ANYTHING NEW HERE????

LAKERS!!!!! Wake up! And, believe me it is not fair

to think our Kobe can do it all. Yes, Dwight did

finally make some of his free throws, bravo!

But, even with Kobe making 40 points, we lost

the game to the L.A. Clippers, score: 105-95.

So...seems with 8 games lost previously and now 3 more

losses in a row..... Phil Jackson, where are you???

With the fairly new season for us all, let's just

mark it up to "getting it together and getting

to know each other far better" in order to win.

On a completely different note though, since 

both the Lakers and this blog writer are from

the state of Minnesota, our little American-

Profile paper had a super article that I thought

I might share and tell you about.

The subjects' name is: John Rheinberger, an

attorney from Stillwater, MN. Last year he

concluded one of his life's pursuits of being on 

a worldwide tour of 196 nations which he began

37 years ago. In addition to the 193 

members of the United Nations, Rheinberger

visited Kosovo, Vatican City and Taiwan. The U.S.

Department of State recognizes 195 independent

countries, absent Taiwan. The ink stamps in

John's passports read like the register of

an experienced and dedicated world traveler.

Algeria, Bolivia, China, Germany, Haiti,

Honduras, Iran, Japan, Libya, Namibia,

North Korea, Spain, Ukraine, Vietnam.

Initially he journeyed across North America

from Ottawa, Canada, to Mexico City, and

in 1978 he flew to Australia, a trip he

encourages others to try and he recounts

as one of his most memorable. He thought

it was the 51st state when he was there!!

Surprisingly, John wasn't particularly 

apprehensive about visiting countries

ruled by dictators, "Initially, I was a little

scared" he says, "But in some ways you

are very safe because everybody is watching

you and watching out for you. There is real

protection in that". He is currently toying

with an idea of getting a doctorate from the

University of Minnesota. (He has 6 other

academic degrees). Most interesting man

and very fascinating article I thought.

Another footnote before ending this

article today is to say "Hats off to our

Lakers for yet another contribution

that we just learned about" All of the

dollars in donations sent off to the

people that were harmed and put in

recent harms way during the tragic super

storm the East Coast endured: "Hurricane Sandy".

And so, we watch the news reports of

the ongoing job of renewal & cleanup. 

Our East Coast neighbors harboring such horrid past

days and memories now that we pray they

find some hope and help in days ahead.

Babs Wells