by order of Porfirio Diaz on the site of the Santa Isabella convent, and not completed until 1934.

 The Palace of Fine Arts, the premier opera house of Mexico City, which along with its opulent Art Nouveau interior, contains Diego Rivera's mural "Man, Controller of the Universe," executed in 1934.  A larger version was originally painted for the Rockefeller Center in New York, but the Rockefellers objected to an image of Lenin in the mural, and when Rivera refused to remove Stalin, his commission was cancelled and the mural was destroyed.

Speaking of changing your mind, Telemundo has announced today that Mirthala Salinas, the very comely reporter and sometime newscaster on Channel 52 is being reassigned to the station's Inland Empire bureau in Riverside.  Sound like a demotion to you?  Que paso, Mirthala?

Oh, right.  The affair with the Mayor of Los Angeles, my sometime neighbor Antonio Villaraigosa.  I remember seeing him one morning with a very attractive journalist at Peet's Coffee in Larchmont.  It was the pink tie that he occasionally wears that caught my eye and is an inspired choice with his dark good looks and the tailored shirts which let you know our mayor is buff.  Trust me.  Someone I know who knows about these things swears the Mayor spends as much time working out in the gym as he does in the Mayor's office.  Definitely has some serious guns, if you know what I mean.  And I say, quoting one of our famous local citizens, "That's hot."

 He is.  And so is she.  Miss Mirthala Salinas.  Call me crazy, but if you're going to be a public officicial and have an affair, for the love of God make it pretty for the people.  The least we deserve is good visuals, thank you.

Like the Mayor of that Northern California town, the "City by the Bay" where hearts get left.  Another buff, good-looking guy.

On the other hand, I once lived in Chicago and thank heavens the first Mayor Daly was faithful to Sis, which is what he and everyone else called his little wife.  And during Harold Washington's tenure there were rumors that, needless to say, had to be squashed immediately.  For obvious reasons.  NOT a buff guy, sad to say.

My theory is, you can put Stalin or Lenin in a mural as long as you do it in a beautiful way and you're in a country that respects beauty over politics.  I mean, I find it easier to forgive the pretty ones, don't you?  Beauty has its own rules.

Speaking of beautiful, you should see our new Cathedral, Our Lady of Angels.  Even my Jewish friends have been impressed.  It cost a fortune, you know.  I visited and was reminded of something a (now retired) chairman of a certain big bank in Manhattan said once, in a closed meeting in the 80s, after first asking if any press were present.  [No, it wasn't David Rockefeller, but that would be a good guess.]  Assured that no press were in the room to quote him later, this particular chairman smiled and said, "Gentlemen, I want to make obscene profits.  So my advice to you all is, Fuck the starving poor." Ah, the 80s!

There were of course no women present, or he would have said, you know, "Ladies and Gentlemen..." I suppose.  Just bank staff and maybe a few corporate leaders and a Secretary of State or two.  Of course he wasn't even thinking of illegal immigrants or the poor of our neighbor to the south, and certainly he'd never heard of a little Mexican cleaning lady whose son would one day be mayor of a city on the west coast.  No, this certain bank chairman was speaking in universal terms.  Besides, there's nothing especially beautiful about the poor, is there. 

As Porfirio Diaz [Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori, President/Dictator of Mexico from 1876-1911] once said, "Pobre Mexico.  Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!"  (Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!)

No Post Tomorrow.  So in the meantime, as Jack would say, Pray to the Blessed Heart of Our Savior Jesus.
Via con Dios, muchachos.