Columns

Cinema Cindy Reviews ‘Love And Mercy’

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By CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB
Los Alamos

“Love and Mercy” is an intense bio-pic about Brian Wilson, the genius behind the 1960s band the Beach Boys, and his downward spiral into mental illness.

Rated PG-13 “for thematic elements, drug content and language,” “Love and Mercy” is not light fare. Its focus on mental health, abusive therapists and parents requires of the audience a strong and merciful heart. However, the story is historically informative and courageous.

 

Movie poster for ‘Love and Mercy.’ Courtesy/Reel Deal Theater

John Cusack plays a mentally and emotionally oppressed Read More

Pastor Granillo: Missional Christian

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By Pastor Raul Granillo
Los Alamos

“Why do Christians insist on shoving their religion down everyone’s throats?”

This complaint is so common that many simply expect every Christian to try and recruit them as if they are in some kind of pyramid scheme and need to build up a base for the sake of their position. “No thanks, I’ve had plenty of Amway and Herbalife in my life!”

Unfortunately, it seems as if evangelism has become one of the practices most negatively associated with the Christian Church; and I fear this is not just to those outside the church, but also within the very body of Christians themselves. Read More

Chief Stone: Customer Satisfaction For EMS

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By BENJAMIN S. STONE
Division Chief, Emergency Medical Services
Los Alamos County Fire Department

As the annual patient volume in emergency medical services (EMS) systems worldwide increases, there are no comprehensive studies on customer satisfaction for EMS.

Identifying this fault of the system has set in motion an innovative plan to measure satisfaction levels of the services provided by the Los Alamos Fire Department.

The LAFD and the Emergency Medical Services Division value our public’s opinion and will have our vendor (feedback innovations) start mailing out customer Read More

TALES OF OUR TIMES: Stack Cleanup Bolsters H-bomb

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Tales of Our Times

By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water

Stack Cleanup Bolsters H-bomb

The world works in strange ways. People puzzle over how much is engineers’ logic, how much is chance, and how much is from a sprinkle of mystic dust. The Tales this month trace an unlikely bead chain of exceptional doings.

The story begins in the 1920s at a remote zinc and lead smelter in Trail, British Columbia, eight miles north of the U.S. border. The huge old smelter pours 600-700 tons daily of SO2 out its stacks and down the Columbia River Valley.

By 1928, the loss of crops and trees 40 miles Read More

This Week At The Reel Deal

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By JIM O’DONNELL
Reel Deal Theater  

If you want to see an intense thriller with great acting by Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnon, check out No Escape.

The reviews are mixed, it depends where you look but reviewers who immersed themselves in this film for pure entertainment and action loved it. Those worried about political correctness-not so much. It is big screen entertainment plain and simple.

I’ve been trying to open Love and Mercy for a while now and we finally got it for a one-week run. This film is a portrait of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. It is a journey through Wilson’s music career Read More

An Open Book: What A Cute Baby!

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An Open Book: What A Cute Baby!
By DAVID IZRAELEVITZ
 
As I was deciding on a topic for this column, I was debating between writing about the banner on the recent demonstration that equated Hiroshima with “100 Auschwitz” or that I got to hold a newborn baby for the first time in a long time. I think you will agree that I made the right choice, although I reserve the right to rant at some later time.

Before having children myself, being offered a baby to hold was a test of posture and etiquette. Posture, because I didn’t know how to stand or sit while holding a baby that inspired confidence

Read More

Yang: OMG! No Annual Performance Evaluation?!

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By ELENA YANG
Los Alamos

Like late night TV show hosts having a heyday with political news, I take guilty pleasure in the recent rash of news and articles about workplace practices, such as the frantic pace at Amazon.com (link), the cosmic stupidity of using a work email address for an Ashley Madison account (link), and now, the new trend at several major corporations of eliminating annual performance reviews (link).

I want to get into all of these topics – the Amazon.com story alone offers myriad of blog opportunities – but today, I’ll start discussing the ritual of the annual performance review Read More

How The Hen House Turns: Turkeys Are Not Chickens

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Wild turkeys. Courtesy photo
 
How the Hen House Turns
By CAROLYN (CARY) NEEPER Ph.D.
 
Turkeys Are Not Chickens

A turkey growing up with chickens: “I walk slowly through the twittering mob, and though they catch more bugs than I do, I know what part of the broken dandelion is good to eat, therefore I look it up and down and around before I peck at it.

“I stroll across the grass, and I feel it press back at me. I do not snatch; I am snatched from. But I take what I need—carefully aiming at the grasshopper before I swallow it. I also call for reassurance when I need it.

“I doze, and take Read More

Smart Design With Suzette: Garages

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The organized garage. Courtesy photo
 
Smart Design With Suzette
By SUZETTE FOX
Garages

If you can’t find room to park your car, it’s time to clear out the clutter and reclaim your garage.

It’s the one part of the house that my family tends to let go. It holds our garbage and recycling, bikes, sports equipment, yard sale items, paint, tools, potting bench and gardening equipment, lawn mower, and of course one car in our two-car garage.

We toss our dirty shoes in there, pile our yard tools on top of each other, randomly stack shelves with odds and ends, and have about a dozen junk drawers. And, if you’re Read More

Pastor Granillo: God’s Abode

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By Pastor RAUL GRANILLO
Los Alamos

“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.” A.W. Tozer

It may be cliché to say “The Church is not composed of a building, it is composed of people.” It may be cliché, but it is absolutely true, and very easily it can be taken for granted. After all, there are plenty of distractions in the world that fight for our attention; and if we allow them to, they will turn us into institutions that are primarily concerned
Read More