I want to thank our old and new visitors for sticking by us these past couple of months. There are a few die-hard readers that check in from time to time, and we still get a lot of hits from first-time visitors. This traffic is surprising considering the fact that we’ve put very little new up on JustOneOpinion.com since Christmas. It’s clear that some of our articles have gone well-past their “do not sell” date.

My excuse is that I’ve simply been overwhelmed for the past three months due to construction work going on in my home. Just before Christmas we had a hard freeze here in Oregon that resulted in frozen pipes bursting all through the Willamette Valley. In my home, a pipe froze and burst in mid-day causing minimal damage to my garage. A few hours later, it burst again in another location while we were away, effectively destroying the garage and doing extensive damage to our laundry room, tiled front entryway, and our hallway.

While we suffered a rather alarming loss just before the Christmas holiday weeks, we were able to get plumbers, restoration contractors, and other craftspeople out to the house to help us. This was in spite of the fact that the freeze damaged hundreds of homes and businesses in the area, most as a result of broken pipes, leaving homeowners scrambling to find any available contractors to repair their homes.

Our insurance company gave us immediate and excellent service so that we could get everything cleaned up and repaired. This is not a paid plug, but an honest testimonial for Ameriprise Homeowner’s Insurance, the company that provides customer service and underwriting for Costco here in the western states. I have nothing but good things to report about how their claims representative, Scott Miles, handled our account, immediately paid contractors for the emergency work that had already been done, and then quickly cut us a check that was fair and representative of the repairs we needed to get everything back to normal.

We were also fortunate to have a great local contractor referred to us by our Realtor, Rhonda Marshall. Eric Sorenson exceeded our expectations by making absolutely sure that everything was completed in an organized, timely, and professional way. His dedication to high-quality work was commendable, his quotes were reasonable, and he made sure that everything that was done met our expectations. The walls and ceiling work in the garage looks great and the updated flooring in the entry-hallway and laundry room give our home an entirely new look.

But for me, it has been three months of demolition, restoration, installation, and reconstruction going on right behind my head. That’s my main excuse for why my recent productivity has absolutely sucked.

I’ve been working with Dick Kelly on a book project since last summer and my goal was to have my part completed by Christmas. Finally, just after Thanksgiving, I told my wife that I wouldn’t shave again until I’d completed the project - and I haven’t shaved since. She hasn’t left me yet, but if this project isn’t done within the next few weeks, one of us will be sleeping in our new garage.

On the other hand, being creative is very difficult when you have hammers, saws, nail guns, staplers, paint sprayers and what-all making noise just a few feet away from your office door.

Although most of the blame sits squarely on my shoulders, the other contributors to JustOneOpinion.com have also been quiet over the past few months. Everyone seems to have a lot on their plates these days.

Dick Kelly has been finishing up his sequel to his first book, Growing Up in Mama’s Club. He and his wife have also been living with contractors working in their home in Tucson during the past six months. I hear that they had much of the interior redesigned and updated. I can’t wait to see the results.

Craig Bieber is finishing his new book and hopes to have it published later this year. He was able to take a break and contributed a most interesting article about his Christmas trip to New York that continues, even at this late date, to get a lot of hits from our readers.

Bob and Claire kept us entertained as well as on the edge of our seats during the fall. Their trip all over southeast Asia was exciting and nerve-wracking for all of us during the several weeks they were gone. Not only did we understand the danger and complexity of the trip that they were taking, but we’d also worry every time they would go completely silent for several days. Eventually they would come to a village or city where they could once again access the Internet and finally send us some updates, photos, and videos. They are home now and resting up for their next grand adventure later this year. I’m hoping that they can swing through central Oregon and pay us a visit for a few days.

In the meantime, Bob and Claire are sharing some of their favorite recipes on their website at NewBohemians.net. Go check them out.

Chi Newman maintains a busy schedule with speaking engagements and her usual rounds of bridge parties and other social activities.

I hope that we can all get back in the writing groove over the next few months and expand our readership again. I realize that we’re no Huffington Post, and probably never will be, but we do have a great number of readers and fans – and we thank them all for their patience.

I’ll try to do better over the next few weeks – now that I can hear myself think. Please come back and check us out.

This is a question Claire and I get from Americans when they hear of our tandem bicycle travels in third-world countries and our perseverance in spite of difficult conditions. Of course, there is no answer to such a pejorative question. By using the phrase “possess you” they are saying they think us possessed – maybe even crazy. Perhaps we are. Crazy – but also fulfilled.

Many JOO readers visited our New Bohemians website between early September and late December of 2009. We hope you enjoyed the journals, photos, and videos you found there, and we hope you learned something about Asia.

Just in case you joined us in the middle, I’ll give you a snapshot of our journey, and what inspired us to pick our difficult route.

The first part of our plan was to ride our tandem bicycle across the mountains of historic Tibet and into Yunnan province, to the mythical and literal land of Shangri-la. The concept of seeking out Shangri-la the hard way, on a tandem bicycle, came from ongoing motivations:

• To see our World from a unique perspective, at a speed that allows for contemplation of its many mysteries.
• To challenge ourselves against the unknown, find adventure, excitement, and fulfillment doing what we love.
• To represent a side of America foreigners seldom see on TV: wholesome, optimistic, open and caring, with a physical work ethic like their own.
• To share with diverse peoples our joy in life. From Urumchi to Winnemucca, from Alice Springs to Baku, the love for a spouse and shared labor is universally appealing.
• To gather material for our magazine writing, Just One Opinion, and NewBohemians.net.

This is not our first such adventure. Our tandem bicycle, somewhat inappropriately named Zippy, has carried us 40,000 plus miles (nearly 1.6 times around the world) over the last few years. “In Search of Shangri-la” was our second tandem journey in Asia, our first being our Silk Road Crossing from Beijing to Istanbul. Despite the difficulties of that trip – language, political unrest, route location, illness, and food – we wanted to go back.

We chose the most mountainous route possible to Shangri-la, over the steep fingers of the east end of the Himalayas. This turned out to be almost too much for this not-so-young-anymore tandem team, but by cooperation, tenacity, and thanks to a lot of help from friends we made along the way, we prevailed. There was the Tibetan family who took us in when a snowy night overhauled us. Later, a road crew shared their space and dinner with us as high winds, sleet, and our own exhaustion threatened our ability to go on.

After descending into Yunnan, China we found the literal Shangri-la, and were somewhat disappointed by its touristy reality. On the other hand, it did have a certain charm, sheltered us for three days, and provided better food to help us continue our trip. Did we actually find the mythical Shangri-la? Read on:

The “Shangri-la” most of us know is the mythical place of perfect happiness. The word and the concept were invented by the British author James Hilton in 1933. He described a Utopian kingdom where people lived to healthy old age, content and happy beyond the understanding of most Westerners. His “Shangri-la” was located in the mountains of northern Yunnan Province and western Sichuan Province where the Tibetans and most of the other fifty-three minorities of China live. It is a spectacularly beautiful part of the world, from the plateaus and barren gorges of Tibetan Sichuan, to the botanical paradise of the mountains of Yunnan.

Unfortunately, life is not always easy for the people living there. The terrain is brutally steep, the rivers violent, the winters high-altitude harsh, and the ethnic majority Han population of China is not always kind to them. Some residents are stoic and others are happy – not too different than those of us from the West – but their happiness quotient is very high considering the challenges they face in their daily life.

Further along in our journey we found the people who would be most like the mythical Shangri-la people – and in a most unlikely place.

Laos has been the whipping boy for Southeast Asia for much of its ancient history. In recent history it has been misused by its neighbors and colonial powers alike. During the “American War” (as southeast Asians call the Vietnam War), more total tonnage of bombs was dropped on Laos than by all sides during World War II. Even now, hundreds of people are killed and maimed every year by unexploded anti-personnel ordinance dropped over 40 years ago.

We felt the fear they live with every day when we were lost for two days in an area not cleared by bomb disposal crews. They go to work in their rice paddies or hunt in the jungle each day, knowing there may be a “bombie” out there with their name on it. And yet they bear no grudge against the Americans who salted their land with death.

The Lao we met are happy, well nourished, and live a rich family and village life. Laos has one of the few Communist governments left in the world, but it seems to have little influence on the lives of the people.

Is Laos Shangri-la? As we worked our way up a Lao mountain, we met a German with a story to tell. He was bicycle touring nine years ago when he became ill with food poisoning in Laos. While recovering, he met his future wife, and they now have two children. He runs his father-in-law’s pig farm, and has become Lao in every way except for his race. I asked if he would ever return to Germany. “Never!” was his answer. He has found his Shangri-la.

After eight months of bicycle touring in Asia over the last few years, the continent has again left me staggered. Just as I think I have the real Asia nailed, I find myself blindsided by the reality, the vitality, the sheer size and complexity of the continent.

Some will say I should just stay home and absorb the opinions of the talking heads, those government and politically motivated experts – most who have never set foot in Asia outside the capitals. I don’t believe that accepting observations from someone riding in the back seat of a Mercedes with darkened windows – never stopping, but just driving past the toiling masses – necessarily offers a true picture of that great continent.

Westerners have always misunderstood the Asian ethos, and underestimated the tenacity of the people. We need to get past stereotypes and open our eyes. Those of us living in the West will be competing with Asians and need to understand their hopes and desires, allowing us to work with them in mutual respect and to our mutual benefit.

Both Claire and I will be writing about Asia for a long time, for Just One Opinion and on our own website. If you would like to read our stories and see our photos and videos during our “In Search of Shangri-la” journey, follow the link to NewBohemians.net.

Editor’s Note: Chi Newman is a frequent contributor to Just One Opinion. She is our expert on all things Asian, especially Chinese food and culture, because she was born and raised there. Chi wrote this article for her own website at Chi-Newman.com and offered to let us publish it here. I bet you’ll have a craving for Chinese food that will last for days!

Its been several months since I contributed an article to my website and here at Just One Opinion. I’ve been really busy lately, but I felt like writing and sharing some of my Chinese recipes with you. These are not banquet dishes, these are family dishes.

In China, family dishes are called “shia fan,” which literally means dishes that make the rice go down. For common people this type of food can be quite inexpensive, but the ingredients are cooked with so much flavor by the adding of hot peppers, garlic, ginger and onions, that sometimes these “shia fan” dishes taste better than banquet dishes.

You do not need a big piece of meat. One chicken breast, a few shrimp, a pork chop or small piece of steak would be enough to feed a whole family. To these ingredients we add a little bit of this and a little of that – ingredients that are already in your refrigerator. You might have half a green pepper or red pepper, a carrot, some celery sticks, green onions – or some nuts like cashews, almonds or peanuts. Include ginger, garlic, hot pepper sauce, or flakes. Add these to the meat you have to make a very healthy and flavorful meal that will feed the whole family. Chinese hosts always serve rice on the side.

Once you know the art of stir frying, you can always find some things to make a beautiful dish. The actual cooking time is very short, but the preparation and cutting can take time. You’ll need many little bowls to keep each ingredient separate. Marinate the meat in the sauce you will have prepared, but each vegetable should be stir fried separately to retain its color and consistency.

Even in cooking we never forget to practice the “Yin-Yang” philosophy. There is never a Chinese dish that is all white or all dark. There are always contrasting colors and textures in keeping with our philosophy of balance and opposites.

CHICKEN AND CASHEWS

2 chicken breasts, cut into squares

2 egg whites, unbeaten
2 Tbs.of good white wine
1 1/2 Tbs cornstarch
Mix the above ingredients, and toss into the chicken breasts, let stand

2 slices of ginger, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3 cloves crushed garlic

1 cup of cashews, or peanuts
1/2 green pepper (cut into squares)
1/2 red pepper (cut into squares)
5 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water till soft. Squeeze dry and cut into squares. (Any kind of fresh mushrooms can be used.)
2 stalks of celery, cut into cubes
Oil (preferably vegetable or peanut oil for frying)

SAUCE

1 1/2 Tbs red wine
1 1/2 Tbsp ketchup (for color)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3 Tbsps soy sauce
1 Tbsp Hosing sauce (can be bought at any supermarket)
2 Tbsps of hot red pepper sauce (can be bought at any supermarket) I like the Sambal Oilek (ground fresh chili paste, it is made in the USA) (optional)

1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp water

Cut chicken breast into squares and mix with unbeaten egg whites, wine and cornstarch. Let stand.
Heat enough oil to fry nuts, season and remove to bowl. Heat oil to fry green pepper, red pepper and celery till cooked but still crisp, season and remove to bowl. Heat oil to fry mushrooms, season and remove.

Heat 6 Tbsp oil till very hot, add ginger, green onions, garlic, till very hot and fragrant, add chicken till it turns white, then add the premixed sauce. Stir till completely mixed. Add the cornstarch and water to chicken to thicken. Now add vegetables and nuts to blend. Remove immediately to platter. Serve with white rice on the side.

Note: This dish has all the ingredients to make a healthy meal. You can exchange the vegetables to broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, or any other vegetables. Remember to keep the vegetables crisp and colorful in contrast with the dark meat. Also note how inexpensive it is to serve a whole meal that is not only healthy but delicious with just a few things you have at home.

HOT AND SOUR SOUP

This is an exciting soup full of contrasting flavors and texture, and a perfect example of the Yin-Yang that I talked about. It ranges from soft bean curd to chewy bamboo shoots. The pork blends well with the smoky shitake mushrooms, and the hot and sour taste is perfect for a cold winter day.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes:
5 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 Tbsps soya sauce
5 pre-soaked Chinese shitake mushrooms sliced, or any other mushroom of your choice
1/2 cup of bamboo shoots sliced into strips
1 cup pork sliced into thin strips

Add:
2 cakes of firm bean curd cut into cubes (well drained)
2 Tbsps fresh ground pepper
3 Tbsps rice vinegar, or any vinegar of your choice
3 Tbsps cornstarch mixed with some water to thicken

When soup comes to a full boil add 3 beaten eggs slowly to the broth. To serve add a few drops of sesame oil in each bowl for flavor and sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves.

SWEET AND SOUR PORK

A
1 lb. loin of pork
1 Tbsps sherry or red wine
2 Tbsps soya sauce
1 1/2 Tbsps cornstarch
Enough oil for deep frying

B
1 big yellow onion, cut into squares
1 big carrot, quartered
Enough oil to fry carrot and onion till cooked.
1 medium size can pineapple chunks, drained.

C
6 Tbsps sugar
4 Tbsps soya sauce
1 Tbsp red wine
2 Tbsps vinegar
4 Tbsps catsup
2 tsps pickle relish
a few drops of Tabasco sauce

1 Tbsp of cornstarch, mixed with 1/2 cup water.

Cut pork into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Mix well with A ingredients, except oil. Heat oil till very hot, and fry till golden brown. Turn out on a plate.

Heat about 4 Tbsps oil and stir fry carrots and onions till cooked. Add pineapple and remove to plate

Mix C ingredients in a large pot, except for the cornstarch. Add A and B ingredients. Let it come to a boil, add cornstarch mixture to thicken, remove immediately and serve.

CUCUMBER SALAD

6 pickling cucumbers, or 3 English cucumbers (unpeeled, or peeled if you wish)
3 slices of ginger, cut into thin strips
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 green onions, cut into small pieces
Mix well and add enough salt to coat. Cover and let stand for an hour or so. Drain well and wash with cold water. Pat dry completely.

Mix above ingredients and place in a serving bowl.

SAUCE

2 Tbsps soya sauce
2 Tbsps rice vinegar (or any vinegar of your choice)
2 Tbsps toasted sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp hot pepper sauce.
1 Tbsps white sesame seeds

Mix above ingredients, and pour over cucumbers. Mix well and place in refrigerator. Serve with the above dishes.

I hope you enjoy these dishes and if you have problems, contact me through my website.

Love, Chi

Be sure to check their website for their personal holiday greeting video. They’ll share some of their experiences that they’ve had along the way along with their personal feelings about the people and places they’ve visited.

Bob also shares some news on their plans for the near future and for next year. I’m already getting excited for them.

As the Senior Editor of Just One Opinion, I’d just like to let them know how much we’ve enjoyed following along and keeping updated on the progress of their long bicycling trip. I personally am amazed and totally in awe of their accomplishments – and their personal strength of character and courage to take on such an adventure.

So our thumbs up to Bob and Claire Rogers! Good going! You’ve made us all proud to be Americans and to have had you representing us to our Asian cousins.

Bob and Claire’s website, NewBohemians.net, along with some of their most recent adventures, can be reached from the links found in the right sidebar. Be sure to check out all of their past adventures and photo galleries as well. Your visit will be well worth your time.

We all know about New York City. It’s in front of us in the media every day. It’s a part of commercials, morning shows, nightly news, entertainment stars, sports stars, magazine ads, and sadly, 9/11. We know New York as the center of everything… it’s the so-called “Greatest City in the World.” I had only been there once before. That was twenty years ago, and my memory of it was fuzzy good.

If you spend just four nights in New York City now, like my wife and I and a couple who are our close friends did on a boondoggle trip weekend before last, you come away with the feeling that you have seen a great deal of what is good and important in America. This time, I also saw a little of what is not.

We approached the Newark airport at almost five-thirty in the afternoon on Thursday. It was dark, and Manhattan Island looked like a sparkling wonderland across the Hudson River in the distance.

Flying from Alaska to New York is no small journey, but we were drawn there by an unexpected connection. A family friend, the daughter-in-law of our traveling companions, had been selected to dance in the chorus line of the Rockettes this year in their annual Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall. Blair Chenoweth Robinson, who was Miss Alaska in 2005 and Miss Alaska USA in 2007, is a professional dancer and proud product of the 49th State. She had just landed the biggest gig of her life.

My wife and I and our friends have all lived in Alaska for forty years…and we can’t see Russia from our houses. We are not wide-eyed backwoods people, and in fact are frequent and experienced travelers. I was wide-eyed the first time I visited Manhattan, but this time I experienced real life on this crowded island with millions of other people.

Making the “Ugly” Fun -- The Theme from our Apartment

Our arrival began with a thud. Beware of vacation rentals by owners!

On one of the busiest weekends of the year, we were unable to find a decent hotel room for under four hundred dollars a night per couple. We didn’t realize we were planning our trip on a “tree lighting” and “shopping” weekend in Manhattan.

Using the internet, we found a vacation rental by an owner for a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment on West 47th Street -- right in the heart of the Theater District in Manhattan -- for a little over four hundred dollars a night.  The internet pictures looked fine -- certainly not luxurious, but fine.  The fact that they wanted seventeen-hundred dollars in cash or a cashier’s check up front should have told us something.

Renting an apartment in New York City…

Arriving at our “home away from home,” we discovered that it was in a less than shiny part of West 47th Street.  As we climbed up the narrow, poorly lit, rickety stairway (no elevator here!) in the ancient building, we were hit with the overwhelming smell of marijuana. I looked up the stairwell as far as I could see, and thanked the gods that our apartment was on the second floor.

Reality began to set in when we opened the door. One of the first things I noticed was the tiny refrigerator leaning against the wall. As we explored the place, we discovered that the promised third bedroom (which we actually didn’t need) was just an alcove with a bed stuffed into it that filled the entire space. I pity the next renter who actually needs a third bedroom.

The bathrooms were a special adventure. The bathtubs and sinks in both bathrooms did not have drain plugs in them. Our tub featured big rusted spots and bugs that crawled out of the drain in the night. There was a big hole in the wall next to it. I jokingly told my wife that the mice and rats used that hole to come out at night. She calmly replied that no self-respecting mouse or rat would live in the place.

The bathtub in the other bathroom would not drain, so our traveling companions had to use our bathtub for two days…the time it took to get someone to come by and unplug the drain.

When I entered the street-side bedroom that my wife and I were to use (our traveling companions outran us), I discovered that our bed was a mattress and box springs sitting on the floor. The nice internet picture of the bed showed it sitting on a frame. A cheap broken window shade was lying on the floor. When I tried to close the flimsy shear over that window, the thing fell on my head.

The ad described the apartment as being fully furnished with three queen sized beds. In fact, we had only one small garbage can, one garbage sack, and no cloth or paper towels in the kitchen. The TV only received a few local channels, and the “Internet hookup” never worked. There was no heat control in the place. It was unseasonably warm our first night, so we ran the in-window air conditioning unit all night to combat the heat coming into our bedroom. The next three nights were very cold, so we had to pack towels and pillows in the gaps around the two window air conditioning units to keep the cold air out.

Our contact, “Mo,” didn’t really seem to care about anything. Of the many things we asked for help with, the only one he repaired was the plugged bathtub…after two days.

By the way -- the Internet listing for this place claims that the monthly rent is $5995!

So, how did we deal with it? We bought a six-pack of good beer, a couple of bottles of good wine, a bottle of good scotch…and laughed our way through it all! The reality was that we were all so tired by the time we got back every night that we could have slept on the floor. However, taking a shower in the light of day…that was a different story.

If this is an example of how the slumlords I have always heard about do their business (and the neighborhood looked like it has hundreds, if not thousands, of places like ours), I can understand how they get rich at other people’s expense. As I lamented to our friends, one good cleaning woman and a handyman with a six-foot ladder and two hundred dollars worth of supplies could turn it into a decent place in a couple hours.

Having been inundated with the glamor of New York for years, I found myself unprepared for its underside. There were piles of garbage everywhere off of the main streets. Thousands of dogs (or maybe hundreds of thousands of dogs?) were peeing on the only place they could -- the sidewalks. We had to endure the odors of the dirty, crumbling neighborhoods located just a few short blocks from the high-profile, high-fashion areas we see featured in the media every day. For us this was a rude awakening about the other side of New York. I realize that all large cities have their seamy sides, and I know this was not even the worst of what we could have seen in New York -- but it was still surprising to me.

It all got better. In spite of our rough start, I did not intend for this article to be a put-down of New York City. It really is one of the most fascinating cities in the world.

The Food

Manhattan assaults the senses in many ways, and the attack began the first night when our beautiful Rockette hostess took us on a culinary excursion. It began at a funky little restaurant tucked into a small, narrow space in an old building -- like many other New York restaurants. It was loud, glitzy, and fun -- and the food was great. It was also a good place for me to condition myself to the eclectic mix of people we would see over the next four days. There just aren’t that many places in Anchorage, Alaska where you’ll see two men sitting in a booth, holding hands, and looking dreamily into each other’s eyes. That is not a social comment -- it’s just a fact.

On Friday, we hiked from the Financial District to Katz Delicatessen in the Lower East Side for a late lunch. Opened in 1888, and advertised as the oldest and best deli in New York, it lived up to its billing. It is also the place where Meg Ryan did her famous faked orgasm in the movie, “When Harry Met Sally” (I’ll have what she’s having!) Diners packed the place at two o’clock in the afternoon. The line of people in line to pay their bill wound to the back of the large dining area. Our rewards for being patient (and our rapidly growing recognition of the push-your-way-in New York mentality) were five-inch tall hot pastrami sandwiches too big for one person to eat.

We followed that lunch with a wonderful dinner that night at Carmine’s in the Theater District -- a big, noisy, happy, family friendly Italian restaurant. That was probably the best of the several great meals we had. Running a close second the next night was “Brazil Brazil,” a restaurant we stumbled into out of a cold rain as we searched for a dinner spot near our apartment.

Ah, Sunday! Sunday…football and big screens, dozens of them. While the women took the subway to Wall Street to visit another high achieving beautiful young woman friend from Alaska, the men hit the ESPN Zone. The Bloody Mary’s were great, every football game being played was available somewhere in the building, and the crowd was raucous -- particularly when the one o’clock games started and the guy running the control room went to the bathroom and left bowling on the main screen. We couldn’t help but laugh as the bartender stood in front of us yelling, “Football, football,” at the empty control room.

The Entertainment

Saturday was our day to see the matinée performance of the Rockettes Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It truly was spectacular, and, like all the rest of the Rockettes, our girl was flawless. The show begins with a wonderful 3D trip on the back of Santa’s Sled, and continues to feature amazing digital special effects using one of the largest floating LCD screens in the US. An actual motorized, double-decker bus with the Rockettes on it, travels throughout the city, displayed on the huge screen in amazing detail. I loved the history and precision of the “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.”  Everything is entertaining, and the Rockettes are beautiful and precise.

2009 Rockettes: “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers”

After the show, Alaska’s only Rockette treated us to a backstage tour, and we got to pet one of the two camels that were part of the lead-in to the Nativity Scene.

On Sunday, we had tickets for Jersey Boys at the August Wilson Theater, which features the lives and music of The Four Seasons and their star lead singer, Frankie Valli. For me, it was a trip back in time. The music was wonderful and the performers were outstanding. The show was surprisingly adult as it took us through their meteoric rise out of obscurity in New Jersey, their clumsy fall, and their eventual recovery, all accompanied by their hit songs. If you like great music, and if you had a pulse in the 1960’s, you would love this.

The Sights

Ground Zero was on my radar screen from the first day we decided to make this trip. As they say, there are a few events that will live in our memories forever…J.F.K’s assassination, the Challenger disaster, and 9/11 for me.

I also felt drawn to visit the World Trade Center site because my wife and I had gone to the top of the Twin Towers to have a drink and take in the view the first time we visited New York. As I walked around the construction area for the new Freedom Tower, I couldn’t help trying to imagine the hysteria, the fear, the grief, the shock and the heroism that had taken place there. I remembered how 9/11 changed the world forever.

We dressed for the weather with warm coats, gloves and umbrellas. From our apartment on West 47th Street, we walked or rode the subway everywhere.  Even though the streets and the subway were incredibly crowded, we always felt safe and confident. There are policemen at every corner, a tainted legacy of 9/11.

Pre-Christmas in New York City is a special time. On our last night we visited Rockefeller Center to see The Tree and took a carriage ride in Central Park. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to see everything. Maybe we’ll go back…and just pay the price for a hotel room.

He Was My “Santa Claus”

Somewhere deep inside of me
There’s a special memory,
Of my father dressed as Santa
Standing by the Christmas tree.

It was our custom Christmas Eve
That Santa would appear;
Our basement had both oats and grain
To feed his nine reindeer.

My father always dressed down there,
I never checked it out;
Mom told me reindeer needed time
To learn their Christmas route.

Dad headed out the back door,
As we prepared for fun;
Sleigh bells could be heard outside,
We knew that he had come.

My mom would open up the screen
And Santa would come in,
With pillows piled inside his suit
And whiskers on his chin.

I wondered how he knew which gift
Was for a girl or boy?
Strange, also, were my parents’ names
Which appeared upon each toy.

We all sang “Jingle Bells” off key,
I thanked old Santa Claus
For showing up again this year;
He never did get lost.

I didn’t know that Dad was him,
Pop had a taller frame,
He couldn’t be that fat, short guy
Who always knew my name.

I was sixteen when Daddy died,
He left me such good thoughts
Of love and sharing of himself-
He was my “Santa Claus”. . .

Joyce Hodges

Wrapped in plastic as carefully as though it were an original, the book I wanted had a full color cover, plasticized, just like an original, but something was fishy. The photo quality was poor and the alignment skewed. A medallion featuring the Kiriyama 1999 Pacific Rim Book Prize was flat and fuzzy. I rattled the loose spine, flipping through the unevenly trimmed pages. The tilted text, a blurry slate gray, lay flat against a too white field, cratered with distracting stray pockmarks. The photocopied pages irritated my skin like a million little paper cuts and lacked the warm eggshell color and texture of a real book. Leaves squeaked rather than rustled.

I was revolted; why would anyone want to even hold this book, much less read it? It didn’t even smell like a book. It was as annoying as scratchy Muzak or fuzzy red and gold wallpaper.

Bob’s patience wore thin as we rounded the block, combing shop after shop, looking for an original of the book I wanted. Again and again, I left the shopkeeper looking confused after they went to the trouble to dig out the title I asked for. Flipping through the flaky pages, I left, crestfallen, time after time.

The irony was the book was Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam, by Andrew X. Pham. Pham, a Vietnamese American, returned to the country of his birth, only to find it far astray from his own culture. He’s been carefully explaining to me, page by page, why I found Vietnam so maddening: aggressive vendors, raucous drunks, deafening horns, and unshakable beggars. Like Pham, I wanted to like Vietnam and felt guilty for not being able to, after all, I was born here too. There must be something I can bond with. I appreciate his honesty. I appreciate having found a genuine volume.

Asian sentiment lacks an appreciation for original work, for intellectual property or the concept of copyright. Everyone in Asia seems to work so hard that it doesn’t seem to matter that your occupation is simply to make copies of something. Same-same.

Pirated books and tapes in Saigon…

I wondered at my visceral reaction to the fakes. Was I feeling sorry for the unrewarded authors? I was upset that the vendors expected me to take part in their farce and willingly accept an inferior product. Maybe my puzzling behavior will set the knock-off vendors to consider what the big deal is.

After I saw the entire documentary, “The Big Buy: How Tom DeLay Stole Congress,” I was left wondering if our government is really “of the people, by the people, and for the people” -- or if practically all levels of government, both state and federal, are controlled by corporations and big money contributors. After watching this documentary, I think I know the answer.

Our elected representatives may say they place their votes for the good of their districts or for the country as a whole. In reality most of them decide how to vote for the benefit of corporate interests who are willing to pay for their campaigns and entertainment. Tom DeLay is a near perfect example of this principle.

Tom DeLay was forced out of office because he did the “Texas Two-step” with the law. In Texas, as in many other states, corporate political contributions can not legally be accepted for local or state political campaigns. DeLay found ways to not only get around the law, but also chose to simply ignore it. His successful use of corporate money resulted in his ability to become the most powerful politician in Texas. Eventually, his lobbying led to an off-year redistricting of congressional districts in Texas that changed the balance of power in the Texas state legislature -- and ultimately the United States House of Representatives.

Now Tom DeLay is a disgraced “former member” of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003–2005, when his legal problems forced him to step down.

In 2005, a Texas court charged DeLay with criminal violations of state campaign finance laws and money laundering. DeLay pled not guilty, claiming political motivation for the charges. The prosecutor has yet to bring the case before a jury. Two of DeLay’s aides were convicted in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Although closely associated with Abramoff, Delay was not legally implicated in that scandal.

He began his career as a politician in 1978 when he ran for Texas House of Representatives. Once referred to as “Hot Tub Tom” because of his drinking and partying ways, he claimed to have become a born-again Christian in the mid-1980s. He now calls himself a “Pentecostal Christian.” As House Majority Whip, he helped Newt Gingrich lead the so-called “Republican Revolution,” pushing the Contract for America, which led to Democrats losing their majorities in Congress for the first time in forty years.

Delay helped start the “K Street Project,” a maneuver to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire only Republicans in top positions, and then reward loyal GOP lobbyists with direct access to influential officials.

Elected House Majority Leader after the 2002 midterm elections, he enforced party discipline and direct retribution against any GOP members of Congress who did not support the agenda of President George W. Bush.

Known as a staunch conservative during his years in Congress, he earned high marks from conservative interest groups. Even though he has been under indictment for almost four years, DeLay is still considered a hero by the conservative movement and even by most Republicans. There is a general consensus by the Republican faithful that if he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, then the charges are political in nature -- in spite of the fact that many of his associates were also charged and several actually convicted.

I looked to see if the documentary was available at another time or on another channel, but finally found it on Netflix.com. I used my privileges as a subscriber to watch the entire movie online. I found it to be very informative, not only about DeLay and his scandals,  but also the recent workings of the Republican Party.

Tom DeLay managed to change the balance of political power in Texas for years to come -- and also that of the national Republican Party. Almost all the issues with the GOP that finally drove me away from the party several years ago can be traced directly to DeLay and Newt Gingrich -- and now to their successors, John Boehner and Eric Cantor.

Trailer for “The Big Buy: How Tom DeLay Stole Congress”. . .

I strongly suggest that you rent this DVD or watch it online no matter what your political persuasion might be. If you are a progressive or independent, you will probably be disgusted with what you learn. If you are a conservative or moderate Republican, you may discover how the current Republican Party lost its way, as well as the origins of the modern conservative party that is now trying to take over the GOP.

A high percentage of these anti-personnel cluster bombs, or “bombies,” failed to explode on impact. Many still lie today just below the surface, ready for a water buffalo or a farmer to step on the wrong spot -- or for an innocent blow by a hoe or spade. They sit and wait for a young boy to find one and then try to prove his bravery by playing with the deadly toy.

During the many years of bombing, thousands died or were maimed by unexploded ordnance, bombies and larger bombs. The local residents gave up and abandoned their water buffalo and their bomb riddled rice paddies and fled. After they begged for surcease in Vientiane, their pleas were eventually heard by the U. S. Congress, who had been kept in the dark about the bombing by the President. Hearings were held and the bombing finally ended. No one was ever punished for lying to Congress or for committing what most readings of the Geneva Conventions would define as war crimes.

The U.S. conducted the largest bombardment of a population in history in a few small provinces of a small country. More tonnage of explosives was dropped on Laos than in all of World War II. That deserves repeating: More bombs were dropped on the small country of Laos than during all of World War II. That is an absolutely staggering fact.

Historical view of the war in Laos…

We recently visited Xieng Khuang to tour the Plain of Jars. Each site had areas marked off-limits because much of the province remains to be cleared of Viet Nam era ordinance. For their own safety, tourists dare not wander off the marked paths.

At the three sites we visited, bombies had been cleared. Most sites contained several large craters, probably created by 500 pound bombs. Many relics dating back 2000-2500 years were overturned or destroyed. It was a sobering sight to stand at the edge of one of those craters, and then later to see a man with no legs. It was hard for us not to become emotional, realizing that what we were seeing had been our tax dollars at work.

Let me back off for a moment and look at this subject less passionately. War -- any war or method of war -- seems like a good idea at its beginning. President Lyndon Johnson, who presided over much of the Secret War, was probably convinced by his advisors that the war in Indochina was a good idea. It is doubtful that anyone considered the long-term consequences of the bombies being dropped during that war. The workers at Honeywell probably didn’t think that the products of their labor would still be killing and maiming children forty years later.

In recent years, the Bush Administration used convoluted reasoning and language to justify torturing people, clearly in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. To the President, using torture probably seemed like a good idea. Sitting behind his big desk in the Oval Office, he was being pushed by smart and persuasive advisors, all afraid of an unknown enemy. America’s image as the champion of human rights has been damaged for years to come.  It seems that even the worst ideas always seem reasonable and appropriate initially.

Someone has to bear the responsibility for those decisions. Who should bear that burden? Maybe it should be you and I, because we didn’t speak up and demand better from our leaders. Maybe -- just maybe -- we all share the blame.

The Lao people bear us no grudges; they actually like Americans. They seem to understand the concept of forgiveness far better than we do. It’s interesting that our supposedly Christian country, one that preaches forgiveness to everyone else in the world, won’t help a small country we’ve injured, simply because they refuse to reject Communism. Laotian Buddhists are forgiving us, citizens of the country whose bombs are still killing them. We need to reconsider our professed values and compare them to those we actually live by. Our words are clearly at odds with our deeds; eventually there will be a price for us to pay.

Death and dismemberment continue to happen throughout the country. In Xieng Khuang province, forty to sixty people are killed or maimed annually, over thirty-six years since the bombings ended. Forty percent of the victims are children, mostly boys who pick up the bombies. Young males are attracted to dangerous things; they have no concept of mortality, believing they will live forever. Many will live long lives, but without their arms and legs. That’s a difficult sentence for any young man to serve in a poor country where physical labor is your only asset.

Laos found itself in the middle of the war between the United States and North Vietnam for over ten years. The Vietnamese used the Ho Chi Minh Trail that runs along the Laotian border and then took the war west into the agricultural central plateau of the country. The Laotians reluctantly found themselves drawn into the war by both North Vietnam and the Allies.

The people of Laos didn’t contribute much to the war and were officially considered neutral, but they still paid a heavy price for their involvement. In addition to the loss of thousands of Laotians, much of the country’s agricultural land is still unusable because of remaining live ordnance. The government of Laos, with the help of international NGOs from Britain, Australia and other countries, is managing the painstaking job of clearly unexploded ordnance.

The United States has reportedly offered to help with the cleanup, but our strident anti-Communism has blocked negotiations.  A flag showing the hammer and sickle flew outside the window of our guesthouse recently, but that is the only sign we have seen of a Communist society. The army’s presence is minimal, usually just a truck or two passing us on the highway, their soldiers waving and smiling to us like all other Lao people. Our passports are not checked at each guesthouse, or along the roads, as they were in China.

If the Lao system is socialist, like China’s, we haven’t seen it. It’s hard working people live by small capitalism. The government doesn’t seem concerned with controlling its people, or stifling their free market efforts. The government provides decent roads (better than China), and some sub-standard schools, but not much else. They certainly are not a threat to anyone, especially us. The Cold War Era “domino theory” was long ago proven irrelevant.

It’s time for America to pipe down, and pitch in – and help clear the remaining bombs we’ve left in our wake.

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