue and East 92nd Street New York, 28, NY Dear Sirs: I have your letter, undated, saying that I am harboring an unlicensed dog in violation of the law. If by “harboring” you mean getting up two or three times every night to pull Minnie’s blanket up over her, I am harboring a dog all right. The blanket keeps slipping off. I suppose you are wondering by now why I don’t get her a sweater instead. That’s a joke on you. She has a knitted sweater, but she doesn’t like to wear it for sleeping; her legs are so short they work out of a sweater and her toenails get caught in the mesh, and this disturbs her rest. If Minnie doesn’t get her rest, she feels it right away. I do myself, and of course with this night duty of mine, the way the blanket slips and all, I haven’t had any real rest in years. Minnie is twelve. In spite of what your inspector reported, she has a license. She is licensed in the State of Maine as an unspayed bitch, or what is more commonly called an “unspaded” bitch. She wears her metal license tag but I must say I don’t particularly care for it, as it is in the shape of a hydrant, which seems to me a feeble gag, besides being pointless in the case of a female. It is hard to believe that any state in the Union would circulate a gag like that and make people pay money for it, but Maine is always thinking of something.

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

Maine M i puts up roadside d id crosses along the highways to mark the spots where people have lost their lives in motor accidents, so the highways are beginning to take on the appearance of a cemetery, and motoring in Maine has become a solemn experience, when one thinks mostly about death. I was driving along a road near Kittery the other day thinking about death and all of a sudden I heard the spring peepers. That changed me right away and I suddenly thought about life. It was the nicest feeling. You asked about Minnie’s name, sex, breed, and phone number. She doesn’t answer the phone. She is a dachshund and can’t reach it, but she wouldn’t answer it even if she could, as she has no interest in outside calls. I did have a dachshund once, a male, who was interested in the telephone, and who got a great many calls, but Fred was an exceptional dog (his name was Fred) and I can’t think of anything offhand that he wasn’t interested in. The telephone was only one of a thousand things. He loved life — that is, he loved life if by “life” you mean “trouble,” and of course the phone is almost synonymous with trouble. Minnie loves life, too, but her idea of life is a warm bed, preferably with an electric pad, and a friend in bed with her, and plenty of shut-eye, night and days. She’s almost twelve. I guess I’ve already mentioned that. I got her from Dr. Clarence Little in 1939. He was using dachshunds in his cancer-research experiments (that was before Winchell was running the thing) and he had a couple of extra puppies, so I wheedled Minnie out of him. She later had puppies by her own father, at Dr. Little’s request. What do you think about that for a scandal? I know what Fred thought about it. He was some put out. Sincerely yours, E. B. White

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Hearts at Work A Column by James Tipton “Complete in Itself”

like public transportation. I would like to gather together in one large room all of the people I have met, particularly on buses, with whom I have enjoyed, sometimes for several hours, a relationship that was pleasurable, that held without doubt a kind of meaning, that was complete in itself . Some years ago in Denver, I was waiting at a bus stop on Colorado Boulevard, headed toward a lunch promise in Cherry Creek, when a young woman, attractive in her own way (which is always the best way), sat down on the iron seat beside me. She had silver hoops on her ears, and a modest silver necklace arranged itself against her breasts, which themselves were pleasantly imaginable beneath a blue denim shirt embroidered with flowers. Wow, I thought. I also still remember

the almost iridescent Blue Morpho butterfly tattooed on the outside of her charming left ankle. As it turned out she was headed south to her home. Although maybe thirty years old, she still lived with her father and mother in Gallup, New Mexico. We were not even waiting for the same bus. But as I quickly discovered (because she saw the book of Chinese love poems in my hand), she, like myself, loved and wrote (and even had a few published) poems. And so for ten minutes we swapped our short poems with each other. When her bus arrived I was almost ready to follow her onto

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

it, thinking to hell with that lunch date in Cherry Creek, and to hell with everything else about my life. That night, still thinking about her, I wrote something like this: Ten minutes at a Bus Stop on Colorado Boulevard A giant piece of butterfly had broken off inside her and I liked her for that. I was tired of living in the city. And I was generally tired of the angels of the New Age and their neurotic wings flapping to the point of almost being visible. And I was tired of the dissipation I was feeling, the dissipation I feel when I do what I do not want to be doing or say what I do not want to be saying…when I sort of feed Me too long to hungry people. Around her the air felt suddenly fresh, and I breathed it deeply into me—like those breaths we sometimes discover that move us toward re-connection, toward being more intensely alive. And between the words she spoke was the same no-sound I hear when hiking at high altitudes, the same no-sound rocks make when I feel faint, the same no-sound sweat makes as it muses out of the pores, the same sweet no-sound I hear when others think I have lost attention, when others think I suffer a shortage of acceptable concentration in this concatenation of nerves that in another might have developed into a tentacled and somewhat

respected reason, a state of mind, one might say, that at least bordered on being admitted to the union. But here was union. Was it any wonder that I fell in love? And even though in letting her go I let her go for good, and even though the illimitable desire for connection rose up in me, there was union in that short space of which all our wisdom and our history has no knowledge. The more I thought about that woman headed to Gallup, whom I realized later was probably at least part Navajo, or Zuni, the more I realized that I could, when I become very still and very open, fall in love with almost everyone, that I could be led by instinct to establish some immediate connection, to visit some common invisible garden in which we could share, if only for a few minutes, the most important aspects of our lives. It took me months to come to that conclusion. But before that conclusion what actually happened was this. I was distracted all through that lunch in Cherry Creek, which was with a respectable young woman, whom I had met in The Tattered Cover Bookstore, who loved her weekend hikes with me in the mountains immediately west of Denver. That following Friday, I cancelled our climb of Mount Bierstadt. Instead, I followed a ridiculous romantic whim (something I remained capable of until only a few days ago), and I drove to Gallup. There I spent two days riding city buses, seeing Indians everywhere I looked, but all I found was a woman working at Burger King whose face suggested she might have been a reasonably close relative. I leaned over the counter to study her ankles. Nothing. I asked her whether she wrote poetry. Irritated, she looked up from the cash register and demanded, “Is that for here or to go?” Jim Tipton

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El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

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A NEW LEASE LEASE— —on Life! By Judit Rajhathy, B.A., RNCP, D.Ac. What’s My Gut Have ave ve T To oD Do oW With ith M My yB Brain? rain?

o for years I knew I ha had ad ad d fdif various sensitivities to difcourse se ferent foods. Of course uld ld d standard medical tests could he never definitively prove that the ess causes of my many health issues giveen n were food based. I would be given ppeeasse medications to temporarily appease he roo rroot ot symptoms, never getting at the nd-aaid d cause of the problems—all band-aid rst dur rin ing ng therapy. I recall feeling the worst during the two years I chose to become vegetarian, at which time many of my symptoms were exacerbated - and my weight soared, not to mention increased feelings of paranoia, anxiety and depression - for no apparent reason. The question always lurked in my mind, “Do I have a sensitivity to gluten”? But because there is no accurate testing for this and because I, being a true Hungarian, loved my bread, pasta and other baked goods, I kept myself in denial. It is estimated that up to 40% of the population is gluten sensitive. Unfortunately many people are unaware that the symptoms they are experiencing could be a reaction to the gluten contained in the products they consume on a daily basis - including mental symptoms such as depression, anger, irritability, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, etc. What is gluten? Gluten is a protein which is commonly found in grains such as wheat, smelt, rye, barley and oats. To many people this protein acts as a toxin, slowly eroding the small intestine which helps food convert into fuel. As a result, the body develops serious deficiencies, mainly to iron, zinc, tryptophan and B12. Iron and B12 deficiency causes anemia which in turn can result in fatigue, brain fog, neuropathy, memory problems, depression, and other mental symptoms. Zinc deficiency has been linked to depression, a suppressed immune system and a dulled memory, playing “an important role in the production and use of neurotransmitters-brain chemicals that help modulate mood” (The Breakthrough Depression Solution by James Greenblatt, M.D.) A 1998 study showed that about 1/3 of those who had celiac disease, a form of gluten intolerance that is testable, suffered from depression and that adolescents with celiac disease or gluten intolerance have a 30% risk of depression while only 7% of healthy adolescents face this risk.

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Symp Symptoms mp pto toms tom Different bodies react differently to gluten and there are over one hundred symptoms associated with gluten intolerance. Among them are eczema, headaches, ADHD, thyroid problems, osteoporosis, epilepsy, arthritis, intestinal bloating, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, depression, anxiety, weight gain or loss, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune diseases, cramps, tingling and numbness, irritability and other behavior changes. Even lymphoma and colon cancer has been linked to this sensitivity. Much of the literature about gluten intolerance states that it could take more than thirty years to be diagnosed with this problem. Even worse, symptoms can change over the years, masking itself like a chameleon. For instance chronic ear infections can change to asthma and later can become irritable bowel syndrome or arthritis—different symptoms but same cause. Diagnosis The only way to really know if you are gluten intolerant is to adopt a gluten-free diet for at least two weeks but a month or two is ideal. For over thirty years I had been muscle-testing people for food sensitivities, including gluten, directing them to change their diets only to see them recovering from many chronic illnesses. Many people who are sensitive to gluten are also sensitive to dairy products and must eliminate both from their diets. In most cases, this elimination brings about huge changes for the better in their overall health - elimination of many ailments and increased energy - an overall better quality of life. (Judit Rajhathy is the author of the Canadian best-selling book, Free to Fly: a journey toward wellness. Contact her at 765-4551 or www.juditrajhathy.com.) Judit Rajhathy

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Mañanitas By Gloria Marthai

he tip of the cigarette glows brighter in the darkness as the man draws on it and then touches it to the black powder propellant. The cohete -rocket- swishes high into the air where it explodes in a burst of light, assaulting the early morning stillness. Time and time again the man and his older companion, missing two fingers of his right hand, send rockets thundering on their mission to awaken the village. Indeed, the intrusion is so abrupt, it is impossible to ignore. It is a message to one and all to come to Mañanitas, a dawn homage to the Virgin of the Assumption. Soon, women with their rebozos wrapped tightly about them against the chilly morning air and men wearing sarapes make their way down the dark cobbled streets to the little stucco church. Overhead, paper decorations, compostura, whisper in the light breeze. Tinny tones of tambourine tapping and guitar plucking and strumming greet them pleasantly as the estudiantina, a group of young musicians, tune their instruments under the arches in the church courtyard. Presently the sacristan, dressed in jeans and sweatshirt, unlocks and struggles to open the massive church doors from inside. They gratingly groan and scrape the tile floor

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

until finally resistance gives way and he leans casually against old forged hinges gazing out at the group gathered there. Behind him the festooned interior releases flowery fragrance. The estudiantina begins to play and well practiced voices rise in the traditional dawn serenade, Las Mañanitas del Rey David. There is informality in dress and manner as people move down the aisle and enter pews. The church is an extended home to the villagers. They were carried as babies to mass and played in the aisles as tots where scolding from the pulpit still is not unusual. For many, it is here that the complete life cycle is played out, literally cradle to grave, with a myriad of meaningful occasions such as this homage to the Virgin, repeated each morning of the nineday fiesta. The expense and work is distributed and shared among those who are able but participation and pleasure is enjoyed by all. In the church, tied-back blue draperies alternate with white ones every four pews along the walls and join high in the middle at the chandeliers. Swallows swoop and dart about on the high ledges from open windows of the church competing for attention as the people sing and pray. In this small village where few girls have ever owned a doll, the 16” figure of the Virgin is idolized. Fair skinned, she has a young-girl face; her hip length real hair is spread out fan-like down her back and sides. Her arms are extended invitingly. Dangling gold earrings glitter in the candlelight about her and her ornate, handmade gown is only one of several changes that she has. Fingers stroke her, she is spoken to, problems pour out, and Her intercession is solicited. One man wanting to share his nearly empty bottle of tequila with her, is kindly led away. Complete with shiny crown and heavenly halo, the little Virgin reins on her pedestal to the left of the altar, banked with flowers and candies. On the ninth day she will be carried

through the decorated streets in procession with band playing and Indian dancers waving standards and stamping their clogs to drum rhythm. The maĂąanitas homage is a time for music, song and prayer. Meanwhile, outside it sounds as though pandemonium has broken loose as deafening rapid fire salvos of fireworks are set off on the plaza. More cohetes race each other into the sky. Church bells clang. Distant thunder competes in this land of fantastic contrast. Then all is still, save for the uninterrupted chanting of the rosary. Outside in the courtyard, tĂŠ de

canela, hot cinnamon tea, with or without alcohol, is served. The meditative, mellow mood deepens and the warmth feels good in the freshness of the splendid dawn, dazzling in all its forms and colors reflected on the rippled lake, the sun still well below the Easter horizon. Blue and white compostura, intricate, delicate rectangles of cutout tissue paper in the Virginâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colors, hanging from roof tops on strings strung across the streets, flutter and flap in the air as the villagers make their way back to their homes.

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LAKESIDE L AKESIIDE E LIVING LIV VING G COLUMN An Excellent Advisory by Shelley Edson

(

d. Note: Shelley will soon be leaving the Ojo, but we thought that by publishing this information, it might greatly help our readers, as well as Tod Jonson and Barbara Clippinger, who will be taking over the column in April.) What is the deadline for sending you material? Deadline is 6 pm on the 15th for publication on the 5th of the following month. What information should I include? Events need a brief description – what is happening, the time, and lo-

cation. Cost of the event – free or donation or purchase tickets. If tickets are needed, where and when can they be purchased? If reservations are required, who do they contact – and if applicable, last day they can make reservations. Please try to make the event sound interesting to Lakesiders – that is, why should they attend. It is okay to refer readers to a website for more information if your event/activity needs more space. Please send us original material. The column should not look like an outdated copy of the Guadalajara Reporter. So please – send us some-

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thing slightly different – to include pictures different from what was or will be published in the Guadalajara Reporter. Information for past events should be fairly current. If your event is going to be included in the El Ojo LCS section, we do not want to duplicate it in the Lakeside Living Column. How long is too long? Please limit an event/activity description to 50 – to 100 words or less as I have limitations on how many words that can be included in the column. Multiple events would be limited to 50 words each or less. Lengthy articles will be pared down – best if you do this instead of me. If you don’t have software that automatically does a word count like Word 2007 - just google “word count” - lots of programs out there where you just do a copy and paste to determine the number of words. And please, send me one submission for the next month’s column. What is the policy for pictures? One picture is encouraged and must be high resolution – see below for more information. Image size should be at least 3” x 5” – can be longer on each side, but a minimum of 3” or 4” on the shortest side. Please do not send us the same pictures that were or will be in the Guadalajara Reporter. For the subject, just remember that the picture will be small – perhaps 3” x 2” - in the El Ojo – so focusing on something that will show up well in a small picture works much better than a long line of people. And every picture should tell a story! Image resolution describes the quality of an image when printed – and to oversimplify, just think of a pixel as a very very tiny drop of color – and the number of pixels in each inch of a picture determines the quality (resolution) of a picture. For pictures on the internet, images are usually 72 pixels per inch.

When you see them on your computer monitor or other display device, they look fine. But there are not enough pixels in most internet images to allow them to print at high quality, at least not without printing the picture very like the size of a postage stamp. An example is – a low resolution picture would need to be 25 inches by 25 inches in order to be downsized to a small resolution image suitable for printing. For pictures that are printed (instead of viewed on your computer monitor), more pixels per inch are needed – how many is going to depend on the quality you need. For Lakeside Living and El Ojo, the minimum is 200 pixels per inch. So what does that mean for your camera? Cameras will have different settings for resolution. Mine has large picture, medium or small. If I select large picture, my camera will now take pictures at 200 pixels per inch. If I select small, it will take pictures at 72 pixels per inch. Other cameras may have settings for high, low or medium resolution – check your camera instruction. If you can’t find the setting, try searching on google - - use the camera name + model number + high resolution example: “sony E52-C high resolution.” Tip – Also look for pictures that are large files – more than 300K – if smaller than that, it is probably low resolution. You can check file size when you attach the picture. If you use your camera software or programs like Picasa to download pictures from your camera, they, too, should have options for resolution. For more information, check the appropriate help files that come with your camera software or that are available with programs such as Picasa. And any questions, please feel free to email me: Shelley.el.ojo@ gmail.com

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A FOND FAREWELL AND A WARM WELCOME

t is with deep regret that we announce that Shelley Edson’s Lakeside Living column will be her last one. Shelley has written the column for some six months and as we never tired of telling her, she hit the ground running and got even faster with each succeeding month. In that time, she made many friends and gained the admiration of much of our readership. We wish Shelley the best of luck and by way of expressing our thanks, we will always welcome her at our yearly awards luncheon. Luckily, standing in the wings are two of Lakeside’s most popular people, Tod Jonson and Barbara Clippinger. Tod and his partner, the late Ektor Carranza, handled the column about three years ago. Tod first came to our beloved little corner of Mexico some 25 years ago and quickly became a super-achiever here, as he had been for many years in the American motion picture industry. (For much more information, check out Paul Jackson’s recent Ojo profile on Tod.) Tod’s e-mail is todoflcs@yahoo.com.

Barbara is new to the Ojo Family, but certainly not to Lakesiders. She has been the President of LLT, and has directed or choreographed 17 LLT shows. Barbara has been President of CASA, Co-chair for several Fun-raisers for Ninos Incapcitados, and Fashion show narrator for The Red Cross. Her first career was as a professional dancer and choreographer, with credits that include “Golden Boy” on Broadway with Sammy Davis Jr., and with The June Taylor dancers on “The Jackie Gleason Show.” Further, after earning a Master’s Degree in Psychology, she developed and directed programs for battered women, runaway kids, and homeless men and women. Barbara’s e-mail is clippy1020@gmail. com Adios, Shelley and welcome Tod and Barbara! Ag

NIFTY ONE-LINERS

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ostalgia is a device that removes the ruts and the potholes from Memory

Lane. I just got back from a pleasure trip. I drove my wife to the airport. I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific. Last night our high school band played Beethoven. Beethoven lost, 12 to 7. A married man should forget his mistakes. There’s no use in two people remembering the same thing. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke. My wife and I were happy for twenty years... then we met. George Washington’s brother was the uncle of our country. I have enough money to last me the rest of my life... unless I buy something. Did you hear about the two blond thieves that stole a calendar? They

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each got six months. I don’t mind the rat race, but I could do with a little more cheese. Love is like a roller coaster: when it’s good you don’t want to get off, and when it isn’t, you can’t wait to throw up. What is the difference between men and pigs? Pigs don’t turn into men when they drink. A chicken coop always has two doors. If it had four, it would be a chicken sedan. I don’t eat snails... I prefer fast food! Filthy stinking rich... Well, two out of three ain’t bad. You know you’re in a small town when everyone knows whose credit is good and whose wife isn’t. Marriage is like a violin; after the sweet music is over, there are still strings attached.

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From The Grapevine By Robert Kleffel and Noemí Paz

Lakeside’s Most Popular Wines (Ed. Note: This marks the debut of this column in the Ojo. Welcome, Robert and Noemi!)

e did some statistical research to determine the best-selling wines at Lakeside during the last year. As might be expected, the best-selling wines were not the most expensive nor were they the least expensive. It is our conclusion that these wines represent good value. They are good table wines that can be enjoyed every day and not break your bank. Note: “jug” wines and “boxed” wines were not included in the survey. There were some surprises, for example, 65% of the wines sold were white wines and 35% red wines. The most popular white wine is the Sauvignon Blanc sometimes called Fume Blanc in California. Wine experts have used the phrase “crisp, elegant, and fresh” as a favorable description of Sauvignon Blanc. It is probably the most versatile wine to pair with food appropriate for white wine. The most popular red wine is the Cabernet Sauvignon. It has been planted in every country that produces wine. Worldwide, however, Merlot may be the largest selling red wine. The country which sells the most wine at Lakeside is Chile. This is not surprising because Chile has great wine growing land and climate, sophisticated wine producers and the government supports the export of Chilean wine. Most Popular Wines by Country Mexico Red: LA Cetto – Cabernet Sauvignon - About $7.15 USD White: LA Cetto – Fume Blanc - About $7.15 USD United States Red: Barefoot - Cabernet Sauvignon - About $8.00 USD White: Barefoot – Pinot Grigio - About $8.00 USD Australia Red: Yellowtail – Shiraz – About $12.40 USD White: Black Swan – Chardonnay – About $10.80 USD Italy Red: Chianti Ruffino – Chianti

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Robert and Noemi - About $12.50 USD White: Vivolo – Pinot Grigio – About $8.10 USD France Red: Chamarre – Pinot Noir – About $15.00 USD White: Chamarre – Cabernet/ Grenache – About $11.50 USD Spain Red: Torres - Gran Sangre Toro – About $16.25 USD White: Marques de Riscal Blanco – About $13.45 USD Chile Red: Viña Maipo – Cabernet Sauvignon – About $5.85 USD White: Viña Maipo - Sauvignon Blanc - About $5.85 USD And the Winner is Viña Maipo The most popular wines at Lakesides, as measured by sales volume, are the wines that come from Chile’s Viña Maipo Vineyards. Viña Maipo is a part of the Concha y Toro group which has many wineries including Fetzer wineries in California. Viña Maipo winery sells wine to over 45 countries by selling great table wines at a very affordable price. We recommend that you try wines from the above list of popular wines to broaden your selection of table wines. Noemí Paz licorespaz@hotmail.com Robert Kleffel bkleffel@hotmail.com

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By Paul Jackson paulconradjackson@gmail.com

Paul Jackson

he Liberal-Left in Canada is in an uproar over the federal Conservative government’s suggestions it may raise eligibility for one plank of the nation`s social security system from the retirement age of 65 to that of 67 some 10 years from now and even then phased in over four years. Hardly a draconian move. Canada`s social security system is far different than that of the USA - basically an alphabet soup mix but simply put this is it: Everyone who hits 65 automatically gets about $550 a month in Old Age Security (OAS) payouts. Next, comes the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), that is somewhat like social security in the USA, which you pay into on a progressive basis depending on how much

you make and how long you work. Generally, the average payout a month is about $850. Add to these payouts, if you have no other income you can apply for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) that pays out about an additional $800 a month. Coincidentally, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who started the uproar from the Liberal-Left that the official retirement age of 65 will have to be moved up to 67, recently boosted by $800 a year GIC payouts for the really low income Canadian - that`s about an extra one month`s rent. So, generally speaking, the lowest income Canadians can count on about $24,000 to $25,000 a year from the federal government. Plus,

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universal ‘free’ health care and various subsidized housing programs. No wonder the Organization for Econonomic Development and Co-operation (OEDC) has assessed that after the Netherlands, Canada has the best programs for senior citizens on the planet. But here`s the rub: Because of an aging population of baby boomers, and dramatically falling birthrate, which means fewer and fewer workers paying into the various funds, within the next five years alone, the plans will cost a whopping 32% more, and triple by 2030. They will be un-sustainable. So Harper`s Conservatives believe accessibility to the basic plan - the $550 a month OAS - should be hiked from 65 years of age to 67 in 10 years time and phased in over four years. The other programs would remain essentially untouched. Strangely, the Liberals who are leading the charge against Harper’s modest plan, just a decade or so ago, under Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Finance Minister Paul Martin overnight, and with no debate, hiked compulsory CPP premiums (again, akin to USA social

security) by 71% - the biggest tax increase in Canadian history - and then planned to make changes to the two other plans, but they backed off fearing a voter backlash, leaving some other government to face the wrath. Now they are the ones frothing at the mouth over what they know has to be done - and should have been done - when they were in government. Seems like hypocrisy to me. How about you?

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Shelley Edson Phone: 376 – 765 – 4049 Email: Shelley.el.ojo@gmail.com

Lake Chapala Farmers Market Founders

LCS Fiesta Latina

Past Events The LCS Fiesta Latina was a smashing success, raising more than $100,000 pesos. This money supplements the LCS Community Education Program which includes Children’s Art, the Wilkes Education Center, English as a Second Language classes, the Neill James Biblioteca Publica of Ajijic, located inside the Wilkes Education Center, and the more than 40 students in our student aid program. Over a half dozen of the students that receive aid from LCS volunteered at the event: preparing decorations, serving appetizers, and assisting with clean up. It allowed the students to meet and greet LCS members who support them. It truly was a wonderful day. As things would have it, at 5:30 pm the skies decided to send down a quick shower that sent almost everyone home, but the drawing for the 50-50 raffle still held an audience. LCS thanks all of the participants, volunteers, staff, local artists, businesses including Roberto’s restaurant, and students who helped make this event a success, especially the LCS Fund Development Committee, chaired by Lois Cugini, whose year’s worth of work culminated in a great success. Pictured is Fiesta Latina committee members Patricia Duran, Lois Cugini and Mary Bruce. Present Events Through March 18, a major exhibit of 50 photographs of Photographer Terry Pitzner is at Galeria Quattro. Terry spent 7 years in Afghanistan, as the head of the U.N. office in Kabul for repatriation and providing durable solutions for refugees and Afghan communities. His was an extraordinary experience and the public has a unique opportunity to see his photos from that time. Come and view his photos of the young people, old people, the children and soldiers, the abandoned streets and crumbling buildings, and the portraits of a people, full of hope and despair. They are stunning, and, at times, emotionally wrenching. Galeria Quattro is located at Colon #9, one half block down from the plaza in Ajijic. The Tuesday Organic Market has changed their name to Lake Chapala Farmers Market. Fifty-five vendors, some from as far away as La Primavera, sell their local natural or organic products each Tuesday from 10 to 12:30 at the Centro Laguna Plaza in Ajijic drawing from 200 to 300 Lakeside customers each week. Celebrating their second anniversary in March, the market has grown from a small fledging endeavor to the place to go to purchase healthy organic and natural products at Lakeside. Vendors Photo Exhibit at Galeria Quattro

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offer a wide range of delicious food products; examples are farm fresh carrots, beets, spinach, chard, mushrooms, 5 colors of tomatoes and choices of lettuces, organic eggs and chicken, whole grain baked goods, honey, teas, chocolate, artisan cheeses plus a variety of healthy prepared foods. Pictured are three of the Mexican founders, Espiridon Eventes Anles (better known as Paye), Rafael Hernandaz and Ezequiel Macios Ochaa. Ezequiel started the Eco Mercado in Guadalajara in 1996. Paye teaches organic farming at the RASA farm in Ixtlahuacán. His next class is in April and covers a multitude of topics from using natural pesticides and fungicides to foliar fertilizing. Classes are in Spanish. Find him at the market for more information. For more information about RASA, go to their website: www.redrasa.wordpress.com. Future Events If you need to purchase tickets Vendors at Lake Chapala Farmers for an event from the LCS ticket booth, Market Diane Pearl, Charter Club, or the Auditorio de la Ribera, you can find the hours that they are open under “Ticket Info,” at the end of this column. Fridays in March, Lake Chapala Hospice presents a second series of thoughtprovoking documentaries! The remaining films in this series are Facing Death by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross on March 9; Choosing to Die by Terry Pratchett on March 16, The Last Days of extraordinary lives on March 23, and Gen Silent by Stu Maddux on March 30. The documentaries will be shown at the LCS Sala at 2:30pm. Please reserve your seats by sending a request to: admin@lakechapalahospice.com. For more information about the documentaries, visit their website: www.lakechapalahospice.com/Documentaries.html. Viva Musica has some wonderful offerings for Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra performances in Guadalajara: March 2 - Friday Evening, March 11 - Sunday Matinee, March 16 - Friday Evening, March 25 - Sunday Matinee, April 1- Sunday Matinee. For complete program information, go to the Philharmonic website: www.ofj.com.mx. The Friday concerts depart Ajijic at 4:30 pm and include a stop for dinner at a choice of restaurants. The Sunday concerts depart Ajijic at 10:30 am with food options at the theater. Prices are $250 pesos for Viva Members, and $350 pesos for non members. To reserve , e-mail marshallallenkrantz@yahoo.com or call 766-2834. March 8 at 6 pm, Latin Dance Show is at the Auditorio de la Ribera. Fernando Serna and his Danza con Clase, 23 dancers from Centro Cultura Danza, con will perform an Anthology of Danzon in the first part of the program. This will be followed by performances by 6 dancers from the Ballet Neo Clasico. The second half of the program includes Latin dances such as salsa, cumbia, bachata, son, tango and west coast swing. Fernando Serna was born in Guadalajara in 1970. He worked with the Ballet Folklorico for many years, before leaving to form his own academy and dance company in 2007. He has appeared with his dancers in numerous Danzon competitions in major national Danzon congresses, most recently in 2011 at the Teatro Degollado with Arturo Marquez, to great acclaim. Tickets are available at the LCS ticket booth, Charter Club Tours, Diane Pearl and the Auditorio for $250 pesos for Viva members and $300 pesos

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for non members. March 15, 5:30 pm at the Hotel Real de Chapala, come and walk the red carpet with Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, a.k.a. Rhett Butler hosted by Niños Incapacitados del Lago. You can even have your photo taken with the stars! Come as a Hollywood star, a director, a cinematographer or an extra, but please come. The children in our program need your help. We can accept more kids if you’ll make up a table, dress to the nines, bid for the exciting items in our live and Meet Rhett Butler March 15 silent auctions and much more. There will be surprises, and we guarantee a lively and entertaining evening with and beneath the stars. Tickets are $450 pesos each and are available at the LCS ticket booth. Each table seats 10 people. If you want to come in a smaller group, we’ll be happy to seat you at an open table. We’ll also be honoring some of Tinsel Town’s leading lights – The Rat Pack – by naming special tables after them. For $7,500 pesos for a table of 10 you can enjoy an array of scrumptious extras such as a 750 ml bottle of Siete Leguas tequila, three bottles of Reserva wine, your photograph taken with Marilyn and/or Rhett, chocolates, coffee and liqueurs and other premium items. You get to choose the name of your table. Someone is already bidding for Frank Sinatra so don’t delay! If Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop are snapped up, we can name tables after the “Rat Pack Mascots” who included Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson and Juliet Prowse. Rhett Butler may famously have said “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,” but we do and we know you do too because of your previous and much-appreciated support. We sincerely hope you will join us for a star-studded evening at Hollywood on the Lake. Please contact Kari Higgins at 766-3651 or e-mail karihiggins@laguna.com.mx for reservations. Raffle for the Arts is being held by Los Cantantes del Lago to benefit the Pro Auditorio fund. Over 30 prizes will be raffled off to include event tickets for LLT, My, My How Nice! Productions, MAS, and certificates for Go Restaurant, Ajijic Tango, La Nueva Posada and many more items listed on www.loscantantesdellago.com. Raffle tickets are 200 pesos and the drawing will be at the last Los Cantantes del Lago Spring Concert on March 28th. One need not be present to win. March 10, 4 pm My My How Nice Productions! presents Hebrew Melodies: A Musical Journey Through the World performed by Budapest Native Madalina Nicolescu and Timothy G. Ruff Welch, pianist and Music Director of Los Cantantes del Lago at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church. Tickets are 200 pesos, available by emailing mymytickets@gmail.com or at Mia’s Boutique and Diane Pearl Colecciones. March 13, 7:30 pm - MAS Musica proudly presents Viva Flamenco, voted the Best Flamenco Company by the National Association of Broadcasters of Mexico. Viva Flamenco arrives from Mexico City to perform Pasiones En Rojo at the Auditorio de la Ribera. Under the direction of Leticia Cosio, this sensational Flamenco Company, has electrified audiences through the US, Spain, and Latin America since 2003. The 350 peso tickets can be purchased at the LCS ticket booth, Charter Club Tours, and at MAS’ new ticket venue on the Guadalupe Victoria Walkway near the Ajijic Plaza on Sundays, March 4 and 11 from 10 am to 2 pm. For more information, contact Kathleen Phelps at 766-0010. March 17, 5 to 7 pm, ASA’s Annual Judged Show and Reception will be held at the Ajijic Cultural Center. Following the judging, works entered in the show, to include jewelry, sculpture, textiles, drawings, paintings and photographs, will be available for purchase. The exhibit will be at the Cultural Center Viva Flamenco

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through the 29th. March 20, 6 pm, Jaltepec Centro Educativo invites you to their last dinner of the season. The event starts with a No Host Bar and delicious hors d’oeuvres prepared by the students. Enjoy a beautiful cocktail hour watching the sun set over the lake along with Tim Welch playing cocktail music. Donation is $350 pesos per person which includes hors d’oeuvres, and a three course dinner along with tea or coffee, regular or decaf. The funds raised benefit the students of this Tecnico Jaltepec Centro Educativo Students Universario en Hoteleria. Please RSVP by March 13 to Linda Buckthorp at buckthorp@laguna.com.mx or call 7661631 to make reservations or for menu information. March 23, 7 pm, the Festival of Music Song and Dance will be at the Auditorio de la Ribera and feature prominent musicians from the Lakeside area. Tickets are 100 pesos and sold at the Auditorio. March 23, 24 and 25, at 4 pm, Shirley Appelbaum directs Nuts written by Tom Topor. The play is a courtroom drama with a great sense of comedy. It is a suspense, psychological, and courtroom drama that explores abuse issues, family and social power dynamics, and aspects of the criminal court system. It was staged off-off-Broadway in 1979 and transferred to Broadway the following year. A 1987 film adaptation stars Barbra Streisand and Richard Dreyfuss. Ticket prices are donations of 80 pesos. The Naked Stage is located in the Plaza de la Ribera on Rio Bravo. Reservations are required.To make reservations, call 766-5986. If you need to cancel, please do so a day in advance. Box Office opens at 3:15 and the show starts at 4:00pm. March 27, 7 pm, and March 28 at 4 pm, the Los Cantantes del Lago Spring concert “Prisms” is at the Auditorio de la Ribera. You can purchase 250 peso tickets at the LCS ticket booth and from any Los Cantantes member or email cantantesdellago@gmail. com. This is our 10th anniversary concert year with a mix of old and new and lots of fun. April 7 – 16, LakeSex Please, We Are Sixty side Little Theatre (LLT) presents a farce about sex and aging in the time of little blue pills: Sex Please, We Are Sixty. Written by Susan and Michael Parker, and directed by Pat Carroll.”A newly developed, little blue pill, just for menopausal women gets in the wrong hands and the prim and proper Rose Cottage Inn will never be the same… and neither will Bud the Stud.” Purchase tickets at the Theatre from 10 to noon starting Thursday, April 5. Performances begin at 7:30 pm, and the bar opens at 6:30 pm. Sunday matinees at 3 pm. For more information, visit their website: www.lakesidelittletheatre.com. Ticket Info You can purchase tickets from the LCS ticket booth, Diane Pearl, Charter Club and the Auditorio as follows: The LCS (Lake Chapala Society) ticket booth is open Monday through Friday from 10 am to Noon. Diane Pearl Colecciones is located at corner of Colon and Ocampo in Ajijic, and tickets can be purchased 10 to 5 pm Monday through Saturday, and noon to 3 pm on Sunday. Charter Club Tours is located in Plaza Montana, on the main street and Colon. Tickets can be purchased from 10 to 5 pm Monday through Friday and Saturday from 10 to 1pm. Auditorio de la Ribera del Lago is located on the lake side of the Carretera in La Floresta and tickets can be purchased from 9 to 5 pm Monday through Saturday.

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What Handicap? By Kay Davis

ANG! The small child hit the ground, blood oozing from a hole in his head. But he was breathing. Scooped into someone’s arms, he was rushed to a hospital. The hours ticked by. Finally the doctor emerged from the operating room. The boy’s life was spared and it appeared his faculties were intact, but the bullet had cut right through his optic nerve, severing any visual images forever. A small, black world encompassed him. He was blind. Perhaps having such a close call made death seem an everpresent possibility for Burns. He grew into a man driven to live fully. An educated man, too, he taught English at university. Poetry was his specialty. He had an ability to turn words into pictures he imagined, pictures often representing feelings common to us all. The visual void that wrapped around him was enlarged by sound that titillates the imagination and sometimes vibrates in the bones. Scent and taste tell the substance of things, and touch provides dimension and shape. At the airport we picked up Burns and Valora, his wife, and took them to the home of friends, Stan and Shirley, in Ajijic. All four live in a perpetually dark world. Dinner was on the agenda for the evening, prepared by the host and hostess. Following dinner was a tour of the home. Not for us, of course. We were preparing to leave by then. But we watched and learned. Shirley placed Valora’s hand on the newel post at the top of the stairs. Valora tapped her feet to feel the edge of the step. Meanwhile Stan was guiding Burns down the left side of the staircase where it makes a sharp turn using three pie-shaped steps, wide on one side, tightly closed on the other. Burns tapped with his cane to feel the shape and height of them. Furniture arrangement in the

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home was simple, none of it intruding on walkways but within reach if they became disoriented. The kitchen was tidy. Cooking is something Shirley and Stan do for themselves...with a gas stove and a BBQ. Clearly most tasks are done by feel while the sighted depend heavily on the visual. Prior to dinner we had sat with cocktails. I had looked from the upstairs terraza into the garden below, then watched the sky turn from blue to indigo as birds silently winged their way to their accustomed night perches. And as the sky yielded to black and stars began twinkling, we had gone inside. They could smell the blossoms and, if the birds called out, they could hear their musical tones, but the sky’s changing colors and the textures in the garden eluded their senses. Ignorant of how blind people adapt, I watched each of them eat. I’m not sure their methods were much different from ours, but one thing they all did was to touch the food lightly to locate what they wanted. Napkins were always at hand. A significant difference, however, was in how to handle the drink. We, the sighted, reach for a glass of wine but also look for its location, not wanting to knock it over. The blind, it seems, feel for the base of the wine glass or, say, a coffee cup, barely touching it with the fingertips and then reaching higher to grasp it. Putting it down again there was a slight hesita-

tion in finding the table top and in determining whether the calculated reach had resulted in an open spot where it would be easily found for the next sip. Order is important. Would I be able to look after myself if I were blind? Would I have an active social life? Would I hike, dance, cook, entertain? Would I become adept at creative writing on a Braille computer, reading it back as fast as one of you might read? Would I have the courage to board an airplane in order to teach in schools where

I was not familiar with the town, let alone the school? Because I can see, there is so much I take for granted. But it is not only vision that I accept as normal. I am as healthy as anyone retired can be. Nonetheless, we retirees are vulnerable to injury or handicap from illness. Losing our capabilities frightens us, yet we do the best we can, and when confronted with challenge, the courageous among us say, â&#x20AC;&#x153;What handicap?â&#x20AC;? for normal was never guaranteed. Life is precious when we truly live it.

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THE MAGIC OF ISABEL ALLENDE By Rosamaria Casas

n Isabel Allende’s books, the real world of her family and history and the fictional world of character and plot are inextricably twined. The House of the Spirits meanders through four generations of her own family, its dramas reflecting the social and political changes of her country of origin, Chile. In the lnfinite Plan, her characters live in modern Los Angeles, suffering to adapt their Latin habits to the demands of the American way of life. No one, perhaps not even the author, can say just what is true and what is a fantastic elaboration of the facts. The great rambling house in which the first novel is mostly set is

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based on her grandparents’ house in Santiago, where she spent her childhood. Clara, the clairvoyant who converses with spirits and can move objects at will, is based on her grandmother: “She held seances every day with her spiritualist friends. Nobody thought it was weird.” Esteban, the violent-tempered landowner and senator who supports a coup and then is sickened by its brutalities, is, to a large extent, like her real grandfather. It was for him that she began writing about the family. In a recent interview she said: “He was a wonderful grandfather, a very hard, tough guy, though not cruel in the way I made him out in the book. He was a true Spaniard of Basque origin. I wanted to be strong like him. We disagreed on many things. In his heart he believed that he and his land owning class had the right to rule, to be privileged. Of course I reject his way of thinking.” Jung said that he could not explain his own life in scientific terms because human life is about myth.

This is what Isabel Allende claims— that she uses her family as an excuse to exaggerate, to make fiction. When she tries to stick to the facts she fails, the characters take over when she is writing and she is powerless to control them. She has to follow them, to go where they want to go. The House of the Spirits is a book which obsesses people. Modern literature students have made dozens of dissertations based on this book, many newspaper articles have been published about it. A film has been made in the USA. When she was asked what is this “magic realism” in her literature, she answered: “Let’s be clear what magic realism means. It’s not a literary device that applies to Latin American writers alone. Magic realism is in literature. Things are magic but at the same time they are real. Magic realism really means allowing a place in literature to the invisible forces that have such a powerful place in life, such as dreams, myth, legend, passion, obsession, superstition, religion, the overwhelming power of nature and the supernatural. “All these are present in preColombian poetry, Hindu sagas, Arab tales, and used to be pres-

ent in Western literature up to the Gothic novel and Edgar Allen Poe. Only in the past few decades have they been excluded by white male authors who decided that whatever cannot be controlled does not exist.” When someone asked her about her methodology for writing, she simply said: “If a writer sits alone in a room for eight or ten hours a day, she creates something like a magnetic field. It’s as if there are stories inside you which you don’t know you have.” This is the bottom line. Do you want to write? Sit several hours a day, alone in a room, in front of your typewriter or PC and let your unconscious come to the surface. Easier said than done! As a teacher of creative writing once said, “unconscious is shy, elusive and unwieldy, but it is possible to learn to tap it at will and even to direct it.” Some writers talk about having a vision, others of dreaming their characters, others construct them step by step, like a mason building a wall, one brick after the other, a slow, painful process that produces books like The House of the Spirits, which took Isabel Allende eight years of thinking about it before she sat down in front of the typewriter!

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By Bob Tennison

ary and Johnny Rivers, after many years of trying and hoping, had just become the parents of a beautiful baby girl. Mary had always wanted a girl, but Johnny didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care as long as the baby was healthy (and preferably beautiful, which this one was). Mary just knew that if she gave the baby an exotic name she would be exactly that, and so she named her India. Mary thought that name was very exotic, but as the child grew up India turned out to be exotic and erotic as well. By the time India was in her senior year of high school, she was called The Lay of the Land, because

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she had slept with all of, and only, the handsome boys from wealthy families. No other boys were even considered. Her parents considered the things they heard to be simply ugly rumors, prompted by jealously. But by the time India was twenty-four she had been married and divorced three times, to extremely wealthy men, who collectively left her with a bank account she never imagined possible. Soon her acting career skyrocketed with awards in both Hollywood and New York, and she was usually filming one movie, while another was waiting for her. The wives living on Diamondback Road were horrified when they learned India had bought the old Chrysler Mansion in their neighborhood. It especially upset Patricia Martin, whose husband Gregory was undoubtedly the handsomest man in the area and who had been fighting off women most of his adult life. That India was living in the Chrysler Mansion next door was exciting to Gregory but not to Patricia. Hoping to make as favorable impression as possible on the local wives, India hired a stretch limousine, invited all of them on a studio tour, and then took them all to lunch at the one restaurant she knew they could never afford. Before leaving, she presented each with a box of expensive chocolates and a copy of her latest film yet to be released to the public. When their phone rang at six oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock one morning Patricia, as she always did, assumed there had been a death in the family. But it was far more upsetting than that. It was India, asking to speak to her husband. Gregory went into his office so as to let Patricia go back to sleep (impossible), and after a brief conversation

he returned to tell her India’s car would not start and he was taking her to the studio for an urgent call. It wouldn’t take too long, he told her as he quickly dressed and left to rescue the damsel in distress. To Patricia it seemed Gregory was gone for hours, but when he did finally returned he told her he had stopped for coffee and breakfast on the way home so that Patricia could sleep in. Spring break had just begun. Patricia was a professor at the University of Southern California and had spent a very busy few months. That was plausible, Patricia thought. Gregory was a newscaster for the six and ten o’clock broadcasts and had his days basically free. Patricia was excited about going to New Mexico for the first time, as president of her Bridge Club. But it was bad timing for Patricia because India had invited Gregory and Patricia to a formal dinner honoring the new governor’s election and India. Since Patricia would be out of town, India insisted Gregory come alone. Patricia had to agree as she felt it was important for his newscasting position and he had already covered the inauguration. This would be an excellent opportunity for Gregory to spend some time with the governor

personally. When Patricia returned from New Mexico, she listened to the stories about all of the celebrities who had attended, and she was sorry she had missed the party. Putting her clothes away, she noticed Gregory’s tuxedo needed cleaning and pressing. Going through the jacket pockets, she found a three-pack of glow-in-thedark condoms with one missing. There was no doubt in her mind where the missing one had gotten to. Rather than reveal what she had discovered, she just hung the tuxedo back in the closets. Gregory would never forget the day Patricia came running into the house, hugging him, kissing him, dancing around and shouting, “You’ll never believe what happened. I just won the lottery. Millions and millions. Start packing.” Equally as excited, Gregory hurried upstairs, returning to the living room less than an hour later with two huge suitcases. Patricia was sitting in front of the TV watching the news. “Have you finished already?” he asked her. In a very cheerful voice, smiling like she was the happiest woman in the world, she answered, “Why? I’m not going anywhere.”

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Chico’s Lakeside Death by Starvation (Almost) By Jim Dickinson

Before

hen I first saw the thing that cold, predawn January morning I couldn’t tell what it was. It was a dim, shivering gray face with pale bat-like wings, peering out from the blackness under our cargo trailer, hard against one of the wheels, as if for support. It disappeared when Mimi, our Golden Retriever, ran up to bark at it. After I had returned Mimi and our other Golden, Bucky, to the warmth of our roadside home north of Chapala, I went back to the trailer and found the face’s owner shivering against another wheel on the opposite side. It was the scrawniest, most pathetic animal I had ever seen, lying stretched out on the cold ground. I couldn’t tell if it was alive, until I touched its shivering neck and it moved its head to avoid the contact. In the improving light, I felt it was a tiny dog with no fur, just cold blotchy skin covering its lifeless bones. There were two things I could do, I thought — Put it out of it misery with a nearby rock to its head, or see if it would eat some of our dogs’ food. I chose the latter, and brought a handful of Pedigree out and placed it on the ground near the dog’s nose. He was too weak to stand, so he slid himself over to the Pedigree nuggets and feebly chewed on three or four of them before stopping in exhaustion. By now I could see enough of him to determine he was a male — and that his bare skin was almost totally covered with what I assumed was mange. I immediately worried that it could infect our dogs. His shivering reminded me that I should find something to wrap him in, so I went into the house to forage for a blanket we could afford to lose, but finding none settled on an old abused towel. I donned a pair of gloves I hoped would prove mangeproof, wrapped the little waif in the towel and stuffed the bundle into a small open-topped basket bin and

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After

left the combination against one of the trailer wheels where it would heat up in the thin January sunshine now spreading across our little corner of Paradise. After breakfast, my wife Sheila took our still quivering responsibility into San Antonio and to the excellent veterinarian and animal shelter there, while I sank myself into the World Wide Web whence cometh our daily bread. Sheila called in a few hours to report that the vet had treated the little dog with various shots, including one to fight mange, recommended a diet of puppy food, and urged a return visit in a few days. The vet figured him to be a miniature poodle-chihuahua mix, possibly eighteen months to three years of age —his emaciated condition made it hard to say. “The vet opined that the little dog was very appreciative to have been rescued. “We’re on our way home now,” Sheila told me. It was only then that I realized our family had a new member, because I’d assumed she would have dropped the little dog off at the animal shelter across the street. It reputedly never put down anything. Now we had several problems, not the least of which was how Mimi and Bucky would react. Bucky proved to be no problem — as a 10-year-old and lazy fellow, he wasn’t very interested. Five-year-old Mimi, and the apple of my eye, was a different story. Instantly jealous of any attention that wasn’t 100% on her, we had to keep her at a distance while we nurtured the skeletal newcomer. He needed to be fed “at will,” as opposed to Mimi and Bucky’s rigid twice-a-day schedule. The next, less pressing issue was what to name him. We eventually settled on “Chico” for his smallness and his masculinity. And what an oversize masculinity it proved to be! It grew faster than his body weight, and we had the unforeseen problem

of house-training and the male-dog marking of our walls, furniture, and even on one occasion my trouser leg as I stood in it! Over the ensuing days, Mimi’s jealousy abated under a lot of extra attention and the carefully phased reduction of Chico’s “at will” mealtimes. Over all, we spent close to 3,000 pesos in vet bills, after discounts due to his “rescue” status. Now, at his 38th day in our company as I write this, and at twice his found weight, Chico is the smartest, feistiest, all-aroundhappy, most eager-to-please and compliant dog we’ve ever known.

Thickening white tufts of silky, curly hair now cover all of his body. Even Mimi loves him, and that’s my greatest relief. We believe he was within hours of death by starvation when we found him, and we urge our fellow gringos to give generously to animal rescue and care outfits (especially animal neutering) in our area, as our vet advises that there are many such dogs abandoned to die as horribly as Chico nearly did, due to the state of the local economy for poor families who cannot afford to keep their pets and their pets’ litters.

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The Poets’ Niche By Mark Sconce msconce@gmail.com

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

fter listening to Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone recite Poe, I couldn’t recall ever hearing anything quite so eerie, so chill. But then, eeriness was Poe’s specialty, and he became the maestro of horror and the morbid. No, I won’t quoth The Raven evermore, but poetry is our prey and the game is afoot. Besides, The Raven did make Edgar Allan Poe famous when it was first published in 1845. And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted — nevermore! The peculiar circumstances of his death in 1849* fit comfortably somehow among his dominant themes: mysterious events, intrigue, skullduggery, haunted palaces, and the ever-present supernatural. Poe was more appreciated in Europe where, through the inspired translations of Charles Baudelaire, word went round that Poe was singing their song—the song of someone who recognizes that reality is essentially subterranean, contradictory to surface reality, and “profoundly irrational in character,” as one historian put it. Some would later hail him as “the prophet of modern sensibility.” Malevolence, madness and death came alive under Poe’s queer quill somehow touching our deep-lying apprehensions. “Congestion of the brain” finally claimed him, a euphemism in those days for something more disreputable—like alcoholism. Hear the loud alarum bells — Brazen bells! What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright! But then he could turn around and bring tenderness to life as no one else. For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. Poe married his darling cousin, Virginia Clemm, when she was but 13 and he but 27. And when she died of tuberculosis after only 11 years of a happy marriage, Poe’s life began its downward spiral into too much alcohol and deep depression. “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” He finds himself descending into a cellar, a wine vault, a whirlpool, always falling ( The Tell Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum). He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. One winter, he and Virginia nearly froze to death. With the fever that maddened my brain — With the fever called “Living” that burned in my brain.

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And finally, among his most famous poems: I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand grains of the golden sand — How few! yet how they creep through my fingers to the deep, While I weep — while I weep! O God! can I not grasp them with a tighter clasp? O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream? *Found on a Baltimore street, semi-conscious and dressed in strange clothes, Poe died four days later crying, “Lord, help my poor soul” but unable to relate exactly what had happened.

Mark Sconce

Hand To Hand I study my hands and recall my father’s middle finger, severed at the first knuckle by a meat grinder. I always wondered what he felt and what he did with the hamburger. I remember the smooth rounded top, like a bald head, and wonder now – though I did not then, how it would have felt to hold that finger in my small hand. I remember when my son, while kneading the huge lawn mower scar on my hand, announced how much he wanted his own scar. When a youthful misadventure with a hot glue gun branded a crescent moon on his hand I wondered if it was the first and mandatory wound on his journey to manhood, for without the wound, the hand of a boy never grows into the hand of a man. Now I grasp his labor-roughened ham-like hand and feel some of the masculine he has earned; the near miss with a worm drive circular saw, bruising the bone but sparing the thumb. I massage my own hands that built our lake cabin: the never-healed hangnail from the drill that slipped and drilled through my fingernail. and how I screamed while my family winced helplessly. I wish I had caressed Dad’s smooth, rounded stub and explored the wonder of new skin that had so replaced the old that no scar appeared. I wish I knew the place whence the new skin came to cover the naked bone. I wish I had asked him if he ever healed. I wish he had let me touch his wound. I wish I had wrapped my small hand around that shortened end and felt his pain. Because I didn’t know how to ask then I think I bear it for him still. David Bryen

Saw you in the Ojo 61

Enemy Submarines Brought World War II Home to Both U.S. Coasts

By Dr. Lorin Swinehart

ollowing that terrible day, September 11, 2001, many pundits observed that it was the first time the U.S. mainland had been attacked by an enemy since the War of 1812. In the course of that long ago conflict, the enemy succeeded in briefly occupying Washington, D.C., long enough to fire the Executive Mansion and other federal buildings, sending President Madison and his wife Dolly fleeing into the Maryland countryside in a horsedrawn wagon containing the U.S. Constitution and the famous Gilbert Stuart oil portrait of George Washington. Some today may know that in 1916, the revolutionary leader Pancho Villa and his force of Villistas raided the small town of Columbus, New Mexico. Americans will always remember the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Down the road a short distance from where I now live much of each year, at Kure Beach, North Carolina, a simple black and white sign marks the site of an old bromine plant, constructed in 1934 by Ethyl-Dow Corporation for the extraction of bromine from seawater. Bromine was used in the manufacture of no-knock gasoline, including aviation fuel. Nothing marks the spot now except the sign, and yet, the site is noteworthy. On the night of July 24-25, 1943, a German U-Boat surfaced somewhere out beyond the reefs and shoals and attempted to bombard the plant. Three to five rounds were fired from the sub’s deck gun. All missed their mark, rocketing over Pleasure Island and falling harmlessly to the west into the Cape Fear River. No damage was done, and no casualties resulted from this failed attempt against America’s wartime production. Given the worldwide suffering and carnage during the long awfulness of World War II, the event is a mere blip on the pages of local history. The incident is, nevertheless, significant, indicating just how near the violence of World War II came to America’s shores. It was not uncommon for residents of coastal North Carolina to hear the thump of exploding depth-charg-

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es and torpedoes at night as Navy and Coast Guard warships dueled out to sea with enemy U-Boats. To the north, on the Outer Banks, it was not unusual for debris from these confrontations to wash ashore. It is estimated that 150,000,000 gallons of oil spilled onto the beaches, blackening the sands and rendering the water unsafe for swimming. U-boat is short for the German word unterseeboot, or submarine. The typical U-boat carried deck guns and 15 torpedoes. A U-boat could remain submerged for 60 miles before surfacing for fresh air. Submarine warfare was not exactly new to American waters. During World War I, three U-boats sank ten ships off North Carolina. During the Civil War, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sank the new U.S. warship Housatonic in Charleston Harbor before going to the bottom itself. During the years 1942 and 1943, 65 U-boats operated along the east coast, sinking or damaging 397 U.S. and British ships and causing 5000 casualties. The Gulf of Mexico was visited by 20 Uboats, sinking another 56 ships. The region soon became known as Torpedo Junction. Tourists and residents along the Carolina coast were admonished to turn off their lights after dark and cover their auto headlights with black tape, so as to prevent Nazi craft from locating mainland targets. Throughout most of our history, America’s position between two vast oceans protected us from invasion, creating a false sense of invulnerability. The War of 1812 and the 2001 attack on the Trade Towers and the Pentagon stand as exceptions to the rule. The threats to mainland America during World War II may have been slight, but they did chip away at our sense of comfortable isolation. At one point, a Japanese submarine surfaced on the West Coast and lobbed shells at the mainland. The Japanese also released balloon-bombs, hoping to cause some destruction along the Pacific coast and weaken American moral. One of these probably triggered a forest fire, and

another may have caused the deaths of a woman and child. The Japanese actually shelled Fort Stevens, Oregon, but only damaged a baseball field and some power lines. At one point, the Japanese submarine 1-26 fired upon the Estevan Point Lighthouse in British Columbia but missed. On September 9, 1942, a Japanese submarine launched a float plane that dropped two incendiary bombs along the coast of Oregon in an attempt to ignite a forest fire. Along with the very real danger created by Nazi submarines was the fear of spies and saboteurs infiltrating U.S. society. On May 26, 1942, four German saboteurs landed on Long Island, New York, with boxes of explosives and plans to disrupt U.S. industry and manufacturing. On June 17, 1942, four were landed at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Their targets included railroads, canals, and aluminum and magnesium plants. The members of both units were arrested by the F.B.I. Six were sent to the electric chair, one was sentenced to life in prison at hard labor, and the other sentenced to 30 years. In 1948, the two surviving prisoners were deported back to Germany. Two spies were sent ashore in Maine in 1944, but were immediately captured. Submarine warfare, together with

the few infiltrators, spurred rumors along the coast. One provided the plot for the children’s book Taffy of Torpedo Junction, by Nell Wise Wechter, the story of a thirteen year old Cape Hatteras girl, her pony and her dog tracking down a gang of Nazi spies. Whether stories of German infiltrators were exaggerated or not, the commander of the U-boat on July 1943, knew the structure at Kure Beach was a plant that provided a necessary ingredient for aviation fuel, and he was willing to risk his ship and the lives of his crew in an attempt to destroy it. With increased patrols by U.S. Navy and Coast Guard planes, ships and blimps and with the formation of convoys to transport war materials safely across the Atlantic, U-boat activities became less common in North American waters. U.S. forces sank four Uboats along the Carolina coast alone. Today, an estimated 60 wrecks from the World War II era dot the ocean bottom along the Carolina coast, mute reminders of a time when war came home to everyday Americans. As for the old Bromine plant, another sign has now appeared on the patch of vacant land, informing us that a large condo will soon be constructed on the site.

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Focus on Art By Rob Mohr robmohr@gmail.com Landscapes - A Spiritual Journey

t Lakeside, the earth’s diversity, vivid colors and organic textures enrich our lives. They are our markers, the frame in which our living takes place. My hope is that this brief look at the history of landscapes will encourage readers to reconnect their spiritual and emotional ties with the mysterious and sometimes savage world that nurtures us. Humanity’s cave paintings were fluid and natural in form. But as settled communities developed, artists used simplified and abstracted human and animal forms in bands, or multiple ground lines read from bottom up to tell their story. The lowest band was

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the underworld, and the top band the heavens. Classical Roman frescoes returned to observations of nature with mythological overtones but maintained multiple ground lines to position humans and animals within the painting. During the Middle Ages, landscapes became mere stage sets for biblical stories. And even as the Renaissance flourished, powerful art academies in Italy and France discouraged landscapes that lacked biblical or mythological themes. Artists in the Netherlands ignored the dictates of academies and focused instead on the natural world and its occupants. Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s (1525-1569) landscapes, depicting the life of common people, revolutionized western painting. Through the power of his vision, Brueghel magically transports the observer back in time into a world that remains eternally alive (photo). Many of the standards for landscape paintings that endure today are the result of Brueghel’s understandings. Landscapes are entered from the lower quadrant. Perspective creates the illusion of three dimensions as planes and lines converge in the distance. Closer objects overlap distant objects. Distant objects diminish in scale and are lighter and less defined. Warmer colors move forward, cooler colors away from the viewer. In 1800, artist Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes wrote in his Elements de Perspective Pratique, “landscapes should be based on studies of the natural world.” Following Valenciennes, Nicolas Poussin’s studies of nature coupled with the expressive works of Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) opened the way to even more radical, tactile works by Charles Daubigny. By the late 19th century, Impressionists Monet and Renoir and post-impressionists Cezanne and Van Gogh, following the lead of Courbet and Daubigny, used visible brush strokes, vivid hues, simplified forms and keen observation to create landscapes that exploded with light, permanently changing human

perception of nature. Cezanne (18391906) disassembled the natural landscape and reassembled it using geometric planes and prisms along with sensitive, exploratory brush strokes that impart a solid feel to the land. The result was the depiction of a natural world unique in human history. By the end of the 19th century, Matisse dominated the poetic landscape using juxtaposed planes of color and pattern, while Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) continued the revolution begun by the Impressionists by reordering color, space and form to evoke the land rather than render it. His use of multiple perspectives, anticipating Picasso, enabled the artist to observe the land from simultaneous vantage points. Kandinsky wrote, ”music is the only pure art form,” divining the move toward abstract expressionism that swept through the 20th century. Following Kandinsky, Graham Sutherland ’s Black Landscapes, reminiscent of the Apocalyptic works of John Martin (1789-1854), helped set a

darker tone for the last half of the 20th century. (photo at top). www.wassilykandinsky.net Good landscapes continue to reflect humanity’s spiritual and emotional connection with the land while confirming that the fine arts uniquely lead humanity towards a richer perception of the earth we occupy. Link to Paintings mentioned in this article https://plus. Rob Mohr google.com/photos/111258927866130698336/ albums/5710100591418977777

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K WA N G C H O W KWANGCHOW Novel by David Harper Review by Rob Mohr

avid Harper’s first novel, Kwangchow, is an unforgettable story of Freddy Everard’s life from youthful naiveté to a maturity reminiscent of John Fowles’ Daniel Martin’s return to his authentic being. The central character, Freddy, (the name grows on you) is a young third officer on a large Hong-Kong based British freighter with a Chinese crew. Unknown to all but the ship’s captain, our hero is also an undercover British naval officer sent to spy on Chinese shipping. Freddy approaches life at sea with believable innocence. Unaware of the challenges of shared responsibility for a heavy freighter, and the consequences of his role as spy, a series of traumatic events which include being taken captive, transform his naiveté into a mellowed understanding of his own values. While the first chapter lacks focus, the subsequent writing is smooth and effortless, offering a complex detailed story that held my interest from beginning to end. The novel begins as Freddy faces Captain Marshal’s suspicion and dislike, while Andy, the chief officer, sensing the captain’s reserve - not unlike Thomas Heggen’s Mr. Roberts - helps and encourages the young officer in opposition to Andy. Bill Nicholls, the chief engineer below deck, gleefully leads the hero shoreward to places and women of questionable value. The tension between above deck and below deck officers is palpable. On his first solo watch tension builds as Freddy has to navigate the heavy freighter through thousands of Chinese fishing vessels without sinking the fragile ships. From that point on, the author’s understanding of the writer’s craft, and his first-hand experience as an officer on a British merchantman, enable the story to flow with an urgency that is sustained throughout. One fascinating encounter is with the inimitable Gurdon, a classic double agent whose loyalties are in doubt. Gurdon, a friend of Mao’s, has for mysterious reasons, been in China since the early 1920’s. The reader’s interest is held fast as Freddy engages a world dominated by the sea and filled with adventure,

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conflict, love and hope. In the vein of Richard Hughes’s Hazard, and Joseph Conrad’s sea stories, David Harper’s novel successfully draws a vivid portrait of men thriving in the austere and perilous conditions of life at sea. In especially insightful moments the inscrutable actions of the Chinese crew, whose loyalty is not clear, test the mettle of the ships officers in unexpected ways. Three well-developed female characters, Anna, Freddy’s first love back in London; the tantalizing Lilli in Hong Kong; and Heather, an Australian nurse working in primitive Rabaul, who follows Freddy to Brisbane, play key roles in Freddy‘s development. Harper breathes life into their unresolved needs and their conflicted relationship with Freddy. These interactions with Freddy give the story weight and serve as relief from intense shipboard action. The details about the lives and relationships among the crew, the ship and its workings, and the sight and sounds of the Far East are captivating. New conflicts emerge daily in encounters with greedy port authorities and corrupt Chinese systems, along with a classic sea adventure in which the ship, caught in the Straits of Taiwan, enters the vortex of three converging typhoons. For anyone who enjoys a great book of the sea this is a must read. My own reading about the sea began with Moby Dick and the Hornblower series. However since reading Kwangchow, I am convinced that more contemporary sea tales offer equally exciting adventures. The book can be bought at: Dianne Pearl Colecciones Book Store at Plaza Bugambilias Enrique Velazquez Art Studio Coffee & Bagels American Legion

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FRONT ROW CENTER By Michael Warren Nostalgia

urrently A Taste of Broadway is running at the Lakeside Little Theatre, and consequently my review of the show will not appear till the beginning of April. This month I am able to indulge in personal nostalgia for some of the excellent plays and musicals I have enjoyed at LLT over the past 10 years. There have been so many memorable evenings – it’s hard to pick out only a few. Certainly Doubt was one of the best plays to appear on the Lakeside stage in recent years. Cleverly written and very well acted, the dramatic force of the play left the audience with much to think about and discuss. Sister Aloysius thinks that there is a danger to a Catholic school, because of a popular priest’s ambiguous relationship with a troubled student. She may have to be prepared to lie for the greater good - or perhaps she deceives herself as to what is good. The play asks many questions, making us examine our own preconceived ideas, and finally leaves us in a turmoil of doubt. An Inspector Calls, from 2004 was also very good – though perhaps I am biased because I acted in the play. It’s a morality play by the English playwright J.B.Priestley, and it poses the age-old question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In the play, the older generation is mostly concerned with maintaining outward appearances, while the younger people ask deeper ethical questions. Although the play was written in 1944, Priestley places the action in 1912, giving an added poignancy to the smugness of this typical British family. We know – what is unknown to the characters in the play – that they are standing on a precipice. Soon the Titanic will sink, the First World War will begin, millions will die and horror will be unleashed on the world. And Priestley suggests that a ruthless and uncaring society will be doomed to failure. There have been countless entertaining comedies and farces, including Caught in the Net from

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2006, and last year’s production of Blithe Spirit. But the recent show How the Other Half Loves was undoubtedly the cream of the crop. My recent review will serve to remind you of my admiration for this excellent comedy – I will simply add that this production could easily match anything on Broadway or London’s West End. Over the years, I am sad to say that few murder mysteries have been performed here. In this category, I enjoyed Agatha Christie’s The Hollow, which was performed in 2009. The country house atmosphere and staging were very well done, and there was a clever twist to the plot though naturally Hercule Poirot was not deceived. Perhaps because I am British, I enjoy a clever murder mystery with devious clues and red herrings, and a surprise denouement at the end. In my opinion, Witness for the Prosecution was Agatha Christie’s best play, and perhaps one day it will be performed at LLT to the delight and surprise of paying customers. Finally, the musicals! I cannot begin to talk about the wonderful musicals without mentioning the amazing Anya Flesh. She was a hard task mistress, and she got results. Perhaps Quilters and Cabaret were her finest achievements, although it is hard to choose from among so many entertaining evenings of musical theater. I particularly remember the stunning ending of Cabaret, with the audience left in darkness and no curtain call. And so – onward and upward! We are fortunate to have so many talented and hardworking directors, actors, stage managers and backstage people in this town. I look forward to many more memorable evenings at the Lakeside Little Theatre. Michael Warren

Dead Horse Theory

he tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in government, education, and in corporate America, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as: 1. Buying a stronger whip 2. Changing riders. 3. Appointing a committee to study the horse. 4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses. 5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included. 6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired. 7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse. 8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse’s performance. 10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance. 11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contribute substantially more to the bottom line of economy than do some other horses 12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses. And of course.... 13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

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STAY HEALTHY! By J. Manuel Cordova, M. D. Internal Medicine & Geriatric Specialist Mdjmcordova1204@yahoo.com

Dietetic And Nutritional Overview

ART I: NUTRITION AND AGING Throughout life, nutrition is an important determinant of health, physical and mental function, vitality, overall quality of life, and longevity. The quantity and variety of available foods, as well as the meaningfulness of the social interactions provided by meals, are important to psychological well-being. The composition of the diet and the amount of food consumed are strongly linked to psychological function. When a well-balanced diet is not maintained, malnutrition may develop, with consequent detrimental effects on health and well-being. Malnutrition can have many manifestations. The greater the magnitude and duration of nutritional deprivation and the more fragile the individual, the more likely the occurrence of noticeable body compositional changes, functional impairments, or over disease caused by nutritional deficits. Even borderline dietary deficiencies may have important health consequences, such as producing subtle organ systemic impairments, causing diminished vitality, or increasing an individual`s susceptibility to disease. Protein and protein-energy under-nutrition are two of the most common, frequently unrecognized, and potentially serious forms of nutritional deficiency. Although there is a complex interrelationship among nutrition, disease, and clinical outcome, protein and protein-energy under-nutrition appears to be a significant contributor to diseaserelated to facility status to disease predisposition and mortality in these populations groups. At the other end of the spectrum, the persistent consumption of excess quantities of one or more nutrients can have similar untoward consequences. Forms of malnutrition that result from excess consumption include hypervitaminosis (excess of vitamin consumption) and obesity. Studies indicate that obesity is the most common nutritional disorder of advanced age in western societies, with a high prevalence among non-institutionalized (not in hospital or nursing

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homes) free-living elderly people. Many obese older individuals have other nutritional disorders as well. Under-nutrition is a common, serious, and frequently unrecognized problem that can develop for many reasons including an imbalanced diet, disease, and inactivity. WHAT IS A HEALTHFUL DIET? Not many subjects are of consuming interest to virtually all of us-but food is certainly one of them. It is one of the principal pleasure of life and also a lifegiving essential. Without the continual replacement of nutrients in our bodies, we would die. Food is so important that from time immemorial it has formed the basis of ritual in every society is the abundance and quality (or lack thereof) of its food. As recently as 50 years ago, the focus of nutrition research was to fight malnutrition and diseases caused by a lack of basic nutrients. Today the situation is changing, and overconsumption has replaced deficiency as America`s leading nutrition problem. In these articles I try to explain basic concepts and information on how your body uses food, correct weight control, and how to eat properly when faced with disease. You will need to talk to a Registered Dietitian here in Mexico. To obtain this Credential, a person must earn an undergraduate degree in a fouryear program in Food Science and Nutrition at an Accredited College or University, complete six to twelve months of accredited or approved training in practical aspects of dietetics, and take a National Examination. In addition, registered Dietitians must complete 75 Hours of professional education every five years. Some States have licensing procedures, and a dietitian may also be licensed under the regulations of the state health department. Usually your local health department or physician can refer you to a competent dietitian. To Be Continued Dr. C D Cordova d

THE T HE P PHOENIX HOENIX By Louise Drummond

(

d. Note: This is Ms. Drummond’s Introduction to her soonto-published book entitled The Phoenix. Our readers should be warned that what follows is brutally candid.) My first memories are of violence: my father toward my mother, and both of them toward us children. Incest started on my fourth birthday. This went on all during the years my childhood, until my father fled to another state because he was reported for molesting a child outside of the family. I don’t have to tell anyone who has been through that kind of life how frightening and confusing it is. I began drinking alcohol for relief before I was out of high school. Two pregnancies resulted, but I hated sex. I had a child but was unaware of my adult status. I ran away with a man to save myself, and he shot me, then a year later committed suicide. I would like to tell you that I was a good person anyway, but I was not. I tried to be, but the need to control my environment and the models I used to do it, made me act as a self-centered bully all too much of the time. Nor was I honest. I began stealing in childhood, and then graduated to cheating on my taxes, then to stealing my daughter’s inheritance. There was little about me that was likeable. I was giving back to the world exactly what it had done to me. I still feel shame over some of what I did. I became addicted to alcohol after my husband’s suicide. I was in yet one more relationship where I was letting myself be dominated and the effect of sweet wine was a distraction. I had a two year run, that time. I saw a psychiatrist for a couple of years. We talked about a lot of this stuff, but I never could get in touch with my emotions about the incest and never told him how much I was drinking. I did learn that, as an adult, I was a victim by choice and took responsibility for my life. Later, I discovered marijuana. It has some very interesting effects,

among them calming post-traumatic stress. Luckily, I was living in an idyllic village where I felt every little threat; that allowed me to concentrate my attention on my internal processes. And, it showed me the beauty in life. I began to center. Another stint of alcoholism and I wound up in Alcoholics Anonymous, thank God! I had been going to Vedanta lectures, attending an incest therapy group, volunteering at an abused women’s shelter, and I was looking for life to present me with the way to quit drinking. AA clearly knew how not to drink. Not only have I been free of alcohol for twenty-nine years, I have learned a way of life that makes life worth living. As addiction is an elevator ride to the agonies of hell, recovery through the methods of the 12-Step programs leads to freedom and joy. One learns that there are choices available that had been unimaginable before. Most important of all is incremental change in a safe and usually nurturing environment. All of the Anonymous programs use the same methods. They work for any problem because they concentrate on solutions. The past is important only to understand the present. And, your best effort, made day by day, or minute by minute basis, is good enough on the spiritual plain. I believe that there is a benign universe and when we free ourselves of the pain of the past, we put ourselves into alignment with natural forces, for in all the world, there is only now, this minute. I believe that there can be forgiveness and redemption. Amazing Grace is available if one asks for it and is willing to practice doing the next right thing, with a little help from friends who have been there and know the way.

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THE GREGARIOUS HERMIT —Living in a Town with Few Gringos By Roberta Rich

n December 15th, 1999, as our plane descended into the Manzanillo airport, I took my husband’s hand in mine and said, “In the next two weeks, we must either buy a house in Mexico or never speak of it again.” “Deal,” he replied. Colima was on our ‘short list’ for livable quiet towns in Mexico— a small, provincial capital of about 165,000, lovely winter climate, and accessible from either Guadalajara or Manzanillo airport. We checked into the Ceballos Hotel, the old colonial style hotel on the main square across from the cathedral, and began our quest for the perfect house. We spoke just enough Spanish to get ourselves into trouble and not enough to get us out as you will see. We soon discovered there were no real estate agent in town. Not one. The accepted practice for selling property seemed to be a peso sign chalked onto the side of a house. I was staring into someone’s adobe house when a young boy of about eighteen, rode up on his bike and asked, in Spanish, “What are you looking for?” “A house,” I replied. “To buy or rent?” “Buy,” I said, dizzy from the midday sun and walking around without a hat. “Come with me.” “It’s beer-thirty,” said my husband. “I want a house.” I trailed off after the boy. Soon we came to a stucco wall with a door in the middle. Behind this door

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Roberta R oberta Rich could have been a slaughter house or a palace. The exterior gave not a clue. The boy, whose name turned out to be “Jesus,” knocked. A beautiful Mexican woman opened the door and stood thunderstruck at the sight of two very tall gringos. She ushered us in and called for her daughter Paty who spoke fluent English. Paty explained her father, Pedro, was a builder and had a house for sale on the other side of the wall. She showed it to us. I got the feeling my father used to call ‘Rich’s Law of Instant Recognition.’ It was a shell, but an adorable one: two bedrooms, perota wood beams, hand made tiles, cool, sunny and rustica. A bougainvillea bloomed neon red in the front garden and ginger plants guarded the back patio. My imagination supplied windows, doors, furniture, more plants, papier maché figures and hand painted bathroom sinks. For the next two weeks we got to know Paty and her family. One night they took us to a farmer’s field and we watched as the Volcan de Fuego spewed out balls of hot lava. Paty and her family took it for granted we would buy the house but

we had not discussed money. Oh, we knew the asking price but had not negotiated a buying price. This bothered me. I am known in some quarters, as ‘Never Pay Retail Rich.’ It’s against my religion to just pay the asking price. My husband has a very different view of the world. My daughter used to say to him, “Ken, I know someone has to pay retail. But does it always have to be you?” “Say something,” I urged him. “At least tell them we want to pay a thousand dollars less, or make them throw in the vacant lot next door.” “This is what we shall do,” said Ken, “We will pay full price but I will explain to Pedro you are being difficult, which you are, and that he must replace the sinks and tiles with handmade ones.” And so the deal came to pass. And a good one it was and one that lead to many New Year parties with mariachi bands and cauldrons of pozole, visits from kids and grandkids, boozy dinners, and huge breakfasts. People often ask what it is like to live in a town where there are few other ex-pats. It can be lonely. It makes you more reliant on your spouse for companionship. You miss your friends and family at home, which in our case is Vancouver, Canada. My husband is more solitary by nature. He goes on

long bike trips up the volcano. I need women friends and am developing a circle of friends, both Mexican and gringa. Last month I hosted a ‘girl’s comida’ with five friends. It was a great success. Roberta Rich is the author of The Midwife of Venice, an historical novel set in the Jewish ghetto in Venice. (Ed. Note: Published by Random House. Also available on Amazon/Kindle) The book is now a NYTimes bestseller, having sold an astounding 70,000 in Canada alone!)

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Luck And Blarney By Allen McGill

“

o, I’ll give you four wishes,” the leprechaun said to me, “bein’ it’s St. Paddy’s Day, and all. And you bein’ the fine Irish lad that y’are.” I didn’t know whether to trust him, leprechauns having the reputations that they do, but I really didn’t have much choice. I’d trapped him while he lay asleep beneath a tree. He’d been smoking those dried shamrocks, don’t you know, along with a hefty pint of stout. “But all the wishes must be granted today,” he continued. “And all at once. Sale day, if you will. And no makin’ a wish that you can have ten or twenty wishes later on, either.” I studied the little man. He’d look silly, ordinarily, wearing his green knickered suit, white stockings and buckled shoes, topped off with a feathered cap. But today he looked right properly dressed. I let go of his collar, freeing him after he promised not to run. “It’s a deal,” I told him. He didn’t look all that bright, at least not enough to fool me, a second-year college student. “What are you doing here, anyway?” I asked him. Why aren’t you in Ireland instead of in the U.S.?” “I came over to visit relatives in Boston, nosy,” he replied. “Then I decided to come down to New York to see what the parade here was like. Too much celebratin’. Fell asleep here in Central Park, I did.” He looked extremely embarrassed, but rallied quickly enough. “Well, come on. Let’s get on with it. I have to catch the Aer Lingus flight back to Shannon in a few hours. They give us a special rate.” “All right,” I said, growing a bit impatient myself. “First, I want money, lots of money, in a suitcase that I can carry away from the park. American money in big bills, but not too big.”

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“Fine,” he said. “Give me all your wishes at once and I’ll grant them together. I don’t have time to waste.” “Second, I want an expensive, rare car waiting for me outside the park. Then, I want the deed to an exotic island with beaches and palm trees that I can use whenever I want. Finally, I want wisdom to use all these things to their best advantage.” “Done,” said the cheerful little guy. With a snap of his fingers, he produced a suitcase from nowhere, a folded sheaf of papers that said DEED and a car registration. “Here are all the tangibles you wished for. As for the wisdom, just keep going to school and you’ll acquire it.” “Wait a min....” “One bit of wisdom I will impart,” said the man with a twinkle in his eye. “Never assume you’re smarter than your elders, m’lad. That’s always a mistake. Now, I must be goin’. Enjoy the festive day, m’boy. Faith and begorra.” With a click of his heels, he whirled into the air and vanished. I opened the suitcase eagerly, to find that it was packed with Confederate money, worthless for more than a hundred years. I opened the DEED and studied it carefully. It seemed legal enough, but gave absolutely no hint as to where the island might be located. Nor did it state where the DEED had been issued, no way to track it down. I dashed from the park to the street. The car was there all right. And it was exotic, by some tastes, and certainly rare. It was an Edsel, a car that was a dud before it ever hit the streets. So much for bein’ a fine Irish lad, I thought. “Well, see?” I heard a voice in my ear. “You’re gainin’ wisdom already. And here’s one last bit of wisdom for ya. The luck of the Irish isn’t necessarily good luck, don’t ya know.”

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The Ojo Crossword

ACROSS 1 Fruit in cookies 5 Dry 9 Cover 14 Belief 15 Factor of ten 16 Japanese poem 17 Called 18 Move while sleeping 19 Giant in ‘Princess Bride’ 20 Bundle 22 Bestow an award upon 24 Child 25 Two schillings 27 Bath 31 Youngster 32 New York City 34 Neither’s partner 35 Competent 38 Insult 40 Poke into 42 ___ up (makes bigger) 44 Ball holder 46 Assistants 47 Excite 48 West southwest 50 Loch ___ monster 51 Atmosphere 52 Recede 55 Baker 57 List of meals 59 Rich person 61 Chat 64 Stupefaction

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66 Lament 68 Bye 71 Parlay 73 Section 74 Beer brand 75 Adolescent 76 Left 77 Partially frozen drink 78 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. ____ 79 Droops DOWN 1 Front 2 Gem State 3 Civet cat’s cousin 4 Soap Opera 5 Advertisements 6 Substitute new parts for old 7 Colder 8 Natural selection idea originator 9 Blacken 10 Estates 11 Assist 12 Danish krone (abbr.) 13 Take to court 21 Farming club (abr.) 23 Some 26 Top 28 Positive electrode 29 Earring locales 30 Braid 31 Woof 33 Certified public accountant 35 Right angle to a ships length 36 Misrepresent 37 What students do 39 Quilt 41 Skating area 43 Meet 45 Traveled with 49 Romance 53 Heat unit 54 Byway 56 Only 58 Drug doers 60 Rabbit 61 City 62 Growing older 63 Groups of eight bits 65 Hind end 67 Hauls around 68 American Cancer Society (abbr.) 69 Pain unit 70 Promissory note 72 Compass point

DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA By Floyd Crosby

aving visited Venezuela with a particular interest in the political situation there, I am incensed by the increasingly strident cries by U.S. politicians that its President, Hugo Chávez, is “a dictator” and “an enemy of the U.S.” whom the U.S. should remove (just as it has removed other democratically elected leaders who did not comport with U.S. corporate interests). While Chávez certainly has his faults as a political leader, he is not a dictator. He has been elected President four times: in 1998 with 56% of the vote; in 2000, under a new Constitution, with 60% of the vote; in a 2004 recall, following an unsuccessful three-day coup supported by the U.S. in 2002, with 59% of the votes in a 70% turnout; and in 2006 with 63% of the votes in a 74% turnout. His elections have been declared to be free and fair by international observers, including those from the Carter Center. He is supported by the majority of Venezuelans, who are poor, but vehemently opposed by the wealthy who previously ran the country for their own benefit. Chávez is not an enemy of the U.S., but he is an avowed socialist who does not want Venezuela to be controlled by U.S. corporations, as it and other Central and South American nations often have been. In 2004 he persuaded Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua, and some smaller countries to join with Venezuela in the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas proposed by the U.S. and intended to be dominated by it. In 2008 he led Venezuela and eleven other nations to form the Union of South American Nations as a counter to the Organization of American States that the U.S. has dominated. In 2009 he established with other South American countries the Bank of the South as

an alternative to the International Monetary Fund that is dominated by the U.S. These declarations of independence from the U.S. have incurred the ire of its corporatist government. Bolivia and Ecuador, and their democratically-elected presidents, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa, are also frequently called “enemies of the U.S.” because they have joined with Venezuela in defying it, and the decision of Honduras’s democratically-elected President, Manuel Zelaya, to join the Bolivarian Alliance was one of the reasons for his being removed from office in 2009 in a coup tacitly supported by the U.S. The U.S. was quick to voice its support of the right-wing replacement government that promptly withdrew Honduras from the Alliance. And Venezuela’s huge oil reserves are not irrelevant to the attitude of the U.S. government toward Chávez, any more than Iraq’s oil reserves were irrelevant to the U.S. invasion of that country. Gabriel Hetland did his Ph.D. thesis on and has an article with that title in the January 30 issue of The Nation. He reports on the implementation there of “participatory budgeting,” in which local citizens, not local or national government officials, determine the use of available financial resources. While Hetland notes that Chávez’s revolution “is hardly free of contradiction,” he concludes that “claims about Hugo Chávez’s dictatorial ways are overblown” and that “democratic deepening--in which ordinary citizens of all political persuasions are able to participate in decisionmaking in ways that go far beyond voting in elections--is happening in Venezuela today.” The closest analogy to “participatory budgeting” in the U.S. would be the now mostly gone town meetings of New England. Merely having elections does not make the U.S. a democracy.

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The Words By Eric Roberts

he present-day popular music is hard to understand. If the music has lyrics, you have to listen many times to figure out what is being said. The music is loud with drums and guitars and it is not easy to hear the words. The lyrics are often lost by the way the performers sing. They seem to be more interested in volume than in the words. The lyrics are often repetitive and without a story. The older singers like Frank Sinatra sang with clarity. The words were important and there was no question about the meaning of the song. The song writers also liked the way Fred Astaire sang. Even though, his voice was not great, his lyrics were clear and his interpretations were ‘right on’ to the story. He introduced two of Sinatra’s big hits in the movies. “A Foggy day in London Town” and “One for the Road” where he plays a tipsy, broken-hearted lover who dances in a bar and on the BAR! He asked the bartender to “Set ‘em up Joe, I had a little drink about an hour ago.” Some lyrics were created accidentally. The song “Three Coins in the Fountain” was written for a romantic film. The three stars throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain in Rome as they make a wish. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne were asked to write a song to fit the movie, but they were unable to see the film or read the script! They completed the song in about an hour but they were stuck with the ending. The last line was: “What will the fountain bring?” It was getting late and they were in hurry and one of them in frustration said: “Let’s just repeat the last line.” The ending is: What will the Fountain Bring? What will the fountain Bring? What will the Fountain Bring? The next day, they produced a demonstration record with Frank Sinatra. In a rush to get the film going, Twentieth Century Fox neglected to sign a contract with the composers, allowing them to claim complete rights over the royalties. In 1954, “Three Coins in the Fountain” won the Academy Award for the best original song. Pretty good pay day for an hour’s work! When they were making a movie

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starring Lisa Minnelli and Robert De Niro, there was a problem. It was a love story between a singer and a saxophone player who had just returned from World War II. The song writers (John Kander and Fred Ebb) had composed a title song. They liked their song as did the director and cast; except Robert De Niro, who hated the song. After a couple of days shooting, he threatened to quit the movie unless they changed the song. The director told the writers to see if they could come up with a new song. They did and if De Niro hadn’t bitched there wouldn’t be the song. “Start spreading the news; I’m leaving today. I want to be part of it ...NEW YORK, NEW YORK!” Cole Porter’s last musical Kiss Me Kate is a play within a play. This made it difficult for him. The play is a musical take off of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the other is a backstage story about the breakup of the two stars. The type of songs has to vary. In the “Kiss Me, Kate” play, they have to sound Shakespearian like “I’ve Come to Wed Wealthily in Padua.” The backstage story songs are up to date, e.g., “It’s too Damn Hot” and “Tom, Dick and Harry.” The question is how does the wonderful song “Wunderbar” fit into the story? At one point, the backstage couple remembers the good old days when they were doing a Light Opera and for fun they hammed up “Wunderbar.” Kate’s sister in the play is “Bianca,” a tough name to rhyme. Her modern-day name is Bianca too and her boyfriend has to sing to her. Cole Porter had to dig deep for a rhyme for Bianca…SANKA! Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, author, composer and pianist. According to The New York Times, “one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history.” He was also popular for his series of fifty-three televised Young People Concerts. His score to

the ballet Fancy Free, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, opened in New York in 1944 and this was later developed into the musical On the Town, with lyrics by Comden and Green that opened on Broadway in December 1944. In 1949, the choreographer Jerome Robbins suggested the idea for West Side Story to the writers Arthur Laurents and Leonard Bernstein. They worked on it intermittently but finally with the additions of Stephen Sondheim (famous for “Send in the Clowns”) to do the lyrics and with a lot of hard work they brought West Side Story to Broadway in 1957. Its tremendous suc-

cess remained unequaled by his other compositions. Yet with all the accolades for his body of work, he was missing something. One day he left his house to take a walk on a lovely spring day and he heard from across the street someone singing and whistling “MARIA, I’ve just met a girl named Maria.” It was the first time he heard his music being sung on the street. He then knew his music would last forever. (Ed. Note: Point taken. They sure can’t write songs nearly as well as they once did!)

Arriving At The Journey By Dilia Suriel My journey had been charted but the detours brought me closer to my destination I had worked to build a life of comfort compromising my vitality I had craved distractions and fun but was satisfied with joy I had labored toward sex-appeal when my longing was for self-acceptance I believed that money solved all problems a meager substitute for richness of expression, spirit, passion I had always sought the approval of others, fame, adulation when all I needed was self-love I had thought that if I knew powerful, famous people I would feel connected now I am held by genuine friends I desired importance while it jeopardized my inner peace I had hungered for luxuries when my nourishment is in expression I chased admiration accidentally arriving at self-respect I had achieved success but felt fulfilled during creative solitude I had prayed for romantic love and was given an expansive heat capable of warming an entire planet

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AA- Meets daily at 10:00 am. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 4 pm. Marcos Castellanos 51-A. 766-5961. Meets every Wednesday 8 am for breakfast at La Nueva Posada. www.aalakechapala.org AA Lakeside- M+TH 4-6 Gazebo at the Lake Chapala Society. www.aalakechapala.org AA Women- TH 10:30-12 Sala at the Lake Chapala Society. www.aalakechapala.org A COURSE IN MIRACLES- Meets on Saturday at 2:00 at # 17 B Nicholas Bravo. For information email: clarecgearhart@gmail.com AIR FORCE ASSOCIATION OF CANADA 904 WING- September to April meet the 2nd Thursday 4pm-6pm at La Nueva Posada. John Prichard 766-1876 AJIJIC QUILT GUILD - Meets second Tuesday monthly at 10 am. Guests & New Members Welcome. ajijicguild@gmail.com AJIJIC SCRABBLE CLUB- Tuesdays and Thursdays noon-3 pm at LCS Ken Gosh Pavilion. Dan Stark 766-0411. AJIJIC WRITERS’ GROUP- Meets 1st and 3rd Fridays at 10 am. Nueva Posada. Coffee. Meeting followed by lunch at the Nueva Posada. AXIXIC MASONIC LODGE #31- Meets 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at LCS 5:00pm. Contact the Secretary at (387) 7610017 for details. AL-ANON- Step study, M 4:30-5:30 Ken Gosh Pavilion at the Lake Chapala Society AL-ANON- Sat. 10 am, Club 12, Marcos Castellanos 51-A, Ajijic Contact (376) 766-5975. AMERICAN LEGION OF CHAPALA POST- #7 General Membership meets 11 am 2nd Thursday. Tel: 765-2259. AMERICAN LEGION, FRANK M. VALENTINE POST 9 - (Fito’s Restaurant in Riberas Del Pilar) 3rd Wednesday. Additional info Call Vince 765-7299. AMIGOS INTERNACIONALES- Every Wednesday 6 to 8 pm, Nueva Posada; informal friendly group meet to make new friends. AMIGOS DEL LAGO A.C.- Working to improve the ecology. See www.amigosdelago.org or contact us at info@amigosdelago.org. AMITIES FRANCOPHONES- Meets every 3rd Saturday at 1 pm contact: Roland and Camille at 766-0149. rvanhoudt@prodigy.net.mx. ANIMAL SHELTER- Provide shelter and new homes for dogs and cats. Tel: 765-5514. ANITA’S ANIMALS- Free loving dogs and cats. call (01 387) 761-0500. www.anitasanimals.com. ASA- Ajijic Society of the Arts. Meets every 1st Monday of the month at Nueva Posada, 10 am. ARDAT (Ajijic Rotary Dog Assisted Theraphy)- Theraphy dog visits & Children Reading to Dogs program. Julianna Rose 766-5025, rotariojrose@gmail.com BARBERSHOP MIXED CHORUS- Meets Mondays 10 a.m. Lake Chapala Baptist Church. Contact Audrey 387-761-0204 or Don 376-766-2521. BRIDGE AT OLD POSADA- Monday 1:15 check in. Mary Andrews 766-2489. BRITISH SOCIETY- Lunch meeting the 1st Saturday of each month, 1pm at Manix Rest. 765-4786, chapalainn@prodigy.net.mx. CARD & DOMINO CLUB- Wednesday, Friday & Sunday. Call for times. We will teach; make friends! Tel. 766-4253, Cell: (045) 33-1295-6485. CANADIAN CLUB OF LAKE CHAPALA- 2nd Wednesday of month, Sept. through April. Social hour: 3:00 pm, program 4:00 pm. CASA DE ANCIANOS- Provides support for elderly citizens, 765-2497. CASA DE LA AMISTAD PARA NIÑOS CON CANCER.- Provides funds, obtain cancer treatments. www.casadelaamistad.org.mx. 01-55-3000-6900, 766-2612 CENTRO DE DESARROLLO AJIJIC- Provides family planning and reproductive health education. 766-1679. CHILI COOK OFF- Providing a carnival for residents raising charitable funds, 763-5038. DAR- (Guadalajara)- Daughters of the American Revolution, meets monthly Sep. through June. Cell:333-897-0660 or Tel: (376) 766-2284. DAR- (At Lakeside)- THOMAS PAINE CHAPTER meets every 3 Wednesday at 12:30 noon, September thru June. Tel: 766-2981 or 762-0834. DEMOCRATS- Meets 2nd Thursday 4pm at La Nueva Posada EASTERN STAR ESTRELLA DEL LAGO CHAPTER #10- 1st Wed. at 1:00 pm at Hotel Monte Carlo. 766-3785, www.oesestrelladellago.org. ECO ORGANICO MARKET- Tuesdays,10 am-12-30pm, Centro Laguna Mall at carretera and libramiento. ECKANKAR- For information about HU Chants and Dream Workshops please call Penny White.766 1230 FRIENDS OF VILLA INFANTIL (FOVI)- Financial support for children: www.friendsofvillainfantil.org. Lisa Le: (387) 761-0002, lisale888@gmail.com GAMBLERS ANONYMOUS- Wednesday 11:30-1:30 Ken Gosh Pavilion at the Lake Chapala Society GARDEN CLUB- Meets the 3rd. Wednesday 11 am for lunch at La Nueva Posada. GARDEN GUILD- promoting the interest in the development of local gardens with an accent on the exotic species available in central Mexico. GERMAN MEETING- 2nd Thursday, 1:00 pm. La Nueva Posada. Call Thea 765-2442 or Werner 763-5446. GOLDEN STRINGS OF LAKE CHAPALA, A.C.- Rehearsals at auditorio de la Floresta. Tuesday & Friday, 3-6 pm. HASH HOUSE HARRIERS- Every Saturday at 8:30 am at La Nueva Posada. HUMANE EDUCATION ALLIANCE (HEA)- Fostering ethical treatment of animals. John Marshall, 766-1170, alianzaeducacionhumnitaria@hotmail.com JUNIOR LEAGUE DE GUADALAJARA A.C.- Av. San Francisco #3332. ligagdl2@prodigy.net.mx, Guadalajara, Jal. Tel. (33) 3121-0887. LAKE CHAPALA DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB- Meets every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 1:15 p.m.. www.chapalabridge.com. LAKE CHAPALA GARDEN CLUB- Garden tours and meeting 3rd Wed at Nueva Posada for lunch and program. sandy_feldmann@yahoo.com. LAKE CHAPALA GREEN GROUP- Sustainable living for a better tomorrow. Meets first Tuesday, Sept. through May. LCS, 3:00. www.lakechapalagreengroup.com. LAKE CHAPALA SHRINE CLUB.- Meets the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 1 pm in the Nueva Posada. Denny Strole (376) 766-0485 LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY - LCS- 16 de Sep. # 16-A Ajijic, Open Monday - Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm. www.lakechapalasociety.org. 766-1140. LAKESIDE COMMUNITY AWARDS- We benefit all the community by honoring lakeside’s most talented. 766-3232. LAKESIDE FRIENDS OF THE ANIMALS- Board meets 1st Thursday every month 2:45-4 LCS Gazebo info@lakesideanimalfriends.org LAKESIDE LAUGHTER CLUB- Meets every Wed. from 9 am - 9:40 beginning September 29. For information call Charlene 766-0884. LAKESIDE LITTLE THEATRE A.C.- Balanced theatrical entertainment, English-speaking, 765-5942. LAKESIDE SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF- The 4th of each month. Nueva Posada 10:30 am. Call 766-2280, www.lakesideschoolforthedeaf.org. LAKESIDE USA TEA PARTY- Meeting 2nd Tuesday at 4pm, Sunrise Restaurant, Carretera, San Antonio Tlayacapan LAKESIDE WILDLIFE RESCUE & REHABILITATION- Rescue & rehabilitation of wild animals. 765-4916. LAKE SPAY AND NEUTER CENTR A.C.- Provides shelter and helps curtail the over-population of animals. 766-3813. LAUGHTER YOGA- Meets every Thursday at 3PM, December 22, 2011–March 29, 2012. Free and open to the public! Donations gratefully accepted! Juan Alverez #21, Ajijic. Green door next to (North of) La Paloma B & B. Contact Gita 376-766-5879 or www.laughteryogawithgita.com. LCS EDUCATION CENTER- Provides classes in language and other topics for both Anglo and Mexican community. 766-0499. LCS STUDENT AID FUND- Provides financial support to area students to enroll in university, vocational and high school program. 766-0716. LITTLE BLUE SCHOOLHOUSE- Provides financial assistance for students at school for disabled children in Chapala 766-1552. LOS NINOS DE CHAPALA Y AJIJIC, AC Providing educational scholarships to Lakeside children 376-765-7032, www.lakesideninos.org. LOVE IN ACTION- Shelter for abused and abandoned children. For volunteers and donations. Anabel Frutos 765-7409, cell: 331-351 7826. MAS- Music Appreciation Society. Concerts from fall to spring. Classical music and dance concerts. For info call Kathleen Phelps, 766-0010. MISION SAN PABLO- Helping 60 orphaned children ages 2-14 yrs, Bonnie Shrall - Bonnie@shrall.com #766-0009. www.misionsanpablo.org. NAVY LEAGUE, LAKE CHAPALA COUNCIL- Meets the third Saturday for lunch at 1 pm, Manix Rest. 766 4750 or 766-1848. NEEDLE PUSHERS- Sew dresses, knit or chet sweaters for local kids. Every Tues. 10 am at LCS. Gay Westmoreland - 765-5607. NIÑOS INCAPACITADOS DEL LAGO, AC.- Assisting Lakeside disabled children www.programaninos.org , 766-2201. NIÑOS Y JOVENES CARAVAN- Delivers foodstuffs and used clothing to orphanage in San Juan. Call Reuben Varela, 01-387-761-0828. OPEN CIRCLE- Fostering body, mind & spirit, every Sunday at the LCS from 10 am to 12 noon. 765-3402 or frankdburton@yahoo.com. OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS- Every Tuesday & Friday 12 pm at Marcos Castellanos 51-A, in Upper Ajijic. Tel: 376-766-5975 or 766-1626. PASOS MILAGROSOS (MIRACULOUS STEPS.)- Helping Handicapped Children Through the Magic of Horses. Saturdays 8-2. www.pasosmilagrosos.com. RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS- Meets 1st Wednesday at 1:30-4 Gazebo at the Lake Chapala Society. New members welcome. ROTARY CLUB OF AJIJIC- Tuesdays. Fellowship at 12:30 p.m., meeting at 1:00 p.m., Hacienda Ajijic Steakhouse, Carr. Ajijic Pte #268-7. www.rotaryajijic.org. ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION- Meets the 3rd Tuesday each month @ 2:30 pm, Bar Tomas, Chapala. Contact rclchapala@gmail.com or 376-765-2602. SAILING LAKE CHAPALA- Meets for lunch/drinks-1 pm the 1st Thursday Club Nautico in La Floresta, www.sailinglakechapala.com SAN ANTONIO TLAYACAPAN (SAT) EXPATS.- Meets last Saturday of the month 6pm, at Cenaduria de Elvira, #127 Ramon Corona, San Antonio SCIENCE OF MIND STUDY GROUP- Discussion Tuesday at 10:30 AM, Nicolas Bravo #17 Ajijic; contact Rev. Tim at 766-0920 or tim@revdoctim.com. SCOTIABANK NORTHERN LIGHTS ANNUAL MUSIC FESTIVAL- For details please visit: www.scotiabanknorthernlightsmusicfestival.com THE GENEALOGY FORUM- Meets monthly on the fourth Monday in the Sala at LCS, from 2:00 to 3:45. TOASTMASTERS LAGO DE CHAPALA BILINGUAL GROUP- Meets Tuesdays 6 to 7:30 pm at Ruben’s Grill. For info; Tim at 766-0920 or Maureen 766-2338. email tim@revdoctim.com UVA - University/Vocational Assistance (Little Chapel by the Lake a.c.)- Sue Torres, 766-2932 or Lynn Hanson 766-2660. VIVA LA MUSICA - Bus trips to the symphony, summer concert series, call Rosemay Keeling 766-1801. www.ajijicviva.org. VOLLEYBALL IN CHAPALA- At Cristiania park Tues., Thurs., Sat. mornings at 10, 333-502-1264. VOLUNTEER HEALTH RESOURCE GROUP- Meeting last Saturday of each month at LCS in sala, 10:30. VOLUNTEERS OF THE CRUZ ROJA- Sponsors fund raising events and provides administrative and support services to the Delegation. (NOTE: If there is any change in the above, please advise us so that corrections may be made. Call: 765-2877)

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

All Saints Lutheran Church Worship Service 11:00 am 4600 Avenida Tepeyac, Guad. Tel. (01 333) 121-6741. Abundant Life Assembly of God Carr. 140 next to Mail Boxes etc, Tel: 766-5615. Center For Spiritual Living Celebration Service, 5pm Fridays, Nicolas Bravo #17 Ajijic. (376) 766-0920 or tim@revdoctim.com. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Services in English and Spanish, 10 am, Riberas del Pilar Bishop Wyvell Tel. (376) 765-7067, Bishop’s residence (376) 766-1532. Church of the Holy Spirit Services Sun. 10 am, Albaro Obregon #119, Chapala Tel. (376) 7654210. Christ Church Anglican Fellowship Eucarist 10am upstairs in Manix Restaurant Ocampo #57 Ajijic. Rev. Danny Borkowski at (376) 766-2495 or Jim Powers t (387) 761-0017 Grace Baptist Church 5th Sun. Evening service 6 pm, Pedro Buzeta No. 970, Guad. Tel. (013) 641-1685. Lake Chapala Baptist Church Mid-week service, 9:30 am, worship service, 10:45 am. Santa Margarita #147, Riberas del Pilar, Tel. (376) 765-2925, 765-3329. www.lakechapalabaptist.com. 7th Day Adventist meet at Camino Real #84 in La Floresta, 9:30 am, Potluck follows, Tel: 7665708 Little Chapel by the Lake Sun. services 11 am, Chula Vista,. Jal, Tel. (376) 763-1551. Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation Santa Margarita 113, Riberas del Pilar, Tel: 765-6968. For information and service times, please call Pres. Elliot Gould. contact us@ lakechapalajews.com. Web site: www. lakechapalajews.com. Lakeside Fellowship Sun. worship 11 am, Javier Mina #49 Ajijic, Tel. (376) 766-0795. Lakeside Presbyterian Church Worship-Sunday 10 am; Bible Study-Friday 10 am; Hidalgo 231A, Carr. Chapala/Joco; Riberas del Pilar Tel. Pastor Ross Arnold at 376-766-1238, or Norm Pifer at 376-766-0616 Website at www.chapalalakesidepresbyterian. org Saint Andrew´s Anglican Church Calle San. Lucas 19, Riberas del Pilar, Sunday 2 services, 9 a.m & 11 a.m. Rev. Winston W. Welty Tel: 765-3926. www.standrewsriberas. com San Andres Catholic Church Services 9:00 am. Ajijic, 766-0922. St. John’s Catholic Church Between Av. Vallarta & Av. Lazaro Cardenas, Guad. Sun. 11am. (013) 121-8131. The Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Meets Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Sta. Margarita #113 in Riberas del Pilar (on the SW corner of Santa Clara) For additional information call 766-1119 or email to lcuufinfo@gmail.com. We are a Welcoming Congregation www.lcuuf.org

The

Lake Chapala Society

News

March 2012 The 2012 LCS Board of Directors Left (l to R): Paula Haarvei, Karen Blue, John Rider, Ann D. Houck, Erik Slebos, Lois Cugini, Howard Feldstein, Fred Harland, Wallace Mills, Sharon Smith, Ben White. Missing: Aurora Michel and Cate Howell.

OutgoingBoardMembers

From the Director’s Desk The Annual General Meeting happened on February 23. Highlights included a review of our progress in achieving our long range and strategic goals. We are making significant progress in most areas, though a lot of work still needs to be done. We will continue to focus on our annual objectives in pursuit of the long term goals ratified again at this years meeting. Also ratified was last years audited budget, presented by Paula Haarvei, recognizing the annual end of year surplus, the lion’s share of which was then approved to be shifted to the LCS reserve fund. (The Board has a 10 year goal of reserving one year of operating support as a preventative measure that secures LCS’ future from financial hazard.) The 2012 budget was also reviewed and accepted. The Nominations Committee, chaired by Nancy Creeven. presented the slate of new candidates, opened the floor for additional nominations and having none, the new slate was elected by acclamation. Howard Feldstein was elected for another term as President, John Rider is our new Secretary, both Sharon Smith and Karen Blue were re-elected as Directors-at-Large, and Ann D. Houck and Erik Slebos were elected for their first terms as Director-at-Large. The meeting was adjourned before noon. I congratulate the board on a successful AGM and look forward to working with the new board. On to another important subject, the LCS Post Life Program. We have been reviewing this program for sometime and are ready to expand the program to include additional (local) funeral homes. By the end of March the San Francisco Funeral Home in Chapala will be an additional option on the Post Life form. There are implications to this for those who have already filed Post Life information with LCS. If you wish to change funeral homes, and you wish to be cremated, and you already have the “protocolized” document naming the San Miguel Funeral home as the crematoria, then a new document will be required. Inquire in the office after March 15 for more details. Keep in mind that it is entirely up to you to work with a funeral home for any and all of your arrangements. The Post Life form indicates which funeral home you are working with and your desire for cremation or burial. It is critically important for those people here who are without spouse or close kin, and wish to be cremated, to

Right: (L to R): Mary Alice Sargent (served 18 consecutive years), Tod Jonson (served eight years (on and off)), Lynn Bishop (served six consecutive years (four as recording secretary)).

have the proper paperwork in place before you die. It is less critical for couples, though it is not a bad idea if you want to be prepared. To be clear, the Post Life Program is a repository of information that LCS holds on your behalf documenting important details that facilitate paperwork required when foreigners die in Mexico. Other details useful for those finding themselves involved in managing the initial details your death are also documented. Think of the program as a back up source of information “just in case”. The program also facilitates the process of getting a document granting legal permission for a funeral home to cremate your remains. You do not need to be an LCS member to participate in the program. Life member, Betty Schrader, a pioneer and Manager of the of the Post Life program for over 15 years has indicated her desire to step down. LCS is extremely grateful to Betty for her dedication and patience. The Post Life Program at LCS has become a community institution in its own right and serves thousands of people lakeside. Needless to say we are looking for the appropriate candidate to carry on Betty’s good work. Qualifications include a compassionate and patient personality. Since we are beginning to computerize the data, computer skills are also necessary. If you wish to be considered for this very important position please contact me, Terry Vidal, in the LCS Service Office. Finally, results of the LCS survey are beginning to be analyzed. We thank those of you who participated. The 716 responses will garner a lot of useful information, though it will take time to analyze the results accurately. On the surface I can tell you that the results indicate that LCS is doing a GREAT job. Congratulations to all of the volunteers and staff who help make LCS a success and a relevant part of the Lakeside community. Thank you to Dr. David Truly for his hard work, Richard Rhoda for his perseverance and the entire ad hoc Membership Committee for their commitment to this project. Actual results will be highlighted next month.

Saw you in the Ojo 81

Celebrate Six Decades of

Tuesday LCS Learning Seminars

Children’s Art in Ajijic

(via TED Internet podcasts - for LCS members - at noon)

Join us Saturday, March 3rd at Noon for the official dedication of the new LCS Children’s Art Program mural, located at the back patio of LCS. Painted by Jesus V. Lopez Vega and Javier Zaragoza, both well-known artists and students of the program, the mural is a unique collaborative effort and labor of love honoring the Children’s Art Program.

6th - Chaired by Fred Harland featuring economist Loretta Napoleoni speaking on “The Economics of Terrorism.” Napoleoni details her talk with the secretive Italian Red Brigades - an experience that sparked a lifelong interest in terrorism. A behind-the-scenes look at complex economics, revealing a connection between money laundering and the Patriot Act.

“In this last half century the impact of the Program has changed the economy here and created a movement of art in Ajijic. The purpose of the mural is to tell the story of local art in Ajijic and to keep the legacy alive,” stated Jesus Lopez Vega.

13th - Chaired by Ron Mullenaux featuring Daniel Goleman, who asks why we aren’t more compassionate more of the time. Goleman, psychologist and award-winning author of Emotional Intelligence, challenges traditional measures of intelligence as a predictor of life success.

According to Javier Zaragoza, “What I can see now, after 60 years is that this program is getting better and better. From this current generation of children in the Program I believe we may have an internationally known artist from Ajijic!” Since 1956 when it was started by Neill James, the Children’s Art Program has engaged thousands of Mexican children in exploration of their creative talents. The Program has produced many well known local artists and helped to position Ajijic as an art colony. The mural honors the Program and the three women who enriched the lives of so many young Mexicans. Neill James, a writer and philanthropist arriving from the United States in 1943, became a patron of education and cottage industry from Chapala to Ajijic. Under her sponsorship, several students were able to pursue a fine arts education. She started one of Mexico’s first public libraries where children were encouraged to read and paint. Angelita Aldana Padilla taught reading and art in the Biblioteca Publica started by Neill James. She served the children for nearly 30 years. Mildred Boyd, a 25 year resident of Lakeside from the United States, rejuvenated the Children’s Art Program in 1990 and continued to lead and expand the program until 2010. This mural is made possible as a result of the creative collaboration and time of Ajijic artists, Jesus V. Lopez Vega and Javier Zaragoza. LCS also thanks the Ajijic Society of the Arts (ASA) for their financial support. Today, the LCS Children’s Art Program continues to flourish due to dedicated volunteers made up of a true cross-cultural cast. The Children’s Art Program is free, and all children are welcome. Hours: 10:00 a.m. to noon every Saturday, rain or shine. Tell your neighbors and friends. For more information email: childrensart@ lakechapalasociety.org.

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

20th - Chaired by Fred Harland featuring physicist Brain Greene speaking on “String Theory made Simple.” Greene, author of The Fabric of the Cosmos, and a proponent of superstring theory, the idea that minuscule strands of energy vibrating in a higher dimensional space-time create every particle and force in the universe. 27th - Chaired by Ron Mullenaux featuring Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks. Internet activist, Assange serves as spokesperson for WikiLeaks, a controversial, volunteer-driven website that publishes and comments on leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct.

SPANISH CLASSES Term 2 begins on Monday, March 5th and will cover seven weeks of study. Due to Easter holidays, these classes will take eight calendar weeks and end on April 2nd. LCS uses the Warren Hardy Spanish language course which is designed for the adult student. The classes are held at the Wilkes Center, an adjunct to the LCS campus. Registration for classes occurs in the LCS office weekdays on Tuesdays & Fridays from 10 AM to 2 PM and during the week prior to any new term on the blue umbrella patio at LCS. Class schedules, LCS membership, tuition for the seven week term, policies, materials needed, and additional information can be found on the LCS website.

Canada's New Ambassador to Mexico to Speak at the Nueva Posada - 3 PM, Friday March 23rd The Canadian Consulate in Guadalajara invites Canadians to come out to hear Her Excellency Sara Hradecky speak. The Ambassador arrived in Mexico November 2011 and this will be her first public event in Chapala. To view her full biography, please visit: http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/mexicomexique/offices-bureaux/ambbio-bioamb.aspx?view=d Nueva Posada will offer a no-host bar for social hour from 3:00 PM. Ambassador Hradecky will begin speaking at 4:00 PM. Please come and meet the new Ambassador.

Video Library News MARCH ACTIVITIES *OPEN TO PUBLIC ** US CITIZENS CRUZ ROJA * Sales Table M –F 10-1 Monthly Meeting 1st W 1:30-4 HEALTH INSURANCE * IMSS M+T 10-1 NYLife/Seguros Monterrey Insurance T+TH 11-2 TioCorp Insurance M 10:30-1 HEALTH & LEGAL SERVICES * Becerra Immigration F 10-12 Blood Pressure M+F 10-12 Blood Sugar Screenings 2nd+3rd F 10-12 Diabetes Management Class 1st+3rd W 1-2:50 $ Hearing Services M & 2nd+ 4th SAT 11-3 Sign-up Optometrist TH 9-4 Sign-up Information Desk M-SAT 10-2 Loridans Legal T 10-12 Skin Cancer Screening 2nd+4th W 10-12 $/Sign-up US Consulate 1st W 10:30-12:30 Sign up 10AM LESSONS Children’s Art SAT 10-12 * Country Line Dancing T+TH 10-11:15 Exercise M+W+F 9-10 Have Hammers T 10-12+ TH 3-5 * Intermediate Hatha Yoga T+TH+SAT 2- 3:45 Spanish Conversations M 10-12 Grammar Required LIBRARIES Audio TH 10-12 Book & Video M-SAT 10-2 Talking Books US Library of Congress TH 10-12 ** SOCIAL ACTIVITIES Beginner’s Digital Camera W 12-1 Bridge For Fun W 1:30-4 Computer Windows Club F 10:30-11:45 Digital Camera W 10:30-11:50 Discussion Group W12-1:30 Everyday Mindfulness M 10:30-12 Film Aficianados 1st & 3rd TH 12-2 Film Aficianados 2nd+4th +Last TH 2-4 Genealogy Last M 2-4 iPad/iPod/iPhone F 9:30-10:30 LCS Learning Seminars T 12-2 Lecture: Conservatives /Liberals 20 March 2-4* Mac OS 1st M 12-1:30 Mac User 3rd W 3-4:30 Mah-Jonng F 10-2:30 Music Jam W 2-4 Needle Pushers T 10-11:45 Scrabble M+F 12-2 Singing for the Brain M 2-3 * Story Tellers 2nd T 3-6 * Tournament Scrabble T 12-2 Women Holding Peace TH 12-12:30 * SERVICE & SUPPORT GROUPS * AA Lakeside M+TH 4:30-6 AA Women TH 10:30-12 Ajijic Masonic Lodge #31 2nd + 4th W 4:30-8, 4th T 3-4:30 AL-Anon/Al-aTeen M 4:30-5:30 Gamblers Anonymous W 11-1 Green Group 1st T 3-4:30 MS Support Group 3rd W 3-4:30 Niños de Chapala /Ajijic F 10-2 Open Circle SUN 10-12:15 TICKET SALES M-F 10-12 *

We are currently trying to get the video catalogs updated and make them more user friendly. If you have any suggestions, please take the time to “Let Us Know What You Think” on one of the pre-printed forms next to our suggestion box on the bulletin board with the new additions. The SERIES CATALOG has been updated to include all of the series that we have in our inventory, VHS and DVD. It will be updated each month. That’s the orange catalog. Some of the new additions for March are: A great new series DOWNTON ABBEY a sprawling and lavish Edwardian mansion that needs a heir. PBS production with a rating of 9.0 on scale of 10. HOT COFFEE An eye opening documentary exposing how corporations spend millions of dollars on propaganda campaigns to distort our views of lawsuits. You may think you know the case of the woman who sued Mc Donalds over spilled coffee. But, do you? This and three other cases tear apart the conventional wisdom about “jackpot justice” Rated 7.7 on scale of 10. A romantic comedy with a little fantasy thrown in MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is about a family traveling to the French capital for business. The party includes a young engaged couple forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better. Woody Allen wrote and directed. 7.8 on scale of 10 THAT SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP A dramatization that traces former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair’s relationships with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Starring Dennis Quaid and Michael Sheen. Rated 6.8 on scale of 10, but, I think it is better than that. Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry MARGIN CALL is an entangling thriller involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. Starring Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons. 7.2 on scale of 10 All of these and other new additions for March are reviewed on the LCS web page and in the smaller white catalog at the Video Library. If you have VHS tapes that you would like to have transferred to DVD discs, we will be happy to do it for you.

Casi Nuevo Thrift Shop We need household items such as small appliances, pots, pans, lamps, paintings and furniture – just about anything besides clothing. Volunteer sales people are WANTED! We offer flexible hours and have a great crew. We also offer great discounts for the volunteers. The thrift shop income is essential to 3 charities: • School for the Deaf in Jocotepec has ~100 kids with multiple disorders. They provide meals, audiologist, speech therapist, computers, and books, • Have Hammers… Will Travel is a school that teaches kids the basics in carpentry, painting, welding and other trades for their future. • The LCS Education Program includes a scholarship program, English classes, remedial elementary summer school classes, a Spanish lending library, a weekly children’s art program and much more. As you can see, we are devoted to education - which is why we are so passionate about making our store a success, and we need your help. Drop off items at the store in Riberas del Pilar or the drop box at LCS. We will pick up larger items at no charge. Please contact Jacqueline Smith at 766-1303 or email smithjacqueline55@ gmail.com for more information.

Saw you in the Ojo 83

Fiesta Latina A Success

FILM AFICIONADOS Each film celebrates the brilliance of women March 1 12:00 NOON To be announced immediately after the Academy Awards presentation. March 8 2:00 PM. LE GOUT DES AUTRES (THE TASTE OF OTHERS) France 2000 An international comedy of manners set in Provence. This is one of the most intelligent films ever made. March 15 12:00 NOON. POTICHE France 2010 Another international comedy set in provincial France. With Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu and the great Fabrice Luchini. March 22 2:00 PM. WOMEN ON THE SIXTH FLOOR France 2011 Believe it or not, another international comedy set in 1960 Paris. Starring the inimitable Fabrice Luchini (see above) backed up by a great supporting cast from Spain.

A very successful fundraiser for the Lake Chapala Society Community Education Program over 100,000 pesos were raised. A day filled with excellent food, drink, and lively entertainment was made possible by the many wonderful volunteers who gave of their time and talents to produce an event that exceeded the goals of the LCS Board.. Restaurants, B&B's, boutique hotels, beach resorts and many local artists, artisans, and service providers donated quality products and services that garnered bids surpassing expectations for the Silent Auction. Roberto of Roberto's Restaurant created an imaginative and flavorful Latin buffet of appetizers, entrees and desserts. Entertainment included dance performances by popular Guadalajara tango dancers, Juan Rosa & Anita, cuban salsa by Alberto & Graciella Costales, sizzling cumbia by Francisco and Judit Rajhathy and the Orquestra Tipica de Chapala led by the charismatic Javier Raygoza. What a day!

March 29 2:00 PM. ELENA Russia 2012 This new Russian film won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and has been a big hit in Europe. It has yet to find a distributor in the USA. This gripping noir-ish offering is unlike any Russian film you've ever seen. ALL FILMS IN THE SALA. CURRENT LCS MEMBERSHIP CARDS REQUIRED. NO DOGS ALLOWED

WhydoLiberalsandConservativesDisagree? Tuesday, March 20, at 2 PM in the LCS Sala. Dr. Richard Rhoda will present current research on the very basic underlying human values that explain why these two groups disagree. Free lecture, open to the public, Come early; seating is limited.

“The Time Has Come” Storytellers, the popular fundraiser that benefits the Jim Collums Education Fund, will present its next program in the Sala at LCS on Tuesday, March 13, at 4 pm. Come early to socialize; the cash bar opens at 3:30 pm. Original works by Bonnie Phillips, Bob Tennison and Jim Collums will be presented. “The time has come,” the walrus said, “to talk of many things. . . “ -- Lewis Carroll

THE LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY, A.C. 16 de Septiembre #16-A, Ajijic, Jalisco LCS Main Office: (376) 766-1140 Office, information and other services open Monday – Saturday, 10 to 2 pm. Grounds are open until 5 pm LCS BOARD OF DIRECTORS President - Howard Feldstein (2014); Vice-President - Fred Harland (2013) Treasurer - Paula Haarvei (2013); Secretary - Jihn Rider (2014) Director - Karen Blue (2014); Director - Lois Cugini (2013); Director - Aurora Michel Galindo (2013); Director - Cate Howell (2013); Director - Ann D. Houck (2014); Director - Wallace Mills (2013); Director - Erik Slebos (2014); Director - Sharon Smith (2014); Director - Ben White (2013); Executive Director - Terry Vidal ◊ THE LCS NEWSLETTER IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY. ◊ Deadline for submissions is the 17th of the month preceding publication. ◊ News items can be e-mailed to Reba Mayo rebaelizabethhill@yahoo.com; cc to Terry Vidal tqv56431@yahoo.com ◊ Note: The editorial staff reserves the right to edit all submissions. ◊ Articles and/or calendar of events will be included according to time, space availability and editiorial decision.

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

Saw you in the Ojo 85

EMERGENCY NUMBERS

Service

- EL OJO DEL LAGO Tel. 765-3676

Pag: 53

* ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

- CLINICA VETERINARIA SAN ANTONIO Tel: 766-0808 Pag: 66 - DEE’S PET HOTEL Tel: 762-1646 Pag: 82 - PET FOOD AND GROOMING Tel: 766-3062 Pag: 22

* ART GALLERIES/HANDCRAFTS - ARTE AMANECER Tel: 765-2090 Pag: 55 - DIANE PEARL COLECCIONES Tel: 766-5683 Pag: 59 - EL PALOMAR Tel: 01 (33) 3635-5247 Pag: 74 - LOLITA’S INN GALLERY Tel: 766-1857 Pag: 73 - MEXIXIC- La Mancha Pag: 58 - THE AJIJIC ART HOUSE Tel: 765-5097 Pag: 58, 76, 83, 85 - ZARAGOZA Tel: 766-0573, 766-7049 Pag: 52

* AUTOMOTIVE - BELLA FLORES EXPORTS AUTO SALES Tel. (951)7428117 Pag: 68 - LINEA PROFESIONAL Tel. 766-2555, Fax. 766-0066 Pag: 10

* AUTOMATIC DOORS - AUTOMATIC GARAGE DOOR OPENERS Tel: 766-4973 Pag: 40

* BANK INVESTMENT

Pag: 31 Pag: 25

* BARBERSHOP

Pag: 72

* BOOKSTORE - SANDI Tel: 01 (33) 3121-0863

Pag: 60

* BOUTIQUE / CLOTHING STORES - ARATI Tel: 766-0130 Pag: 26 - CLOTHES RE-STYLING & ALTERATIONS Tel: 766-1816 Pag: 82 - CUGINIS OPUS BOUTIQUE Tel/Fax: 766-1790 Pag: 03 - FIAGA BOUTIQUE Tel: 766-1816 Pag: 17 - GUAYABERAS PIRAMIDE DE YUCATÁN Pag: 52 - LA BELLA VIDA Tel: 766-5131 Pag: 59 - MI MEXICO Tel: 766-0133 Pag: 56

* CASINO - FOLIATTI CASINO

Pag: 79

- PREZE Tel: 762-0128 - REAL ORTEGA Tel: 765-7556

Pag: 54 Pag: 56

* CEILING FANS - VENTILADORES DEL OCCIDENTE Tel/Fax: (33) 3631-6619, 3634-9982

Pag: 57 Pag: 39 Pag: 21 Pag: 22 Pag: 15

Pag: 15

- CUSTOM MADE HOME ELEVATORS Tel: 333-559-0444

Pag: 72

* COMMUNICATIONS - MAILBOXES, ETC. Tel: 766-0647, Fax: 766-0775 761-0363, Fax: 761-0364

- CAFE INTERNET AJIJIC Tel: 766-3626

- ALAMBRADOS PEREGRINA Cell: 33-3808-2674 - ARELLANO Tel: 766-4696 - CONSTRUCTION & REMODELING Tel: 766-3626 - MAPRASA Cell: (045) 33-1350-6593 - WARWICK CONSTRUCTION Tel: 765-2224 Cell. (045) 331-135-0763

- AJIJIC DENTAL Tel: 766-3682 - C.D. MARÍA LUISA LUIS VILLA Tel/Fax: 766-2428

El Ojo del Lago / March 2012

Pag: 70

* FITNESS - GYM’NOS LAKE Tel: 766 1278 - FIT WELL Tel: 766-4404, Cell. 331-149-7271 - STAND BIKE Cell: (045) 33-3814-5913

- ARTE AMANECER Tel: 765-2090 - INTERIOR & FURNITURE Tel: 766-4666 - SOFA-COMPANY.COM Cell: 331-576-6974 - STRESSLESS Tel: 33-3640-1283 - TEMPUR, MATTRESS AND PILLOWS Tel: (52) 333-629-5919, (52) 33 3611-3049

Pag: 84 Pag: 67 Pag: 30

Pag: 55 Pag: 65 Pag: 18 Pag: 43 Pag: 63

* GARDENING - GARDEN CENTER Tel. 765-5973 - L & R WATER GARDENS Tel: 766-4386

Pag: 30 Pag: 32

- NAPOLEON Tel: 766-6153

Pag: 17

* HARDWARE STORES Pag: 11

- FERRETERIA Y TLAPALERIA GALVEZ Tel: 766-0880, Fax: 766-2440 Pag: 69 - REAL ORTEGA-Hardware for Carpenters Tel: 765-7556 Pag: 56

Pag: 11 Pag: 79 Pag: 72

- SAVIA Tel: 766-0087 - WEIGHT WATCHERS Tel: 01-800-710-3378

Pag: 52 Pag: 41

* HEARING AIDS - LAKESIDE HEARING SERVICES Cell. (045) 33-1511-4088

Pag: 84

Pag: 07

- ELECTROVENTA Tel: 765-2222

- ADOBE WALLS INN Tel: 766-1296 - BALNEARIO SAN JUAN COSALA Tel: 01-387-761-0222 - DOLPHIN COVE INN Tel: 314-334-1515 - ESTRELLITA’S INN Tel: 766-0917 - HOTEL LA CASONA Tel: 01-800-700-8877 - HOTEL PERICO Cell:333-142-0012 - LA MANSION DEL SOL Tel: 01-800-715-9339 - LA NUEVA POSADA Tel: 766-1444, Fax: 766-2049 - LOLITA’S INN GALLERY Tel: 766-1857 - QUINTA DON JOSE Tel: 01-800-700-2223 - VILLA CORONA DEL MAR Tel: +52 (327) 274-0912 - VILLAS DEL SOL Tel: 766-1152 - VILLA SAN FRANCISCO

Pag: 12 Pag: 63 Pag: 79 Pag: 57 Pag: 48 Pag: 36 Pag: 56 Pag: 03 Pag: 73 Pag: 89 Pag: 69 Pag: 79 Pag: 27

- EDGAR CEDEÑO - MEXICO PROTECT Cell: (045) 33-3106-6982 - LAKECHAPALAINSURANCE.COM -O&A Tel: 766-0152, 766-3508 - LEWIS AND LEWIS Tel: (310) 399-0800, (800) 966-6830 - PARKER INSURANCE SERVICES Cell: (33) 3809-7116 - PROTEXPLAN U.S. Toll Free 1-800-608-5743 Mexico Toll Free 01-800-681-6730 - TIOCORP Tel: 766-3978

Pag: 16 Pag: 62 Pag: 25 Pag: 58 Pag: 20 Pag: 70 Pag: 34

* INTERIOR DESIGN - ELEMENTS Tel: 766-5826 - INTERIOR & FURNITURE Tel: 766-4666 - TENERIFE CENTER Tel: 33-3640-1283 - SOFA-COMPANY.COM Cell: 331-576-6974

Pag: 23 Pag: 65 Pag: 43 Pag: 18

- INTERCASA Tel: 765-7553 - MAGO’S OFFICE Tel: 765-3640

Pag: 35 Pag: 10

* LIGHTING - ILUMINA Y DECORA Tel: 765 5067

Pag: 57

- CENTRO LAGUNA Tel: (376) 766-5514

Pag: 91

* MEAT/POULTRY/CHEESE - SM SONORA’S MEAT Cell: 33-1450-0236 - TONY’S Tel: 766-1614, 766-4069

Pag: 54 Pag: 26

* MEDICAL SERVICES

* HOME APPLIANCES Pag: 13

* HOTELS / SUITES

* MALL / PLAZA

* HEALTH Pag: 81 Pag: 46, 47

766-1760 765-4444 766-5555

* LEGAL SERVICES

* GRILLS Pag: 20

066 765-2308, 765-2553 766-3615

* INSURANCE

* FURNITURE

* CHIROPRACTIC

* DENTISTS Pag: 71

* ELEVATORS

Pag: 06

* CONSTRUCTION Pag: 73

- C.D. SANDRA ANAYA MORA Tel: 765-3502, 765-5444 Pag: 15 - DENTAL EXPRESS Cell: (045) 331-121-6518 Pag: 51, 61 - DENTAL HEALTH ONE Tel: 1060-826 Pag: 32 - DR. ALBERTO DON OLIVERA Tels: 765-4838, 765-4805 Pag: 10 - DR. CARLOS CERDA VALDÉZ Tel: 766-0336 Pag: 83 - DR. FRANCISCO CONTRERAS Tel: 765-5757 Pag: 16 - DRA. ANGELICA ALDANA LEMA DDS Tel: 765-5364 Pag: 53 - DRA. REBECA SANDOVAL Tel: (376) 1060 839 Pag: 59 - DRS. MEDELES & BODART Tel: 766 5050 Pag: 33 - HÉCTOR HARO DDS Tel: 765-3193 Pag: 14, 40 - SPECIALIST DENTAL CARE Tel: 106-0858 Pag: 37

Pag: 90

* CARPENTRY

* BED & BREAKFAST - CASA DE LAS FLORES Tel: 766-5493 - CASA DEL SOL Tel: 766-0050

Pag: 76

* COMPUTING SERVICES

* BEAUTY - AFRODITA Tel: 766-6187 - GLORIOSA SALON Tel: 766-3372 - HAPPINESS GARDEN Tel: 766-5513 - JAMES DON SALON Tel: 766-1933 - NEW LOOK STUDIO Tel: 766-6000 - PERMANENT EYE LINER Tel: 765-3502

Pag: 07 Pag: 38

- DR. VICTOR J. YOUCHA Tel: 766-1973 Pag: 27

- BARBERSHOP OLD SCHOOL Cell. (045) 33-1405-9503

- BETO’S WINE & LIQUOR Tel: 766-5420, Cell (045) 333-507-3024 - LICORES PAZ - MODELORAMA Tel: 766-2678, 765-2055 - TEQUILA DON VITO Tel: (376) 766 5998

Pag: 78

* ANIMAL CLINICS/PET SHOP

- INTERCAM Tel: 766-5978 - MULTIVA Tel: 766-2499 -O&A Tel: 766-4481

Pag: 33 Pag: 27

* BEER & LIQUOR STORES

*ALARM/SECURITY SYSTEMS

- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Tel: 766-5961