This and That

April 2025 in the Desert and on the town at Fixins, Bar Lubitsch and The Win-Dow

First, let me review the May calendar for you to mark:

• On May 3, observe and remember the 10th year since Islamic terrorists besieged a cartoon contest in Texas. I wrote about the act of war—which the FBI knew about in advance and incompetently missed—on my blog in 2015.

• On May 4th, 1992, what were (until the 21st century) America’s worst riots—leaving many murdered and killed and much of the city in ruins—came to an end (read my essay on the Los Angeles riots, later reprinted in a school textbook, here.)

• Bob Seger celebrates his 80th birthday on May 6th.

• Nazi Germany—the Third Reich—came to an end 80 years ago on May 9th, 1945.

• Fred Astaire was born on May 10th, 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska.

• Mother’s Day is on May 11th.

• The man who created Oz, author L. Frank Baum, was born on May 15th, 1856. On May 17th, 1900 his first novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was published.

• May 19th marks the centenary of Malcolm X’s birthday.

• Memorial Day is May 26th.

• Remember Patrick Henry and Bob Hope on their birthdays on May 29th

• Celebrate Clint Eastwood and Sharon Gless on their birthdays on May 31st.

Author-made image for “Sesame Flanagan” in Classic Chicago magazine.

Read my newest short stories in Classic Chicago magazine: “Allegheny Lane,” the tale of a teenager who, while walking his dog, witnesses a mysterious neighbor’s action, and “Sesame Flanagan,” the story of an American Indian who becomes a movie star and inspires a girl she meets during a waterfront walk in the Alps. Besides walking, these new works of fiction have in common the view that the good is possible.