Spotlight

Larry Rafes is on the journey of a lifetime. A journey he never expected to make. An odyssey he hopes will serve as an inspiration to others.

Just 18 months ago, Rafes could hardly walk or even breathe. His kidneys were failing and every day that he waited for his name to be called for a transplant seemed longer than 24 hours.

Rafes received a kidney transplant at Allentown Hospital, and after several months of recovery, felt so healthy and hearty that he wanted to give something back.

Columbine. Virginia Tech. Aurora.

When are we going to learn?

Reading about the recent tragedy in Colorado, the story of a man gone mad and a defenseless crowd of theater-goers forced to play witness to their own horror film, was saddening, depressing. But it wasn't surprising.

(This is the sixth in a series of columns on Brandon Taylor's recent trip to India.)

Sex sells. It sells very well. For the relatively sleepy and secluded town of Khajuraho in central India, sex drives the tourist industry, just not in the same way that it lures many an individual to places like Las Vegas. In Khajuraho, it's the heavily advertised erotic statues and "sex temples" that draw in crowds. From across the globe, people come to ogle at, blush over and take photos of the busty carvings of bodacious, scantily clad sandstone babes and bros.

Something old, something new.

That just about sums up SyanI, a fledgling Lehighton-based ukulele duo, formed of something new two retired oldies-but-goodies who are reblooming their Flower Power 60's coming-of-age musical lifestyle and something old, a 60's came-of-age senior lifestyle that partners, Judy Greig and Sy Kipp, like to call "geezer love."

Judy coined the duet's name SyanI, pronounced Sy-an-I, to reflect their partnership of "Sy" (Kipp), "and "I" (Greig) cute, although a tricky play on words.