List of Previous Titles

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Hugh Hefner, April 9, 1926 - September 27, 2017

Speaking facetiously, I would like to say I know what caused the death of Hugh Hefner, too much honey for one man to absorb, but the fact is that all that honey helped him to live a long, and oh so sweet life that is envied by men all around the world.

He is the one man who had undue influence on my own life, but not all of it was good. On his passing people are falling over one another to comment on the changes he brought to our lives and our attitudes, and without doubt he did a lot of good for the world of charitable causes and in challenging the law that moved us all out of the dark ages.

I bought a copy of the very first issue of Playboy Magazine that was released in 1953 with the image of Marilyn Monroe on the cover. I kept it for decades but I have only just come to release that Hef never met Monroe.  However, he adored her so that he has chosen to be her neighbour forever as he will lay in rest next to her.

I grew into becoming the image of "The Playboy Man" including taking up smoking because the Playboy Man smoked Kool cigarettes. What an idiot I was back then.

I became a devotee of Playboy Magazine, first for the centerfold and other pictures of naked women, but as time passed I became more interested in the features. I actually grew blasé over images of naked women because there is just so many ways in which we can slice cheese cake and still make it interesting.  It is because of this realisation that I wonder at what point did Hef become jaded. It is possible to have entirely too much of a good thing, even a very good thing.

Eventually I grew bored and turned my back. I am also happy to say that this year I celebrate the 52nd year since I gave up smoking.

Was the Playboy revolution a good thing and now that I am older and a whole lot wiser am I inclined to stand up and unequivocally defend Hugh Hefner and Playboy? No, not unequivocally. There was some good that came with the revolution, but in some things I genuinely believe that harm was caused.

The way we see sexual matters is highly subjective, of course. Before Playboy my view of women was, above all one of respect. Even today I see women as being different from men in that women are our  mothers and our children's mothers. Pre-playboy I saw a woman's body as something that was special and that belonged on a pedestal.

I felt that women required their absolute privacy and the idea of raping a woman was so horrid as to have been out of the question. Men have to accept that No means No, then as it does now. I never even uttered a four letter offensive word  in a woman's presence.

Sexual intercourse was something that was done under muted lights, if any lights were used at all. The mystery added to the enjoyment, and to the respect for the lady's modesty.

Playboy turned on all the lights, delighting and disappointing us males at the same time. We have been confused ever since. If the woman in our lives wears a negligée when she wants to share her naked image with us that is so much more interesting than simply showing up naked. Consequently that image will live so much longer and so will our desire for her.

Playboy practically showed us what a girl had for breakfast and that was just too much information. Now the magazine has changed to a format that focusses on its literary content. I believe it no longer features nudes. How's that for a change? Is this because the adult readership have all become jaded and bored?

Hef married three times, which is a surprise when he need not have married at all. However that allowed him to father four offspring and to experience some normality in his otherwise amazing life.
When he died he left a wife who is 60 years younger than he. Somehow that seems fitting although my condolences go out to her.

He was one of a kind and he has left his mark for all time.  He let the Genie out of the bottle and we cannot put the Genie back.

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, September 24, 2017

The Music of the Night



There is nothing quite like a musical night in the cool of the evening. No matter what your musical preference, to leave the worries of the day behind and to take your leisure being entertained by your choice of musical programme, is magic.

On Saturday night, September 23rd, starting at 11pm the City of LLiria was treated to a double concert performed by two bands consisting of about 85 musicians each, presenting programmes of classical music that went on to about 3:30 am. The Bands were: La Banda Simfonica Unio Musical de LLiria, and La Ateneu Musical I D' Ensenyament Banda Primitiva De LLiria. The names of the bands are expressed in the native Valenciano dialect.

LLiria is a medium sized city that lies 26 kilometres north-west of downtown Valencia and is the seat of the government for the region. It is also the city of music as this city's bands have performed in many localities around the world to great acclaim. Every pueblo has a musical program in place into which young children are entered as a way of giving them focus as they grow. The net result is more to concentrate on means less social problems from young people.

The concert was held outside in the main City Hall (Ayuntamiento) plaza. The mere fact that it did not end until near 4am, is accepted as being perfectly OK as the city is celebrating its Autumn Festival, the Festival of St. Miguel and everybody is up and about anyway.

The musical pieces that are played tend not to be well known, rather more often than not they are written by local composers and are complex as to tax the expertise of band members. The conductor of the orchestra  Simfonica is Pablo Marqués Mestre. He was born in Castellon and has built up such a brilliant career history that he is known and respected all over Spain. He is growing his international experience as well.

The execution of the works was exquisite but challenging and we thoroughly enjoyed both the pieces. In the first half of the concert, presented by the Banda Simfonica there were two major works as follows: La Vall de la Murta in three movements, composed by Andrés Valero-Castells, followed by "Wait of the World" in three movements composed by Stephen Melillo. Both composers were in attendance for the performance of their compositions. That must be so very special, if all goes well.

The first half of the concert concluded close to 1am, but by then the temperature had fallen and it had become too damp for what we were wearing so we had to decamp home. A shame really as I'm sure the second half featuring La Banda Primitiva would have been just as interesting.

Life in Spain truly is absorbing. When the Spanish hold a Fiesta they really know how to do it right.

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael

Saturday, September 16, 2017

BERMUDA is not BARBUDA



They were tumultuous times in the early days of what we now know as our world. What we now know as deserts were once under water, and mountains were likewise under water. The Americas and Europe/Africa were once connected before the plates split and drifted apart. Volcanoes, tornadoes and incredible storms raged leading to tremendous fires as weather went through cycles.

What's to say that has all permanently ended?

Believe it or not our weather is entering a period of global warming and one effect is that hurricanes are growing more intense in their strength. The norm was for hurricanes in the Atlantic to make up off Africa and to drift across until they met high pressure systems coming off the east coast of America. That would then turn them to the east whereupon they would then start a northward trek into colder waters.

Now, they are so strong because of warmer waters that when they encounter the high pressure system they smash right through and go inland into Mexico and the southern region of New Orleans and Texas and they plough into the middle of America where people are learning what it means to have to cope.

I was born in Bermuda where I came to be only too familiar with the experience of having no place to hide. We simply had to build our homes super well to cope, but even then Mother Nature does not  respect man's mere efforts to stand up to the Awesome Power. When a powerful storm is still in its infancy thousands of miles away from Bermuda the waters around our island start to change. The colour of the water changes from clear to muddled and we get long breakers in the way of waves.

Our stress begins at that stage as we go into acute hurricane watch mode. They always made that right turn when they came face to face with America so they were bound to pass us on the way to blowing themselves out; the only question was whether we, as such a small land mass would take a hit or not.

Before mankind got in the way hurricanes would blow and blow, changing the landscape as they crossed the land; and equally fires did the same thing, often bringing a great benefit to all in their path by burning away clutter and promoting growth at the same time. It's only with the coming of man where we build so much for fire and windstorm, including floods to destroy that we have carefully created that we think the worst.

These natural weather elements continue to bring renewal and growth even to those man-made structures that get knocked down, but re-built in a better manner. We are shown the awful damage left in the wake of  passing storms but this normally means employment.

When we see people looting under such circumstances it could really be survival. All it takes is for one person to enter a store and help himself and others will do it as well. I have never had to do that, and if I ever do I would like to think I would make a careful note of what I took so that I could go to the owner and pay for it.

With the passing of the most powerful hurricane ever recorded, hurricane Irma the island of Barbuda has been totally wiped off the map. It is currently uninhabitable. At the time the hurricane struck there were about 1700 people there, but now, for the first time in 300 years there is not a single person living there. All the residents were evacuated to Antigua which is located south as they were expecting the arrival of yet another hurricane, Hurricane Jose.

As the media reported this news most people in North America heard the word Barbuda, but what they digested was Bermuda. There are 60,000 people living on Bermuda. The sad thing is that with the current model hurricane it is possible that Bermuda could likewise get wiped out. There would be no mistaking that as the tragedy would capture everybody's attention.

Every Bermudian wherever we are in the world will empathise with the people of Barbuda and our hearts and prayers go out for them as we remember them in their hour of need.

For everybody else we are faced with a new threat that makes terrorism seem like a Sunday picnic. When nature comes to call in the future we need to take the visitor extremely serious indeed.

There is no other power like the power of Nature, for Nature is God!

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael

Saturday, September 9, 2017

To have been shot at and missed-twice!



Winston Churchill said that, "Nothing in life is  so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." He certainly is right about that, and in my case I add, the word, "Twice!"

For those of us who have a traumatising hospital experience which turns out to be positive, as Jeremy Clarkson says, that's all we want to talk about. I have had my post-op discussion with my surgeon, including the final report from the lab in which the results were given from the full examination of the tissue that was removed and it was confirmed that there is no cancer. Good news in the morning!

I have the All-Clear, I have been completely cured of my ills and now life goes on better than before. The reason I said that I have missed the bullet twice is because there is no cancer, which is amazing, and more pressing I have avoided death through sepsis because I was having difficulty in getting rid of body waste.

In case you didn't read my previous post on what brought me into the hospital I give a brief description below.

Needless to say I am a happy and very lucky man today, but Nature has a way of bringing balance to any situation. As I absorb my own good news I turn on the television to be assaulted by wave after wave of solid bad news from around the world. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, persecutions, terrorists attacks and one sick bastard trying his best to start World War Three. Pardon me if you will for taking my fifteen minutes of joy. I certainly recommend to anyone else who has cause for celebration to enjoy the moment because it will be fleeting.

What a world we are now living in where seemingly everything is topsy-turvy. There was a time when you could do something as simple as to go to the market to buy food. Now, in so many places around the world there is not even a reasonable chance that you will return home. Even in the Western world just walking along the road could be the last thing that you do.

People cry out why does God allow these things to happen. God has given mankind the power of reason and the freedom of choice. Other than that God does not intervene in the affairs of humans any more than God intervenes in the affairs of animals, so it is up to us as humans to create the kind of world we think we want.

Having said that, good luck to us all!

The Back Story:

Our bodies are constantly subject to attack from the silent killers such as tumours, heart disease, cancer, constriction of our arteries, etc. For the past five years I had been growing a cluster of eleven polyps in my colon which had grown to a point of causing an obstruction. Because I am about to celebrate my 78th birthday I simply assumed I was having an old person's problem, which I was, but I didn't realise that there was a blockage. I only discovered this because of the presence of a strange pain which acted as though I was having a conversation with God who was warning me that something was going on within my body and my challenge, if I chose to accept it was to find the problem and fix it promptly.

It worked! As for another reason for the pain, none was found.

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael

Saturday, September 2, 2017

A Country in Mourning



When your houseguest misbehaves



Spain is a country that is livid with rage. On the 11th of March, 2004 terrorists attacked early morning trains pulling into Atocha station, the principal train terminal in Madrid and set off several bombs that killed and maimed hundreds. Many of the attackers were living in Spain but they were of Moroccan origin.

The victims of that attack were mainly Spanish people on their way to work. At first it was thought that the horror was the work of the Basque group ETA that had been locked in a political struggle with the rest of Spain over many years. During that time they had engaged in a program of bombings and mayhem in an effort to get their way. On closer inspection it turned out to be the work of an all-foreign group of Islamist terrorists.

Spain took its licks, mourned its losses, and was remarkably sanguine about the whole thing, presuming it was the one-off, ill-advised work of some young hotheads and would never be repeated, certainly not by those who take the country’s hospitality for granted.

Well, it has been many years later but it has happened again and the damage and the loss of life is just too much for the country to digest, especially coming as it did from foreigners who were living here and possibly even receiving benefits. This country is seething! For the first time ordinary Moslems living here have come forward to denounce the attacks as having nothing to do with them, and for which they are angry and ashamed for their religion. This is a significant step as the rank and file of Islam have always been under a heavy threat that if they denounce the actions of the extreme group they can expect severe retributions.

There is mounting evidence that this particular cell was intending to do major harm such as destroying the Holy Sagrada Familia church, that is a work in progress and one of Spain’s most treasured icons,  together with the masses of people therein, and other beloved landmarks. As it was they have affected people from 34 countries.

There have been demonstrations all over the country and security measures have been stepped up to prevent more obscenities by drivers simply driving into masses of people.

This is Saturday night, the 26th August, 2017 and a mass demonstration is taking place in the streets of Barcelona led by the King of Spain. How significant is that? We shall just have to wait and see what comes next but it is fairly clear that life as normal will not be it. The line has been crossed and as a country we will not be taking this type of treatment anymore. There was a time when Spain would have simply rounded up all Moslems living here and thrown them out of the country, but as part of the European Union it cannot do that, but the European Union can.

Stay tuned!

Copyright © 2017

Eugene Carmichael