calvisson-leblon

Really, at my age I did not need this additional aggravation.   The clock is already in full countdown and this self-isolation is precious time wasted.   Since mid-March, our freedom to go as we please has been curtailed for our own good.   The worse part is that it is an open-ended situation and we may be locked down for months on end.   Not to be able to make up for lost time is very frustrating.   Time passes by, I work out in the morning, read, watch opera, visit virtual museums, write to friends but do nothing really concrete.   I particularly miss my routine of going to the movies and restaurants, and making travel plans.   The Russian roulette health aspect of the pandemic is stressful enough, but being unable to plan ahead is disheartening. Not only, has Brazil not been spared but we are totally kept in the dark.   Many people, sick with the virus are certainly under the radar.   Three of our reception staff are sick at ho...

I am totally incapable of putting pen on paper during this stressful coronavirus lockdown. I wish I had 0,0001 % of the imagination of the Bard who supposedly wrote some of his best works in quarantine.   In the early 17 th century, the bubonic plague was raging in London, and the theaters were in lockdown.   During his self-isolation, William Shakespeare had time on his hands to write the dark drama King Lear , and for good measure Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatra.   Twenty years later, Flemish painter Antoon Van Dyke was marooned in plague-stricken Palermo, Sicily and painted the allegoric Saint Rosalie interceding for the disease.   Do you recall any other pandemic-linked works of art?   Being part of the categorized “vulnerable population”, ten days ago, I started a self-imposed confinement in my small flat in Rio.   Covid-19 has drained my senior citizen energy, and instead of writing a blog, I would like to know what you are doing to figh...

Visiting Vald é s has been at the top of my bucket list.   Since 2017 I have been going down this list visiting as many places as possible.   Vald é s Peninsula cannot be missed on the map of Patagonia: it sticks out like a mushroom in the Atlantic Ocean.   The peninsula is semi-arid, flat with salt flats and no rivers.   It is linked to the mainland by a narrow isthmus which separates two calm gulfs, Golfo Nuevo on the south and the smaller Golfo San Jos é on the north.   The isthmus is the gateway to the nature reserve, an UNESCO World Heritage site.   This spectacular place with its rugged coastlines is for lovers of marine mammals. The Vald é s Peninsula is a refuge for lovers as marine mammals congregate there to have sex.   Vald é s also plays the role of a maternity ward and a kindergarten.  The peninsula is the meeting point of big marine mammals like Southern Right whales, orcas/killer whales, dolphins, elephant seals, sea lions,...

At the outset, let’s focus on shelf-life.   I am not writing about a fresh-baked French baguette carried under an armpit, but about the lot of actresses on both sides of the Atlantic.   Male actors have no expiry dates as exposed by the 2020 Academy Awards nominations.   Four of the ten nominated actors are septuagenarians.   On the other hand, the oldest female nominee is 72-year-old Kathy Bates in the best supporting actress category.   As a result, the median age difference between men and women nominees is a whopping 21 years!   At the Oscars, age bias has been a constant [1] , but in this period of Time’s Up , 21 years seem to be a provocation.   If the male actor geriatric club is alive and kicking, leading roles for actresses over 70 are few and far between.   Only Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren and Catherine Deneuve get a chance. Last week, on friends’ recommendations, I went to see the film Judy .   As the name indicates, it is a...

Although Cyprus is a popular tourist destination, it is not your typical pleasure island.   Its claim to fame is not limited to sandy beaches and golden visas for rich investors.   Four important features have attracted my attention: Cyprus is the birth place of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love; within an 800 year-period the island was twice colonized by English rulers; it is the only European country divided and illegally occupied by a NATO Member state; and Cypriots have befriended cats longer than any other people, beginning some 9,500 years ago.                                                                        9,500 years cat skeleton Aphrodite, also known as Venus, whose Latin name symbolizes love, sex, beauty and fertility as well as prostitution.   Legend has it tha...

I was in Manhattan during the Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday period.   I enjoyed Thanksgiving, took a limited advantage of Black Friday and avoided Cyber Monday all together.   Although, many shoppers stayed home to shop online, the city was more gridlocked than usual!   The streets were jammed by thousands of double-parked parcel delivery trucks, and building lobbies looked like warehouses!   In the United States, an estimated 2.45 billion E-commerce parcels were delivered over this period last year [1] .   By riding the subway, I survived the street congestion, the rain and the sleet.   My Thanksgiving was an intergenerational family feast.   Thanksgiving is the second oldest American celebration, after Independence Day on July 4 th .   It was observed even before President Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday.   My friends cooked a traditional meal with a juicy roasted turkey, and seasonal vegetables, sweet pota...

November, 2019. If Portugal ranks as the 4 th most peaceful country in the world (my previous blog), Bolivia must rank at the bottom of the list.   On the other hand, the country is a leader in violent military coups, or golpes are they are known in Latin America.   Golpes in Bolivia are rather straightforward, case book scenarios whereby an existing government, democratic or not, is overthrown by non-democratic forces, such as a military putsch , a dictator or a political faction.   This time around, Bolivia over did it: two golpes took place consecutively.   By tinkering with the Constitution and then rigging the ballot box, Evo Morales, the president, resorted to a political golpe to stay in power.   Street protests and bloodshed followed.   With the objective of restoring order, the military forced Morales to resign, an ultimatum which looks like a military golpe.   Morales fled into exile in Mexico.         ...