It's in his "Important File" - Onward Compass - Soy Cuba

A serious flaw with the Google Blogposts is you can't italize words in your headline. Can this be true? Or is it simply one of the serious flaws of Ruth Z Deming?

Altho I didn't hold baby Grace last nite when I went to visit, I got to sit next to her and look all I wanted.

I stayed over to watch HBO's Boardwalk Empire which I loved! I only have the el cheapo package of Comcast which, as it is, costs a ridiculous $77 (including Internet coverage) and all I watch are PBS and Turner Classic Films. $77 a month. Don't we love monopolies?

When I was driving this morning I pondered a NY Times headline that said, Many unemployed people over 50 years old fear they will never work again. I was so sad after reading that. Fifty years old and they can't get a job. Of course, they can always work 3 to 4 menial jobs to pay their $1,200/month mortgage and send their kids to college.

I loved the woman's comment to Obama about how disappointed she was in his getting America back to work. He needs to hear this over and over again from we, the people!

When I heard he was here in Philly, I felt excited, until I learned he was only here to promote Democratic candidates. He should be here pumping hope into all of us that he's working hard for the common good for the common man.

Chant in unison: We want work! We want work!

Revolution anyone? We thought we'd created one when we elected Him.

My childhood friend Nancy Wolen sent this photo of a papier-mache mask she created. I told her I LOVE IT and will use it in the Compass.

Worked 6 hours on the magazine today, editing mostly one story. I called the author every 20 minutes to clarify things. I titled the story something like The Life and Times of a Tamed Druggie and Thrillseeker.


Baby, it's cold outside. I love the sensual feeling of the heat rising from the floorboards and embracing me like a mysterious lover.

I am Cuba, (Soy Cuba) my new favorite movie. The music on this YouTube video was not part of the original '64 film which featured authentic Cuban music which neither the reign of Batista or Castro could quell.

Imagine my surprise when I put on this DVD and found it to be a masterpiece of storytelling and supreme visual beauty. Made in 1964, it tells of the life of the privileged few before Castro, while showing the squalor of poverty, and the triumph of the Revolution.

The movie was a joint production of Cuba and the Soviet Union who sent their most famous moviemaker Mikhail Kalatzov (1903-73) to direct the film. The famous Soviet poet Yeveny Yevtashenko (or something like that) wrote the screenplay. It failed miserably but was re-discovered in the 1990s by Martin Scorsese and FF Coppola, thank you very much! Read more.

Let's see. I followed up with my letter to the Prez of Abington Memorial Hospital by calling his office today. Spoke to his sec'y Nancy who remembered seeing my letter which reached him this a.m. I'd put my Guest Column article in first, so it would hit him in the face.

She said he put it in his "important file." Not to be confused with the circular file.

My important file is on my kitchen table, the chair next to my desk, and on the floor next to my desk.

I just love seeing people's offices. One year I thot of making up a Compass calendar. Each month would be the office of someone important. What kind of TOKENS dyou have in your office as good luck items or things that make you happy?

When I used to visit my psychology mentor, Fabian Ulitsky, at his home, I'd gaze in wonderment, as only a starcrossed mentee can, at all the books in his study and the reminders of a conference he organized with Irv Yalom, the father of group psychotherapy.

That taught me the importance of the ritual of visual tokens.



My sister Lynn bought me a jar of Tavenor's Fruit Drops to remind me of my father. I keep pens in it on my desk.

I don't keep photos on my desk cuz they remind me of passing time and the inevitability of death. When my son was a teenager, he had a big black coffin in his bedroom, a prop from a play he was in. It stood upright and he used it as a bookshelf.