JUST BEFORE I GO...

This will be my last blog for awhile, as we are preparing to go to England for the summer. My British-born wife, an American citizen for many years, inherited in 1994, after the death of her parents, a small retirement house in The Meads, a former village now part of Eastbourne, E. Sussex, 17 miles east of Brighton, 70 miles south of London, on the English Channel. We leave Sunday, June 19 and will return September 11 ( no, I'm sure security will be at its max that day.). We're going to put the house up for sale this summer, and future visits will be shorter, and we should have no problems in the future finding short-term rental apartments.

All I can do is hope that somehow the economic malaise of today improves, but I don't see many signs that the polarized politics of today will improve enough for much good to be accomplished. The Republicans don't want to do anything to help the President, and their sole mantra is "Beat him Big in 2012". The Democrats aren't a helluva lot better in offering constructive programs (except to defend Medicare to the death), and even the President seems caught up in the quicksand of being the great compromiser and consensus builder. Where I'm going this summer, politically isn't any better---maybe worse as the austerity measures of the Conservative government have taken affect.

If the world is too much with you and you want a brief escape, go see "Midnight in Paris", the latest Woody Allen film starring Owen Wilson. It is not one of those Woody-being-neurotic-and-kvetching films. It is really an old-fashioned Romantic Comedy. The photography of Paris is like old post cards with every site in Paris shown, day and night, rain or shine. Woody's music, as he is jazz-oriented (like I am), is spot-on. Owen Wilson is also spot-on as a frustrated young American screenwriter who wants to write the great American novel. He is magically transported back to the twenties where he hobnobs with Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Picasso, Gertrude Stein and the great artistic circles of Paris of that era. The character acting is perfect. It is funny, tender and, best of all, entertaining. I've said enough: go see it and enjoy a break from our tense world.

I'll be back at you soon. Have a good summer.