Charlie’s interpretation was a jumble of words, complex phases and disjointed thinking which had to come from the author.  I could only stop dead in my state of confusion and breath slowly.

There are authors and writers.  There are thick books which contain amoung their pages, the work of several people, each with their own agenda.  They are the people who “eat dictionaries and anthologies” for breakfast, then spit out long words and sentances that tend to defy comprehension by mere mortals.

A very large book (size, weight and content) sits on my work table challenging me to read it, sneering at the very thought that I will understand it.

Hundreds of years ago when I was in 4th grade, I had a fabulous English teacher, Nellie Wi bbing.  She was and remains one of my mentors opening literary doors to me, and helping me to win “The Book Award” for reading and writing the  most book reports.  I gobbled up glorious words, savored them and stashed them away for future use.  My favorite word was “philoprogenitiveness” which meant love of your children (I couldn’t find it in my dictionary).  I never use it…

Now, I am confused and wonder why stories, reports and perspectives can’t be written in a more simple and direct manner?  Are the writers just filling pages?  Do they covet their words to a point of no return leaving the reader suspended from the pages barely hanging on only to crash into confusion as they fall?

Many of us within the travel industry overlook the unheralded work of this UNESCO activity.  Often, we’re unaware as we  visit one or more of the 890 diverse sites in 148 countries that these sites are under international protection.

Travelling the world, I’ve watched native dances from Spain throughout Africa, Egypt and Canada, never realizing that “Intangible Cultural Heritage” (traditional dance and linguistics) is part of the program.  Sites are submitted as nominations each year (47 this year).  In the first 10 years hundreds of sites and 34 new countries joined the World Heritage Sites Incentive.

Mankind often appears to be in such a relentless race to update and modernize rather than preserve our past.  I read of a man who tore down one of the Mayan pyramids to build a hotel with the building material!

The World Heritage Committee in Paris leads the assessment process along with deligations from 21 of the 187 member nations participating on a rotating basis.

Under the “endangered list” are the Galapagos Islands.  Many cruise companies want to dock there and the fishing industry has caused concern.  Fortunately, this has been stabilized for the time being.  The Belize Barrier Reef (the “Blue Hole” of Captain Costeau where I foolishly decided not to dive as the depth is unknown) is endangered due to mangrove cutting and land development (in both cases).

Within the next 3-5 years we’ll continue to be faced with climage changes and the impact on natural sites and biospheres (top of the list).  The World Tourism Organization (WTO) is on board raising tourism awareness worldwide. 

Somehow, words from the poem “In Flanders Field” by Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD of the Canadian army whom my grandmother knew, echoed:  “Take up our quarrel with the foe – To you from failing hands we throw – The torch; be yours to hold it high!”  It is up to us to help in preserving the precious gifts of the past which we have inherited.

http.//whc.unesco.org

On my medical information sheet I indicated that I suffer from hyperthyroidism, Graves Disease and macular degeneration.  I was told that I was an “excellent candidate” for the operation.

Following each operation my eyes were blood red.  My computer wasn’t touched for weeks, and I could not drive.  My distance sight was gone.  For the first time in my life I was given prescription glasses which I had to cover with dark glasses because of my sensativity to light.

On my sixth visit I complained about a problem with clear vision, and I was told that my thyroid was trying to get rid of the new lens by coating them with “gunk” (my own special word).  According to my doctor I was “one in a million”.  After weeks of applications of special cream and a prednisone sterate, I developed “floaters”, black bits of “gunk” broken up by the sterate.

When the floaters were down to about 16, I named each one and formed soccer teams.  As the “floaters” lessened I decided that the players had gone to Spain or Italy’s teams.  When I laughingly told my doctor I could see that he considered me quite mad.

Now I can read almost everything and work on my computer for hours.  Driving?  I can see and read everything except long street signs.  The warning that I might have to have my lens “zapped” with a laser about every six months to remove the “gunk” is no longer applicable.

We all want to have instant gratification when we read advertisements promising beauty in a box, glamor over night or immediate clear vision.  Nothing really works out that way.  Even with the best physicians, it takes patience and faith.

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/461817

I went to a boarding school with Valentina who was from Cuba.  By then it was the late 40’s and some of the stories she told about politics frightened me.  I kept in touch with her, and in the mid 50’s my letters were not answered.

April 14, 2009 Travel Pulse published an article titled, “Obama Lifts Certain Travel Restrictions”.  It began, “President Barack Obama is allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba, and easing other restrictions to usher in a new era of openness toward the island nation ruled by Communists for 50 years.”

About 1.5 million Americans have relatives on the island nation that turned to Communist rule in 1959 when Fidel Castro seized control.  Do I approve?  I may have a friend still there.  As such, I am emotionally involved.

My mother’s fabulous dresses are lost to the past.  No longer will she gracefully descend the marble stairs of the hotel in all her finery, no longer will she dance the starry nights away in Havana…but it is a beginning, we pray, back to individual freedom, a return to contact with the outside world and, as such, a better life.

Only time will tell.

The Daily Revolution’s own Lori maintains an excellent blog.  Ostensibly, it’s about training for her first marathon, but it’s much bigger than that.

My friend Kate writes a blog as well; Chasing Palindromes is about her life, her bikes, and associated adventures.  She also maintains a cooking blog with some really fun recipes.  “Curried Anything but Couscous” is especially excellent.

Finally, I couldn’t live without Science Daily.  I could get a lot more work done without it, though.  Have fun!

“People who can speak two languages are more adept at learning a new foreign language than their monolingual counterparts, according to research conducted at Northwestern University. And their bilingual advantage persists even when the new language they study is completely different from the languages they already know.”

An earlier report, also from Science Daily, reveals that bilingualism seems to protect the brain against some of the ravages of aging.

“Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage later in life, a new Tel Aviv University study has found. Knowing and speaking many languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging….Dr. Gitit Kavé, a clinical neuro-psychologist from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together with her colleagues Nitza Eyal, Aviva Shorek, and Jiska Cohen-Manfield, discovered recently that senior citizens who speak more languages test for better cognitive functioning.”

The United States is not known for a high percentage of bilingual citizens, though I myself live in an area where nearly half the population speaks both English and Spanish. Like many high school students, I did take foreign language classes: four years of Spanish. I also scored highly enough on the Spanish language Achievement Test that I didn’t have to take any foreign language in college. Today, I regret that. I like to joke that I speak one-and-a-half languages: I could survive in a Spanish-speaking country, but I’m nowhere near fluent. These studies have made me reconsider. My new goal: to read Chicago White Sox baseball news on their Spanish language website. It can’t hurt!

Another benefit of my neighborhood is the large standard lot (1.2 acres minimum), which means we see a lot of local flora and fauna. We’re surrounded by mesquite trees, creosote bushes, agaves, and a wide variety of cacti.

The natural landscaping, not to mention my tiny backyard pool, attract many birds. I regularly see finches, sparrows, woodpeckers, doves, thrashers, roadrunners, kingbirds, hawks wheeling overhead, and the shy silver Pyrrholoxia, a cousin of the cardinal.

We also have skunks, coyotes (more often heard than seen), foxes, bull- and rattlesnakes, scorpions, centipedes, cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits, and the actually rather cute pack rats.

So yeah, there’s no ocean here, but there’s a world of beauty, and I can always pour myself a margarita, step into my pool, and dream.

Unfortunately, many people never learn to swim, and this is reflected in horrifying drowning statistics. It is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death around the world. In the year 2000, there were more than 400,000 drowning deaths globally. Sadly, most of these accidents are preventable.

Even worse, in the United States, minorities suffer disproportionately from drowning deaths. Almost twice as many black children (58%) as white children (31%) can’t swim, and they suffer three times the death rate. Hispanic children (56%) are also almost twice as likely to be unable to swim. We owe it to all children to teach them to swim, to enjoy the water and the health benefits and just plain fun.

So go out and learn how to swim. ClubSwim can help you find lessons in your area. For children and teenagers interested in competitive swimming, visit USA Swimming’s website.

In the early 1970s, a strange phenomenon reached American shores in the guise of a tall silver alien: Ultraman landed, and for some lucky children like me, life would never be the same again. 

I was probably five years old when I first saw this Japanese television series, complete with awkwardly dubbed English, cheap special effects (think unraveled cotton balls substituting for spacecraft exhaust), and an oddly ingratiating cast of oddballs. From the catchy theme song and psychedelic opening graphics to the scary but all’s-well-that-ends-well plots, I was hooked. It helped that the hero, Hayata, was both attractively suave and suavely attractive.

Ultraman fought some of the most bizarre aliens that Earth has ever seen, and he saved the human race more times than we know. I especially remember the grotesque crab creature with frightening pincers, who alternately appeared six feet tall and sixty, who could disappear at will and freeze humans. Only Ultraman could vanquish such a foe – Ultraman and his human counterpart Hayata, infamous beta capsule in hand, alongside his Space Patrol crewmates. Ultraman rocked my world.

Ultraman was a Japanese cultural phenomenon that resulted in numerous sequel-series, not to mention created a huge toy and accessory industry that continues to this day. The show was simply enormous in Japan; according to a Japanese friend, it was their equivalent of Mickey Mouse. And some American children got to experience the thrill. Apparently the show was broadcast in seventies, in the Detroit area, and around Philadelphia, and also in the Washington D.C. metroplex where I lived between 1973 and 1977. It was definitely not a country-wide syndication; only a few of my friends and acquaintances recall having seen the show…but it made a big impression on us.

So what was it about the show that was so damned cool? One can never pinpoint such a fascination…it’s too much like explaining what attracted you to your first crush (or your latest, for that matter). But I can say this, thanks to Nickelodeon, TV Land, and other retro-maniacal cable channels, I have re-experienced most of my favorite childhood shows. Land of the Lost was appallingly acted – except for maybe the evil Sleestaks. Banana Splits offered nothing catchier than its theme song. Electra Woman and Dyna Girl had nothing going for it except female superheroes who, in retrospect, look really bizarre, but then, in that time period, didn’t we all? I still adore Schoolhouse Rock, but other than that, only Ultraman has held up well, still entertains and enthralls me.

If you get a chance, check out Ultraman online. Your local video store might have some episodes as well. Go on – fly with Ultraman!

(article from the 1999/2000 era Daily Revolution)

“In general, the role of friendship in our lives isn’t terribly well appreciated,” said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. “There is just scads of stuff on families and marriage, but very little on friendship. It baffles me. Friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well-being than family relationships.”

So why are you reading this article?  Go out and make some friends!

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the Faculty of Public Health said shifting the population weight distribution back to that of the 1970s would do quite a lot to help the planet. “In the 1970s we had bigger portions of vegetables and smaller portions of meat and there’s been a shift in the amount of exercise we do. All these things are combining to hurt the planet and this is a calculation that deserves a bit more attention,” he said.

I talked about this with my great friend Lori, who wondered whether disco dancing might have also had a benefit, compared to today’s Xbox and even Wii, not to mention email, cell phones and texting, and Twittering (I am personally the anti-Tweet). I could never give up my WiFi laptop, parked conveniently in front of 250+ satellite channels, and just fifteen feet from the refrigerator – which, come to think of it, may have something to do with the size of my…anatomy. Jeez, where’s Thelma Houston when I need her? Oh yeah – YouTube.

So who says you can’t go home again? That’s why we have Nick at Night, and YouTube, and a million satellite channels of old music, not to mention a thousand more choices in the produce section of the grocery store than we ever had when I was a kid. Should we take advantage? Should we let our hair go wild, and slip into bellbottoms or hot pants, tune into the Brady Bunch or Partridge Family and just let it all hang out?

Si, se puede!

And have I got a song for you…

My biggest irritation at the moment is the heinous use of “big of,” as in “it’s not that big of a deal.” Excuse me? When did this change? It is “that big a deal.” The creeping “of” creeps me out. More knowledgeable people can explain this better than I, so check out:

· Grammarphobia Blog

· Bartleby.com

So, please, please, please, just say no to excessive “of”!

And as long as we’re talking grammar, don’t even get me started on the hyper hyphenation I see everywhere today, including the overly hyphenated (overly-hyphenated? not!) New York Times. See also:

· New York University

· GrammarBook.com

· Grammar Curmudgeon

(P.S. I’m already cringing at the thought that I’ve committed any number of grammatical errors in this article – if I have, do let me know!)

As I mentioned in a previous column, I take a major rail trip every summer: I travel from Albuquerque, NM, to Chicago, IL, on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief; following an afternoon layover in an attractive part of downtown Chicago, I take the Lake Shore Limited to western Massachusetts. The trip is not short (particularly for a smoker; Amtrak trains are non-smoking) but it is stunning, and it takes me through a variety of landscapes and experiences that I could never enjoy from 35,000 feet.

Amtrak trains usually include a lounge and viewing car, dining car, and sleepers. The sleepers are expensive — and know that the smallest compartment is approximately phone booth-sized — but it’s worth it if you have the cash. It’s also worth it to take a trip even if you don’t. My own journey takes me through New Mexico, eastern Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa (very briefly — hello, Fort Madison!), and Illinois – and that’s just the first half. I see the high desert, western plains, corn country, and peeks into the back streets of small, unknown towns. It is intoxicating. It is inspiring. And it feels worth every minute of a not very fast trip. (Have you heard of Harvey Houses? And did you know there was an especially fine one in Las Vegas, New Mexico? Or even that there is a Las Vegas, New Mexico?)

I am sitting at home tonight in far southern New Mexico, in the Chihuahuan Desert, enjoying a very rare springtime rain. I can hear the mournful but ultimately seductive siren call of the whistle as a train trundles through town. I wish I were on board that train right now, setting off on an adventure, not caring what the destination is, because getting there is so, so fine.

And so began a new learning experience.  I’d just finished writing a blog for another website.  It concerned noted ethnobiologist, Paul Nabhan’s lecture here recently about a future plagued by food security.  Nabhan mentioned that “There have been food riots in 32 countries in the last year.”  We are using food banks like these ministries and food stamps at levels never seen before.

Tampa Bay has “Somebody Cares” feeding families.  “Hunger Strike Force” is a program designed to bring thousands of pounds of food into our area to feed the hungry.  Their numbers equal feeding a mnimum of 25,000 people per month or 270,000 yearly.  The Angel Food Ministries are everywhere, and Calvary Chapel, St. Pete is collaborating with them to provide relief to the community.  Some of these ministries provide boxes of food to low income families for 50% of the retail price.  Others, provide the low price to those voluteers who donate their time to help.  There is a monthly “menu” and the menu may include three or more choices of food contents.

The Faith Outreach Center, Food Pantry Ministry in Tampa distributes food to hungry families on a weekly basis, and are now looking for funding to purchase a house in the Town and Contry area to establish a Homeless Outreach Center to provide food, clothing and showers.

Cornerstone Family Ministries is located in Tampa, and SHARE Florida Food Network is part of the group.  Volunteers here can buy discount food packages.

In a time of escalating food prices and job losses the need is greater than ever.  Ministeries are seeing people who have never had to ask for help, showing up on their doorstep needing help.  We should give our help as well.

Over 1,000,000,000 people in 1,000 various locations will take part in the largest voluntary power down in history.  The goal is to draw attention and demand action on climate change by people turning off their lights (no matter where they live) from 8:30-9:30 PM.  Abercrombie & Kent is the leader in getting the travel industry and others behind Earth hour.

Kent stated: “The fact that we are starting to see the impact of climate change in places like Antarctica and Mt. Kilimanjaro inspired us to take action.  Kent’s company has also encouraged leading hotel chains to turn off lights in their properties and restaurants.

In East and South Africa many lodges and safari camps are holding stargazing parties to celebrate the dark skies and turn off their generators.  Ships Sun Boat III and Sun Boat IV on the Nile are also turning off their generators and operating on emergency power during that time.  Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy has identified projects on all seven continents to help offset climate change impact.  Register support for Earth Hour at www.abercrombiekent.com/press/index/com.  For more information check www.abercrombiekent.com.

Speak your mind on the use of carcinogenic, global warming carbon fuels, nuclear energy and light pollution.

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.

Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

http://www.earthhour.org/home/

The author indicated that, in our present “period of comparative poverty and economic decline” we should develop a sensitive behavior.  You won’t find it mentioned in Emily Post, and I checked my 1959 Amy Vanderbilt’s “A Guide to Gracious Living” – not there.  The recommended read is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby.

Greed, excess, a comment like Marie-Antoinett’s when she found that the people had no bread to eat, and suggested they “eat cake” will still get you beheaded in one way or another.  Korda’s recommendations:

a) Don’t brag about your brilliant financial decisions.  b)  Don’t groan and weep in public.  c) Don’t joke about money…never forget it’s what we use to pay bills and buy groceries.  d)  Take the gloom and doom attitude elsewhere.  e) Don’t say, “How’s work?”  The person could be unemployed.  f)If you want to  talk about 401(k)s, raises or bonuses do, all by yourself in a locked room.  g)  The funny stories about smart people doing stupid things when they think the banks are failing – forget it.  h) Unless you have a great plan, don’t gather the family around for a recession talk.  i)  Remember, hardly anyone tells the truth about money now, before or after.  j)  Face reality on your own financial status.  k)  If you’ve still go it, don’t flaunt it.

It all comes down to being thoughtful of one another.

Facing an 8% unemployment factor, those of us who are no longer “kids” realize that we have to upgrade our skills.  Sue Ann’s group of 17 included business owners as well as people who worked for them.  There was someone in the group who, after 30 years with a company, had just been handed a severance package.

Wizard Academy has only one campus.  Many of their seminars/courses are sold out (website is www.wizardacademy.com), and if you check their site you’ll find that they develop new curriculums based on new ideas and technology.  As a result of their research being ongoing, they are visited by many of the world’s trailblazers and pioneers in thinking.

They teach you how to make the right decision before all the data’s available, and they point out that the big fish are no longer eating the little fish.  The fast fish are eating the slow.  You learn how to be a fast fish.

People are attracted to Wizard because they, too, want to make education become “a practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world” – Paulo Freire.

Sue Ann’s days were long, but didn’t seem so.  I understand the thirst for advanced thinking mixed in with a heady sauce of ever growing technology.  Let’s hope that there is a Wizard to expand our future horizon.

One of my British cousins is a well educated and travelled woman who could have been the center of such a salon (gathering).  The Salon first appeared in France in 1664, and became an important place for an exchange of ideas.  There were rules of etiquette and subjects focused on “enlightened public opinion” with an exchange of news and ideas.  And in New York City there was the “Round Table” at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919-1929 where great minds of the era such as Edna Ferber, Heywood Brown, Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley to name a few, would meet for lunch daily and established their own “Salon”.

For me, it is pure  joy to have friends around me with whom I can converse and from whom I can learn, expand my horizons and give my brain a good workout!  Recently, we discussed politics in depth and agreed that things are not what they seem, and strings are being pulled to make puppets dance to a rather off-beat tune.

At a party my cousin led a discussion centered around ancient beliefs and religious concepts which have both positively and negatively affected our present day perceptions.  Obviously, through the evolution of time, this happens as it must due to outside actions and reactions.  It was extraordinary food for thought and the individual observations, albeit not always revolutionary, could have been the basis of a book.

Have we, in our mad dash to “green” everything, race to Mars and create a “Brave, New World” lost the ability to talk with each other, and the ability to listen and hear a better solution or a wiser path?

On the web you’ll find hundreds of sites selling “the rewards of (a better) education” whether it’s virtual reality guiding you through a foreign country, a diploma mill, monetary rewards for learning about new hotels, or updates on vacation destinations plus severa

l pages of information with a test at the end where you “submit” with a press of a computer button.

The most precious knowledge I’ve gained comes from being priviledged, as a child, to sit quietly and listen to brilliant adults discussing meaningful events and situations. I emerged as a woman to see the world, far and wide, equipped with this knowledge and able to make my own decisions, always being drawn to the salon discussions and realizing how little I know, and how much I still have to learn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_%28gathering%29

Born in Russia, Spektor’s playful use of language, music and video is like Lori Anderson with occasional odd sounds and intentional grating feelings but mixed in with a sweet ranging vocal essence that is compared to Tori Amos and Fiona Apple and the lyrical work of Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco and Bjork.  But comparisons are better made in one’s own head, so cruise on over to reginaspektor.com and enjoy a few minutes of respite from the crazy world – in the crazy offworld of Regina.

Right away you will become enshrined with her – “they made a statue of us, our noses have begun to rust. They’ll name a city after us, and later say it’s all our fault. Then they’ll give us a talking to!” Rummaging for answers in the pages, Spektor warns we are “living in a den of theives and it’s contageous!”

Wikipedia reports “Spektor learned how to play piano by practicing on a Petrof upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine, during the period of Perestroika,

“Now tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs for fun, for fun”

Spektor has said that she works hard to ensure that each of her songs has its own musical style, rather than trying to develop a distinctive style for her music as a whole.  Surely “Poor Little Rich Boy” goes along with “Better” but the latter sounds fit for a post-party dance floor and the former fitter for a rap-poetry open mike.

Her features favor the camera as well.  Heavily drooping eyelushes, naked of shadow surmount full lips that shape “lovesongs just to break my fall.”

See the spektacle for yourself at ReginaSpektor.com

We really should ask for some of all of this “bailout” money to go to the working folks who need good, sustainable jobs.

Athough it may never actually be funded by the administration that passed the law, the Green Jobs Act of 2008 could provide millions of dollars for traning American workers to get green jobs.  Listen to this one minute MP3 report about Green Jobs by Dewey Davis-Thompson.

RELATED LINKS Jim Hightower Archives

Swim Against the Current by Jim Hightower and swim against the current WITH Jim Hightower. His new book shows one how to live outside the norm, and reveals that so many of us do live outside the norm that it changes what normal is. With acerbic Texan wit, Hightower Reports daily topping the pundit list on the left.

Wiki says of him, “born in Denison, Texas, Hightower came from a working class background. He worked his way through college as assistant general manager of the Denton Chamber of Commerce and later landed a spot as a management trainee for the State Department. He received a bachelor of arts in government from the University of North Texas in Denton, where he served as student body president. He later did graduate work at Columbia University in New York City in international affairs.”

In the late 1960s, he worked in Washington, D.C., as legislative aide to Senator Ralph Yarborough. After managing the presidential campaign of populist former Senator Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma in 1976, he returned to Texas to become the editor of the magazine The Texas Observer. His first run for office was for the Democratic nomination for the Texas Railroad Commission (which regulates the oil industry), which he narrowly lost. Hightower was elected Agricultural Commissioner in 1982, serving in that capacity until 1991. His tenure was noted for fostering organic production, alternative crops, direct marketing by small farmers, strong pesticide regulations, and other programs. During that time, he also became a leading national spokesman for populist and progressive Democrats. He was defeated in 1990 by Republican Rick Perry, later governor and client of the political consultant and manager Karl Rove.

So you see he has been around the block and back the other way. His popular Hightower Report runs daily on local radio community radio WMNF in Tampa Bay. His upbeat banter kicks politicians in the pants and tears holes in the rumps of raw deals for the working man. You can listen live at wmnf.org and hear the DJs do a riff on his spin … or is the other way around? Of course, his own site JimHightwower.com features the daily radio rants, along with news about his new book “Swim Against the Current.”

According to his own site Hightower is “the country’s #1 populist,” and he has picked up some useful advice over the years, from “never eat at a cafe featuring ‘bargain kebobs’” to “never hit a man with glasses; hit him with something much heavier.” He and Susan DeMarco have explored grassroots America, where they found “more serious words of wisdom…namely: question authority, trust your values, seek alternatives, break away, stand up for your beliefs, and swim against the current!”

“Their book introduces readers to people across the country who have actually done this-people in business, politics, health care, farming, religion, and other areas who are taking charge, living their values, doing good, and doing well. Hightower and DeMarco show how they are doing precisely what the elites want us to believe can’t be done: changing their lives and making a difference. He tells the stories of these people and offers inspiration and information that will help readers tap into their own maverick potential in order to navigate a different, more satisfying course of their own.”

“Whether they are young and just starting out or older and searching for a different path, the commonsense folks in this book have escaped the corporate tentacles to find their own way toward a richer life and a better American future. They are creating a new, deeply democratic model for the country, edging it back onto the long road toward egalitarianism and the common good.”

Cantankerous and ready to trash any pandering politician or funny smelling policy, Jim Hightower’s opinion and point of view reveal that revolution is really nothing new.

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