Dr. McDougall's Recent Letter to President Clinton

Dear 42nd President William Jefferson Clinton:

With all their good intentions, and the use of sophisticated, expensive technologies, your doctors are allowing your heart disease to progress as if it were a runaway train destined for a wreck. Your cardiologist, Dr. Allan Schwartz, at New York Presbyterian Hospital is telling you further blockage is the normal course of your disease, and your diet and lifestyle are not involved. Medical experts expressing their opinion in the news since your surgery are misleading the public into believing that the proper management of this disease is through constant surveillance and repeated surgical interventions. This is big business talking, and in addition to mismanagement of your personal care, one result will be an increase in the already more than one million angioplasties and 500 thousand bypass surgeries performed annually in the US.

Recall your first painful encounter with the heart surgery business on September 3, 2004 when you were hospitalized following an episode of chest pain. You had quadruple bypass surgery three days later. A couple of days ago, on Thursday, February 11, 2010, you needed the heart surgeons again. You had two bare metal stents placed in your heart following a few of days of mild chest discomfort. This history will continue to repeat itself until you seriously change your eating habits and get these meddling doctors out of your life. You are missing another “teaching moment” and bypassing another chance to change health and healthcare in America.

In a letter I sent to you the day following your hospitalization in 2004, I pleaded with you to refuse bypass surgery. I told you that bypass surgery does not save lives in most cases, and I warned you of the brain damage you would suffer from being on the heart-lung bypass machine. Likely you did not read that letter. Following your quadruple bypass you were a noticeably different man. Your sometimes-irrational behavior during Hillary Clinton’s campaign was in part due to your surgically-induced mental decline. I sent another letter in the spring of 2008 apologizing for the harm my colleagues caused you and their failure to offer you intensive medical therapy founded on a healthy diet. I believe you received that letter or read the Wall Street Journal article that followed about your brain damage. Since you became aware of your functional loss you have seemed to me to be in much better control when before the public.

I am taking the opportunity in this letter to try to help you again. By helping one of our country’s greatest statesmen, I may be able to help other heart patients (which happens to include most adults following the Western diet). This is my third attempt, but likely not my last, because, after all, your heart doctors (Dean Ornish, MD being an outstanding exception) believe your disease is unstoppable. Remember what they said: they are going to manage your future health by constant surveillance and repeated surgical interventions. These well-educated professionals are dead wrong on how to care for a patient such as you.

In order for you to stop having false hope you need to be told that heart surgery, including bypass surgery and angioplasty with or without stents, does not save lives in the vast majority of cases. You have not been fixed by either procedure. The reason for this is that the bypass surgeons and cardiologists are operating on the stable hard fibrous plaques that do not kill people. Why do they operate on nonlethal lesions? Because they can. These large fibrous stable plaques, which have been present for years, if not decades, are visible by technologies like angiograms and heart scans. Once visualized, they become targets for knives, grafts, sutures, and catheters.

The disease that really kills is largely invisible to your doctors. Tiny festering sores that rupture cause heart attacks, and the deaths that follow these heart attacks in nearly half the cases. In order to understand the underlying problem, think about pustules or pimples rupturing on a teenager’s face, but in this case the deadly activity is inside your arteries. In medical terminology, these tiny sores are called “volatile plaques.” When they pop, substances generally referred to as “products of injury” are released. The body’s response is to form a blood clot to cover up the wound (similar to the blood clot that forms when you cut your hand with a knife). If the blood clot (called a thrombus) is large enough, then the flow in the entire heart artery can be blocked off. The heart muscle that lies distal to this sudden blockage usually dies—and that is how a heart attack occurs.

Why do heart surgeons not operate on the killing part of this disease? Because they can’t. They cannot see these tiny festering sores with current technology. Even if they could see these “silent killers,” they have no surgical techniques to stop them from exploding. The only solution is to allow the body to heal your steadily-progressing disease by making serious dietary changes. (Medications, such as aspirin and statins, when judiciously used, can be of benefit as well.)

I realize you were frightened by the chest discomfort on both occasions (2004 and 2010). Fortunately, changing to a healthy low-fat diet (like the Pritikin, McDougall, Ornish, or Esselstyn Diets) reduces the intensity and/or stops the chest pains very quickly. Improvement in blood flow begins with the first good meal. In a matter of hours the blood naturally thins and a blood clot is less likely to form if a volatile plaque does rupture (aspirin helps too). Spontaneous healing is a powerful force — within the first week the risk of pustule rupture is greatly reduced. In a matter of months, reversal of artery disease can be seen by current technologies (angiograms and PET scans).

The truths I have given you are indisputable and most of your doctors are well aware of the solid research behind what I have told you. Your problem now is the same as everyone else’s: making the change. This is not easy, especially when you have almost no conservative medical support. If you do not change you can expect your future to be more like the past, but probably worse, because you are getting older. So for your sake, and all those who benefit from your work, I invite you to attend the next 10-day, live-in, McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California, March 19 to 28, 2010. You can call me at (800) 941-7111. In this short time together, I promise we will change your life dramatically for the better. When that happens I will stop writing you these cautionary letters, which so far have accurately predicted your future.

Sincerely,

John McDougall, MD
http://www.drmcdougall.com/

© 2010 John McDougall All Rights Reserved

(Used with Dr. McDougall's permission.)

For the MSM point of view, see this.

Slog Post

Slough Slogging, that is.

Contact the Dove Avenue Outfitters to make arrangements before skeeter season starts.

Valentine's Day in Afghanistan

A photo from Michael Yon, via Instapundit, to make you both weep and be thankful.

Prostate Cancer and Diet

Two of my friends, both men in their sixties, were recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. One of my former partners at Smathers & Thompson, a man I had known 40 years, a fine amateur athlete all of his life, died of the disease last year at age 77. I continue to represent a widow of another partner, a man who died of prostate cancer in the early 1990s when in his sixties. "In men aged forty to fifty-nine, the risk of developing prostate cancer is one in fifty. In men aged sixty to seventy-nine, it's one in seven. And over the course of his lifetime, an American man's risk of developing prostate cancer is one in six." (Walsh at p. 45, see full cite below.) The disease has my attention.

I happened to be meeting with a client last Monday who is a physician. Although he is not a urologist, so many of his friends have been diagnosed with prostate cancer that he has made a study of it. Because some of those friends were/are also doctors, he has been able to discuss the matter with them at a high level. The subject came up between the two of us because one of the two friends of mine recently diagnosed is a friend of his.

He recommended Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer (Second Edition), which I am now reading. It is well written and very informative. (Patrick Walsh is a world renowned urologist and the physician at Johns Hopkins who developed the modern surgical approach to the treatment of prostate disease.)

As to the influence of diet, Dr. Walsh writes:

Animal fat is bad for you, especially the fat found in red meat and dairy products. Men who eat a lot of those foods are more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer and die from it. Why? There is an enzyme in prostate cancer cells that craves the fatty acids in dairy products and red meat. Consequently, when a man with prostate cancer consumes a diet high in those foods, his cancer cells get nine times more energy than normal cells. Further, these cells produce hydrogen peroxide, which causes still more oxidative damage to DNA and more mutations, leading to further progression of the disease.

Dr. Campbell addresses the diet-prostate disease connection in his The China Study. He quotes on page 178 from a 2001 Harvard review of the research as follows:

. . . twelve of . . . fourteen case-control studies and seven of . . . nine cohort studies [have] observed a positive association for some measure of dairy products and prostate cancer; this is one of the most consistent dietary predictors for prostate cancer in the published literature [my (Dr. Campbell's) emphasis]. In these studies, men with the highest dairy intakes had approximately double the risk of total prostate cancer, and up to a fourfold increase in risk of metastatic or fatal prostate cancer relative to low consumers.

Miscellany

LOTR Prequel

Bananas as proof of God's existence.

Dairy and brain damage.

Soft-serve bananas. I skip the food processor step.

"Operation Cornflakes"

A little WWII history.

Magic Mushrooms in Miami

Read this wonderful article in Thursday's Miami Herald about Benjamin Masopeh, a farmer from Ghana, who came to Homestead to show a farmer there how to grow oyster mushrooms. (There's just no place on earth like Miami-Dade County.)

Kiffin Update

There is a proposal to name a sewage treatment plant in Tennessee after him.

It seemed right to me at first. But after a very short moment of reflection, I think it's an entirely bad idea. Such plants are exceedingly necessary and useful. Good people design and run them. And such enterprises turn waste into something helpful. Obviously, it would be an inappropriate gesture.

Mort Zuckerman on President Obama

Mortimor B. Zuckerman is the Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News and World Report and a regular panelist on the McLaughlin Group, which Carol and I have watched for years on public television. He usually sits to the right of McLaughlin, the viewer's left, and it is on that side thatpundits who are politically "left of center" sit. On the left of McLaughlin, the viewer's right, is where the pundits sit who are "right of center." McLaughlin, of course, sits in the center, and I believe he thinks of himself as politically in the center.

After listening to Zuckerman's comments over the years, I would say that he is left of center, but not very much. Of course, that's a subjective viewpoint, as all of this left-of-center, right-of-center, labeling is. That labeling is quickly less than helpful and even damaging to political discussion. In any event, Zuckerman very much liked Obama during the campaign and has said very hopeful things about him over the last 12 months.

But now he writes an article in U.S.News entitled "The Incredible Deflation of Barack Obama." It is well worth reading. He doesn't bash Obama. He expresses his deep disappointment and he describes reasonably and accurately the mistakes that the President has made and the political consequences of them. He also expresses the hope the the President will somehow get back on the right course.

Frankly, I don't see Obama being able to turn his administration around. I do not believe he has the experience, the political know-how, to do so. His character also seems to lack the sort of humility that it would take for him to start anew and act differently. Finally, I believe he has a sort of religious faith that government has the answers, all the answers, if only government were large and powerful enough and had bright people like him to run it. I hope I'm wrong about his ability to get on the right course. I fear, though, that he will simply "double-down" on his bet that he can shove his agenda through by doing whatever it takes.

But if he looses very bright, opened minded, articulate, centrist, and well-connected people like Mort Zuckerman, the President will surely, surely fail.

Legoland? Legoland!

Aidan, did you know about this?

Returning to the SLR Mode

I got a good price on a factory refurbished Nikon D40 from Adoroma by way of Ken Rockwell's great camera website. Here's what Rockwell says about the D40.

My D40 is too much fun. I own all sorts of serious cameras like the Canon 5D, Nikon D200, D80 and D70, but my D40, with its weightless 18-55mm lens and SB-400 flash, is what I grab most of the time as of May 2007 when I just want to make good photos easily. It works great with my other lenses like my Nikon 18-200mm VR.

The camera is no longer being made by Nikon and its factory refurbished ones are disappearing too.

Now we know what Tebow inked under his eyes

"Secret Jesus Bible Codes"

Maybe the NCAA should look into it.

Happy Public Art at Jacksonville Airport

Last weekend we traveled through the new (to us) Jacksonville International Airport and, but for the ubiquitous TV monitors blaring CNN which are very seriously annoying, it is a most pleasant place. (Ubiquitous TV monitors blaring anything would be seriously annoying.) People with good taste worked very hard on the design of the interior of the airport and execution.

Of all places to be presented with some happy public art were the entries to the rest rooms. The first photo presents the entry foyer to the men's room. Note the border around the entrance, both the sides and the top, and then the design on the wall at the rear of the foyer. (I'm sure that there are words for these several parts of the foyer, but I don't know what they are. I don't even know whether "foyer" is the right word to describe the entrance.)

The second photo shows a close up of the vertical boarder of the entrance. As you can begin to see, the boarders are really glass cases with objects in them. The objects in the cases that make up the entry boarders are little globes. The side cases have multi-colored globes and the case that runs across the top of the entrance have bands of multi-colored and blue-hued globes.

The back wall of the foyer turns out to be a glass case too. In it are diagonal rows upon rows of little paper airplanes. What a delight!

The last photo is of the concourse, looking toward the end of it where there is a huge arching window with a giant figure that appears to be walking by it outside. It took me aback when I first saw it. It looked so realistic. Was it a sculpture erected just outside the window? On closer inspection, it proved to be a sort of decal or painting, I don't know which. But it was great fun too.

The Volunteers Liberated

Lane Kiffin is gone. He was plainly not SEC material. Besides that, one jerk-coach in the SEC is plenty, and Kiffin was number two. So, yeah, back to the left-coast with you, and the (Trojan) horse you rode in on.

The Blind Man on Second Avenue

I was walking up SE 2nd Avenue from SE 1st Street toward Flagler about noon today. On the sidewalk coming toward me was a youngish man with a white cane, a blind man, and he was talking on a cell phone as he walked. I thought that strange. I thought hearing was very important for blind people, and here he was walking along the city sidewalk next to a busy street, on his cell phone.

Is it a sort of bigotry that makes me think that this is more bizarre than people driving their cars in traffic while on the cell phone? It's risky behavior for both. The driver thinks he is seeing everything because his eyes are open, even as his attention is focused on what the phone. The blind man thinks he is hearing everything, while he listens to his cell, and feeling whatever he feels with his cane, even though his attention is on his phone.

On second thought, it's not quite the same thing. The driver relies on his sight, and he is doing nothing to impair his sight with his cell phone use (if he is not dialing or texting, of course). The problem is that his attention is distracted. But as sight is to the sighted, isn't hearing to the blind? By listening on the phone, isn't the blind man especially impaired? I don't think I was being bigoted when the blind man's behavior seemed particularly bizarre to me today.

Carol Said This Made Her Think of Me. Now was that nice?

The Solution for Excess Being More Excess

Recently, politicians have been saying that more lending is necessary for the economy to recover quickly. While with bank CEOs in December, President Obama urged them to "take a third and fourth look" at their lending practices and announced that the administration's focus over the next several months will be "geared towards catalyzing and spurring additional lending, particularly to small businesses."

These political inducements to increase lending may do more harm that good. In a market economy, banks do not need any convincing to lend to sound businesses with profitable projects. The profit motive is usually sufficient. What politicians typically want is for banks to lend for projects that are not necessarily sound or profitable. Urging the banks to lend more than they would choose pushes them towards the risky practices of the past. More lending is unlikely to be a solution to the crisis brought about by excessive debt levels. Excesses are not overcome by still more excesses.

-Polina Vlasenko, Research Fellow, AIER, in "More Lending Isn't the Answer," Research Reports, January 11, 2010.

But if the banks won't do the lending, the federal government will.

Don at Our Wedding

My Uncle Don was a groomsman at my wedding in 1970. In the first photo, he is the groomsman at the far right. (To his right is my cousin Kenneth. Then my father, who was best man, and then me. The minister was my friend and roommate my senior year at Duke, Doug Tanner, who went on to Duke Divinity School after we graduated. The other groomsmen are, continuing to the left, Ashley James, Al Kirshen, a friend of mine from law school, and Tommy Watts, who grew up with me in Miami Springs. The bridesmaids from right to left are Margaret Drury, a friend of Carol's from Greensboro, Janice Horner, Carol's roommate at Duke, Debbie Williams, Carol's suite mate at Duke, Carol's sister, Mary Ann James, who was matron of honor, Gail Millians, who lived across the street from Carol in Greensboro, and my sister, Julia. The ring bearer is Jeff James, Mary Ann's son.)


The next photo shows Don second from the right, between Al and Ken.

The final photo doesn't have Don in it, but it's one of my two favorites from the wedding, so I thought I would post it.

The first wedding in my memory was that of Don and Ann in 1952 at the First Baptist Church of East Point, Georgia, the middle class suburb of Atlanta where my grandfather had his funeral home and, right next door to the funeral home, his own home. It was a grand wedding, and I remember the excitement and joy even today. I was six years old then. There is a photo among the pictures in Ann and Don's wedding album which has me in it, looking up at Ann in her beautiful wedding dress. I had about the same expression on my face as the one in the third photo. Both Ann and Carol were stunning brides, and both Don and I very blessed young men.

Uncle Don Passed Away

Friday morning we got word that Uncle Don died. He had been in the hospital in Macon for several weeks, after having fallen and sustaining serious head injuries. He died on Thursday. The funeral was to be in Eastman on Saturday (yesterday) and a memorial service is to be held to day at Wofford College in Spartanburg. He was Professor Emeritus at Wofford, where he had taught biology for 40 years before retiring, having started his career there at age 22, while working on his PhD at Emory. (The link has a good photo of Don.)

We knew that he was desperately ill, and as soon as we got word, Carol made arrangements for us to fly to Jacksonville Friday evening, stay in a hotel near the airport, and then get a car for us to drive to Eastman the next morning. We arrived at Ann and Don's church Saturday morning a little after 11AM, in time for the visitation that had just begun and the service at Noon. After the service, we drove in the caravan to the cemetery outside of town, and then came back to the church for lunch, where folks there had laid out a marvelous meal.

Ann and Don's children and grandchildren were there, of course. Their children are Donna, Mark, and Philip. Donna has four children, all daughters. Mark has three children, a son and two daughters. Philip has two children, a son and a daughter. But there were a lot of other people there, a lot of kinfolk, some of whom we had not seen in many years, some since my mother's burial in Atlanta three years ago this April, and still others since Ann and Don's 50th wedding anniversary celebration at that same church in 2002 or 2003. My cousin Butch Hemperley and his wife were there from Atlanta. My Uncle Asa and his wife from Hutchinson Island, Florida, were there, and many others. Among the most interesting among them all were the younger people, mainly the grandchildren, and I regret that I did not have the opportunity to visit with each one of them. Our short time there was quite structured - it was only about 5 hours - for we started back to Jacksonville about 4PM, arriving at our hotel after 8PM.

I want to post more about Uncle Don and Aunt Ann later. They meant so much to me, as a model of a loving couple, fine parents, as community and professional leaders, very, very hard workers and people who helped and supported me directly, especially when I was at Duke and they showed such hospitality to a lonely boy. I was there at the beginning of their marriage, at their wedding in East Point in 1952, and now I am there at the end of their marriage in Eastman. I find myself profoundly saddened, but very thankful for them both.

Government Workers

Each work day morning I usually commute to downtown on MetroRail. Along the way, there is a stop at the Tri-Rail station, where commuters from Broward County board our train. Tri-Rail is a heavily subsidized, public commuter train company that rents track time for its cars from CSX. Tri-Rail's route runs parallel to I-95, beginning in north Palm Beach County and running south to its termination at a station near MIA airport. Its train stops at the MetroRail transfer point where its commuters join my ride.

A very substantial number of the people who get on board at the Tri-Rail station are government workers and the government they mostly work for is our county government, known as Metro-Dade. These people live in Broward County, home of late 20th century "white-flight," as to which sort of people I always thought "Good riddance." But here they are back, populating our local bureaucracy, living off our taxes, getting guaranteed pensions, health care, working their tough 9 to 5 jobs, and enjoying all the legal holidays and generous vacation benefits. Plus they are as noisy as they can be when they get on board. (Don't they have books to read? Or a newspaper?)

These government workers exit at two stations downtown and they walk all of about 100 feet to government buildings built immediately adjacent to the MetroRail stations. Do you think that county government had a hand in designing MetroRail? None of those buildings, built as they are on prime downtown property (or what could have been prime downtown property), pay any taxes, of course. They are built to absorb taxes, which they do well.

MetroRail, of course, is also a heavily subsidized, public transportation entity, except it runs on its own tracks, the construction of which was mostly financed with federal taxes back in the 20th Century. (President Reagan ridiculed the expenditures on MetroRail, famously saying that the government could have bought every one in Miami-Dade a Cadillac and saved money, instead of subsidizing the construction of MetroRail.)

Several years ago the people of Miami-Dade County in a referendum passed a one-half cent additional sales tax. We were promised that the funds would help with needed capital improvements and address deferred maintenance for MetroRail. The Miami Herald could not stop writing about what a wonderful thing such a tax would be. All the politicians supported it. It passed. But the funds were not used for capital improvements for MetroRail. Instead, they were used to raise salaries of the government workers who are employed by MetroRail. Even the Herald had to admit that Metro-Dade broke its promises and we were had.

All of this rant is preamble to the chart I am posting. It's a great chart, because it shows how bad the situation has become. For another unhappy chart, go to Instapundit. (I do recognize that the chart I posted does not purport to show all private-sector workers vs. government workers. It shows all "goods-producing" workers. There are, of course, workers in the private service sector. Lawyers, for example. [Pause for derisive laughter.] If service workers were added to the chart, then we would not see the lines cross so soon.)

Of course, we need some government workers, and many of them are conscientious and competent people. (Some of my best friends are . . . etc.) But they will be hurt along with the rest of us when our society collapses because of radical government expansion.

Joe and Hannah have a New Baby!

Annalise Andrea, born Christmas Day. A miraculous set of circumstances brought her early and healthy to Joe and Hannah.

Put 'er there, Mate!

"I See You"

This is the greeting of the Na'vi, the people of Pandora in the movie Avatar. Carol, Mary, and I saw the 3D version last night, and it is a spectacular event.

"I see you." Oh, to be seen! Oh, to be seen, and not hide ourselves from each other, from God, and from our own self-consciousness.

But that is the question, isn't it? Who do we think we are? How do others perceive us? The Na'vi greeting suggests that these people "get it." They see each other and themselves as they are, and accept each other in their special sort of nakedness. In addition, they see the "natural" world as it mainly is, in its connectedness, in their connection to it (or among it, as part of its "network"), and in the "deity" that is at its center, a God who not only generates the life force (a familiar sci-fi conceit) but who also generates personal works of redemption, works that give people from our world new bodies, that makes them new creatures.

The central metaphor for our not being sure who we are is the ability of the protagonists to move from one body (the human) to a new body, their "avatar," a body that is strangely beautiful and close to perfect. At first, I thought John Cameron was simply reciting a Hollywood pantheism, but then I began to see his film as an attempt to describe a sort of universal theology, something that is close to the truth, a story that would describe what amounts to God's common grace, his involvement with the here and now, his transformative power. There is even a suggestion that people, human or Na'vi, may somehow participate in Gods' great work of calling us back to Eden. Pandora is where we come very close to "the Deity." where he sees us, and where we see each other. Is it over the top to suggest John Cameron as God's post-modern prophet? Probably. But see the movie.

Making it Through Another New Year's Eve, Alive and Unwounded

But not everyone in Miami was so fortunate. Alas, the stupid, celebratory gunfire is nothing new, as I reported last year and the year before.

Ex-Guantanamo Inmates Aided the Underwear Bomber

A front page article in this morning's Miami Herald states as follows:

Cascading reports [hold] that . . . the plot was hatched by two former Guantanamo detainees . . .

It was my impression that, when in a war, one lets war prisoners go when the war is over.

Oh, but this isn't a war. Excuse me.

Legos: "Hard Fun"

[W]ith only two million households responsible for 50% of U.S. sales, Lego isn't everyone's idea of fun.

The reality is that Lego's appeal is generally with a niche group of brainiacs, a group that includes many adults. Another major Lego challenge is the girls market, which the company has failed to crack.

[Lego CEO Jergen Vig Knudstorp] readily acknowledges that Legos eschew instant gratification, unlike many other toys. The deep form of engagement Lego requires - almost like reading a book, Mr. Knudstorp says - teaches children to be systematic, creative problem solvers.

"Many kids can easily get frustrated with the Lego experience," he says. "We call it 'Fun, but hard fun.' "

-From a WSJ article in the Thursday, December 24, 2009, print edition, on the back page of the Marketplace section.

Guess who's grandson this Christmas got a generous addition to his already respectable and well used Legos cache?

Pre-Christmas Fun!

When decorating cookies goes awry...



And the next day, we decorated gingerbread houses!!! Very Fun!

Bien Hecho, Hijos!

Texas Gains Most People in 2008-09, U.S. Census Says

“The state remains a magnet, drawing people from other parts of country who are out of work and believe their job prospects are a lot better than the places they came from,” said Bernard Weinstein, former director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas in Denton.

“Let’s be clear: Texas is having a recession like the rest of country, but it’s not as bad,” said Weinstein, now an economist at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Texas is going to pop up on a lot of radar screens as a place to relocate or expand for businesses.”

-from the linked-to article.

Arizona Honor Killing and its Home-Grown American (shall we say) Sister

These sorts of things are not reported much in the MSM. Is it me, or is it true that when they are reported it's the daughters who are killed? (Cf. here.) Not that the American un-culture can point any fingers, what with the government getting ready to tax all of us to fund abortions, regardless of gender. Are honor killings less honorable than economic killings (abortion to serve convenience) or quasi-genocidal killings (abortions for poor people, mainly those poor people of color) or, look, here it is again, sex-selection killings? I think it's all simply evil. But it puts the un-culture right up there (or down there) with Muslim fathers who kill their daughters. Nice.

Egg Nog for Vegans

Silk Nog. Not bad, Walt.

Mary Connects the Dots

Here. Amazing.

UPDATE: Are we seeing "fractals" here?

In ''The Artful Universe,'' (Oxford, 1995), the astronomer John D. Barrow argues that ''the arts and the sciences flow from a single source; they are informed by the same reality; and their insights are linked in ways that make them look less and less like alternatives.'' The geneticist Enrico Coen, who has just written ''The Art of Genes'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), uses painting as a metaphor to describe how organisms generate themselves. Beautiful natural patterns -- spirals, butterfly wings, rippling waves -- and their mathematical origins are explored in Philip Ball's ''The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature'' (Oxford, 1998). This writer has chimed in with ''Emblems of Mind'' (Avon, 1996), examining how music and mathematics create patterns that develop out of similar styles of metaphorical thinking.

-From the NYTimes article to which I link above.

This Greeted Us as We Drove In from our Trip

I set this plant in its plastic pot in the branches of the Black Olive tree in our front yard about 9 or 10 months ago, taping the pot in place with some clear masking tape. The florist who helps keep our office green drops by these plants now and then, after they have flowered, faded, and been replaced in reception rooms up and down the building by cute young orchids in full bloom. I take these unhappy, deflowered but living things home and give them a tree to live in. Their roots creep out of the pot and fasten on the bark, they gradually leave their pots behind, and then they bloom again. So there was one waiting for us as we drove in.

"You Only Regret Your Economies"

This wonderful truth I heard for this first time just this way at a speech given a few weeks ago by Adrienne Arsht at the National Philanthropy Day luncheon here in Miami. Ms. Arsht is a hugely generous philanthropist and patron of the arts.

She said that her father had said this to her. The idea stayed with me after the speech, but not the exact quote. So I later contacted her office and Ms. Arsht's assistant gave it to me exactly.

In searching around the internet for this quote, I came across an essay on Reynolds Price by Peggy Meyer, Librarian Assistant at Lake Tahod Community Library. Here is what Ms. Meyer said about her reading of Price's collection of essays entitled Feasting the Heart:

My favorite [Reynolds Price] essay . . . is “A Motto,” and it sums up the feeling of the entire book. He recounts the story of an Irish friend of his. This friend had just found out his mother was dying and made the journey back home. While visiting, one night he checked in on her, saw she was resting quietly, and turned to leave without disturbing her. As he was about to exit, he heard her say, “Remember: I only regret my economies.”

Reynolds Price took this as a personal motto and says he has “never regretted a splurge in my life, only my stingy-hearted choices at the sun-baked crossroads of money and passion. In love and friendship, food and travel, art and commerce, thanks and praise…I only regret my economies still.”

For Young "Men," 23 is the new 15

Says here.

Real Christmas Trees Greener? Healthier?

"Greener" says, Clint Springer, a biologist at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Well, maybe "greener" but not necessarily healthier. "Real" trees kept for several weeks in a family's home can cause allergies, and that's a great reason to stay away from real trees for lots of people. We need some PhD's in the neglected field of "unintended consequences," people who were liberal arts majors in schools where the liberal arts are taken seriously, to help their narrowly focused engineering and applied science friends look at the bigger picture. (I would add politicians to that list too, but I despair of them.)

How Does Bone Loss relate to Breast Cancer?

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bone-building drugs such as Merck & Co.’s Fosamax, Novartis AG’s Zometa and Roche Holding AG’s Boniva may cut older women’s risk of breast cancer, according to two studies presented today at a medical meeting in San Antonio. See the entire Bloomberg article here. The AP article on the subject appeared in yesterday's Miami Herald here.

The link between healthy bones and cancer is suggested in this statement by Susan E. Brown, PhD, an anthropologist who first became interested in bone health, according to her bio, when her grandmother died at age 102 from complications of a hip fracture. Here is what Dr. Brown says, in part, on her website Better Bones:

An underlying metabolic acidity is a common denominator among — and a likely contributing factor to — all degenerative and autoimmune diseases. An acid condition has several adverse effects on cell metabolism, including impaired energy production, fluid accumulation and edema, and a likely increase in free radical production. Interesting enough, kidney specialists working with acid-base balance now recognize that most Americans, as they age, live in chronic, low–grade metabolic acidosis. This condition contributes to a series of health problems, including loss of bone mineral, loss of muscle mass, a reduction in growth hormone, and the development of kidney stones.

I have been reading some about the importance of the alkaline-acid balance in one's body and have discussed the matter with Mary. According to what I read, the body needs to maintain a roughly neutral pH or slightly alkaline status. Where the pH moves to the acidic side, then the body must buffer that condition to bring the body back to a healthy pH. The body does so in several ways, but two of them involve muscle loss and bone loss, as the body somehow extracts from those (and other) organs the compounds that will buffer the acidity. If one's body is chronically out of balance on the acid side, then the stress on one's system to fight back to normalcy could break down its ability to fight disease generally, not to mention permanently weaken bones and muscles.

According to what I have been able to understand about the "bone-building drugs" mentioned in these articles, they retard or protect the bones from the process of breakdown. Does that breakdown have its source in the body's pH being acidic in the first place, and is the cancer-prevention mechanism involved with these drugs mainly one of restoring the alkaline-acid balance?

What one eats has a huge impact on the acid-alkaline balance, according to Dr. Brown. Are we surprised that fruits and vegetables produce an alkaline response, where meat and dairy produce an acidic response? Could what one eats affect his or her risks of osteoporosis and cancer? In her book The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide: A Quick Reference to Foods & Their Effect on pH Levels, Dr. Brown writes that those on the typical America diet are in a chronic states of acidosis, the condition of being on the wrong side of the alkaline/acid balance.

Dr. Brown, by the way, seriously (and, to me, convincingly) questions the use of such drugs as Fasomax to treat osteoporosis.

Blue Dogs Push Back

Yes, Virginia, there are conservative and moderate Democrats. How can one be a Christian and a Democrat? I've heard that one. How can one be a Christian and a lawyer? Heard that one. How can one be a Christian and a PCUSA Presbyterian? Heard that one, too.

Nevertheless.

On Being Well Shod in Rochester

Mary reports that she bought a pair of these yesterday. Just to walk across the street from her house to the hospital.

Food and Medicine

2500 years ago, Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine", said to his students, "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food". Moses Maimonides, the great 12th century physician, repeated the Hippocratic statement when he said, "No illness which can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means".

From Alternative-Doctor.com

A friend of mine, years younger than I, who recently had heart surgery because of blocked blood vessals, will rely on drugs to prevent the re-accumulation of plaque rather than change her diet.

A consequence of the inevitable decline in the quality and extent of healthcare in this country, whether the decline arises from nationalization or the failure to reform the situation we have now, will be that people will re-examine the way they eat and live, they will change their behaviors, and learn to avoid disease that was always preventable. The people who do not will simply die earlier than they would have otherwise.

The cartoon above strikes very close to home. I had always considered my dear father, who died of heart disease, a "big man" - in the sense of being "big boned." I never thought of myself that way; my mother told me that her maternal grandfather (family name Jordan) was a small man, and I thought that my build may have reflected his build. But as my dad lost weight in the years before his death, his physique began to look more and more like mine, until it was mine. He was just (and I hate this word to describe such a wonderful man) "fat." He was not big boned at all. He simply "carried it well," kept his Florsheim shoes shined and wore Hickey-Freeman business suits. He always looked good to me. But he died of his good looks.

I Would Agree that the Climate Change Evidence "is Worsening"

WASHINGTON -- Starting Monday, negotiators in Copenhagen will try to nail down all of the main elements of a treaty to curb global warming, but a final agreement won't be possible until the United States figures out what it is willing to do to reduce emissions of heat-trapping pollution.

President Barack Obama plans to visit the talks on their final day to promise that the United States will cut its share of emissions and to press for a strong agreement. The world, however, will be watching to see whether he also signals a willingness to pressure Congress to enact the law that's needed to make that happen.

Despite charges by some critics that data on global temperatures have been altered, the evidence of climate change is conclusive and worsening.

-First three paragraphs of lead article on the front page of the Miami Herald this morning. I don't agree that "the evidence of climate change is conclusive," but I certainly believe that "the evidence of climate change is . . . worsening."

Sub-freezing in Certain Parts Elsewhere this Morning

NIMBY

"The Road to Stalingrad"

The object of the present work [The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War with Germany: Volume One, by John Erikson] can be set down briefly enough: it is designed to investigate the kind of war the Soviet Union waged, the nature of command decisions and the machinery of decision-making, the course of military operations, Soviet performance in the field and the economic effort behind the lines, the emergence of Soviet 'war aims' - beyond mere survival - and, finally, the Soviet style of war. In sum, it is an attempt to probe how the Soviet system functioned under conditions of maximum stress: from this point of view it is less military history per se and might more properly be regarded as a form of social history.

-from the Preface

A reading of the preface indicates that this must be a most well-written and powerful work, as it is reputed to be.

Now and Then I'm Glad Mary is in Rochester

More on Tebow and McCoy

I exchanged emails with my Gator friend Sam about the Texas/Texas A&M game and the Florida/FSU game, that is, about Tebow and McCoy. Here's what he wrote:

I watched the Texas game myself. Colt McCoy has more talent than Tim Tebow, as did the Oklahoma quarterback in last year's BCS national championship game. Tebow's major asset however is not his football talent. It's his leadership coupled with his will. One feeds the other. He is able to bring out the best in his players, both on offense and defense, just by being with them on the field. He is able to bring out the best in people wherever he goes, whatever he is doing, just by being there. Someone on ESPN the other day said it best -- that a player who does not have the greatest skill in college football has single-handedly changed the game. Last Sat, before the UF-FSU game, UF had its annual senior day. All schools do it -- an opportunity for the seniors to be introduced one by one for the last time. He came out on the field crying in front of 91,000 screaming fans. Yet not one person thought that he was a sissy or less of a man. And even with all that emotion, he proceeded to play a great game, accounting for 5 touchdowns before the coaches took him out of the game as a show of good sportsmanship.

I'm thankful that he played here and that I had the opportunity to watch him play for 4 years. I expect him to be a great leader of men wherever he goes. And people will be better for his just being around them.

McCoy vs. Tebow

I saw the Texas vs. Texas A&M game on TV while visiting in Austin this past weekend, and Colt McCoy, the Texas quarterback, was amazing. Speculation is that the Heisman is McCoy's to lose after that game. But lose to Tebow?

Maybe.

Should Texas and Florida get into the national championship, it will be one amazing game. And we'll see.

An article in today's Atlanta-Constitution on Tebow's influence reports that 93 million people googled John 3:16 the day after Tebow wore the Bible verse on his eye black at last year's BCS Championship Game. 93 million people!

Whatever happens with the Heisman, Tebow is simply a world apart from any other college athlete playing right now. Or maybe ever before and ever more.

Dealing with a Lost Laptop

Several years ago, we learned that our old firm, based in New York, kept in a laptop its data on the boxes of client files it had stored in a Miami warehouse. Then they lost the laptop. Fortunately, by then we had transferred most of the client files we had taken with us to our own warehouse. But can you imagine the irresponsibility of keeping such valuable data on a laptop?

Well . . . yes, I can.

I read this article in the local Austin paper yesterday about Absolute Computrace, a software service that helps you track down lost laptops and even destroy or lock down data that a lost one might be carrying.

Catching up in Austin

It's always intensely interesting to see what's on the plates of the Austin families. Here is an incomplete catalog.

Clone Wars. This is an animated series from the creator of Star Wars that picks up the story-line between episodes two and three of the film series. Aidan is a big fan of the series, and has a costume of Captain Cody, the clone partner of Anikin Starwalker. We watched an episode yesterday. The political issues in the made-up galaxy are very important and obvious features. (I find that Wikipedia has a big article on the Clone Wars, and that brings me a bit more up to date.) There is a lot of stylized violence, but mainly robots die and not people, at least not up close. In addition the main humans are Jedi Knights who have marvelous powers and seem to avoid serious injury. War is a necessity or, at least, an inevitability, and there is competition among the protagonists for who can make the most "kills" and be the bravest warriors. The animation is attractive and clever and very much like the animation in the current video games. I can understand why Aidan finds it so interesting.

In the First Circle. Walter, a huge Solzhenitsyn fan, brought this new, unexpurgated version of The First Circle to my attention. I read the first version 40 years ago! Now it's out again in this complete version. I'm adding it to my wish list. (Amazingly, Amazon sells it for $13.) In discussing this with Walter, he mentioned Solzhenitsyn's Harvard address, and it reminds me that I need to go back and read it again.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Speaking of Russia, both Walter and Macon spoke to me about the podcasts that introduced them in vivid detail to the battles on the Eastern Front during WWII. I had not heard of Dan Carlin or his websites, Hardcore History and Common Sense, until Walter and Macon mentioned them. I want to explore those sites. My exposure to the Eastern Front was most recently through Keegan's The Second World War and, years ago and in much less detail, Liddell Hart's The History of the Second World War. Between those two, I would definitely go with Keegan, but I mean no disrespect to Liddell Hart. I don't know what single volume history is the one now to read on WWII. UPDATE: When Walter and I were at a Barnes & Noble store, we looked at the bibliography in Keegan's book to see what he recommends to read concerning the Eastern Front. His recommendations are Erikson's, The Road to Stalingrad and The Road to Berlin, which are volume one and two, respectively, of his Stalin's War with Germany.

Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. I think we are realizing at our church that we have lost our way somewhat on the matter of evangelism. There is such a thing as getting too comfortable, and that probably applies to us. But Van spoke to the congregation about refocusing on this matter last Sunday, and so I asked Macon what he would suggest as an initial resource for our Sunday School Class. It was Packer's little book, and he had one to loan me. I had never read it, and I have found the first two chapters challenging and enjoyable to read.

Austin Rifle Club. Macon and I went pistol shooting at the crack of dawn yesterday at this wonderful facility outside of Austin. He had his Springfield Armory XD 45 and borrowed for me a Colt 1911 from a friend (a vintage, service weapon that his friend's father had owned). It was obvious that Macon has had some good training. Handling semi-automatics is not very familiar to me, but I enjoyed it. Macon collected the spent brass, against the day when he might get into reloading.

Studying the Book of Romans. Macon and Walter lead a Sunday School class at their church and have been co-teaching Romans, taking it slow and easy. Their texts are mainly three: Barth's Epistle to the Romans, Stott's The Message to the Romans: God's Good News to the World; and N.T. Wright's Paul for Everyone: Romans Part One. Carol and I are looking forward to attending their class tomorrow morning.

Dealing with Vegan Parents/In-Laws. Both families are doing really well with Carol, Mary, and me, and our odd eating preferences. We got through the Thanksgiving feast at Morgan's house in great style. There were plenty of non-meat dishes, and Kellsey had baked a vegan loaf with a cashew sauce that was tasty. Yesterday Carol baked a pumpkin loaf and fixed us all for supper a "quick" spinach/chick-pea/something else dish with brown rice that has become a standard at our house. Morgan had a tasty salad. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal.

Today is Felicity's birthday! Wow! Ten years old! We get to think a little more about what a blessing she is to all of us today.

Thanksgiving in Austin

Here are two photos from our Thanksgiving Day. We started it at Macon's house, when, after breakfast, the six of us went to downtown Austin and "ran" in the 5 mile "Turkey Trot." It was a beautiful day, and a great way to visit Macon's clan.

After the trot, we went to the airport, where Mary had just arrived from Rochester via Chicago.

We returned to Macon's house, and the first photo is a shot of Mary taking Macon's blood pressure. She had brought her doctor's bag (a colorful purse from Kenya that is just the right size) with her kit. She had warned us that she needed to practice her physical exams, and got right to it. Aidan and Honor were fascinated, as well as Dad.

We had the Thanksgiving feast later in the day at Walter's house, and the second photo is of the entire Austin clan, plus Mary, Carol, and me, all on Walter's front steps. We had a bonus at the feast because Doug and Sue joined us, and they took the second picture for us. (I'm resigned to the fact that there is no way we are going to get the kids to cooperate with these kinds of photos at this point in their lives!)

It was simply a wonderful day!

The Banana Flower Opens

Four views of the opening banana flower on the "Goldfinger" plant. (I took these photos this evening, because we will be gone the next four days. It will surely look different when we return.)

See the flower not yet open here. (It's the bottom photo.)

What appears to be happening is that the top layer of petals of the flower have folded back, revealing the first set of "hands." These will be the top ring of bananas of the bunch that is forming. Look especially at the third photo. You can see layers of petals below the first level of baby bananas. I think as each set of petals unfolds, there will be another layer or level of bananas revealed. The progression will continue with each set of petals peeling back to show the next layer of bananas, until the entire bunch is exposed and complete. I could be wrong about this; so we shall see.

Uh-Oh. Urban Meyer to Notre Dame?

No separation of Church and Sport after Tebow, I guess.

Dove Avenue [Banana] Plantation November Update: Fruit Coming!

The first photo shows all three "trees" (they really are plants). The 'Cavendish' is in the rear; the 'Goldfinger' (aka 'FHIA-01') on the right and the 'Ice Cream' (aka 'Blue Java' or 'Ney Mannan') on the left.

The second photo shows the inaugural bunch of the Dove Avenue Plantation, this one on the Cavendish, and not yet mature.

The third photo shows the flowering head developing on the Goldfinger. The fruit develops from this part of the plant.

Tebow: the "Un-all about me" Football Hero

The Gator-Seminole game a week from tomorrow will be Tim Tebow's last home game. My friend Sam, a Gator who recently retired to Gainesville, tells me that a wave of appreciation is sweeping the entire town, with advertisements being taken in newspapers and posted on billboards expressing thanks for this young man.

Sam said that Tebow has had an "unbelievable impact" on the Gator Nation "just doing the right thing." Sam describes him as the "un-all about me" football hero. He also said that Gator fans next weekend will all be sporting the "eye-black" patches at the game in honor of Tebow.

"Lord, help me . . .

to do great things as though they were little, since I do them with your power; and little things as though they were great, since I do them in your name."

-Pascal, as quoted by Ortberg in If You Want to Walk on Water . . .

Lead Us Not into Debt

Megan McArdle on Dave Ramsey via Instapundit.

Tebow-type Eyeblack

My friend Sam, a Gator, sent me one of these.

What scripture would you eye-black? Would it be OK to reference something really obscure in the Bible and probably funny out of context?

Think of the scripture references one could have worn to an Obama rally last year.

Is this a Despair issue? Will lightning strike their warehouse if they fool around with scripture on a product like this? Will lightning strike me for bringing the subject up?

Cheap Food & Healthcare: That's the point, isn't it?

As I observe the current health care debate and reflect on the Republican farm policy change in the 1970s to give the nation cheap food, my mind goes back to Jesus' ministry. He fed the multitudes once or twice, as reported in the Gospels, and may have done that more often. He healed the sick. But when that did not turn out to be the point of his ministry, people soured on him. Now we have big government stepping up to the plate, continuing the cheap food policies and now promising cheap health care. I get it: Jesus missed the point. Our government gets it.

Patterns of Knowledge Acquisition

Mary's recent post.

Service, Honor, Commitment, Courage, Country, Tebow; Marriage Miracle

As I watch the exciting Florida-South Carolina game, I see that the Gamecocks, instead of having the names of the players on the football jerseys, have the names of traits of good character. I like that. One of the Florida jerseys has the name "Tebow" printed on the back of it, which may not trump all the traits of character on the jerseys of the opponents, but it comes close.

UPDATE: The character traits on the SC jerseys were special for that day, as they we worn to commemorate Veterans Day that happened earlier in the week. The traits represent the profile of the good soldier. The explanation was given at the beginning of the game, which I missed. Sam, my Gator friend and all around UF/Tebow expert, filled me in on this.

Carol a night person; I a morning. Carol grows up a Methodist; I a Baptist. Carol a Republican; I a Dem. Carol not a Spurrier fan. I love the Old Ball Coach.

Can this marriage be saved?

King Corn

Mary recommended the documentary King Corn, and Netflix has it on DVD. We saw it last week, and it was entertaining, informative, and, finally, disturbing. It is about how a peculiar, basically unhealthy kind of corn, corn with very little protein and mostly starch, transformed the Midwest breadbasket and, from there, the entire food industry, after a change in farm policy under the Nixon Administration. (What? I thought the Republicans are our friends!) I also commend, then, the movie to you.

UPDATE: Mary and I discussed the several references to Earl Butz, Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture and apparently the author of the policy change that crowned Corn as King (at least, that's the movie's thesis, and it seems plausible.) At the end of the movie there is a respectful and not unsympathetic interview of the elderly Butz at his nursing home apartment. What one learns is that the policy change that the Nixon administration wrought was with the best of intentions - to make food cheaper by encouraging the production of corn. The result that we wear the extra food on our bodies and hurt ourselves that way is an unintended consequence of the federal government's decision to intervene in such a critical part of the market place. While it is true that putting money into the pockets of farmers hardly hurt the Republican party, the goal of making food cheaper is a worthy one.

"There are no rainy days, just unprepared people"

This from one of the guys this morning who rode his BMW bike to the breakfast. I remarked on riding through the cold (for Miami) weather to Grunberg's, and he recited this aphorism. He said it's a much used saying of dedicated BMW riders. I liked it.

CLARIFICATION: A "BMW bike" is a very, very fine motorcycle. Not a bicycle.

Ortberg on Failure and Discouragement

As long as my sense of being valuable and significant is tied to my success, it will be a fragile thing. But when I come to know in the marrow of my bones that I am just as valued and loved by God when I have fallen flat on my face, then I am gripped by a love stronger than success or failure . . .

When you have a discouraging spirit or train of thought in your mind, you can be sure it is not from God. He sometimes brings pain to his children - conviction over sin, or repentance over fallenness, or challenges that scare us, or visions of his holiness that overwhelm us. But God never brings discouragement. Always, his guidance leads to motivation and life.

-John Ortberg in If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat, page 143.

Walt-Mary

(Thanks, Mary Ann)

Pass the Broccoli, Please

We watched Food, Inc. on DVD this evening.

The link is to the Amazon entry for the DVD. It's worth going there because the Amazon link has (1) a video interview with the director, Robert Kenner, and (2) a written Q&A section with Kenner, Co-Producer/Food Expert Eric Schlosser, Food Expert Michael Pollan and Producer Elise Pearlstein. This information will present the thesis of the film. But the film is still very much worth watching.

There are many interesting points, but there is one that especially got my attention:

Our government subsidizes the production of corn, so that the "industrial food" complex pays less than market value for the corn it uses. Thus, we as US consumers pay less than we would for products with corn in them.

When NAFTA was enacted, according to the film, cheap, subsidized US corn flooded the Mexican market. Mexican farmers could no longer compete in their home markets and their farms failed. They became illegal immigrants and came to the US looking for jobs. Many now work in US industrial food factories, such as the hog slaughterhouses that Smithfield runs. Smithfield can run those factories and sell cheap products in part because the feed for the hogs is subsidized and they have really cheap labor.

Here we are raving about losing our free market in the health care sector (as if it is really "free," but that's another story), where we have had no really free market in the food sector because of government subsidies.

Other points that got my attention include one that pertains to the E. Coli problem. That problem arises in part, according to the film, because the cows are fed corn and not grass.

In Exercise Jargon, What's a "Burpee?"

This.

The Walter Series: Part II

Beyond Google; the ABA; A Lawyer's Suicide

Beyond Google: This article from the November 2009 ABA Journal on "the next generation of [Internet] search" was an eye-opener for me.

Rejoining the American Bar Association: After more than three decades, I have rejoined the ABA. I left it when the House of Delegates endorsed Roe vs. Wade. The organization is still much politicized, but being a member helps me keep in touch with that politicalization aspect, with the cultural changes that continue in the profession, and allows me access to some very good practice thinking. So I back am "in" the ABA again, but I hope not so much "of" it. Maybe I'll have opportunities to push back too.

"A Death in the Office": Just how barren is the practice of law in America these days? The November ABA Journal gives an answer in this article on the suicide of Mark Levy, who reached one of the profession's acknowledged peaks. He was an exceptionally fine lawyer, but he simply wasn't making enough money for his giant D.C. law firm. So they asked him to leave. He dealt with it by killing himself.

Noah Gordon, the Novelist

My mother, who was an avid reader, especially of good novels, loved Noah Gordon's books. My sister Julia, another avid reader in our family, took Nita's collection of those books back to her home after our mother passed away. Recently, however, we talked about those books, and Julia then mailed them back to me. I am reading The Physician, and it is a fascinating read. What a story-teller is Gordon! With Mary on her way to being a physician, this is an especially interesting book.

The Walter Series

More on Medical Screenings

The Herald's article today goes beyond PSAs and mammograms.

Christopher Tin - Baba Yetu (Official Music Video)

"Christopher Tin is an American composer, best known for his composition Baba Yetu, featured in the 2004 computer game, Civilization IV." Intro to Wikipedia entry.



Thanks, Sean, for bringing this to my attention by linking this on your facebook page.

JAMA on Rethinking Cancer Screening - Big Reaction

After 20 years of screening for breast and prostate cancer, several observations can be made. First, the incidence of these cancers increased after the introduction of screening but has never returned to prescreening levels. Second, the increase in the relative fraction of early stage cancers has increased. Third, the incidence of regional cancers has not decreased at a commensurate rate. One possible explanation is that screening may be increasing the burden of low-risk cancers without significantly reducing the burden of more aggressively growing cancers and therefore not resulting in the anticipated reduction in cancer mortality. To reduce morbidity and mortality from prostate cancer and breast cancer, new approaches for screening, early detection, and prevention for both diseases should be considered.

-Abstract from the Journal of the American Medical Association, October 21, 2009.

A New York Times article last week, reporting the JAMA article, provoked a lot of interest.

And comments from Dr. MacDougall. His comments include the following:

The truth is breast and prostate cancer are caused by the rich Western diet full of beef, chicken, cheese, milk, and oils, and contaminated with powerful environmental cancer-causing chemicals. A sizable share of that $20 billion [now spent on screening that MacDougall finds wasted at best] must be spent on advertising, education, and subsidy programs to bring about monumental changes in our eating. The American Cancer Society needs to put meaning behind their apology by enthusiastically spreading the message that a starch-based diet with fruits and vegetables is fundamental for cancer prevention and good health.

Make that the Dove Avenue Plantation and "Shamba"

This weekend I worked on clearing a spot in the backyard for the veggie garden. First I dug up a rough rectangle of about 6 X 5, taking out the firmly rooted St. Augustine grass. Then I prepared the bed using the (ahem) double-dig method. This sophisticated approach to family farming in Miami Springs involves: (1) covering the bed with an inch or so of compost, peat moss, and Lowe's magic veggie soil formula, called something like "jungle blend" and (2) "double-digging" trenches that will result in the soil being loosened down to 18 inches or so, with the top 8 to ten inches being mixed up with the compost, peat moss, and jungle-blend layer. Along the north edge of the bed, I drove two re-bar stakes and tied a piece of what looks like fencing (but is used to reinforce concrete when you pour it on a flat surface) to make a trellis for the tomato vines.

The first photo shows what the bed looked like when I was half-way through the double dig. The second photo is of the bed from a different angle at about the same stage. The darker half is the half still covered with the blend of compost, peat, and jungle blend. The lighter half is where that layer has been mixed in with soil that was already there. With the double-dig, you work your self down the length of the bed by digging a trench with a D-handled flat spade, then using a D-handled spading fork on the bottom of the trench to loosen the soil further, and then digging another trench right next to the first one, turning the spoil from the new trench into the first one. And so on. (Got it?) The third photo shows the bed all ready for the starts, with the trellis in place.

I will transfer the starts this coming week, and probably bury a couple of sweet potatoes and seed some carrots and radishes.

Shamba means "farm" in Swahili.