Opinion

“Kids don’t stay with you if you do it right. It’s the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won’t be needed in the long run.” –

Cheers to organizers, volunteers and the more than 80,000 who attended the 33rd version of the annual Mushroom Mardi Gras.

When is being risk-averse too risky for the sake of your retirement?

Graduation season is upon us, and words of wisdom will be flowing to the class of 2012 in commencement speeches from boldface personalities such as Michelle Obama, Steve Wozniak and Steve Carell.

It is that time of year when the sounds of “Pomp and Circumstance” fill our educational institutions’ fields and halls. Proud families will be gathered to cheer and rejoice in their child’s passage to adulthood. For those who have had a successful school experience, the hard work and long study hours has paid off.

Let’s see if this makes sense. The city’s recommended budget for the upcoming fiscal year adds nearly $2 million in services and two full-time positions, and the city has given raises to nearly all employees the past several years. Now they will be looking to reduce employee costs as negotiations with all three labor unions will begin soon.

Santa Clara County is one of the nation’s most prosperous areas. Highly paid Silicon Valley workers have supported an economy featuring luxury cars, expensive homes and high-quality social amenities. Our South Valley area, however, is not so fortunate. Gilroy trails the rest of the county, having high rates of poverty, unemployment and schools struggling to meet the needs of their students.

“Mary Poppins” was written by P.L.Travers, a native Australian who spent most of her life in England. Disney made an entrancing movie, with Julian Fellowes adapting the story for the stage with the award-winning Sherman Brothers supplying the music and lyrics. Their delightful music and words fascinated and gave the world a charming gift.

Kurt Drückler was a heavy smoker. For many years, the German gentleman ran a tobacco shop on the corner of Alexandrinen and Sebastian streets in the heart of Berlin. A few months after I was born, he died from emphysema. This lingering and painful disease, caused by years of inhaling tobacco smoke, prevented him from traveling to the United States in 1966 to see me, his newborn grandson.