Social Commentary | Stoned Cherry

Wherever You Go, There You Are: My Voyage of Rediscovery Continues

February 23, 2025 Frank Yacenda Comments 0 Comment

If you haven’t already, read the first installment in this ongoing journal. It will bring you up to speed on what this is about. It has been a full week today (Saturday) since I left home on what I’m calling my voyage of rediscovery, and six full days that I’ve been in Colombia, the first country on my planned 10-country Odyssey. The first few days I was in Cartagena, and now I’m in Santa Marta, easterly along the country’s Caribbean…

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My Voyage of Rediscovery Has Begun

February 18, 2025 Frank Yacenda Comments 0 Comment

I am writing this post from Cartagena, Colombia, where I am now nearing the end of my second full day, third day overall, of my voyage of rediscovery. This is the first stop on a trip that will take me to 10 countries, passing through another seven along the way. Phileas Fogg, in the Jules Verne novel, went around the world in 80 days. I anticipate doing it in 76, though I don’t have any big wager waiting for me…

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That Time of Year Again: Thoughts on “the Longest Day in the World”

June 21, 2022 Frank Yacenda Comments 4 comments

This piece initially appeared five years ago, on June 21, 2017, the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. I originally posted this piece on my non-fiction blog, fjy.us, and it became an annual event to post it each year on June 21. Two years ago I began posting it here, and this year it will appear on both blogs and on my Substack, Issues That Matter. Today, June 21, 2022, it is once more the Summer Solstice, and the actual…

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It’s 4:20 Somewhere

April 20, 2022 Frank Yacenda Comments 0 Comment

“Of course I know how to roll a joint.” – Martha Stewart “That is not a drug, it’s a leaf.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger “When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point.” – Barack Obama “People say you can abuse marijuana. Well shit, you can abuse cheeseburgers too, you know? You don‘t go around closing Burger King because you can abuse something.” – Joe Rogan “Alcohol and marijuana, if used in moderation, plus loud, usually low-class music, make stress and…

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Three Words to Live By

April 12, 2022 Frank Yacenda Comments 0 Comment

When I lived in Key West in the late ’70s, early ’80s, a well known local contractor, whose name now eludes me (a fraction of a brain cell thinks his first name was Carl, but I have zero-percent confidence in that), was busted at sea in the Gulf of Mexico smuggling some large quantity of marijuana from the Yucatan. When the Coast Guard boarded his boat and arrested him, he had just three words to say, which were quoted in…

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