Southwest Corner item...

Another reason it was fun to be a staff photographer in the 1960s at San Diego's daily newspaper was the opportunity to write and appear in print.
I was finishing up at the University of San Diego, was married, had two kids and working full time as a photographer but was trying out my English major and started submitting short stories to the San Diego Union that appeared opposite the editorials page, in the lower left hand corner.
It was called the
SW corner.
The other way to get your name in the paper was through
Neil Morgan, a popular Evening Tribune columnist. He enjoyed hearing about offbeat events and happenings and I popped up in his column fairly often.
My wife and I went through a downtown agency to find us a Nanny and, since most came from small towns in Mexico, we worked very, very hard at improving our Spanish. In a few weeks, we were called to come pick up our new helper.
Moira Campbell was fresh from Scotland and spoke more precise English that either of us did. Neil loved it.
(Click on the SW corner story to make it larger).
Labels: byline, Mexico, Nanny, Neil Morgan, popular columnist, Scotland, Spanish, SW Corner

I came across an interesting website that allows you to pull up a list of 193 countries so you can indicate which ones you have visited.
My list of various countries visited would be rather short but I did indicate the countries where viewers of my blog reside and that becomes quite a visual display.
The 54 countries of my viewers are colored in red on the world map and it shows that nearly 30% of the world's nations are represented.
Comments about what's listed and what's not on the site often are quite testy, many are politically incorrect and a few are ignorant of basic geography.
Many people maintain that Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland are 4 separate countries rather than the simple United Kingdom option that is given.
Taiwan SHOULD be listed separately instead of being included as part of China say others. And Hong Kong is not listed at all.
One complainer wanted to know why the nation of Texas was missing.
[http://douweosinga.com/projects/visitedcountries]
Labels: bloggers, countries, Hong Kong, Nations, Scotland, Taiwan, Texas, Wales