Andrew Barbano

Reno

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Articles

Cheesily pickled politics

May 28, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Artists have tried to teach us simple but obvious lessons since the first cave person picked up a rock to scratch on walls. Alas and alack, this monster mannunkind has proven maddeningly obtuse, mostly to our detriment. The highly honored TV series “The West Wing” (1999-2006) concluded with the election of the first minority president of the United States. Latino Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) narrowly won the presidency over his conservative rival, Republican Sen.
A smattering of splatterings

May 18, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

“You can only fool some of the people all of the time, and that’s usually enough” — Wisdom from a famous philosopherWARNING LABEL: If you are looking for a positive, upbeat joyful piece of writing, effusively suffused with hearts, flowers and platitudes, read something else. Anyway, furry, cute little platitudes are only found in Australia. I further declare there shall be no order, flow or congruity hereinbelow. Kinda like the world today.
What happened to us?

May 13, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Did we do something when we should not have? Did we do nothing when we should have? Anyway you slice it, this world is the result of its dominant species, at once both awesome and awful. Immersing myself in media the past few days, I generated enough notes for three or four columns. Love, hate, reason, superstition — all well-represented. Then I saw the photo of that grieving mother. We have made so many of those in our short span on this orb and they all lead to the same damned and damnable place.
May Day Labor Day: Start Packing

May 4, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Ah, ‘tis Spring when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of creative seduction, satyristic dancing, nubile wenches, fertile frolicking — and riots in the streets. Forgotten in the mayhem of these times is the painfully obvious: The ayatollah and Putin have won this round, having created worldwide chaos, advancing their dreams of conquest. Chaos, the best friend of dictators, creates insecurity and works like a charm. It elected Nixon in 1968 and we’ve never recovered.
Raw bits, base hits, old bits and obits

Apr 27, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

GREATEST HITS. Art Schallock turns 100 on April 25. In addition to joining the fastest-growing demographic in America, he is the oldest living major league baseball player. In recent years, I’ve been starved for baseball news here in the High Desert Outback of the American Dream. Apparently the San Francisco Giants are no longer relevant given the expensive transplantation of the Corporate Welfare Oakland/Sacramento Athletics. To Gomorrah South. In three or more years.
Watering the money trees

Apr 20, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Time to celebrate our recently announced water rate increases. Break out the best gray water champagne!I tried to obtain information from the Nevada Public Utilities Commission about the 2001 sale of the local water system by NVEnergy’s predecessor, Sierra Pacific Power. I received everything but what I asked for. When I pushed to get the price us peons paid, I was refused the info and referred to the Truckee Meadows Water Authority.
Ain’t we a pair?

Apr 13, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

So stated Tina Turner in the 1985 blockbuster “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”That line best summed up my overwhelmed feelings last Friday evening when the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council inducted the late Tribune journalist and my old friend Dennis Myers into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame. Using a hockey analogy, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar noted that the occasion completed a hat trick for Dennis.
Health care bandidos and flaming ammotextuals

Apr 9, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Last week, this newspaper performed a true public service with the front page story entitled “Renown Health is a powerhouse in Northern Nevada. Is that a problem?”The answer of course is not only yes, but hell yes!Was the article comprehensive and hard-hitting? Alas, no. Written by one of my old friend Jon Ralston’s journalists, Tabitha Mueller of the Nevada Independent online service, I wondered how my old friend and Tribune colleague in columny Jake Highton would have graded it. Prof.
Earthquakes and 2×4’s

Mar 30, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

This week, the PBS News Hour reported on the again increasing rate of child poverty in the biggest, fattest, most badass country the world has ever known. Child poverty dropped to record lows, as did the disparity between racial groups, thanks to Biden’s 2021 legislation. Like many good things, it’s been allowed to die. Children and families will die as a result.
Rape means never having to say you’re sorry.

Mar 23, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Such is the attitude of American malehood’s favorite band, T-Rump and the Supremes. It’s hard to choose the most ludicrously lewd among the too live crew of all those ammotextuals. You know them, the true believers who rule that anything non-existent in 1789 is unconstitutional. Thus presages the demise of Social Security, Medicare and U.S. Air Force.