Pat Taub
Granddaughter Jane
Today my granddaughter, Jane, is 18 years old! It seems like yesterday that my son called me with the news of her birth. I was living in Key West, which made David think I could somehow access Cuban cigars for him to pass out. He knew they were illegal in the States but challenged me. I went into a few seedy bars, hoping to buy Cuban cigars under the table. No luck, so I settled on cigars made with Cuban tobacco. Here’s Jane in her art student attire. She hopes to pursue computer-generated animation in college. It’s great fun having a cool granddaughter.
Monsieur Lazhar
Last night I watched the tender 2011 French-Canadian film, Monsieur Lazhar. It’s the story of an Algerian immigrant, who seeks safe asylum in Montreal and ends up filling a teaching vacancy at a middle school, after the prior teacher hung herself in the classroom. The school’s principal wants to brush it under the rug. When the children exhibit signs of grief and trauma, Lazhar goes against the principal’s orders, encouraging his students to express their suppressed feelings and the film takes off.
Ukraine Tensions
The US war talk about Russia’s imminent invasion of the Ukraine is hauntingly familiar to the hysteria prior to the US invasion of Iraq. While the US speaks of diplomatic efforts, peace efforts seem to play a second fiddle to war talk. My youngest son has a work contact in Ukraine, who says they don’t want war, blaming the US for raising the specter of war. Scary times to be sure.
Peace protesters in front of the White House
Anne Enright
I’m caught up in The Green Road by acclaimed Irish writer, Anne Enright. This is a novel about an Irish family, whose four adult children travel to the family home on the Irish coast to spend Christmas with their difficult widowed mother. Everyone struggles to put on a good face, but old wounds and unhappy memories intrude. Vividly drawn characters occupy an Irish setting that pulls in the reader. Irish and Southern US writers are unequalled in capturing a sense of place.
Wordle
When my youngest son was visiting me, he introduced me to Wordle. Now I’m addicted. This morning I broke my own record and completed wordle on the second try. Not sure I can ever do this again . . .
