Steve Benson calls Nurses Pigs

Regarding Steve Benson's cartoon (5/22) depicting Medicaid recipients and providers as pigs, most of the recipients are children and mothers.   Most of the providers are nurses and very dedicated.  I know my wife is one.   I don't always agree with Steve, but I'd never call his children and wife pigs.   "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last..."

District 9

The voters of Arizona District 9 sent Kyrsten Sinema to represent them in the United States Congress, its first openly bisexual member.   They made a science fiction movie about District 9; it was set in South Africa for dramatic effect.  No wonder they call us Zonies.

Nobody Here Speaks Portuguese Anymore

The beautiful Latin hymns of my childhood are gone.   The lilting Gaelic of my grandmother and her sisters is a fading memory.   My wife was a grown woman before she discovered her grandmothers were Portuguese and Spanish.   In New World Italian families daughters-in-law were expected to speak English and cook Italian (lucky for me).

I recognized a new contractors accent.   You're from from Brazil.   Why the subject of Portuguese came up I don't remember, but she asked if my family spoke it.  Sorry, no, nobody here speaks Portuguese anymore.

Flash Flood

The river was in such a rage
its waters had reached the flood stage.
I grabbed my old paddle
and tried to skedaddle
but a canoe I forgot to engage.