Daily Blues & Views

My other uncle was a New Yorker.  Born and bred.  He was a world traveler because of his job.  As a reporter for King Features Syndicate, he covered all kinds of news stories from a Miss Universe Pageant to political news.  If I'm not mistaken he may even have covered the major events of WWII.  He revealed himself to me through the U.S. Postal Service.  That's because he'd meander into the darkroom at work and pick up 8x10 glossy black and white photos that hit the cutting room floor and send them to me.  90% of what he sent were baseball action shots or famous baseball players posing for news stories.  He knew I was a Giants fan, thus many photos were of the classic Giants teams of the 1950s.   His manilla envelopes were easy to spot.  My name was boldly scrawled in his almost illegible handwriting. One cardboard stay and the words "Do not Bend" accompanied these coveted gifts. Uncle Murray had one daughter.  When he assumed o...

 I had two uncles.  One was on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast.  But geography was far from the differences they shared.  My East Coast uncle was a newspaperman, world traveler, and the husband of my mother's sister.  The Californian had married my father's sister during WWII and post-war they settled, along with my family, in the San Fernando Valley.   At that time the Valley was full of all manner of migrants, clean air, mountain vistas, and affordable homes.  Uncle Cleary, and Aunt Dorothy lived about 10 miles from my family home. We did Christmas, they did Easter, for the first 16 years of my life.  We saw them, occasionally, too on special trips like Sunday afternoon drives, Disneyland, and perhaps a neighborhood birthday or anniversary party.   My Uncle Cleary was always a bit of a mystery to me.  He looked, dressed, and talked unlike my parents or other relatives.  That's because his roots were in Mon...

      It's called a slow-moving coup.  The term seems to have now entered the political lexicon.  TV comedian and political commentator Bill Mahr seems to have been the one who coined the term,  but it has now entered the discussions over network and cable news stations. Of course, this new phenomenon refers to the handiwork of one Donald J. Trump in his one-man mission to dismantle the U.S. Constitution and regain the White House.  Slow-moving because it trudges alone here in 2021 and will gain momentum until the next presidential election in 2024.  By that time the coup will have in place all the necessaries to question the results, sue the appropriate public servants, deny the vote to as many non-followers as possible, and gin up the troops for another go at storming the Capital.     It would be laughable if it weren't so right on the money.  This is really happening to us...in real-time.  The trouble is, that most folk...