Forever A Fangirl

Sunshine, shining on meeee....

I accidently got too much sun today whilst in the pool--having fun for the first time in 6 days-- swimming underwater with my son competing "Bob" and "Bruce" (our pool sharks) against one another. Then it was dive to get rubber "torpedos" off the pool floor in 5.5 foot water (our pool is wimpy)--or "accidently" fire 'em at one another. I felt so fried afterward though--even after a shower. Gotta watch it out there under our damaged ozone layer.

"and once you pass (age) 45 you have the jowls..."

Below: A heavily edited (removal of non-relevant-to-this-entry remarks) post from a forum on which I am the number three (in volume) poster. Yay me. Two of my closest friends on-line are numbers one and two. And it's not cliquish. We let anyone in. 

I wonder if this time of year is when bad body fever goes 'round?
I'm hating myself right now.
Ugh. I went and read this dumb article in some news magazine in which there was a quote from someone whose job entails injecting women in the face to make them look younger say..."and once you pass (age) 45 you have the jowls..."   
I turned 45 and I'm just going ah, f***, one more thing--aging and not being able to swim 'cos of my boo-boo, and eating junk 'cos I'm too busy-lazy-cheap to make or buy dinner.
Ick. I hate me.

And then there was the Gay Pride parade this weekend past (and the celebration goes on this week too, I think?). Chicago throws an awesome one with lots of dressing up and beads and --sort of a mini gay Mardi Gras.
Girls are great.
  I was at a conference of psych people once and happened to buddy up with a couple of lesbians during our 1.5 hour lunch break. It was a really enjoyable time because the very married 'burbs in which I live isn't exactly a hot-spot for those on the other team--so I was trying to relax and enjoy their company but being me-- a very behaviour research-type thinker--I just took a lot in.

Anyway, having the kids home from school and all that entails is no walk in the park. Some days are better--good even, some--argh!!!!

I was always told by my parents that it was a good thing kids are cute as otherwise they wouldn't last long. I kind of disagree. It's a bonus to have a cute-looking kid but most all of them are adorable in their own way--so sweet--you just want to bottle the moments and keep 'em fresh forever.   
I am just about asleep here at the keyboard. 
 
I'm still wishing for Calgary's rain to come here for a bit--we are dry rain-wise (though humid--yuck). The grass is brown, plants and tree leaves are droopy. I'll bet up there they have lush greenery (or is mold starting to grow? j/k). Too much rain sucks the big one. It is very challenging to keep a good mood when the damn rain won't stop.

Happy trails!

--Cyn
_________________

Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.

The Speech the President Should Give

Ironic that that Kerry is immeasurably more qualified to run a war than the current president.
Good to see someone qualified to render an opinion do so.
Over here, George. This is a way out.

June 28, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/opinion/28kerry.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

The Speech the President Should Give

 

    By JOHN F. KERRY

Boston

TONIGHT President Bush will discuss the situation in Iraq. It's long past time to get it right in Iraq. The Bush administration is courting disaster with its current course - a course with no realistic strategy for reducing the risks to our soldiers and increasing the odds for success.

The reality is that the Bush administration's choices have made Iraq into what it wasn't before the war - a breeding ground for jihadists. Today there are 16,000 to 20,000 jihadists and the number is growing. The administration has put itself - and, tragically, our troops, who pay the price every day - in a box of its own making. Getting out of this box won't be easy, but we owe it to our soldiers to make our best effort.

Our mission in Iraq is harder because the administration ignored the advice of others, went in largely alone, underestimated the likelihood and power of the insurgency, sent in too few troops to secure the country, destroyed the Iraqi army through de-Baathification, failed to secure ammunition dumps, refused to recognize the urgency of training Iraqi security forces and did no postwar planning. A little humility would go a long way - coupled with a strategy to succeed.

So what should the president say tonight? The first thing he should do is tell the truth to the American people. Happy talk about the insurgency being in "the last throes" leads to frustrated expectations at home. It also encourages reluctant, sidelined nations that know better to turn their backs on their common interest in keeping Iraq from becoming a failed state.

The president must also announce immediately that the United States will not have a permanent military presence in Iraq. Erasing suspicions that the occupation is indefinite is critical to eroding support for the insurgency.

He should also say that the United States will insist that the Iraqis establish a truly inclusive political process and meet the deadlines for finishing the Constitution and holding elections in December. We're doing our part: our huge military presence stands between the Iraqi people and chaos, and our special forces protect Iraqi leaders. The Iraqis must now do theirs.

He also needs to put the training of Iraqi troops on a true six-month wartime footing and ensure that the Iraqi government has the budget needed to deploy them. The administration and the Iraqi government must stop using the requirement that troops be trained in-country as an excuse for refusing offers made by Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany to do more.

The administration must immediately draw up a detailed plan with clear milestones and deadlines for the transfer of military and police responsibilities to Iraqis after the December elections. The plan should be shared with Congress. The guideposts should take into account political and security needs and objectives and be linked to specific tasks and accomplishments. If Iraqis adopt a constitution and hold elections as planned, support for the insurgency should fall and Iraqi security forces should be able to take on more responsibility. It will also set the stage for American forces to begin to come home.

Iraq, of course, badly needs a unified national army, but until it has one - something that our generals now say could take two more years - it should make use of its tribal, religious and ethnic militias like the Kurdish pesh merga and the Shiite Badr Brigade to provide protection and help with reconstruction. Instead of single-mindedly focusing on training a national army, the administration should prod the Iraqi government to fill the current security gap by integrating these militias into a National Guard-type force that can provide security in their own areas.

The administration must work with the Iraqi government to establish a multinational force to help protect its borders. Such a force, if sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, could attract participation by Iraq's neighbors and countries like India.

The deployment of capable security forces is critical, but it alone will not end the insurgency, as the administration would have us believe. Hamstrung by its earlier lack of planning and overly optimistic predictions for rebuilding Iraq, the administration has failed to devote equal attention to working with the Iraqi government on the economic and political fronts. Consequently, reconstruction is lagging even in the relatively secure Shiite south and Kurdish north. If Iraqis, particularly Sunnis who fear being disenfranchised, see electricity flowing, jobs being created, roads and sewers being rebuilt and a democratic government being formed, the allure of the insurgency will decrease.

Iraq's Sunni neighbors, who complain they are left out, could do more to help. Even short-term improvements, like providing electricity and supplying diesel fuel - an offer that the Saudis have made but have yet to fulfill - will go a long way. But we need to give these nations a strategic plan for regional security, acknowledging their fears of an Iran-dominated crescent and their concerns about our fitful mediation between Israel and the Palestinians in return for their help in rebuilding Iraq, protecting its borders, and bringing its Sunnis into the political process.

The next months are critical to Iraq's future and our security. If Mr. Bush fails to take these steps, we will stumble along, our troops at greater risk, casualties rising, costs rising, the patience of the American people wearing thin, and the specter of quagmire staring us in the face. Our troops deserve better: they deserve leadership equal to their sacrifice.

John F. Kerry is a Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

Lost Sappho love poem published after 2,600 years

Lost Sappho love poem published after 2,600 years
Fri Jun 24, 2005 02:51 PM ET 

http://tinyurl.com/8lsgb
By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - A love poem written 2,600 years ago by Sappho, the greatest female poet of ancient Greece, was published on Friday for the first time since it was rediscovered last year.

Sappho's verses expressing love for her female companions on the Greek island of Lesbos have either shocked or delighted generations of readers ever since they were first composed.

Her works once filled nine volumes and the ancients called  her the "tenth muse," but little has survived to modern times.

The 12-line poem, only the fourth to have been recovered, was found on papyrus wrapped around an Egyptian mummy. It was published with an English translation in the Times Literary Supplement.

"She obviously had emotional relationships with women of her circle, quite possibly sexual," the poem's translator, Oxford University academic Martin West, told Reuters.

"They seem to have had some sort of society in which they could be in each other's company quite a lot, rather cut off from men," he said. "But the were clearly able to have plenty of fun."

The poem was rediscovered last year after researchers at Germany's Cologne University identified a papyrus once wrapped round a mummy as part of a 3rd century BC roll containing poems by Sappho.

They noticed that some of the verse fragments on the crumbling Cologne material matched parts of lines already identified as Sappho's on a papyrus discovered in 1922.

By combining the two they were able to reconstruct the  original, adding likely missing words in the gaps that  remained.

In the newly published verses, originally sung to music, Sappho laments the passing of time as she compares the youthful bodies of dancing girls to her own weak knees and white hair.

The first four lines of the translated verses read:

"You for the fragrant-bosomed Muses' lovely gifts,

Be zealous, girls, and the clear melodious lyre:

But my once tender body old age now

Has seized; my hair's turned white instead of dark."

Bits & Pieces

Let's see. Status is tired as sleep was rough last night.
Highlight of the day: spending $255 for the honour of reentering this country in August when I return from Ontario (green card renewal, even tho' I'm applying for "dual" citizenship--that could take a loooong time to process and I have to be here legally in the meantime). They do a bio-scan thingie now when one gets her resident alien card. The former Immigration and Naturalization Service is now run by :gulp: Homeland Security so I figure it won't be long before we have to have microchips with all our vital stats embedded in the back of our necks. I've been telling people that I'm having that done and they believe me.

My (one and only) sis-in-law on my side of the family was very sweet to offer to come out yesterday to help in any way as I sent her the same msg as I posted here about things being a bit screwy. Most of my symptoms did finally wear off after about 36 hours, so I was up for her suggestion of taking the squirt to the movies. It was my spouse's 46th birthday, though and I thought it insensitive to leave him home in pain--may as well come with us and be in pain--so we all went to see Howl's Moving Castle (us for the second time). My brother remarked that it would have been something he'd have gone to see at a midnite showing whilst in college--high on 'shrooms. and yeah, it is kind of a dreamy-stoned kinda flick at times but anyway--great to see them and fun to see how much my son resembles his uncle at the same age. I know he'd (my bro) have rather have seen Romero's Land of the Dead. I think I'll wait for the DVD on that one.


We are having really hot and humid days but amazingly, it's cooling down at night. That is just not normal here. I thinik it's time to throw out the book on what constitutes "normal" for weather over say, the past 10 years or so.

I just realized--today--that the Hawai'i trip is on the 13th NOT on the 21th as I've been planning and telling folks. That's 2.5 weeks when my mind-set was closer to a month. Now I'm panicking. I know I'm supposed to be excited--but I'm overwhelmed. I think I need to get some sleep--that's a good way to deal with anxiety--sleep it off.

Until later...

--Cyn

Fire Karl Rove

This is from John Kerry...

 

Dear Friend,

I hope you will join me right now in signing an open letter to the President urging him to thoroughly reject Karl Rove's purposeful attack on the patriotism of those who dare ask the tough questions that best protect American troops.

http://www.johnkerry.com/petition/rove.php

Dear President Bush,

In the days following the 9/11 attacks, you movingly spoke of the unity of purpose emanating all across America. Now, Karl Rove, your top political aide, wants us to believe that you weren't telling the truth -- that Americans were offering "therapy and understanding to the attackers." You cannot remain silent as your most senior advisor purposely twists the truth about a great moment of American unity for political gain.

It isn't the first time Karl Rove has crossed the line. It needs to be the last. I call on you to thoroughly reject his cheap, divisive efforts to challenge the patriotism of your political opponents. It's time to fire Karl Rove.

http://www.johnkerry.com/petition/rove.php

Thank you.

I don't think she's difficult to get along with...

I don't think she's difficult to get along with...             ...as long as you do what she says.    Hello All! I lived! But I'm pukey--can't take any meds I guess, 'till tomorrow (won't stay down). I just have a persistant headache if I'm up all all and since spouse is sick too with a back injury, I'm fending for anything but the bare essentials. As helpful in intention as Christopher is given the circumstances (both parents down for the count, the 100-F degree weather, and the ever-present draw of cartoons, computer, and reading "breaks," his "help" is appreciated.) Talk about the stereotypical only child, which Chris is non-technically--"What? the world is not revolving around me?"    --plus being a not-emotionally (tho' ever physically-maturing ) 12, almost 13-y.o.  I'm tired and I'll probably sleep now --slept a lot so far. More later, --Cyn

Morning-after pill' not abortion, scientists say

http://tinyurl.com/dymjt

`Morning-after pill' not abortion, scientists say

By Judy Peres and Jeremy Manier
Tribune staff reporters

   June 20, 2005

Amid a heated national debate over emergency contraception, some scientists are marshaling evidence to challenge the belief that the "morning-after pill" is equivalent to abortion.

Abortion opponents object to the pills, saying they work by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg in the womb and thus destroy an early embryo. Some pharmacists are refusing on moral grounds to dispense emergency contraception.

But the scientists say there is no scientific evidence the pills prevent implantation--and considerable evidence they work mainly by blocking the release of an egg from the woman's ovary, so no embryo is formed.

"The pervasive myth out there is that emergency contraception is an abortifacient," said Dr. David Archer, director of clinical research at the Contraceptive Research and Development Program of Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.

"But there's no evidence scientifically that that's true."

For one thing, Archer points out, emergency contraception generally doesn't work if taken after a woman has ovulated.

On the other hand, no one can prove that the pill doesn't interfere with implantation.

Whether emergency contraception, known as Plan B, works before or after fertilization is a crucial question only for those who believe life begins when sperm meets egg.

The medical establishment--including the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists--holds that emergency contraceptives prevent pregnancy. Abortifacients such as RU-486 terminate pregnancies.

But that distinction assumes pregnancy begins with the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterine lining. Anti-abortion forces believe a woman is pregnant from the moment an egg is fertilized and interfering with the development of a fertilized egg is the same as killing a baby.

The conservative Family Research Council, for example, says the "principal function" of the morning-after pill "is an anti-implantation, or abortion, effect."

The latest round in the national debate over the pills started with reports that some pharmacists were refusing to dispense them.

In Missouri, a recent survey of 920 pharmacies found that 70 percent do not stock Plan B and most won't order it if a customer requests it.

In April, Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered Illinois pharmacies to fill prescriptions for Plan B without delay, an order that was promptly challenged in court. Earlier this month the Catholic Conference of Illinois joined the fray, telling state regulators that pharmacists should not be required to choose between their conscience and their livelihood.

Surprisingly little is known for sure about the action mechanism of the pills, which contain an elevated dose of the hormone used in some regular birth control pills and are meant to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

(" Surprisingly little is known for sure about the action mechanism of the pills..." Actually, this is unsurprising to me as it's not ever been fully explained. I believe birth control pills are in the same category of "they work, but we're (scientists) not 100% exactly sure why,"...though certain anti-choice groups would have you believe that they have the definitive word on Plan B (apt name, no?).--Cyn)

The package insert for Plan B says that while the pill works principally by stopping ovulation (release of an egg) or fertilization, it may also prevent implantation of a fertilized egg by altering the lining of the uterus.

But experts say that information comes from studies on regular daily use of birth control pills, and not from research on Plan B, which is taken on a one-time basis.

Last July, a review of the scientific literature by experts at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm concluded that the contraceptive effects of a one-time dose of levonorgestrel, the active ingredient in Plan B, "involve either blockade or delay of ovulation ... rather than inhibition of implantation."

Then, in December, Horacio Croxatto of the Chilean Institute for Reproductive Medicine reported that emergency doses of levonorgestrel interfered with ovulation 82 percent of the time in women who took it. Blood tests on those women showed that the drug suppressed the monthly surge of luteinizing hormone, which triggers ovulation.

"We can't prove it," said Archer, "but a lot of inferences are strongly supportive that emergency contraception does not work after fertilization. ... Once [an egg is] fertilized, there's not an iota of evidence that says that fertilization won't go forward."

Archer, a gynecologist and reproductive endocrinologist, also noted that emergency contraception generally doesn't work if it's given after ovulation, around the 14th day of the woman's menstrual cycle.

Dear Red States

(Courtesy of My Brother)

Dear Red States:

We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California. To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay! We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing ! to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.    

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you!  Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico. Sincerely, Author Unknown in New California.

A Mixed Bag

Today was supposed to be as great as yesterday and it being the Chicago area--it's more like the day before, i.e. cold and gray and poopy.
All our swim toys came yesterday including "Bruce" the shark and Dory, the (pre-named) battery-operated fish with the warning on her package, "All swim toys are dangerous." Guess the translation didn't quite gell on that one.
I kinda want to inflate the people-size shark cage as we could probably get away with using it in the pool during the week when almost no one swims. We'll just have to wait and see what other surprises Mother Nature has in store for us.
Other than that, I'm still pushing the selling of all things baby and trying to ship some really heavy suckers (never again am I selling an all-wood play table--wasn't my idea anyway :grumble :grumble:.)
I've been fielding phone calls from the hospital and making sure all the t's are crossed and i's dotted. Seems okay so far. they say I'm the first surgery scheduled for Friday--gonna have to be there at 5:30 a.m. Guess I'm not going to miss my mocha java after all since I don't partake of it until much later in the day. I'm actually glad now that it's scheduled at 7:30 a.m.--means I should be out of there around lunchtime and soon after, home sweet home.   

We're hosting a sleepover Saturday night and that usually means trying to tear the boys away from the game console(s). I heard Howl's Moving Castle is a visual treat so I plan to tear the boys away and at least get them to walk short distances before plunking down in front of a another screen.
That's about all on my plate for now.

Hope everyone is making the best of what they are doing today.
Have a kick-ass weekend!

--Cyn

Coldplay is NOT the "new U2."

The answer to the headline is no and my response to Morford's first assertion that "Coldplay is the new "U2,"  is "no" as well.
The guy playing guitar apes The Edge very nicely--but that's it --the sound of a rip-off, I was going to say "riff" but the guitarist from Coldplay literally rips The Edge's style right off--though as I asserted, the results are adequate.
Also, though you may hate him for any number of reasons, Bono has not done an album where he took a perfectly good tenor (2) voice and sang falsetto ala Martin here on this disc. Too much falsetto--not enough tenor(1) in this case of Martin and Coldplay's album "X & Y."
Now I'll read this article. ;)

Heh, back handed slap-type endorsement. Interesting.

Is Coldplay The New Jesus?
        Martin & Co. make moms smile and girls swoon and offend no one in their quest to love all puppies  
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, June 17, 2005

Coldplay is the new U2. Coldplay is the new taupe.

Coldplay is the new creamy soothing balm you rub all over your chafed and itchy thighs after a long day working in the hot sun hauling scrub brush to the weed pile in the backyard while the goddamn kids think it's funny to throw mudballs at the windows and the creepy meth-lab neighbors peek at you through their dark stained Levolor blinds as you imagine them storing up jars of pickled squirrel brains for the winter.

Coldplay is to the pop-music universe what cheddar cheese is to bologna sandwiches. Which is to say, tepid nirvana in a teacup. Coldplay is mandatory. A must-have. Tasty and good and easy to digest on a warm summer day.

Coldplay is everywhere. Coldplay is the new air. Unless you live under a rock or are a devout member of the Christian Right and therefore only listen to flaccid Christian rock that somehow makes you think it's OK to rock out without any of the sex or deviance or rebellion or narcotics, you know full well that Coldplay just released a new CD called X&Y, and it instantly topped the pop charts all over the world and when they released the very nice first single called "Speed of Light" a month before X&Y came out, it shot to No. 1 on the iTunes Music Store in 14 countries on the first day and didn't budge for two weeks.

It is to be a Coldplay onslaught. Martin & Co. are everywhere, and will be for many, many months to come. The new CD, which is earning generally favorable shrugs from critics, is one of just a handful that the still punch-drunk lawsuit-happy record biz is counting on to save CD sales for the year (next to Gorillaz and the White Stripes and a precious handful of others), so you can expect this to be the year of the soaring aching mid-tempo Coldplay ballad, with lots of heavy rotation and marketing salivation and speculation as to how much influence new-mom Gwyneth Paltrow has on Martin's mild offstage antics.

Coldplay, the quiet and unassuming little Brit band that's now sold upward of 20 million records, now has legions of fans, millions and millions and all crying out for their uncomplicated, achingly tender, heartfelt, cliché-addled songs that don't really say all that much and don't really do all that much musically and don't really make you react much except to maybe say oh, that's a nice song, pretty, easy on the ears, inoffensive, polished and clean and I think even my mom would like this and I could do the laundry or check my e-mail or take a nap or even procreate while this is on and it wouldn't get in the way one single little bit.

Is this the appeal? Coldplay's easy, generalized utility? Is this why the group is so astoundingly successful? Because the must-confess bottom line is, Coldplay just really isn't all that great of a band. Just not all that brilliantly talented, diverse, interesting. Which is a weird thing to admit, given how much I loved their first CD, Parachutes, perhaps one of the most tender and beautiful pop albums ever. But epic? Explosive? Coldplay bigger than U2? Than the Stones? Able to play any style of music and challenge your perceptions and dip into new musical approaches the way Robert Downey Jr. dips into substance abuse? Not even.

 

"We have a finite number of troops..."

QUOTATION OF THE DAY         
    "We have a finite number of troops. But if you pull out of an area and don't leave security forces in it, all you're going to do is leave the door open for them to come back. This is what our lack of combat power has done to us throughout the country."
  MAJ. CHRIS KENNEDY,   on American efforts to subdue Tal Afar, Iraq.

Surgery update

Hi all, just a quick check in  before my day gets going in earnest.
The wind up to the surgery has started with dueling doctors and medical clearance orders and a EKG--all involved want to cover their bum. Except me, I guess. Sorry, probably too much info. It is a bit daunting that they think I'm so fragile that they have to test my heart before surgery but OTH, we are going to knock me out. I have never been sedated before--through C-sections and invasive heart proceures--I've wished I was "asleep" though. I guess I should be careful what I wish for. The very worst at this point is that the surgery is scheuled for 7:30 a.m. What's the deal? Why no night surgery? Meh.

Make it a good one, folks!

--Cyn
_________________

Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.

~Alan Ball

EDIT: Turns out my surgery will will essentially take place at night-- gotta be there at 5:30 a.m.  I'm the first in line for 7:30. No complications and I should be out by noon-- which just a little later than my normal wake-up time. :)

Miscellaneous

Well the receipt came showing that Hawai'i is offically paid for :big sigh of relief:--at least plane fare and the room. I suppose we'll need to eat and have a bit of spending money, though as I mentioned we are hoping to do more outside things and take in lots of the sights (hopefully sightseeing is still free). Everyone that I mention this trip to goes on about how expensive Hawai'i is. Makes me more determined to find some "undiscovered" bargains--it's not like we are hanging in Honolulu on a shopping spree. Anyway, good on that and good that I just got notice that "Chris's" little 3-pixel pocket digital camera is to be shipped in the next two days. I was getting concerned as I hadn't heard anything and it's been three weeks. I notice I'm shooting a lot less with the big camera I have now--it's not condusive to just grabbing and going...so anyway the pocket camera is offically Chris's but he'll let me borrow it .
He's got choral camp for 4 days this week. Half a day of singing Monday-Thursday. He's not really excited about it but since they are travelling all the way to Hawai'i to compete they'd best be in fine harmony when they get there. Kind of farks up my week and I wonder what parents with traditional jobs do about having to just up a take their kid to singing at 2 o'clock in the afternoon? I swear, being a a parent is a full -time endeavor.    

Not much else. Hope everyone is having/ had a fine day.

--Cyn
_________________

Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.

~Alan Ball

No Cancer--Yay!

My doctor called me yesterday and after a long pause that caused my heart to stop, he told me I have no tumours or cancer. I have some Warning shield eyes if you can't stomach graphic female stuff...uterine polyps which he emphasized can be taken care of with "day-surgery." So yay! I'm happy--gonna get this sucker out of the way before Hawai'i.

It's been incredibly hot and humid here. I don't care as long as there's air (conditioning) or I'm in the pool...or in the car with no roof and sometimes with a/c there, too. :bad me:.
Tomorrow is another volunteer day and I fervently hope that they have the air on in the warehouse 'cos I sweat like a pig o/wise. I'm probably dragging Chris along as his Dad has now taken a weekend job to help foot our week in paradise/ two weeks in Ontario. We are seriously not taking on debt because of the intended move to a new home late next winter.

Other than having my first eBay customer come to my home tomorrow to p/u an expensive baby seat/stroller and a few hours volunteering we should have some pool time. We got a real cool shark "toy" that one submerges and it "swims" then finally bobs to the top--with just the top fin showing.
Chris named him "Bob" but Bob needs another shark buddy to race against so today I ordered a not-yet-named-shark--plus a big inner tube with handles and a shark cage  --it's for kids and adults to climb through and act goofy and the Lake is where I figure it'll get some action.

It was my Dad's 75th b-day today. He hates to talk on the phone but I "cornered" him. I'm kinda glad I did as I found out that my cousin Jill is going to ask me if I want to sell her my portion of the family estate on Maple Lake --after my Dad dies. Her extended family is expanding and she has a tiny cottage. In contrast, my Dad's cottage was the last one built--about 10 years younger than hers and bigger. Though the cottage is a real hassle to get to from here--when my Dad told me of her desire the words "no bloody way" came out of my mouth pretty darn fast, surprising even me. I love my cuz--she's my age and we spent a lot of summers together and she can borrow the cottage but buy, no--it's the only real connection the extended family has. She doesn't realize too that my dad is in pretty good shape ('cept his knees that he cashed out playing college football). It's uncomfortable to ponder but I don't see my dad dying anytime soon. So premature to discuss this, no?

Anyway--should get moving with work showing up at my door in the a.m.

Cheers!

--Cyn`
_________________

Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.

~Alan Ball

Have you no sense of decency, sir?

ON THIS DAY                (from NYTimes.com)
On June 9, 1954, Army counsel Joseph N. Welch confronted Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy during the Senate-Army Hearings over McCarthy's attack on a member of Welch's law firm, Frederick G. Fisher. Said Welch: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"


The echo of words spoken in the past, resonate in the present.

Here's To You, Ms. Bancroft...

Actress Anne Bancroft Dies at Age 73

I really liked her opposite Shirley Maclaine in the "The Turning Point."
She was really good as an actress--and from what I've always read, she was a  great partner in life with Mel Brooks. I know in interviews he sounded as if he revered her
A solid talent in a number of quite different roles. Poor Mel.

By DINO HAZELL, Associated Press Writer

Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft arrive for 75th anniversary gala for Time magazine at Radio City Music Hall in New York Tin this March 3, 1998 file photo. Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" but achieved greater fame as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate," has died. She was 73. She died of uterine cancer on Monday, June 6, 2005, at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York, John Barlow, a spokesman for her husband, Mel Brooks, said Tuesday, June 7, 2005. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft arrive for ...

NEW YORK - Anne Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" but achieved greater fame as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate," has died. She was 73.

She died of uterine cancer on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital, John Barlow, a spokesman for her husband, Mel Brooks, said Tuesday.

Bancroft was awarded the Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of the deaf and blind Keller. She repeated her portrayal in the film version.

Yet despite her Academy Award and four other nominations, "The Graduate" overshadowed her other achievements.

Dustin Hoffman delivered the famous line when he realized his girlfriend's mother was coming on to him at her house: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"

Bancroft complained to a 2003 interviewer: "I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about `The Miracle Worker.' We're talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world. ... I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet."

Mike Nichols, who directed "The Graduate," called Bancroft a masterful performer.

"Her combination of brains, humor, frankness and sense were unlike any other artist," Nichols said in a statement. "Her beauty was constantly shifting with her roles, and because she was a consummate actress she changed radically for every part."

Patty Duke, who played Keller to Bancroft's Sullivan, said "there aren't superlatives enough" to describe what working with Bancroft was like. "On most nights we performed it felt as if we were one," she said.

Gratuitous Photo Of Johnny Depp :)

Depp to pay for Hunter Thompson statue
Organizers of a memorial for Hunter S. Thompson plan to erect a 150-foot structure -- courtesy of actor Johnny Depp -- to shoot the gonzo journalist's ashes onto his ranch near here. Jon Equis, the event producer working with Thompson's family, said the tower will be 12 feet wide at the base and 8 feet wide at the top, where a cannon will be placed. Depp, who portrayed the author in the movie version of Thompson's book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" will pay for the tower, designed to resemble Thompson's "gonzo fist" emblem.
(AP/Damian Dovarganes)

Marijuana IS no big deal--for adults

...last week, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and more than 500 other economists endorsed a report that said state and federal coffers could reap a net gain of $13.9 billion if marijuana were legalized.

http://tinyurl.com/74nnv

Targeting marijuana saps anti-drug effort, critics say

By Stevenson Swanson
Tribune national correspondent

June 5, 2005

NEW YORK -- A new government anti-marijuana campaign has reignited a long-smoldering debate over how dangerous the most widely used illegal drug in America really is and whether it should be the central focus of the nation's war on drugs.

Headlined "Marijuana and your teen's mental health," an advertisement appearing in newspapers and magazines nationwide cites scientific studies in the last seven years that have found that regular use of marijuana in the teenage years can put users at risk of depression, suicidal impulses and schizophrenia later in life.

"Still think marijuana's no big deal?" the ad asks parents.

Yes, responds one leading advocate of decriminalizing marijuana.

"If you want to focus on problem drugs in the U.S., marijuana is the last drug you would focus on," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which favors treating marijuana like alcohol: a legal product that is regulated, taxed and illegal for minors to use.

"We have methamphetamine out there, we have heroin, we have OxyContin, we have booze, we have cigarettes. To make statements that marijuana in the hands of teenagers is this dangerous threat, it's ludicrous."

And last week, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and more than 500 other economists endorsed a report that said state and federal coffers could reap a net gain of $13.9 billion if marijuana were legalized.

The study by Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron estimated that law enforcement would save $7.7 billion, while taxes on the drug could amount to $6.2 billion. Miron's study was largely funded by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C., lobbying group that supports liberalizing marijuana laws.

The renewed war of words regarding a drug that has been prevalent in American society for some 40 years erupted in early May when John Walters, the Bush administration's drug czar, launched the government's latest print and broadcast ad campaign.

Mental health alert

"A growing body of evidence now demonstrates that smoking marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems," said Walters, whose official title is director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

One recent report, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found that adults who had used marijuana before age 12 were twice as likely to have experienced a serious mental illness in the past year as those who began smoking it after 18.

(Okay, both sides engage in selective information filtering--but the study highlighted kids who smoke pot before age 12! Do most kids try pot for the first time before age 12?! From what I've read most kids don't try pot until well into their teens. If it were regulated like ciggies or booze would they have? Maybe. Maybe not.--Cyn)

Among early users, 21 percent reported suffering a serious mental health problem, compared with 10.5 percent among those who started smoking marijuana later. The study was based on interviews with almost 90,000 adults.

Other studies cited by the drug control office, which will spend $120 million on public-education advertising this year, have found that teenagers who smoke marijuana weekly are three times more likely than non-users to have suicidal thoughts and that some teenage users have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia as adults.

(Chicken/egg statement here. Troubled kids self-medicate. Need I say more? Okay I will. Kids that are more "stable" emotionally in general do less self-medicating--e.g. they drink alcohol, smoke pot, take painkillers or speed less than the troubled kids. This is old news).

"We are very concerned about marijuana for a very good reason," said David Murray, a policy analyst for the drug control office. "It's so prevalent, so widespread in the population. There's a public-health responsibility here. "This is not an innocuous drug."

(Exactly. That's why only adults should be able to legally use it. And "drug" by one of Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary's definitions, is "a substance other than food intended to affect the structure or function of the body." "Innocuous" means "harmless" or "inoffensive." Aspirin isn't innocuous either, or caffeine. The list could be endless.--Cyn)

A University of Michigan study found last year that 34.3 percent of high school seniors and 11.8 percent of 8th graders had smoked marijuana in the previous 12 months.

Drug use among teenagers has been falling since 1996, the study noted. (:sigh:--Yeah, good news--let's highlight this instead of the propaganda.--Cyn)

Teenagers are the targets of the government anti-marijuana campaign because officials believe that use of marijuana early in life can lead to harder drugs such as cocaine or heroin later. And adolescents may feel they are fully grown, but they aren't.

(Wrong again. Tobacco use is the best "indicator," (if there is such a thing) of a kid's potential to go on to "harder" drugs. Tobacco--the drug that is a monkey on the back of about 1 in 4 adults is the "gateway drug," as the drug people have erroneously christened pot.--Cyn)

"The evidence is now pretty significant that central nervous system development is not complete in adolescents, and the use of this drug may have effects on the maturation of their central nervous systems," said Dr. Richard Suchinsky, a psychiatrist who oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs' addiction programs.

"It inhibits certain functions, such as cognition, judgment and the ability to postpone gratification," Suchinsky said.

(:smirk: I'm a little bit sorry. They are worried that it's pot's fault that kid's have a hard time postponing gratification?! C'mon. I mean. C'mon. Take a look around. Western society is rife with avenues to instant gratification. Can't blame pot for this one. As far as cognition and judgment? No smoking weed and driving heavy machinery or making important decisions while high and until you are at least age 18 and even then when something requires you to be straight, for goodness sake, lay off the weed.--Cyn)

But critics of the government's war on drugs say the latest studies do little to advance what is already known about marijuana and do not prove that the drug is responsible for mental illness. Children and teenagers who are predisposed to have mental health problems may be more likely to try marijuana, they say.

"There's a question about whether there's a causality," said the Drug Policy Alliance's Nadelmann. "What's interesting about marijuana, you can't even find a presidential candidate now who will say he has never used it. We all know people who have smoked marijuana for periods of time, and they're all doing fine."

In Memoriam, Part II

"The No. 2 guy at the FBI, that was a pretty good source."

Brings back memories. Not good ones, either. As a nation, we were disheartened.
The US involvement in the Vietnam War came sputtering to an end in 1974 (the last U.S. helicopter lifting off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon marked the official end of the Vietnam War in 1975), but the revelation that there was a break-in at Democratic National Headquarters by Republican Party operatives during the 1972 Nixon re-election campaign and the ensuing ruckus raised by The Washington Post with the help of "Deep Throat" had led to the threat of impeachment of the President of the United States.

Nixon had to go--but he clung to The Office of the President like a lifeline even as he surely must have known his presidency was beyond the realm of recovery.

So "Deep Throat" was the Number 2 FBI guy. Passed over for a promotion by Nixon for the number 1 spot. No possible motive there, huh?
A true "American hero," says his grandson.
I suppose now that the chapter ends, history will eventually settle on a portrait of "who" Mark Felt was and why he was willing to greatly facilitate Nixon's resignation.
Over time for good or ill, history will paint the picture.

Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon gives his farewell speech to members of his cabinet and staff in the East Room of the White House, following his resignation August 9, 1974. Photo by Reuters/File/Bettmann-UPI

Former FBI No. 2 was 'Deep Throat' - Woodward
Tue May 31, 2005 06:59 PM ET 

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI No. 2 Mark Felt is "Deep Throat," the legendary source who leaked Watergate scandal secrets to the Washington Post and helped bring down President Richard Nixon, journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein said on Tuesday after 30 years of secrecy.

The two Post reporters, whose aggressive stories on Watergate led to Nixon's August 1974 resignation, confirmed Felt was "Deep Throat" after Vanity Fair magazine and Felt's family members made his role public.

The unmasking of "Deep Throat" solves one of the greatest political and journalistic mysteries of modern times and ends three decades of speculation on his identity by historians and political observers.

"W. Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage," Woodward and Bernstein said in a joint statement posted on the Post's Web site.

Vanity Fair had reported earlier on Tuesday that Felt, now a 91-year-old retiree living in Santa Rosa, California, had told the magazine and his family that he was the Post's anonymous source.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Felt told  lawyer John O'Connor, author of the magazine story.

Felt's grandson told reporters on Tuesday his grandfather was "an American hero" for his role in uncovering the Watergate scandal, and his daughter said he had "a big grin" upon learning of the Vanity Fair article.

Woodward and Bernstein had refused for decades to reveal the name of their source, spawning multiple books, documentaries and investigations guessing at his identity.

Only three people -- Woodward, Bernstein and former Post Editor Ben Bradlee -- knew his name, and they vowed not to reveal it until after his death. The Post quoted Bradlee as saying that knowing "Deep Throat" was a top FBI official gave him confidence about the newspaper's reporting on Watergate.

"The No. 2 guy at the FBI, that was a pretty good source,"  Bradlee told the Post.