Recipes and Essays

Plane tickets and Reading Glasses

Plane tickets and Reading Glasses

The work at the tech center at the Astrodome is shifting slightly to housing, employment and travel. As regards travel, we need more help in the form of either cash or plane tickets for people who have found family members and need to reunite with 

Inflicting Pain Rather Than Feeling It,

Inflicting Pain Rather Than Feeling It,

An opinion piece by Thomas L. Friedman in today’s Houston Chronicle aptly focuses on Bush’s administration of our country. “These are people so much better at inflicting pain than feeling it, so much better at taking things apart than putting them together, so much better 

Katrina Sites That Are Useful

Katrina Sites That Are Useful

Another day at the Astrodome has brought some hope for the Katrina survivors as some are locating family members through Internet searches. Yesterday, after repeated attempts, I found the 17-year-old daughter of a father who had fled to Houston. She had been evacuated to Mississippi. 

Yahoo comes through and so does Oprah

Yahoo comes through and so does Oprah

Hope is alive and well at the Houston Astrodome and Reliant Stadium. Hundreds and hundreds of Houstonians are volunteering for the huge task of providing hospitality, food, medical attention to our guests. We received good news today that Yahoo is programming its Hurricane survivor site 

Searching for family at the Astrodome

Searching for family at the Astrodome

I’ve just returned from the Astrodome, exhausted but feeling good about the many Houstonians who are volunteering to help. Many volunteers are still needed at the Astrodome and Reliant Center. Because of his medical background, my partner, Richard, helped with triage at the medical area. 

Refugees in Houston

Refugees in Houston

At midnight this morning buses that were bringing refugees from New Orleans to the Houston Astrodome were turned away. Capacity at the Astrodome was full. Bedlam was everywhere. Whoever made the decision to bring 24,000 people from the Superdome to the AStrodome must be crazy. 

Stop the War – from Crawford Texas

Stop the War – from Crawford Texas

Crawford, Texas, having supper and talking with Cindy Sheehan and other moms, family of soldiers who have died in Iraq. It has been over 100 degrees, but anti-war community women, men, children are in good spirits and determined to make a change in this war 

will return

will return

My long silence will soon break. I’ll leave for some days off travel and work and will return to internet access in 4 weeks. Was in Melbourne for the final meeting of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture. This group of scholars 

Our Fathers

Our Fathers

Showtime aired “Our Fathers” last night. A badly acted, hurried production, nonetheless I’m glad Showtime did it. The bright exceptions are superb acting jobs by Christopher Plummer and Brian Denehy. The rest of it was a sloppy production. It does, however, remind us of the 

Reality Monastery

Reality Monastery

Jane in London has faxed me an article that appeared in the Tablet about a reality show, The Monastery, on BBC2. Isn’t that a fascinating idea for a reality TV show! Jane says the show is a real hit and has received positive reviews. I’d