Of Bees and Men: A Tragic Collision OUCH! If a person bicycles enough, they accumulate stories. Most of the time I bike through the desert canyons and citrus fields of Ventura County without incident. It is just me and the occasional car passing by on a rural highway. My legs work, my lungs burn, and my heart pumps: I reflect on my life and finish refreshed, most of the time, and that is the point. I enjoy the solitude, and I enjoy an unremarkable trip on the back roads and farmer’s fields of western Ventura County. But there are exceptions. For example, while biking Southern California streets over the past…
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From Children and Family to Work and Careers?
Mother with child on vacation in Pacific Grove, California. “CHILD-CENTERED”? The social changes stemming from women entering the workforce in large numbers towards the end of the 20th century and the rise in the cost of living find more American families nowadays juggling the world of family and the needs of family. American women, in particular, find themselves struggling to juggle the demands of career and the those of family. Not surprisingly, contemporary couples have fewer children than in the past. Families don’t need more kids to help on the farm as in the past, and Americans barely replace themselves — a bare 2.1 children per couple. It is in…
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The Risk of Living in California
“It was as if the light falling to earth was put through an orange-colored filter, and the sun was a raging red orb.” AN UNUSUAL SUNDAY AFTERNOON Upon awakening this morning we felt and heard the vicious winds whipped up against the side of our house, as well as the trees bending and straining against the winds — news reports clocked the winds at around 50 mph throughout Southern California. This was of interest to, but we were not alarmed. I went to a restaurant, ate breakfast, read the newspaper, and sat down to write. The usual early Sunday afternoon routine. By noon there was a very distinct smell of…
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Rise of the Demagogues
VLADIMIR PUTIN“Russia needs a strong state power and must have it. But I am not calling for totalitarianism.” What exactly is he calling for then? “A GOVERNMENT OF LAWS, AND NOT OF MEN” The past few years have seen the rise of a handful of authoritarian leaders around the world who have taken great strides to eliminate any checks to their power inside their nations. They have outlawed alternative political parties and muffled the press towards portraying almost exclusively government-sponsored messages. These leaders have sought to make themselves almost synonymous with governmental power, and they have largely succeeded. There are no significant opposition political parties in Russia or Venezuela. Newspapers…
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Angela Hewitt Plays Bach
ARTISTIC MASTERY“Hewitt is one of these world-class musicians whose live performances of even the most technically difficult music do not contain any mistakes of note, yet still I was a bit dislocated at hearing such a different interpretation of this music.” So I saw Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt at the Orange County Performing Arts Center last night play all 24 of the preludes and fugures from Book I of J.S. Bach’s “Well Tempered Clavier.” She played them all, one after the other, as in a trance. No sheet music, either. She had them memorized. I am not kidding. I was lucky enough to have fourth row seats just behind her,…