It wasn’t long after the webmaster for the B2L2 writers’ blog in New Orleans posted a photograph of New Orleans’ celebrity Chris Owens that I started this byzantine piece of investigative journalism, the kind of piece that proves that one doesn’t need the facts to…
Jimmy Gabacho
151 Articles
Gabacho– according to the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy– is derived from an old Provençal word “gavach,” meaning a person from the foothills of the Pyrenees who spoke incorrectly. These days, it means “outsider,” somebody who just doesn’t fit in.
Jimmy Gabacho
4 Min Read
It was the Saturday before the mayoral election in the Windy City, and my wife and I were in Chicago running errands. Once a month we make our escape from the desolate cornfields and head to the Second City for shopping, groceries and dinner. Over the years we have started to buy organic, so we always hit Whole Foods Market on North Avenue before heading for home. When we arrived, the parking lot was so jammed packed that it seemed like they were giving away food.
I was already in a pissed-off mood.
Jimmy Gabacho
4 Min Read
This is second installment of Gabacho’s review of the book Academically Adrift. Student culture is characterized less by study and rigorous academic work and more by socializing, spring break travel and entertainment than ever before. According to the researchers, college students in the 1960s spent…
Jimmy Gabacho
4 Min Read
This is also important at a time when universities and colleges are experiencing economic pressure as well as increased competition for high performing students and a demand to provide “practical majors” that will bring a quick return on an educational investment. For a number of years, many of us have contended that students need to build their skills as competent thinkers, readers and writers. Clear thinking, reasoning, expression are necessary skills in any field, and I have yet to hear anyone argue the contrary.
Jimmy Gabacho
6 Min Read
How could I find myself enjoying the unfolding insanity? How could I listen to a song about a man who beat the woman he loved? Why didn’t she just throw gasoline on the scum-sucking pig while he slept? Those wife-beating screwheads deserve what they get! This was scary stuff; it reeked of sado-masochism, domination, dog collars, whips, chains, bondage, black leather, motion lotion, and edible underwear. Creepy stuff!
Jimmy Gabacho
4 Min Read
I wondered what kind of person she would have been had she used the thing. She definitely would have been more relaxed: she was a compulsive worrier. She would have had a better appetite. Even though Grandma had lost interest in men by the time she was forty, she still maintained her figure. If she had been a stoner, she would have ditched the whole Slim Fast gig and broken out the Oreos.
Jimmy Gabacho
5 Min Read
At a recent conference of the Council of Independent Colleges, college presidents expressed their growing fear that liberal arts colleges are facing terminal illness. This is particularly ironic given new data from the Social Science Research Council that says: “Students majoring in liberal arts fields see “significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study.” Students majoring in business, education, social work and communications showed the smallest gains… “
Jimmy Gabacho
4 Min Read
We had organized our days for sightseeing. First on the agenda was taking the girls to see the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Instead of hippies, the place was full of skateboarders. There was still a lot of tie-die shirts and psychedelic art. Our plan was to start at Buena Vista Park and make our way past the Victorian mansions, the Magnolia Brewpub, and the former headquarters of the Symbionese Liberation Army toward Golden Gate Park.
Jimmy Gabacho
5 Min Read
In closing, one of the most thoughtful responses to the tragedy was a brief comment that came across my computer screen in the wee hours of the morning. It was about our handgun laws in the US. Frankly, if Loughner had not been able to purchase the Glock with the extended clip, useless for hunting–, his rampage would have been much less lethal. While measures like background checks, waiting periods, and restrictions on military-grade weapons, are not are not guarantees that crimes like this won’t occur again, these would give us a much better problem than the one we have now.
Jimmy Gabacho
3 Min Read
A little family run Cantonese restaurant that had been in business for thirty-five years, was Zagat rated, and was a favorite of all the hotel staff. I sensed the impending doom on the horizon. It usually works like this: one daughter likes the food, and the other finds it so disgusting that we, as a family, must swear a blood oath never to return to the place. Like most fathers, my strategy is to avoid eye contact while the girls size up the menu. There are several phases of this impending culinary nightmare…
Jimmy Gabacho
5 Min Read
The description sounded great: “Reclaim your life; rediscover the day; re-experience a rebirth of what it means to have a normal life,” then came the mind-numbing list of possible side effects. The announcer said, “Don’t take this treatment if you have a history of cirrhosis of the liver or kidney diseases, angina or any other kind of heart problem. You should also avoid this drug if you have a history of drug addiction or high blood pressure. This drug affects the central nervous system; it impairs thinking and reaction time. If you operate heavy machinery, you should not use this treatment. Further, the treatment could also cause life-threatening skin rashes, severe enough to require hospitalization. The rash is typically accompanied by high fever, sore throat, migraine headaches, vomiting and severe blistering, peeling and flaking off of the skin. This treatment is also known to be harmful to unborn and nursing babies, and can make certain types of birth-control less effective. The most-common side effects may include: agonizing headache; stomach cramps; nasal and anal bleeding, blood in stool, urine and vomit; irregular heartbeat; bloating; swelling of the face, lips and tongue; blurred vision; kidney stones; severe nausea; psoriasis; dizziness; slobbering; stupor; forgetfulness; depression; slurred and lethargic speech, and trouble sleeping. Suicidal depression, anxiety, seizures, thoughts of impending doom, hallucinations, psychosis, mania, aggressive and violent behavior, and other yet undetermined mental problems are not uncommon.”
Jimmy Gabacho
8 Min Read
After downing all of the cold and flu medication I could find, we hit the road. I kept the hallucinations to myself. Although I was feeling better, the scenery and my mood, however, hadn’t improved very much. It happens every time I get a fever. The brain cooks a little bit and I get delusional. One time I was convinced that others were trying to poison me. Invariably I think too much when I am sick, and things bother me that I usually don’t notice. I begin with physical symptoms and then I assume that the problem is with the cosmos. This time was no different. I even contemplated the End of the World.
Jimmy Gabacho
6 Min Read
The walls were really starting to throb right then; I could feel the waves coming over me. There was a deep humming sound, like the sound of electricity surging through the walls, in the background.