JoeAm’s secret "can’t hide no more" social microscope

Enough feel-good. We can’t allow complacency to roar its lazy yawn. Let’s get scientific . . . I’m feeding my own fires these days, as the rest of the nation is consumed with the Corona impeachment trial, getting squeezed between China and the U.S. (“What’s a Filipino sandwich?”), and fretting about the growth rate of … Continue reading

Getting Real with a Grain of Salt

Enough, Joseph America. Stop ragging on a culture you do not own, like a guest who drinks most of the wine or scarfs up all the guacamole dip or pisses in the fountain. By the way, avocados in California, USA, are very different than the sweetish flat-tasting pasty ones here. They are smaller and firmer … Continue reading

That Ugly Albatross

I’m fascinated with the power of the human brain, and its limits. Jerry Lucas, former New York Knickerbockers basketball forward, was a memory expert. He memorized the entire New York telephone directory, all of the names, addresses and numbers, to prove a point. Our cranial capacity goes largely unused. It is like the whole of … Continue reading

The Philippines: Cowboys and Indians Ride Again

In penning my last blog, my brain stumbled across a great visual. I said something like: “The Philippines is a lawless land. Those with power are cowboys and those without power are Indians”. Striving for example, I said the Indians were the victims of massacres and the bodies floating down the Cagayan de Oro river … Continue reading

Here Comes de Judge

“Here come de Judge!” That is a line from an old American comedy, offered up by this black kid played by . . . um, who? I forget. I can’t even remember who played the Judge. My God, age is stupefying. “Here comes de judge” was also the name of my jeep in Viet Nam, … Continue reading