Lift Up Your Hearts!

Like many Americans, we plan to spend this Memorial Day relaxing with friends. As good and proper an activity as that is, we would be wrong not to recognize the true purpose of this holiday. Those who have given the last full measure of devotion to our country died for more substantial freedoms than a three-day weekend.

Here is some information on Memorial Day by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

And here is a link to our Veterans' Day tribute to all who have laid their lives on the line for our country, including two family members who died in World War I.

Who wouldn't want to be smarter, think more clearly, and be able to concentrate better? New Scientist has compiled a list of brain-building suggestions for everyone from students to senior citizens.  Some were new to me, some old hat, some intriguing, and some frightening: (More)

Back in the old days, when corportate headquarters was on One Mustard Street in Rochester, New York, Porter worked for the R. T. French Company. That was when we discovered their Cattlemen's Barbecue Sauce. When we moved to Florida, this delicious condiment became difficult, and later impossible, to find. Soon we couldn't find it even on our periodic trips north for essential supplies, such as the famous Sassy Sauce from Sal's Birdland (Buffalo Wings are nothing compared to what they do with chicken in Rochester); Blenheim Old #3 Ginger Ale (an essential ingredient in a Lime Daley, this fabulous drink was once lost to the world but now can be found at the otherwise obnoxious South of the Border tourist trap), and white birch beer (good old Undina White Birch Beer from Higganum, Connecticut is no longer available, but now and then you can find source that understands the best birch beer isn't red). (More)

For those of you to whom this matters, I've added syndication links (RSS, etc.) to the right-hand panel. I'm a complete novice here, but I know that there are various programs out there that you can use with this to let you know when certain websites are updated. SharpReader was recommended to me, though I haven't tried it yet because I have to install the .Net framework first, and I just haven't bothered. For now, the Live Bookmark option in FireFox works pretty well.

Research has shown, once again, that the human body works best when used according to its original design. A study of more than 2000 nine to fifteen year olds indicates that exclusive breastfeeding significantly lowers systolic blood pressure, with the strength of the benefit directly proportional to the duration of the breastfeeding. This positive effect is comparable to that of exercise and of restricted salt diets in adults.

Just off the Georgetown Pike (Route 193) in McLean, Virginia, right across from the CIA, you can step back in time to 1771 at the Claude Moore Colonial Farm. This living history museum is small enough, and inexpensive enough, to make a great "rest stop" for travellers along the frenetic I-95 corridor. Our most recent visit coincided with one of their Market Fairs, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the exhibits, eating the "18th century" food, and chatting with a remarkable wandering Gypsy fortune teller. I had always associated Gypsies with Europe, but learned that many came to Virginia, particularly after being told that being Gypsy and being Scottish had become mutually exclusive.

I have an eight year old friend who is a self-proclaimed vegetarian ("I don't like meat"), although this is not entirely accurate, since he eats both bacon and chicken nuggets. When his aunt tried to serve him some chicken on the grounds that he likes chicken nuggets, he insisted, "There is no chicken in chicken nuggets." He may be on to something.

When God created the sun, He called it good. In recent years we have been told that God was wrong. Doctors—and hence parents, especially mothers—have been insisting that we dare not venture out into the sunshine without the protection of clothing and/or lavishly applied sunscreen. Living in Florida, I have a highly-developed sense of respect for the power of the sun's rays, and certainly do my share in supporting the sunscreen industry. But I also remember my mother's insistence on the importance of sunshine on skin for making much-needed vitamin D. Thus it was heartening to read that evidence is mounting in favor of my mother (not to mention God). (More)

While the United States is busy wrestling with the so-called right to die, in the United Kingdom it's the right to life that is in question. Leslie Burke, who has a degenerative brain disease, has won a court judgement forbidding doctors to withdraw nutrition and hydration should the time come when he needs them and is incapable of expressing his wishes. The government is challenging the decision, claiming that doctors, not patients, should be the final arbiters of treatment decisions. Nor do they make any attempt to disguise their financial concerns, for under socialized medicine, leaving the power to "pull the plug" in the hands of those who wish to continue to live can get very expensive for the government. (More)

The statistics for this blog tell me that I have had over 1400 unique visitors so far. Since only a handful have left comments, it leaves me wondering who you all are. I know the number is inflated, because it only counts IP addresses, and often the same person comes back with a slightly different address. I also know that a number of the visits are from faceless robots. But surely some of them represent real people.

Most of the vistors have been from the United States, but others have come from Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Vietnam! I might be able to account for Italy, Hong Kong, and New Zealand as well as a few from the U.S., but who are the rest of you? How did you find my blog? Are you a one-time visitor, or do you check in regularly? What do you like, or not like? Please leave a comment and let me know. You don't have to identify yourself; just let me know you are a real person! I certainly hope that most of my "readers" aren't just robots.

Sometimes I like the Frazz comic because of its references to things that have meaning to me but are relatively obscure (like the trebuchet), and sometimes I like Frazz because it mentions things I know nothing about myself. The reference to David Mamet in today's strip inspired a Google search that led me to this Salon interview. Movies, television, and modern culture being an alien landscape to me, I have not seen any of Mamet's films, but the interview reveals—and conceals—a character so interesting I'm inclined to change that.

Parents in Rochester, New York no longer have to stay home with sick children, nor be inconvenienced by having to take them to the doctor, thanks to a program that connects schools and day care centers with doctors via the Internet. Little Johnny wakes up feeling miserable? No need to fret; just pack him off to school or day care anyway. There, a staff member with a whole week's worth of training will examine his ears, swab his throat, and otherwise check him out using equipment that sends the results over the Internet to a physician. The diagnosis is made, medication begun, and you pick your child up at the end of the day as usual, no fuss, no bother. (More)

I'm am really tired of reading about procedures that were once known to be right now being shown to be useless or even harmful. Actually, I'm not tired of learning the truth, just frustrated with those (especially doctors, teachers, and governmental authorities) who are absolutely certain they know best and thus justiify runing roughshod over other people. I think of the Canadian judge who will force an unwanted medical procedure on a child, in violation of her own conscience and the desires of her family, because he and some doctors think it's the best thing for her; of those who would insist, with the force of law, that a hospital is the only acceptable place to be born, and a school the only acceptable place to be educated, despite mounting evidence to the contrary; of bloodletting, and hormone replacement therapy, and routine circumcision, all procedures once pushed by the medical profession and since retracted. Here's the latest: episiotomies, once considered essential to prevent serious problems during and after childbirth, have now been shown to be useless.

I know we must make decisions based on the knowledge we have at the time, and have no problem with honest errors. My quarrel is with those—I include myself—who in the certainty of their own convictions would use the force of law or their position to shut down contrary beliefs.

"First, do no harm."

Happy Cinco de Mayo to all!

Regular breast self exams, pap smears, mammograms, colonoscopies, prostate exams, full excision and pathological examination of moles that once were just shaved off at skin level, even routine full body scans—our understandable fear of cancer is reflected in the many procedures available and often recommended in hopes of besting this scourge.

However, there is a downside to all this screening that is now beginning to be recognized. (More)