Hello, sailor (all my lovin’)

February 14, 2013 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 29 Comments

Carnival Cruise Lines ought to be planting some big-ass Valentine’s Day smoocheroos on the 4,200 smelly suckers who thought they were taking the Love Boat to Cozumel but found themselves aboard a barely floating honey wagon being towed to Alabama.

Alas, the waters in which these buccaneers ply their trade are full of pinstriped sharks, heavy on teeth but lacking in the lip department.

Lawyers speaking with The New York Times say the ability of passengers to sue cruise-ship operators “is sharply limited,” and the location for any court action generally fixed in some shithole (Miami) favorable to piracy. “Shiver me timbers, matey, ye must file yeer complaint on Skull Island, arr.” Plus passengers are barred from collecting for emotional distress unless they are actually flogged, keelhauled or forced at cutlass point to walk the plank.

No gambling? No drinking? No showers? Sounds like a little trip to heaven.

Herself is on a little trip to Vegas, where they have all three of the aforementioned items plus “Love,” the Cirque du Soleil tribute to making money. I would insist on a functional toilet afterward, or perhaps during. But it was a girls’ outing and I wasn’t invited for some reason, so I’ll just have to make do with my memories of the Fab Four’s debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Was it really almost a half-century ago?

R.I.P., George McGovern

October 21, 2012 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 14 Comments

George McGovern was the first presidential candidate I ever pulled a lever for, and I’m still proud of having done so.

A B-24 pilot who flew dozens of missions in World War II and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, he knew something about war, and strove for peace. In a 2008 op-ed in The Washington Post he called for the impeachment of the war criminals Daffy and Fudd for their prosecution of the war in Iraq, and in his final book warned that America faces a critical moment in history.

From his obit in The New York Times:

“We are the party that believes we can’t let the strong kick aside the weak,” Mr. McGovern wrote. “Our party believes that poor children should be as well educated as those from wealthy families. We believe that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes and that everyone should have access to health care.”

With the country burdened economically, he added, there has “never been a more critical time in our nation’s history” to rely on those principles.

“We are at a crossroads,” he wrote, “over how the federal government in Washington and state legislatures and city councils across the land allocate their financial resources. Which fork we take will say a lot about Americans and our values.”

May he rest, finally, in peace.

The dog days

July 27, 2011 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 7 Comments

There was a smallish wake for Paulette in the neighborhood last night.

Our newest neighbors, Larry and Jill, popped round to tell us of it. They occupy a pivotal corner, the Block of Gibraltar, which overlooks a vast expanse of the ’hood, and being excellent people they are already hip-deep in the goings-on. So we stayed up a bit past our bedtime telling tall tales and sipping champagne in Paulette’s honor.

This morning we were a bit sluggish for some reason, and I skipped my daily ride in favor of a stroll around the neighborhood, which used to be Paulette’s job. She and Bob the chocolate Lab would patrol up and down, east and west, north and south, collecting valuable intelligence in the service of us all.

And a dog helps. Herself learned that today, while walking Buddy (yes, he has officially been christened). Folks notice a dog-walker, especially if they happen to be walking a dog themselves, and stop to chat.

What degree of a dog is that? We’ve not seen you before … oh, wait a minute, you’re the folks on the alley, next to Mike! We thought you were cat people. And you are? How on earth does everyone get along? And so on and so forth.

This has always been a close neighborhood, but it got a little bit closer yesterday. Why, I saw Democrats and Republicans drinking and joking together, and you just know that’s no bullshit, because I’m a professional journalist.

Home again, home again

January 11, 2011 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 6 Comments

Miss me? I drove to California for Theresa Coursey’s memorial service, and while it was swell to be among friends, people I hadn’t seen in a spell, a guy likes everyone to be present and accounted for, and we were one fine woman short.

Theresa’s service drew a standing-room-only crowd, the sort we’d all secretly like to have, but few of us deserve. Theresa had it coming. Her husband and their children all spoke, and if there was a dry eye in the house it was not one of mine.

Afterward we ate and drank, talked and took long walks, and after a few days together we all scattered, returning to our lives in Prescott, Philly, Tempe, New York, Colorado. But I’m still thinking of Theresa, wishing I’d spent more time around her, and I know I’m not alone.

Being present these days is not always easy, but it remains vital. In “Taking the Path of Zen,” the late Robert Aitken Roshi recounted the evening message of sesshin as given at Hawaii’s Diamond Sangha:

I beg to urge you, everyone:

Life-and-death is a grave matter,

all things pass quickly away;

each of us must be completely alert:

never neglectful, never indulgent.

That’s my evening message to you. In the morning, the comedy will resume.

Theresa Elizabeth Coursey, R.I.P.

January 1, 2011January 2, 2011 ~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

Theresa Elizabeth Coursey, Jan. 15, 1956-Dec. 31, 2010

Theresa Elizabeth Coursey didn’t get to see 2011. She finally lost her years-long battle with cancer on New Year’s Eve, after spending Christmas Day in the hospital, missing her 55th birthday by just a couple of weeks.

Her husband, Chris, an old friend, college roommate and colleague, brought her home to live out the remainder of her life surrounded by family. But she was not without friends in the hospital. A veteran nurse, Theresa was treated “like a rock star — the mentor around whom no one wants to make a mistake,” he said.

We all kept hoping that cancer would make a mistake, but mostly it doesn’t. Theresa was already a two-time breast-cancer survivor in 2008, when she rode The Breakaway Mile Ride in Santa Rosa as the Amgen Tour of California came to town.

But the disease sought out other targets of opportunity — first a lung, then her brain, and finally it held dominion everywhere. Though she battled it through round after round, enduring surgeries, radiation and chemo’, she was fighting outside her weight class, as are we all. That bell finally rings.

We wish peace and rest to Theresa, and continued courage and strength to Chris and their children, Diana, Andrew, Colleen and Alex.

• Late update: Theresa’s obit in The Press Democrat, her hometown paper.