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Taxi Drivers?

Should We Have Been Taxi Drivers? A (not-so-mini) Miami Chronicle…. By A Salinas I meet weekly with a small group of friends—all in our seventies, classmates from high school, and contemporaries. We share entertaining activities and some concerns too. Recently, one of us confessed to being insomniac, and it turned out he wasn’t the only one. Everyone knows the basic prescription for insomnia: if you nap, keep it short and early; avoid heavy dinners (watch that extra “drink”); stay away from bright screens before bed; sleep in a cool, dark room; keep a consistent schedule; and for the snorers, wear a CPAP mask. But the fear lies elsewhere—namely, in the risk of developing dementia. Because insomnia contributes… Does the kind of work we did during our productive years play a role in prevention? I recently discovered that London taxi drivers seem to be protected against Alzheimer’s… Would it have been better to be taxi drivers instead of lawyers, economists, engineers, businessmen, or doc...
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Ukrainian or Spanish

  As a Jew, Would I Rather Be Ukrainian or Spanish? A Brief Clarification… By Alberto Salinas Miami, June 21, 2025 In my last piece, I wrote that I would decline Ukrainian citizenship if it were offered to me — because of the historical ties between that nation and the extermination of Jews, from its early foundation to the Holocaust. After reading it, a friend confronted me during our usual Wednesday gathering: “If that’s the case,” he asked, “then why did you choose to become Spanish?” I am Jewish — with the not-so-rare distinction of descending from Sephardic Jews on my father’s side and Ashkenazi Jews on my mother’s. Both lineages have endured centuries of persecution. Is the Spanish Inquisition the same as the Nazi genocide? The Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal established by the Catholic Church in the 15th century — distant now, in time. It became a repressive apparatus using summary trials, torture, and public executions to forcibly convert Jews (among othe...
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A Real Pain (English version)

    The Echo of a Fictional Film and a Real Version. A Journey Through Ukraine…   “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…” — Mark Twain   A Real Pain  (2024) is a film written, directed, and starred in by Jesse Eisenberg. It has been widely praised for its original approach in dealing with complex themes such as grief, identity, and historical memory. The story follows two American cousins, both in their thirties, who embark on a trip to Poland after the recent death of their grandmother. Their goal is to reconnect with their Jewish roots and honor their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. The two characters are stark opposites. Both surnamed Kaplan, David (played by Eisenberg) is married, has a child, works a steady job, and lives in New York City; Benji (Kieran Culkin), on the other hand, is bohemian, extroverted, chaotic, unemployed, and lives in his parents’ basement in a small industrial town.   The film received over 90 no...
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