Lift Up Your Hearts!

This afternoon, searching for a birthday gift for my nephew, I ventured into long-forgotten territory: a Toys R Us store. Just as a child's growth is more noticeable to one who has been away for a while, so did I find the cultural changes represented by the toys and games to be startling. While there were a few of what I might call generic games, most were branded with characters from television shows and movies. Even the old standby, Candyland, now comes in Dora the Explorer and Winnie the Pooh (Disney version, of course) flavors. Back when I was a more regular visitor of toy stores, there were already a few media-inspired toys, but now the genre has exploded. I did not linger, but left with the impression that I would find more of reality at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

Women who want to get pregnant are now being advised to avoid tofu and other soy products, at least around the peak times for conception. New studies have shown that even small amounts of genistein, which mimics the hormone estrogen and is found in soy products, cause sperm to lose their fertility.

Well, I guess that explains why 20% of the world's population is Chinese!

I've never read Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them:  A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, and frankly I doubt it will ever rise far enough up on my "must read" list to see the light of day.  For all I know, it's a great book full of interesting and useful information that would do me good to read.  But if so, why does it have a title that sounds like a pre-adolescent playground taunt?  That alone makes it hard to take the content seriously.  Someone needs a ghost title-writer.

Score one more for mothers. When you sang to your baby, rocking and bouncing him, or danced with him around the room, others may have said you were being silly. You may have thought you were just trying to keep your baby from crying. But what you were really doing was giving him his first music lessons. A Canadian study has shown that being moved to music helps babies learn rhythm. Just watching you dance is not good enough, by the way; the baby must dance, too.

This isn't high on the list of important things I have to do at the moment, but Jon challenged me and it looks like fun, so I'll see if I can come up with something reasonably quickly.

Total size of music files in my computer
About 500 songs, I have no idea how many hours, about 2.1 GB.

This is slightly misleading, as most of the music I listen to is not on my computer. What I've counted includes a number of recordings, compositions, and transcriptions of music featuring family and friends.

Last record bought
Prayer for Peace (Orlando Deanery Boychoir and Girls' Choirs), title song by Robert Kerr

Song that I am listening to now
Silence. No, not Simon & Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence, but the real thing, or what passes for it in this busy world. Sometimes silence is my favorite song, especially when I'm trying to concentrate.

Five songs that I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me
Impossible to choose! But here is a representative sample:

Camille Saint-Saëns, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony)

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say/Star of the County Down (The link will take you to Horatius Bonar's words, but you'll have to click on the "Kingsfold" MIDI link to hear the right tune.)

St. Patrick's Breastplate (Irish tunes "St. Patrick" and "Deirdre" with Cecil Frances Alexander's translation of an ancient Gaelic poem attributed to St. Patrick. The link doesn't have the complete music, but will give you an idea.)

Kilkelly (Green Fields of America)

Non Nobis, Domine (unpublished arrangement by Linda Clary of Patrick Doyle's version from Kenneth Branagh's production of Shakespeare's Henry V)

5 persons to whom I am passing the baton
I'm not going to name names, but hope some people will add their own information in comments.

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:

• Drugs  This is a scary one.  Modafinil, officially prescribed to treat narcolepsy, keeps healthy people awake and alert on little sleep.  Students wanting an extra edge on exams are taking Ritalin for its concentration-enhancing effects.  No matter how much it's claimed that the drugs are not harmful, I'm extremely skeptical.  But if athletes will sacrifice their future for a little present glory, taking metabolic steroids despite the known risk, can performance-enhanced SAT scores be far behind?
• Food  We've heard most of this before:  Eat a protein-rich breakfast; they suggest beans or Marmite on whole grain toast, but perhaps we could get away with peanut butter.  Throughout the day emphsize fiber (improved cognition), B-vitamins (brain-boosters), eggs and yogurt (for building neurotransmitters),  colorful fruits and vegetables (antioxidants), and fish (brain-enhancing omega-3 fatty acids).  Avoid brain-fouling trans fats.
• Music  The jury is still out on the Mozart Effect, but the brain-boosting benefits of music lessons are clear.
• Mental Workouts  Exercises for improving memory help other parts of the brain as well.
• Physical Workouts  Regular exercise promotes brain growth and reduces brain-damaging stress homones.  Aerobic exercise, sedate walking, and yoga have all shown significant benefit.
  
• Sleep  Just what Mom always said:  If you don't get enough sleep, that extra studying is a waste of time.  Not only does sleep improve attention and concentration, but it gives the brain a chance to work in ways it can't when you're awake.  Sometimes a problem really can be solved by "sleeping on it."
  
• Not for Children Only  Contrary to what we were all told, even adults can grow new brain cells.
• Strange but True?  You might have more brain power than you think.  Volunteers in one study increased the strength of their biceps by 13% after 12 weeks of spending 15 minutes a day just thinking about exercising.  And neurofeedback, related to biofeedback, has enabled some people to use their brains in surprising ways, from improving musical technique, to reducing pain, to treating ADHD.
• Attitude A healthy brain is only one of the benefits of a positive, happy outlook on life.
  

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).

So what did we do without our Cattlemen's? I tried one alternative brand of barbecue sauce after another; I even tried making my own. Several were good, nothing was what I remembered. Perhaps my memory was fooling me, as it often does, and Cattlemen's wasn't really that good. Or so I reasoned, until we went to a commercial barbecue (put on by our credit union, of all things!) and with my first bite, I exclaimed, "This is IT!" Come to find out, from the cooks, that they were indeed using Cattlemen's, which was still available to restaurants.

Yesterday I walked into our local Albertsons grocery store, and what did I see staring at me from the condiment aisle, boldly proclaiming itself amongst all pretenders? Cattlemen's! Once again in retail sizes. Not only the two I remembered, the original ("Award Winning Classic") and the Smoky ("Authentic Smokehouse"), but also a new variety, "Golden Honey." I snatched up one bottle of each, and am looking forward to assuring myself that the quality has returned along with the name.

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).

Not that anyone is recommending we go back to the days of frying ourselves on the beaches. Our overuse of sunscreen, however, may actually be causing more cancer than it prevents. Vitamin D, it turns out, plays an important role in preventing and fighting certain cancers, particularly colon cancer—and even skin cancer itself. Not only are we not getting enough vitamin D in our diets, as a rule, but the supplemental vitamin D we do receive (in milk and vitamin supplements) is not as good as the vitamin D made through the collaboration of skin and sun.

So—heed my mother's warning: Respect the sun, limit your exposure, but never forget that fresh air, exercise, and sunshine provide some of life's best medicine. (Turn off the TV and go play outside!)

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.

Consider these statements:

• The health department claimed that if a right to artificial nutrition or hydration (ANH) treatment was established, patients would be able to demand other life-prolonging treatments
• [The government argued that the ruling] may be interpreted as giving patients the right to demand certain treatments, contrary to the considered judgment of their medical team, that would lead to patients obtaining access to treatment that is not appropriate for them, and to inefficient (and unfairly skewed) use of resources within the NHS
• [and also that the ruling] had led to a confusion between the roles of doctor and patient—the decision over treatment [is] for the doctor, not the patient

In the words of Mr. Burke's lawyer, "The key issue could be summarised in two words: who decides?" It's not an easy issue, and it won't go away. I remember a conversation with an anesthesiologist friend 25 years ago, in which he warned that health care resources are not infinite and like it or not we will have to make decisions as to how they are allocated. A capitalist system, in which money provides access to health care, seems at first to be monstrously unfair, but I'll take its flexibility any day over socialized medicine, in which life and death decisions—still made on an economic basis; that's unavoidable—are in the hands of an inhuman, faceless bureaucracy. When decisions are left up to individuals and smaller institutions, creativity and compassion have room to flourish. People can cut back in other areas of their budgets to provide for medical care; families and communities can unite to raise funds; deals can be worked out. A friend of ours who never had medical insurance needed a quadruple heart bypass operation. The hospital asked him to pay his $150,000 bill of at a rate of $100/month. He won't live long enough to pay it off, but this solution pleased both him and the hospital. The more decisions are left at a local level, the more flexibility we have.

One thing I know: I agree with Mr. Burke that I don't want a doctor, a lawyer, a judge, or anyone else who doesn't know me extremely well deciding that my "quality of life" isn't worth living.

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.