A New Start

During the early years of the new millenium, I filled my sketchbooks with cartoons documenting the endless stream of fiascos perpetrated by the Bush Regime. These gradually evolved into a more formalized set of cartoons emailed to a growing number of friends and acquaintances and eventually formed the basis of my website www.punditalia.net

Mercifully, Bush is now gone and it’s time for new initiatives in Acqualoreto as well as Washington. The cartoons and the website will continue but friends such as Linda Richardson and Ruth Gruber have suggested that a blog would be more suitable for running commentary and feedback, so I’m rolling out the blog.

Among the blogs that I read, Linda’s has a light and humorous take on life in Umbria, and Frank Gruber (Ruth’s brother) writes a regular column on the politics and policies in his hometown of Santa Monica, California, a place I’ve never been to and probably will never see. His discussion of local issues resonates with me as prototypical of the conflicts and interests present in communities everywhere. Frank manages to combine strong opinions and enthusiasms with a remarkable openness to other points of view. It’s good reading for anyone interested in urban issues and planning. I hope I can bring similar attention to bear on the issues found in our village of Acqualoreto, the region of Umbria, and in Italy generally, although I will continue to comment on US politics as well as other personal enthusiasms, from jazz to art and architecture.

I’ll start this by distribution to the cartoon list. I hope that some of you will subscribe to the blog. If you want to be removed from the list, just let me know. I welcome your comments.