* Talk about juxtaposition.
Last Friday’s Tampa Bay Times chronicled the latest on airstrikes against ISIS. The page-6, AP story at the top, left corner said: “ISIS Tortures, Executes Female Rights Lawyer.” The New York Times story in the top, right corner said: “Emirates’ First Female Fighter Pilot Led Mission.”
Talk about irony. Talk about fitting response.
* Eau de capitalism.
For the discerning traveler to Cuba who wants souvenirs more evocative than the hackneyed “Che” T-shirt, there’s now something more, well, revolutionary: iconic colognes.
Formulated by a French company and produced in Cuba, tourists and savoring socialists can now choose between two unique blends, the snuff of legends. There’s “Ernesto,” a woodsy and citric scent that’s somehow redolent of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and “Hugo,” a combination with hints of mango and papaya that plays to the Hugo Chavez market.
* Looks like Edward Snowden, America’s most notorious former National Security Agency contractor, will have some help paying for whatever he incurs in asylum expenses in Russia. Snowden was among four winners of the Right Livelihood Award, the Swedish human rights award sometimes referred to as the “alternative Nobel.” The $210,000 award was shared with three other winners.
Reportedly, the Swedish Foreign Ministry was not pleased.