$60 torsos and tasty tacos

For sale: half of a fake person. Seller: a fake store, a liquidator selling its spoils and that of bankrupt West Coast regional department store chain and onetime Fresno icon Gottschalks.

Browsing at mannequins, shelves and oddball clothing that could fit anorexic rhesus monkeys and the odd color-blind caribou, what a great way for my spouse and I to start our anniversary celebration.

So many similarities to my daily grind of health care politics. Lop off the arms and head, then leave the middle to its own devices — call it the California state budget process. Flesh out the middle, reposition the legs and the head — call it national health care reform, coverage for all, let the extremes figure it out.

Hardly a day goes by without someone who cares seriously about quality care coming by and asking: This is on the table, who can we call (“Ghostbusters”)? What should we tell them (“lights out”)?

Fortunately, we swung into a Clovis movie theater, donned some 3-D glasses and watched Disney/Pixar’s “Up.” Wonderful, uplifting morality tale. The many levels of empowerment, of loneliness. The power of pluck, and of “wanna.” The 3-D — the dimensional aspect — was a powerful metaphor, both for the movie and for how we have to look at the multi-layered historic time in which we live.

We ended up at El Matador, a favorite, locally owned Mexican restaurant — flautas, quesadillas and asking a familiar young server how her two-year-old twin sons were doing.

Torsos, theater, tacos and talk. A memorable, motivating anniversary, we thought.