03/04/2010 5:00 am
Culture
Liz Smith: Queen Rania of Jordan's New Goal
Also from Our Gossip Girl, short stuff from Antonio Banderas ... and everyone who's anyone at the Literacy Partners.
Queen Rania of Jordan
Image: Luis Fernando Romo Pedrejon
Isn’t it cold?
Trees are all bare.
Snow here at last on the ground,
Flakes in midair …
Where are the plows?
Is it the snow;
Or a mirage?
On the path leading around
To my garage …
Where are the plows?
Send in the plows.
Just when I stopped shoveling out,
Finally having the path that I needed, no doubt.
Clearing my driveway again with my usual care.
What of my street?
No plow was there.
Don’t they plow snow? Winter is here.
I thought that they’d do what I do …
Streets should be clear.
But where are the plows?
Send in the plows.
Well, maybe next year.
This little set of lyrics for the ages applies to so many of us in this U.S. winter of our discontent. The lyrics were written by the late, very talented Joseph F. McDonough.
He was an industrial filmmaker and his daughter, Mary Jo, now runs my office.
Thank you for sharing, MJ.
***
THE NATIONAL Council for Geocosmic Research met during the latest big snow in Boston and astrology lovers from all over attended. They passed an Astrologer’s Bill of Rights which began: "We the people, have the right … to keep calling Pluto a planet."
The astrologers took notice of what the Times’s Tom Friedman called, in a recent column, "Global Weirding," saying that the cavalcade of disastrous natural phenomena of late has not gone unnoted.
Our pal Shelley Ackerman stated in her Internet hit Karmic Relief, "A giant iceberg the size of Luxembourg broke off of the Antarctic shelf … within hours a 6.9 earthquake occurred off the Southeast coast of Japan, raising further concerns about tsunamis in the surrounding region … Hours after that, disaster struck in central Chile with a 8.8 magnitude earthquake."
She said things might improve – or get worse.
Ya got that?
***
HOORAY for the beautiful Queen Rania of Jordan. She was in Barcelona the other day invited by the World Mobile Congress and she announced something called 1GOAL: Education for All. This is "the world’s largest cause-related campaign ever undertaken."
The actual goal is to insure that every child in the world has the chance to go to school by 2015. Today, 72 million children in the world are denied such a chance.
Here is Queen Rania as photographed by our ace in Spain – Mr. Luis Fernando Romo Pedrejon. He is also the guy who told us about Antonio Banderas and his new beard.
The actor-husband to Melanie Griffith has been making a Steven Soderbergh film in Spain titled "Knockout." (Michael Douglas and Ewan McGregor are also in this movie.) But after filming continued in Dublin and Turkey, Antonio is back in Los Angeles giving parties with his brother to promote a short film they have produced, which is up for an Oscar. So when and if you ever view "The Lady and the Reaper," you’ll be seeing Antonio’s nominated short movie.
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Dear Liz:
Thank you again for including me in your stellar column on wowOwow, (my "Big Sister" site), I’m always flattered and tickled to wake up to the surprise, but if I may add one teeny note:
I reread my column (thinking I MUST have been fried when I wrote it) to double check, and nowhere did I see: "things might improve – or get worse".
For the record, and hoping that this doesn’t sound too negative, during the Pluto in Capricorn years (2008 through 2024) we will expereince an increase in "earth changes", particularly in 2010-2011 with this nasty Saturn-Pluto aspect in the heavens now and in a couple of months when Uranus goes back and forth over the 29th degree of Pisces.
The silver lining (and there is one) is that many of us will find the guts and strength to make the necessary changes in our lives that we’ve gone on about but have not had the courage to act on.