Notes From My Journal
560 articles filed under Notes From My Journal.
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Notes From My Journal
Life at Rancho Santana
More than 20 years ago, my partners and I bought a cattle ranch on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. After making every imaginable development mistake in the book, we gradually built it into a world-class resort…
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Notes From My Journal
Gentrification Threatens Beloved Neighborhood Cigar Club
Stranger Arrives; Cigar Club Jeopardized “All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.” – Ellen Glasgow I heard about Mr. R first from my real estate brokers. “He’s bought up the entire block…
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Notes From My Journal
Living With Florida's Thousand Iguanas And Beyond
Paradise Palms, my botanical garden in Delray Beach, must be home to a thousand iguanas. They are not particularly good-looking creatures. Some can be downright weird. And big. They can grow to four feet. But…
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Notes From My Journal
Have you heard of the Stella Awards?
I hadn’t… until one of my high school buddies clued me in. They are named in honor of Stella Liebeck, the 79-year-old woman that sued McDonald’s after she spilled hot coffee on herself and suffered…
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Notes From My Journal
Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don’t
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” – Pope John Paul II My reverence for personal freedom above almost every other social value prompts me to be…
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Notes From My Journal
The Geriatric Language of Lov
“We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.” – Thomas Fuller You Just Don’t Understand was considered groundbreaking in its day. It was on the NYT bestseller list for nearly four years, eight…
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Notes From My Journal
3 Surprising Facts About the Border Crisis
3 Surprising Facts About the Border Crisis * US Customs and Border Protection agents apprehended 172,000 illegal aliens along the border in March, the largest surge ever. (National Border Patrol Council) * Of…
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Notes From My Journal
A.S. On This Year's Oscar Disappointments
After reading my comments about this year’s Oscar winners, my friend A.S. wrote to say: Your blog today motivated me to give you my opinion of the movies this year. I am so sick of movies that make me want to…
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Notes From My Journal
After the Shutdown Ends
With Biden and Harris in the White House and the Democrats fast on their way to controlling politics for the foreseeable future, the mainstream media has abandoned its narrative of fear and is pushing hope and…
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Notes From My Journal
Before You Start Your Academy Award “To-Watch” List…
“Every great film should seem new every time you see it.” – Roger Ebert Before You Start Your Academy Award “To-Watch” List… Nomadland (2020) Directed by Chloé Zhao Starring Frances McDormand and David…
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Notes From My Journal
America's Hidden Hunger Crisis Demands Urgent Attention
The US is experiencing a hunger crisis, the NYT tells us, and the Biden administration is addressing this by “accelerating a vast campaign of hunger relief that will temporarily increase assistance by tens of…
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Notes From My Journal
I was surprised by the Chauvin verdict
As I said on April 1, I thought there was a good chance that he would not be convicted of all three, if any, of the charges against him. I don’t know what was in Chauvin’s heart when he put his knee down on…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe — April 22, 2021
* It’s not easy to succeed. That’s because success is defined as achieving that which is difficult for most people to do. * Some people fail despite great effort. But most people fail to succeed simply because…
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Notes From My Journal
The Rising Cost of the COVID Shutdown
COVID-19 has so far killed 3 million people. Including 566,000 Americans. That tells us something about the virility and lethality of the disease, but not nearly enough to form an opinion about the efficacy of…
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Notes From My Journal
Supreme Court's 1901 Ruling On Mandatory Vaccination
Among many, the fear of COVID-19 is great and the solution – universal vaccinations to achieve herd immunity – is incontestable. Some are calling for vaccination IDs, and even mandatory vaccinations. Would…
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Notes From My Journal
Ram Jam, Thank You Ma’am: The Story of “Black Betty
I’m thinking of producing a documentary about “Black Betty,” a song that is often attributed to Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter. Lead Belly’s 1939 version is short – just one stanza – and simple. He sang it…
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Notes From My Journal
The Thrill Of Winning Art At Auction
“It’s not as though you feel satisfied after collecting a certain amount of stuff. Instead, you keep thinking about what you’re missing.” – Fumio Sasaki A Good Day at the Races One of the great pleasures of…
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Notes From My Journal
Iran? Iraq?
Something I try to do every day: learn something interesting, useful, or in some other way worth remembering. This morning, during a conversation about I don’t know what, someone said, “Iran. Iraq. What’s the…
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Notes From My Journal
Real Estate Opportunities As Office Space Declines
“Inside of every problem lies an opportunity.” – Robert Kiyosaki Where to Invest in Real Estate in 2021 and 2022? Back in June, I said that my partners and I had put a hold on plans for a $14 million…
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Notes From My Journal
A Surprising Benefit of the Lockdowns
I came down here at the end of March to check on some improvements we’ve been making at FunLimon. (FunLimon is the community development center my family and I have been developing across the street from…
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Notes From My Journal
Progress at FunLimon!
Last week we inaugurated FunLimon’s new and improved facilities. Among the improvements was a renovated gymnasium. The gym now has new equipment, a room for group classes, a remodeled martial arts center, and…
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Notes From My Journal
The Chauvin Trial
Get ready. There is a reasonably good chance that Derek Chauvin will be exonerated from at least one and possibly all three of the murder charges against him in the death of George Floyd. And if he is, who…
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Notes From My Journal
Tryptic
“Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” – Wayne Huizenga Tryptic Enrique Anna Julia asks me if I’ve seen Enrique. I tell her I saw him yesterday. We talk…
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Notes From My Journal
Understanding The Staggering Scale Of A Trillion Dollars
A dollar isn’t much these days… So, when you hear that our government is in the middle of spending $6 trillion that it doesn’t have, you might wonder: How much is a trillion dollars? Here’s one way to get a…
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Notes From My Journal
What’s the Toughest High School Sport?
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.” – Marcus Aurelius What’s the Toughest High School Sport? A Reader Remembers His 2 Weeks as a Wrestler From Joe M: I was a basketball player in high…
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Notes From My Journal
When Is a Hate Crime Not a Hate Crime?
A reader writes: I know you are in Nicaragua so you may not have seen the story of a man shooting and killing 8 people at 3 Asian massage parlors in Atlanta. It’s been a highlight of the news for days. The…
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Notes From My Journal
The Sunsets!
I came here intending to stay two or three weeks. It looks like I'll be staying five. One reason, which I've been thinking about, is an effect of the COVID lockdown. I now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt…
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Notes From My Journal
Adventurer Aleksander Doba Dies At Kilimanjaro's Summit
Kevin K, with whom I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in February 2010, sent me an obit from the NYT for Aleksander Doba, a man who kayaked across the Atlantic three times – twice in his 60s and then again when he was…
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Notes From My Journal
How A Teacher Silenced My Classroom Wisecracks
“We’re all the heroes of our own stories.” – George R.R. Martin I’ve mentioned before (January 25) that I’m doing this StoryWorth thing – writing anecdotes about my life to include in a family-tree book I’ve…
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Notes From My Journal
The Question of Tax Increases
When people say they are in favor of increasing taxes, what they generally mean is that they favor increasing taxes on “others” that make more or have more than they do. Recently, I challenged a friend who…
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Notes From My Journal
The “For the People Act
After Daniel Ortega was elected as President of Nicaragua, legally in 2006, the Sandinista party went to work modifying election laws to secure its preeminent position in government and improve its chances for…
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Notes From My Journal
Power to the People?
“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.” – Charles Bukowski Power to the…
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Notes From My Journal
New Words
I read something yesterday about how new words make their way from the fringes to mainstream usage, and then finally into dictionaries. For example, in 2020, the Merriam-Webster dictionary added hundreds of…
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Notes From My Journal
Proud Dad Moments
“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass Proud Dad Moments In a recent issue of his “Postcards From the Fringe” blog, Tom Dyson told this little “Proud Dad…
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Notes From My Journal
I’ll never read all the books I want to read. I won’t even come close
I group these books in four levels of priority. First is a list I keep of titles recommended by good friends and respected colleagues. Next are literary prize winners (especially the National Book Award and…
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Notes From My Journal
Surviving… Everything
I’m here in Nicaragua, a country that was once devastated by an earthquake and then a revolution that changed it from one of the richest countries in Latin America to one of the poorest. But gradually over the…
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Notes From My Journal
Sitting…
Perhaps it’s my age. Or maybe it’s something I should have figured out long ago. One of the great pleasures in life is being seated. Whether it’s for work, socializing, or meditation, I’ve come to understand…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe
“Any clod can have the facts; having opinions is an art.” – Charles McCabe What I Believe A compilation – in no particular order – of some of my longstanding theories and many of my current ideas and opinions……
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Notes From My Journal
The Power Of Self-Forgiveness In Business And Life
“Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.” – Desmond Tutu One of the Most Important Skills I Ever Learned – How It Improved Both My Business and My Personal Life I learned to…
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Notes From My Journal
My Unexpected Bitcoin Windfall And Lingering Doubts
I’ve never been able to get a convincing answer to this question about cryptocurrencies: Why would the US government allow any currency to replace the dollar when it has the means to prevent it? (Which it…
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Notes From My Journal
Yawn!
I have four grandkids. Watching them grow these past five years, I’ve been reminded of many things I’ve forgotten over the 40 years since I had my first child. One of those things is that newborns sleep…
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Notes From My Journal
Afternoon Drag: Don’t Fight It! Take a Nap!
“Sleep is the Swiss army knife of health.” – Matthew Walker Afternoon Drag: Don’t Fight It! Take a Nap! It happens like clockwork most days, says Dr. Eifrig. Around 3:30 in the afternoon, you get sleepy. Your…
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Notes From My Journal
The Politics of Goal-Setting
This week’s movie recommendation – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – is a surprisingly well done bit of political satire aimed at the Trump administration. But first, speaking of politics, take a look at David…
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Notes From My Journal
Glowing Mermaid Sculpture Arrives At Paradise Palms
The latest addition to Paradise Palms & Sculpture Gardens arrived last week. We commissioned it about a year ago, and we’ve been eagerly awaiting its arrival. It’s the second piece we’ve purchased from Austin…
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Notes From My Journal
Nicaragua's Hidden Gems For English-Speaking Travelers
The tourist board of Nicaragua did a short promotion highlighting the many amenities the country has to offer English-speaking tourists. Rancho Santana contributed to it. This short video does a good job of…
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Notes From My Journal
Happy Talk Is Here Again!
Contrary to what The New York Times has been saying for 9 months, they are now maintaining that the number of infections is not so important after all. What’s important is… well, here are some excerpts from a…
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Notes From My Journal
Purposeful Reading
I’ve long made it a practice to read at least 50 books a year – half fiction, half non-fiction. I read fiction for the experience of the story and the pleasure of the writing. Consequently, I read every…
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Notes From My Journal
Kim Basinger's Oscar Win Couldn't Survive Contract Law
I try to read a question/answer each day in the French and Spanish editions of Quora to keep my language skills alive. I like Quora because the content is basic (easy to understand), and the questions are…
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Notes From My Journal
A Record-Breaking Year for Art
“Art is primordially eternal.” – Egon Schiele A Record-Breaking Year for Art Once a year, I like to make a quick survey of the art market to get a feeling for its current health and future direction. 2020 was…
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Notes From My Journal
relative
For the past week or so, the press has been covering what it calls a dangerous new strain of COVID-19 (B.1.1.7 ). You’ve probably heard and/or read about it. The increase in risk, the reports say, is 30%…
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