Povey Prattle

I am that immigrant, first a Green Card holder, and later a Citizen.  The United States has been good for me, and to me. I am a Christian. Now I worry for my fellow immigrants (who are legally here, with Green Cards or as Naturalised Citizens) and who are Muslims. The apparently "off the cuff" Executive Order  regarding immigrants from certain Muslim majority countries is creating ghastly ramifications, as identified by *  Many leaders of "high/tech/silicon valley" Companies know this. * A former British Foreign Secretary who said (wisely) "you do not make immigration policy out of campaign slogans". * A former U.S, Ambassador to both Mexico and Iraq (he served under George W. Bush [R], who laments that we are breaking solemn promises we made to those Iraqis who worked for and with the U.S.A. * My personal friends who are (1) Immigrants, (2) Citizens and (3) American Muslims, in particular the Asghar family:. Dear Asghar Family, I a...

........   that I could have a good night of sleep. I am not talking about the hours, I am talking about the quality of sleep. FOR EXAMPLE I took to my bed at about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday 25th Jan.  I awoke at 5:45 .a.m. this morning Jan 26th. Sounds good eh? But those hours were so restless. 1. My limbs have a mind of their own. I do not simply have restless leg syndrome. Both arms and both legs "jerk" like crazy, such jerking wakes me up. 2.  I call out (nay yell) in my sleep.   Those yells wake me up. Some of the yells are complete sentences.    Some are all but incoherent words. 3.  I laugh out loud in my sleep, and such laughing awakens me. 4. I worry in my sleep ( or in my restless waking periods).   For instance  last night I spent semi-somnolent times all worried because I could nor mentally locate three streets in the Bedminster area of my home City of Bristol, U.K.   Where, I kept wondering, are Parson St., P...

I've had two 'phone calls from old friends in the space of four days. First was Joe R.  -  I have known him since 1980. Then there was Joe S. -  I met him in 1984. They are very dear friends,but we do not chat often enough. It was such a boost to my morale and spirits to hear from both Joes in recent days.  They called "just to keep up", i,e, just to sustain our friendships- separated as we are by many miles. I was heartened, and tickled pink to hear from these two buddies Joe R and Joe S. Do it will you!   Call an old friend, not with an agenda, but simply for the pleasure of hearing her/his voice. Pick up your 'phone.  Make that call!

If you are British and of my generation (born 1944) you may well remember being force fed with Tapioca pudding. We were served it at school lunches  (we called it "Frog's Eggs"), and our Mums made it.  (At least they allowed us to stir in a spoonful of jam to make it more palatable). We hated it! Last week, sixty or more years on, I found myself "longing" for Tapioca Pudding. I went shopping. Our local (SRQ) supermarkets used to carry a Kraft brand Instant Tapioca Pudding. .Not any more, unless I have been searching all the wrong aisles at Publix, Winn-Dixie and Walmart, ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I tried ready made puddings such as this but I have to say that they lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do not give up easily, so I took myself to a "healthy food" store in search of Tapioca,  It's a ...

They marched for all of us Women's marches took place today in at least 70 countries. The turn out in many American cities was phenomenally high. These women (and men) were marching for all of us .  Their message was positive, important and utterly necessary. They were Jewish, Muslim, and Christian women.  They were atheist and agnostic women.  They were black, brown and white. women. They were young and old, straight and gay women. They were Republicans and Democrats. They were "none of the above". Their uniting message was utterly congruent with words from the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer:- it was "to respect the dignity of every human being".   Thus they marched for all of us. Insofar as these marches were a protest against THE CHILD , it is because in his campaign, and now in the early days of his Presidency, he has miserably failed to respect the dignity of many human beings. The opposite is the case.  His life and words h...