BARBWIRE
by
ANDREW BARBANO
Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream
The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames

Barbwire
Archives

Site map
SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions (A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

Je Suis Charlie
"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Andrew Barbano Editor/Publisher
Photo: Debra Reid, Sparks Tribune

 


   Everybody knows the dice are loaded.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
   Everybody knows the war is over.
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
   Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
   That's how it goes. Everybody knows...
Everybody knows the scene is dead
   But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
   What everybody knows...
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   and a long red rose.
   Everybody knows. Everybody knows.
That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

By Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) & Sharon Robinson
© 1988 CBS Records, Inc.


I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island.
— Leon Russell, 1942-2016


Betty J. Barbano
2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005
 Remember her laughter

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023

The Mickey Mouse conspiracy
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 12-18-2024 / Updated 12-19-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue

"There's no machine so smart that some guy won't be too dumb to use it." — Gyro Gearloose, world's greatest inventor


Greatest Hits Dept.

NPA Hall of Fame

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame

BREAKING NEWS—>
New Barbwire Winners!

Jake Highton & Guy Louis Rocha 2024 honorees BUENO!
4 down, 4 to go

Support Don Dondero
and David Toll and
Foster Church and
Norman Cardoza next.
Send endorsements

Eee-yo-leven!
Barbwire wins 11th Nevada Press Association award

GOLD 2017-18

2018 First-Place Winners
From the depths of despair to the den of iniquity & holy of holies

"Excellent work. These are some of the most moving columns I've read."
— NPA contest judge/9-29-2018

The Grasshopper and
the Dragonfly
9-6-2017

Kicked off the Ledge
4-18-2017

NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK
Back to the Future in
Mississippi West Nevada
10-18-2017

Gold 2017
Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo
10-4-2016
We Don't Need No Education
Toxic turf threat ignored
12-13-2016
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
2-14-2017

Bronze 6-pack
In the Uber-Nevada legislature, words can kill
4-28-2015
On artificial turf, don't breathe unless absolutely necessary (above)
11-24-2015
Leading questions, lead-headed leaders
1-19-2016

Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake
4-18-2013
2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon
5-30-2013
The politics of media ga-ga boosterism
3-20-2014

More statewide and national award winners

We Don't Need No Education—>
Neverending Barbwire Series

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
BEATING LUSH RAMBO AT HIS OWN GAME: Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

The Dean's List

   The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

 
Mysterious drones flying nightly all over the east coast? Whassup with all the fear?

The Barbwire ace investigative reporting team, sparing every expense as usual, has solved the riddle where the fake news legit media failed.

The machines were launched by world famous inventor Gyro Gearloose, a henchman of billionaire Scrooge McDuck.

Why? For purposes of furthering the corporate interests of the Disney corporation, natch.

All the new king's horses and all the king's bitches (male and female) failed to get to the fat bottom of the problem.

With intellects and noses pickled in the pages of Fortune and the Wall Street Journal, they just haven't researched golden age Disney comics to figure this one out. Took my crew about 60 seconds.

Whenever old Walt Disney wanted to make political wisecracks, he turned his cartoonists loose in the pages of the Uncle Scrooge comics.

For those who never read the classics, Scrooge McDuck was Donald Duck's multi-millionaire stingy uncle. Greedier beyond the wildest dreams of avarice of even King Donaldov the First, Scrooge even saved the first piece of string he ever owned.

During the Vietnam War, Disney 'toonmeisters placed Scrooge, Donald and his triplet nephews into the middle of southeast Asian intrigue.

They were persuaded to accompany a shadowy figure named Soy Biehn to a fictionalized version of Cambodia called "Unsteadystan" in search of a golden elephant.

Scoring the latter made funding the expedition an easy sell to greedy old Scrooge.

In the opening panel of the 'toon appeared a small, eight-armed statue on a shelf labeled "Gimmee, god of the alms takers." ZING!

Turned out young Soy Biehn was actually Prince Char Ming who boarded the mechanical golden elephant to reclaim his throne and bring peace to the region.

Shades of Cambodian Prince Sihanouk, a lonely peacemaker in bloody and turbulent times.

In one amusing comic book story, Disney and his 'toonmeisters had cleverly criticized both the U.S. left and right.

Disney under ole Walt had balls. He heavily promoted new kiddie movies on the network he'd someday own — and raised ticket prices by 50 cents (about $5.55 in today's dollars) every time.

More recently, the Disney corporation kicked Florida Gov. Ron DeSatanist's sensitive ass when he tried to wrest control of Orlando Disneyworld's tax freebies.

The message was "don't screw with Michael Eisner."

Now, the Disney mogul has morphed from Tony the Tiger to Keebler Elf.

Disney now owns the ABC television network which King Donaldov sued for defamation. Mr. Eisner and company just handed America's first czar $16 million (including an extra mill for legal fees) libel settlement as tribute to the throne.

Legal experts were just about unanimous that a court would have thrown out the lawsuit based only on bruising the king's sensitive feelings.

But why quibble over chump change? We're talking easy juice here.

Just kiss the king's substantial derriere and he will deliver unto you his boundless largesse, better known as a piece of the action.

Can a tariff-waiver auction loom any closer?

The danger to the public lies in T-Rump's successful use of that libel suit to silence past, present and future critics.

The czar and his cossacks have sued for defamation many times over the decades with almost zilch success. But that misses the point.

The threat of expensive legal action is usually enough to cause uppity fake news media to shut the foo-fightin' up. And not only small ones.

The template was set right here in the High Desert Outback of the American Dream in 1983.

The McClatchy-owned Miami Herald published a series called "With Friends Like These," linking the mob to the financing of Carson City's now long-abandoned Ormsby House Hotel-Casino.

Developer, former Nevada governor and then-U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt sued the newspaper chain.

A recent obituary of investigative reporter Denny Walsh stated the suit was settled out of court. I remember James McClatchy publicly stating that they couldn't make their case, probably the price of the settlement. [[ Barbwire 4-27-2024 ]]

By that time, Laxalt's best bud Ronald Reagan had been resoundingly re-elected, which was the purpose of the litigation. Criticism of King Ronnie the Vague lightened up just in time for re-election year. [[ Barbwire 3-16-1997 ]]

The Reaganauts helped a bit, passing out goodies including free wholesale foods distributed thru welfare agencies. All lower and middle-income families qualified for the freebies which expired — drum roll, please — just 10 days after the election.

Legal threats work.

Today, with mass media shattered into weak shards, stay tuned for fearmongering on steroids.

And it will work with all but the brash and those with little left to lose.

ERA REDUX. U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, has been pushing President Biden, the first lady and their minions to order the National Archives to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution as duly passed by three-quarters of the states, which it has.

Biden likes woman power, so empower women at last, dammit!

DEFACING FACTS DEPT. Why was T-Rump elected to a second term? Because he faced a second opponent who was demonstrably anatomically unsuited in the opinion of a slight voter plurality, 49.78 vs. 48.23 or 1.55 percent. Jockocracy in aeternam!

OOPS DEPT. "ARC Reno" is the catchy title of a new weekday morning local show on FOX Network affiliate KRNV TV-11. Therein, the previous hour's news personalities do more of the usual giggly chit-chat. They should'a done a little more title research.

For decades, a very active local charity had the name ARC — The Association for Retarded Citizens.

PLAGUE UPDATE. In the U.S., more than one million have been hospitalized by Covid so far this year.

A lawyer for King Donald's "health" czar-to-be, Kennedy the Lesser, recently petitioned the FDA to repeal Polio Vaccine approval.

POLIO fergawdsakes!

If you have money to invest, hit iron lung, wheelchair and crutch manufacturers.

Plus mortuaries.

Get the latest boosters, mask up, stay safe and continue to pray for Ukraine and the currently 160 worldwide war-torn lands, including ours.

¡Sí se puede!

Happy High Holly Days to you and yours.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

_________________________

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

 

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

 

Don't mess with Mary Poppins
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 12-11-2024

"Half my advertising budget is wasted. Now, if I only knew which half."— John Wanamaker, creator of the price tag.

Is there anything more sacred than the NFL? Hell, yes. Mary Poppins.

CBS recently violated the sacred cathedral of Sunday football by clipping a close game in the last two minutes to go to another contest.

Shades of the legendary 1968 Heidi Game when NBC went to its previously scheduled movie "Heidi" and obliterated one of the most sensational comebacks in NFL history (two Oakland Raiders touchdowns in NINE seconds).

All involved promised never to do that again. Have they forgotten? The word "Heidi" does not appear on NFL.com/ (Barbwire 10-2-2024)

Disney/ABC did CBS one better a few days ago: They cut out the concluding scene of "Mary Poppins" wherein she opens her umbrella and floats away over olde London.

Why the carnage? To drop in more cheery BUY NOW! holiday commercials, of course.

I contacted both responsible local TV stations and their respective networks.

At least KTVN TV-2 News Director Jason Pasco responded, adding that station management would go to CBS. Like them, KOLO TV-8 and Disney/ABC are sitting shiva, not another word.

So why is this minor gripe important? Don't local and network television have bigger worries, like inventing a graphics generator with spell-check so that dingbat typos like "Satutryrday" don't pollute the airwaves? (Channel 2, last week.)

Every sentient English teacher on the face of the earth would be grateful.

Alas and alack, literacy is fighting a losing war. In the age of the iPhone, writing is so very uselessly old school.

We are now plunging buttfirst back more than 5,000 years and communicating with pictures, aka hieroglyphics, aka emojis.

Some 11,000 mostly younger Nevada voters had their ballots put on hold last month because they couldn't remember how to sign their names the same way twice. Many of those ballots were not counted.

So who's to blame for this reversion toward scratching on cave walls? How about...me.

I practiced a sometimes less than honorable profession for more than half a century. It's best typified by a three-panel "Wizard of Id" cartoon from decades ago. Shyster trial lawyer Larsen E. Pettifogger is grilling a witness.

"Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but?"

"I do," replied the three-piece-suited guy in the box.

"State your profession," asked Pettifogger.

"Advertising."

"Step down," snarked Pettifogger.

I never watched "Mad Men" because I lived through much of the advertised story lines back when it was happening.

One of my 1970s Gomorrah South ad agency bosses even ended up in jail, but that's another story.

Half-truths, stretching facts, over-promising. Those are just typical of the trade.

Madison Avenue legend Jerry Della Femina, in his 1970 bestseller "From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor," made one glaring error.

Defending his virginity, he said that he didn't like political advertising because politicians are permitted to lie. True, but the whole ad profession is suffused with falsity and sins of omission.

I know that most advertisers, politicians included, insist on honestly representing their offerings. But there are always charlatans that push the envelope with often disastrous results. Witness King Donald the First.

One of my bosses once correctly advised "the only reason our TV spots aren't working is that we're not telling people what they want to hear." That remains true for car dealers, the subject at hand back then, as well as politicos evermore. Again, witness King Donald.

Greed and power are very dark, very human, motivations. Mass media merely serve the demons.

So where lies the cause? Let's go back a century to legendary Philadelphia department store magnate John Wanamaker (1838-1922). Wanamaker's was to Philly as Macy's and Gimbel's were to New York and Marshall Field to Chicago.

The holy grail of advertising lies in finding which half of the budget is hitting the wrong eyeballs. Thus was born the business of marketing research. Who are our customers and what will tickle their fancies?

And so "great ratings" entered the national lexicon and even stands today as the deciding factor for scoring a presidential cabinet appointment.

Every useful innovation has always been in danger of perversion in service to money and power. The promise of television, and its bastard child the Internet, is often more damaging than beneficial.

With TV, ratings services approximated who was watching what. Exposed to the hidden algorithms of the web, we now voluntarily waive our precious privacy and let Big Brother learn and sell everything about us. Abuse is endemic and epidemic.

Criticism and satire about media mayhem are legion, from Vance Packard's 1957 "The Hidden Persuaders" to JG Ballard's 1963 short story "Subliminal Man."

In the latter, a dystopian consumerism-crazed society is so propagandized that they feel compelled to buy something even if they don't need it. (Sound familiar?) Freeway underpasses lie filled with brand new appliances, dumped because someone advertised something "new and improved."

Electronic media can prove addictive (slot machines) and sometimes dangerous. In 1997, more than 700 Japanese children were hospitalized after watching a six-second flashing-lights segment of "Pokemon" and going into epileptic seizures. Followup research showed more than 12,000 children were affected, as were many adults. (Some was attributed to mass hysteria.)

Russian Internet trolls played a major role in breaking the UK out of the European Union (Brexit) and greasing the first infestation of King Donald in 2016.

TikTok is so popular that governments around the world quake in fear that China is gathering critical intelligence through it. Ukrainian and Russian populations are both dependent on Telegram, with accompanying propaganda opportunities.

Young shooters around the world have been radicalized by finding something online that tells them what they want to hear.

The genie is out of the bottle and he's carcinogenic. Democracy lies imperiled.

As always, my best cure for what ails us lies with women taking control of politics. I'll now add a second, courtesy of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: "Teach your children well."

¡Sí se puede!

Happy High Holly Days to you and yours.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

_________________________

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

 

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

 

The parable of the pasta water
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 12-4-2024 / Updated 12-6-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue /

They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the virgin birth [2]

"Every heart desires," my mother Mary admonished after relating the sobering old country story of the spaghetti water.

I was a little kid helping out mom in our big kitchen, getting ready for a big Sunday dinner.

I don't remember what led into it, but she started telling me the pasta water legend which I remember to this very day.

In old Sicilia, a big wedding celebration was being held at the biggest house in town.

Mothers and grandmothers were busy preparing a sumptuous feast when a barefoot, skinny little girl in a ragged dress came shuffling by.

The aromas wafting from the kitchen enchanted her.

Timidly, she approached a window to watch the busy proceedings and finally summoned the courage to speak to the nearest woman.

"Signora, your cooking smells so good," she spoke barely above a whisper.

"When you finish boiling the pasta, before you throw out the water, may I please have a little cup of it to taste? It would mean so much to me."

The doñas had stopped work and gathered at the window by the time the mistress of the house pushed through.

"Get out of here you dirty-faced little tramp," the large imposing dueña thundered. "We are all very busy."

The thin ragged child shivered, slowly shuffled home and fell into a deep sadness.

"She soon died of a broken heart," my mother said. "Andy, never forget that every heart — every heart — desires.

"Even if you have very little, there is always someone else with less."

I remembered that story after watching a passel of Christmas commercials on TV.

The ads featured the usual, mostly palefaced blonde-haired happy children and their families doing Christmassy stuff.

The music and all the food and decorations were designed to make even the most jaded a bit ooey-gooey.

Alas, my liberal bleeding heart promptly flashed on the so many millions who have so much less than me.

Even here in the biggest, fattest, richest country the world has even known, embarrassingly huge numbers of American children can't get enough to eat.

Many Nevada school kids can't afford lunch even though the state has plenty of money.

Television pulses with the plasma of privation from every precinct of our little planet.

Is it any wonder, then, that heirs to the legacy of the raggedy little girl smolder and seeth, motivated to do something — anything — even if it proves wrong.

Deprivation begets desperation.

When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.

You and I get mushy when subjected to media manipulation of our emotions featuring fat little cherubs decorating trees.

But to somebody constantly cold and hungry, those same images evoke despair which may one day morph into deepening depression or erupt in violent rage.

They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a Silent Night
They told me a fairy story
'Till I believed in the Israelite
I believed in Father Christmas
I looked to the sky with excited eyes
'Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise

"So this is Christmas. What have you done?" sang John Lennon.

"Take care of each other!" admonished very Christian wiseman George Carlin.

I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas we get we deserve

More than one million have been hospitalized by Covid in the United States so far this year.

Get the latest boosters, mask up, stay safe and continue to pray for Ukraine and the currently 160 worldwide war-torn lands, including ours.

¡Sí se puede!

Hope you and yours enjoyed a Happy Thanksgibleting. Happy High Holly Days.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

[1] Whether or not use of "veil" is an error or what the writers intended, this homonym works on several poetic levels. "Vale" just means "valley," thus "vale of tears," whereas "veil" connotes a cascade of sorrows obscuring all else. And an allusion to violent loss of innocence — virginity.

[2] DISCOGRAPHY. "I Believe in Father Christmas" lyrics by Peter Sinfeld, music and vocals by Dan Lake (with turbocharging courtesy of Sergei Prokofiev); topped out at number two behind Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 1974.

As always, your best opportunities to hear the greatest-ever Christmas song lie with Pam Ferris and Max Volume on KOZZ 105.7 fm, especially Max's traditional Christmas Eve extravaganza leading up to midnight.
_________________________

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

 

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

 

Chef Charlie Abowd: Renaissance Mensch
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 11-27-2024
Updated 11-27-2024 GMT / Expansions in blu

Do this long enough and you learn how to write while weeping. Like right now.

I can't better describe Charlie Abowd than the words of legendary operatic tenor Jan Peerce who once defined a mensch as "a whole man."

This week, Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Siobhan McAndrew wrote "After a long day at Adele's restaurant, the kitchen closed and clean, chef Charlie Abowd was relieved to finally be going home.

"As he got into his car in Carson City late that night, he saw a man rummaging through the same garbage Abowd had just brought outside. Abowd walked back inside and made the man a hot meal.

“'I have the ability to give, and I'd rather he have fresh, hot food,' he told his family.

"That was the norm for Abowd, the longtime chef and owner of Adele's who died Nov. 9 of a heart attack at age 73."

I fought back tears until Charlie's family sent an array of photos.

FLOWER CHILDREN — Charlie and Karen on the deck at Adele's once upon a time.

Over the decades, I shared so many wonderful memories with my late wife Betty, Charlie and his family. At Adele's on January 24, 1982, we attended the most gourmet and exclusive Super Bowl party this side of corporate VIP suites as Joe Montana led the 49ers to their first win. We sometimes stayed at Adele's past closing time and met the crew at a Carson coffee shop to chat and laugh the night away.

Charlie was the direct descendant of immigrants, as am I. Who knows, maybe we were paisanos. Sicily was the crossroads of the ancient world so anyone from there might share DNA from just about anywhere.

My family came thru Ellis Island from Italy about the same time his arrived from Lebanon, formerly known as Phoenicia, the greatest seafaring nation of the ancient world. It also included parts of modern Syria and Israel. Phoenicia controlled Sicily for about 300 years. I find comfort thinking that Charlie and I were very distant relatives.

I cannot accord him more affection and respect than to call him my bro. We both grew up in family restaurant businesses. I know about working long hours on your feet in withering heat where you may need to take salt pills on a busy shift.

Charlie learned at the knee of his father, Paul. Like his dad, he became a world class chef. Charlie was a jovial, welcoming impresario when he could break away from spinning his magic back in the kitchen.

The last time I saw Paul Abowd at Reno's Stone House Cafe, he mentioned his fascinating origins working a pushcart on a Cleveland boardwalk. Like his son Charlie, he earned his way up. [[Paul died at 96 on March 11, 2024.]]

Paul and Adele Abowd were a match made in heaven. He ran manufacturing, she ramrodded marketing and distribution. After selling their multiple northern California enterprises, they moved to Carson City. In 1978, they opened Adele's Restaurant and Bar on Carson Street a few blocks from Nevada's capitol.

Lobbying and politicking combined with world class cuisine created a happy accident of history, the likes of which will never be again. Charlie and his beautiful wife, Karen, bought Adele's from the folks and operated it until the disastrous fire of 2019 which ended an era.

Karel Ancona, co-author of Charlie's popular 2023 cookbook and memoir, announced that Charlie died “on the eve of the 18th anniversary of what he considered one of his greatest professional achievements — cooking dinner for 100 at The James Beard House in New York City, an event that grew from an impromptu visit to Adele's by Chef Daniel Boulud.”

Charlie once turned down the chef's position at a major Las Vegas resort. After leaving Charlie and Karen to mind Carson in 1998, Paul and Adele started Adele's at the Plaza across from the Bruce Thompson Federal Courthouse at S. Virginia and Liberty in Reno.

Ever over-achieving, they also opened Peg's Glorified Ham & Eggs a block west on Sierra Street. Paul sold both after Adele's 2004 death and at age 78 went to work renovating what is now Reno's Stone House Cafe on W. Plumb Lane. Peg's now has nine Nevada locations including Sparks on E. Prater Way.

Karen and Charlie started the non-profit Greenhouse Project which provides fresh produce year-round to needy families. For many years, they drove to Reno early every Sunday morning bringing fresh hot breakfasts to downtown's Record Street homeless shelter and tent city.

The Abowd name was magic. I once got a call from a desperate elderly mother living with her adult mentally disabled son in a vermin-infested apartment near the state legislature. (Barbwire 5-16-2018) The absentee owner's Douglas County property managers stonewalled.

I let them know I was going to call Carson City Supervisor Karen Abowd. Then the heavens opened. The mom thanked me a few days later. Her apartment had been fully repaired and cleaned up.

“Remember, there are people in our community who need help and even the tiniest contribution of time, resources or money adds up to making a difference that matters,” Charlie wrote on Facebook in 2014.

Charlie Abowd, a kind and generous man. My bro, the mensch. Requiescat in pace.

CELEBRATION Monday Dec. 16 10:30 a.m., Carson Brewery Arts Center. Go to the NevadaLabor.com Barbwire expanded edition for links to Charlie's favorite charities for donations in lieu of flowers, along with photos, history and news stories. You may send remembrances for publication to me.

Get the latest boosters, stay safe and continue to pray for Ukraine and over 160 war-torn lands, including ours.

¡Sí se puede!

Happy Thanksgibleting to you and yours.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

[1] Charlie's memoir, “Recipes and Rambles that Made Adele’s a Nevada Hot Spot" may be purchased at the Purple Avocado bookstore in Carson City, ordered directly from the publisher or anywhere online.
_________________________

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

Top 10 Cures at 14: Exorcist wanted
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 11-20-2024 / Updated 11-20 & 11-21-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue /

"We have met the enemy and he is us." — from Walt Kelly's legendary "Pogo" comic strip

President Hoover, meet Smoot and Hawley
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 11-13-2024 / Updated 11-14 & 11-15-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue

The Saga of Sarah the Tranny Granny
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 11-6-2024 / Updated 11-6-2024 GMT

FASCISM? That's a new face cream, right?
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-30-2024 / Updated 10-30-2024 GMT


Ain't we a pair?
Dennis Myers & Andrew Barbano inducted into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-10-2024

Betty J. Barbano
2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005
 Remember her laughter

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
1947-2023
To Die For
My daughters were born 65 years ago yesterday. Alas, their youth was cut in twain.
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 1-17-2024
 

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>

Why the science is clear that masks work
By Zeynep Tufecki / The New York Times / 3-10-2023

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024
For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, subscribe to BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL—>Cheap. (HushHush!) Hie thee to BallotBoxing.US/


Peruse the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now: Tell your friends and friendly enemies to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential for warm laughter, cheap thrills, hot scoops and occasional cold logic at BallotBoxing.US/ Cheap at twice the price. (Hush Hush!)

Barbwire dark foreshadowings unfortunately have a way of becoming reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/ It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment. Thank you kindly for your support.



$75 dead or alive: Still crazy after all these years
A mass murderer becomes famous on TV a century later
How come nobody noticed 'til now?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-21-2018 Sparks Tribune

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners Max Blank and Isaac Harris. Is not Mr. Harris eerily familiar to television junkies?
From the Emmy-winning opening slate of the blockbuster "Cheers" television series. Combined with its "Frasier" spinoff, it lasted 20 years.
The "shirtwaist kings" immigrated from Russia and made a fortune manufacturing "Gibson Girl"-style blouses. (Photo, "The American Experience"/PBS)
 The Emmy-winning opening slate of the "Cheers" television series before the "slate" of creators is superimposed. Looks like Mr. Harris' dead ringer (at left) is having a bloody good time.

"Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" — Chico Marx disguised as Groucho Marx in "Duck Soup" (1933)
Back to the story of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist holocaust

Triangle tragedy recalled as requiem
"The Fire in My Mouth," a new oratorio by Pulitzer honoree Julia Wolfe, premiered with the New York Philharmonic Jan. 24
By Michael Cooper / The New York Times 1-23-2019

Wasting workers where everybody knows your name
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-18-2023

SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions (A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac
Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal
Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors | BallotBoxing.US
DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive
Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive
The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames
Annual César Chávez Celebration
War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart
We Don't Need No Education
In Search Of...


Barbwire
Archives


Copyright © 1982-2024 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He was the longtime executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and has been a quarter-century member and 10- year officer of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Betty J. Barbano
2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
1947-2023

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins