Real and Unreal in America

Posted on September 5, 2008 by jkmahal

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/SMGijjG_qkI/AAAAAAAAAGM/UjbJgnR8tsM/s1600-h/532762668_99c8ae12a4.jpg”img style=”margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/SMGijjG_qkI/AAAAAAAAAGM/UjbJgnR8tsM/s200/532762668_99c8ae12a4.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242650172839668290″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:180%;”I/spant’s been a long while since I’ve blogged or been part of the blogging community, but it’s time again to take up the pen (or computer as the case may be). So, I’m back.br /br /As I sit here typing, there’s an interview on my television screen with Ann Coulter, the conservative pundit. She is emphasizing over and over again how the Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, is a real American. That word, breal/b, has been punted around a great deal in the last two days. I heard it more than once in during the Republican National Convention.br /br /Which made me wonder, if Sarah Palin is a breal/b American because she shoots and dresses wild game, has been on a PTA, grew up in a small town and has five children, does that make me an bunreal/b American because I share none of those experiences?br /br /Am I unreal because I went to college on scholarship, made honor roll, paid my student loans off in 10 years, grew up in many large towns whose populations individually are larger than the state of Alaska, worked my way up the salary chain over many years and got married at 32? Am I unreal because I have a mother I love in a nursing home, used birth control until my husband and I decided to have a child, am biracial, have worked at a fast food restaurant and a movie theater in high school and started my career in journalism by answering complaint calls on the circulation desk?br /br /I’ve never shot a gun, have no idea how to dress a moose and am expecting my first child. Though 140 men were wikipedia reference viagra 25 mg first tested, 30 were eliminated because of health reasons and because they were not able to have a baby. It stimulates nucleic news cialis australia and protein metabolism to boost energy naturally in your body. Applying buy viagra shop a pack of crushed leaves of this herb once in a week help to prevent these infections. Some of them http://bananaleaf.com.ph/levitra8833.html online viagra mastercard are obvious- It does not involve open surgery or hormonal changes. Does that make me somehow less real? Would it make me more real if I said I’m a farmer’s daughter who knows how to gut a fish and can change a diaper as easily as a bed pan? All of which is true.br /br /I have grandparents who did military service. My Indian grandfather, a career man in the Indian Army, fought for the Allied forces in Burma in World War II. My American-German one served in the Navy between World War I and II. I have photos of him in uniform.br /br /Do they make me more real?br /br /Who gets to decide what a real American is?br /br /span style=”font-size:85%;”Photo courtesy of a href=”http://flickr.com/photos/8533266@N04/”BostonBill/a./span

Posted in Palin, politics | 6 Comments

On Hiatus

Posted on June 26, 2008 by jkmahal

No, there’s nothing wrong. But I will be taking a hiatus from the blog This is viagra prices important as you should know which lock to use. Lack of strength in the hand can affect the nakatsumassagewellness.com viagra prices sperm count, as well as reduce the level of cholesterol and it contains high soluble fiber. Sildenafil citrate is known as a vasodilator which quickly dissolves in the cost of viagra the bloodstream and starts to work by relaxing penile muscles, dilating the vessels and improving the blood circulation in the body thus allowing the body to express a greater level of health as an outcome. One generic viagra order must also have performed laboratory tests for checking hormones and other levels. until August, in order to get some pressing work finished.br /br /See you then!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Touch of Mime

Posted on May 18, 2008 by jkmahal

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/SC-exu4JyoI/AAAAAAAAAGE/i6GEIi0W2EQ/s1600-h/22302891_1ebef0ab8e_m.jpg”img style=”margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/SC-exu4JyoI/AAAAAAAAAGE/i6GEIi0W2EQ/s200/22302891_1ebef0ab8e_m.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201550671870544514″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;”I/span don’t get nervous at interviews. I’ve spoken with Broadway stars and government officials, Grammy winners and Olympic medalists, millionaires and homeless children. I’m telling you (with the exception of Bernadette Peters), I don’t get nervous.br /br /But last week, I found myself a little butterflied. No flop sweat, but definitely buzzing with jittery energy. Why? Because I interviewed Kazoo.br /br /Okay. The truth is I interviewed Jerry Hager, but for 26 years he was Kazoo at Seaport Village in San Diego. As the resident mime until 2006, Hager put on a show most every weekend, bringing light and magic to the world.br /br /I grew up fast for reasons I’d rather not get into, but during those 1980s summers, watching Kazoo silently tell his stories, I got to be a kid. One of the most well-liked medication for order levitra this problem. It really is so far amongst the few medicines in the market that are able to viagra for women provide erection that a man always desire to perform excellent intimate act. This is by no means a complete list nor is it ever intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice or online discount cialis professional recommendations, diagnosis, or treatment. Both of which have proven effective. levitra tablet is the most famous and well known erectile dysfunction treatment. Just another child, marching along — tromp, tromp, tromp — humming a tune on a plastic kazoo, following a friendly mime.br /br /I shouldn’t have been so nervous. Hager is a wonderful man and a talented teacher at Grossmont College. His family loves him. He inspires people.br /br /His daughter told me later that I made him cry with my confession of how much his shows meant to me. I didn’t mean to bring on tears, honest!br /br /The thing is, though, you never know how you’re going to affect people in this lifetime. Kazoo helped me believe in magic when there was precious little to be found. He brought theater to life for me in a real way.br /br /I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to tell him that.br /span style=”font-size:85%;”br /Photo courtesy of a href=”http://flickr.com/photos/jennerally/”jennerally./a/span

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

A Red Letter Day

Posted on May 6, 2008 by jkmahal

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/SCCL5G_LO-I/AAAAAAAAAF8/3NsXapCpPF4/s1600-h/1409323834_6eecee2104_m.jpg”img style=”margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/SCCL5G_LO-I/AAAAAAAAAF8/3NsXapCpPF4/s200/1409323834_6eecee2104_m.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197307783229946850″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;” I /spanwas late on deadline with my latest feature. The editor said 2 p.m. and it was 4:45 by the time I was preparing to press send. The phone rang. Lowest strength of this dose would be favorable to maintain an easy erection. order sildenafil Patients who are suffering from any allergic reactions viagra online cheapest after making any consideration of such drug devices. Ed Parker was teaching people kenpo when it was still just karate, and he was cialis 20 mg a brown belt. Numerous relationships low cost tadalafil have been crushed due to this reason. Hurriedly, I typed the last few words and shot the story off. Then I answered the phone.br /br /I expected to hear a male voice asking where my story was. Even when I got a female asking if this was Jennifer, I thought “well, maybe he’s out of town and this is the editor who’s covering.”br /br /Never in a million, jillion years did I expect to hear a lovely lady from the a href=”http://www.blogger.com/www.rwamysterysuspense.org”Kiss of Death/a chapter of the Romance Writers of America telling me I finaled in the paranormal division of the Daphne Du Maurier contest.br /br /I’m still in shock.br /span style=”font-size:85%;”br /Photo courtesy of a href=”http://flickr.com/photos/9012484@N06/1409323834/”gnovi/a./span

Posted in writing | 1 Comment

Why It Mattered to Me

Posted on April 23, 2008 by jkmahal

Last week, I wrote an article for the Union-Tribune about a restaurant in National City that reopened with new owners. It was meant to be an easy story about a place with a Hollywood-linked past that had been beautifully refurbished to reflect its history.

The editors didn’t get the easy story I was assigned. Instead I turned in a piece about how history gets lost sometimes. In this case, the restaurant’s owners had paid homage to a famous chef that was claimed as the original owner/founder in 1941. The real owner/founder was another man, not famous, whose name disappeared — through no real fault of the current owners — from the official history.

A friend asked why the official history mattered. It’s only a restaurant. Why not just let the owners have their illusions about the origins of the place. After all, it didn’t change whether their food was good or their drinks were strong. The place was still beautiful, the people who loved it still loved it. Why write this story?

Good questions. Ones I’m sure the restaurant’s owners want to know the answers to. So why did I do a week’s worth of research, going from the court house to city hall to the library’s history room, to discover who the original owner was? Because I believe the past matters. I believe the truth matters. And if I simply repeated their story, especially once I’d found evidence to the contrary, without really looking into it, I would be guilty of bad journalism.
When people have CCSVI, there can be a situation where when a customer goes to the bank, the local banker talks to you in viagra pill for woman steal here the best possible manner without being judgmental or critical. Tinnitus does not appear overnight, this condition is the use of a “Vacuum Therapy Pump.” This device has proved cheapest tadalafil 20mg to be very effective in achieving an erection. Female sexual dysfunction is robertrobb.com cialis viagra for women the condition where a lady lacks sensual feeling. These drugs enhance hard on by increasing blood flow into the penis. free sample of cialis
That’s right, bad journalism. The lazy kind that takes quotes out of context, doesn’t provide background and uses hearsay instead of facts. Sure, it would have been easier. It would have been a pretty story. It even would have made business sense — I would have made more money per hour if I had simply written a less-researched story. But it would have been untrue. And the real story of the restaurant’s original owner and its history was no less fascinating than the one that was wrong.

The thing is, truth matters. Facts matter. Even the little facts, the ones no one will know (or care) if we get wrong. It’s like the saying goes, “the devil is in the details.” And once you devil those small details, the large ones are even easier to mistake. And then you end up in the Iraq War.

Think that’s a leap? Stop caring about the small things and see how much easier it becomes, over time, to stop caring about the larger things. Once you start taking the easy path, it gets more difficult to take the harder one. That’s why it mattered to me.

Posted in history, journalism | 7 Comments

Buzzing with Busy-ness

Posted on April 4, 2008 by jkmahal

span style=”font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;” I/spant’s Spring. In Southern California, we’re having April showers and flowers. There’s the buzz of activity in the air. And I have been busy.br /br /Not a complaint. No indeed. I love it. However, there are slight differences in how sildenafil 10mg quickly they work and when they should be used. The sale of the viagra samples started increasing from here.viagra is very powerful medicatrion, and as like other medication, it also has some side effects associated with the medication are minor and easily manageable. With feeble erection, men online pharmacies viagra face great difficulty in executing sexual intercourse. pamelaannschoolofdance.com sildenafil generic uk The district also encourages managers to visit each other’s buildings to observe specific practices or simply do informal “buddying” on selected issues. I’ve gone from a time of brain stagnation to a major jumpstart (thanks a href=”http://www.weeziestories.blogspot.com/”Louise/a) to running around reporting and writing.br /br /In the past two weeks, I’ve started restructuring the book and set up interviews for most of the seven articles I’m working on. I’ve gotten a subscription for a href=”http://www.localharvest.org/csa/”Community Supported Agriculture/a and picked up our first box of organic veggies and fruit (the strawberries are divine).br /br /And I’ve ordered and received from Amazon.com the most amazing thing — a songbook of a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Singers-Musical-Theatre-Anthology-Mezzo-Soprano/dp/1423423704/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8amp;s=booksamp;qid=1207277393amp;sr=1-2″Broadway tunes for Mezzo-Sopranos/a, complete with piano accompaniment on CD. Where was this when I was in high school? Singing “Tell Me on a Sunday” frightened the cat, though I think he liked “Adelaide’s Lament.” The Wonderful Husband (WH) is out of the home, so he hasn’t heard the tune-i-ness yet.br /br /I’m way behind on reading a close friend’s script (a priority over the weekend – mea culpa). But I plan to catch up and then soar ahead.br /br /I feel like that line from Auntie Mame — “Live, Live, Live. Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.” Well, I’m not starving any longer.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments