Prayer for the use of mayors, lawmakers, governors, presidents

Ye heavens, make me an instrument of good government:

where there is need, let me provide funding;

where there is fat, and only there, a budget cut;

where there is a budget gap, the taxing of those

most able to pay their share.

Grant that I may not so much seek

to be re-elected as to act wisely;

to cater to donors as to serve all;

to eschew borrowing as to deal prudently;  

for it is in governing well that I can give

a just present and a prosperous future

to my city, my county, my state, my country.

life before starbucks

An Englishman writing in 1890's re Turkish coffee houses expressed pity for the coffee shop proprietor:  A man buys a cup of coffee costing less than a halfpenny, and may remain on the premises for hours, telling stories or exchanging gossip ...The cafe is the pub of Turkey: no alcohol served but Moslems sometimes manage to get drunk on coffee ... (the writer lamented that, unlike in English pubs, women were not permitted in coffee houses).

Just a distraction/tangent from my research on pirates.

Spending cuts warning

A cautionary tale my dad used to tell, long long ago:  Once a man decided his mule was too expensive to feed so tried to wean it from eating.  Every day he gave it a little less feed than he had given the day before.  Then just when the mule was completely conditioned to living without eating, it up and died on him. 

my year in movies

By rough count, I saw over 30 movies in theaters (you know the kind of place: darkened room, other people, large-ish* screen, admission charge) in 2010.  13 French, 5 American, 5 English, 3 German, 2 Italian, 1 each Mexican, Argentinean, Portuguese,and Iranian.  The high French count is because more French films are available here than other foreign ones.  If I had to nominate:  Winter's Bone (American) for real true grit; White Material (French) for totally engaging yet surprising and puzzling experience; White Nights (Italian, 1957) for director Visconti's combo of neo-realism and dreamscape, and Marcello Mastroanni holding the screen already as he always would.  So far this year, one each English, Romanian, & Portuguese. 

*bigger than a tv set, smaller than IMAX