Some Translation, Please.

A few bits to remember as the election season gets under our skin.
And so it goes.
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Caturday at the Beach

They all say that on their first visit.

And so it goes.
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Medical Update

No surprises here. It is what I feared all along.

The new Dr. called to tell me that he received the results of the ultra-sound and that I do, in fact, have a darling little paraumbilical hernia that is about 1.5 centimeters long. We will discuss options on my next office visit. No stomach crunches, heavy lifting, sit-ups, etc., as that may exacerbate the situation..


Potential problem: the season begins in about 6 weeks.  Should I get it repaired ASAP, or wait until after Labor Day?

Tomorrow morning at 6:30 AM I will be at the medical center for blood work ordered by the new Dr. I am going early because I must fast 12 hours tonight. Just the usual tests for a man my age - a PSA, cholesterol, liver and kidney screening.  Going in early means I can race back home for a coffee and good breakfast before work, so I won't get a headache.

No, I don't know how much of the cost will be covered by Medicare, but - it is what it is - and necessary.

Looks like there is another hospital bill in my future, just as I make the final payment (April 3rd.) on the previous emergency.  Bother!

And so it goes.
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New Doctor, Ultrasound, & Blood Work

The appointment with the new doctor (PCP) was this morning and, as usual, I was more than a little nervous. A history of rejection is a major part of the problem. Having downloaded and completed all the necessary paperwork, I put it all neatly in a folder and took off. Ah, to be calm and relaxed.

To my surprise, the receptionist was cheerful and bubbly. She commented that I was one of the few people who actually followed directions and completed the paperwork properly.  I received her blessing. It also saved valuable office time. Score one for me!

The next surprise occurred as I was called into the office for a pre-exam, first visit interview.  Turned out to be Shelly from my previous doctor's office. We hugged and I immediately felt more relaxed. We played catchup while she updated my profile with info tidbits all doctors require, for some reason. She then guided me to the exam room where I waited to meet the new doctor.

Our meeting was warm and cordial, as he asked another 10 thousand questions about my life, medical history, medications, whys, whens, wherefores, and vitamins.  He asked why I had seen so many specialists before the Polymyositis diagnosis; I retold the story as best I could remember.  He smiled and said, "everyone wanted their bit. You had full insurance coverage back then."  I knew exactly what he meant.

He gave me the once-over and digital exam and proclaimed my prostate health, then felt the lump in my abdomen (which looks like I am about to give birth to an ALIEN), asking about its history.  I related what I could remember. He suggested an ultra-sound ASAP to determine the cause and asked Shelly to make a few calls.

I was not charged a co-pay for the visit. Perhaps I will be billed later.

In a matter of minutes I was on my way to the imaging center (one that cuts a break for those without insurance) where they checked me in with my Photo ID, and Medicare Card before I was ushered in to the imaging room. When the radiologist and technician were satisfied with the images, I was ushered out to the reception area where I was told that my out-of-pocket co-pay would be $56.00. They offered the choice of paying on the spot, or billing me.  I chose to pay by credit card since I won't get the bill for another month, anyway.

I have an order for blood work, (the usual screenings) which I will probably have done before work on Thursday or Friday - since it requires a 12+ hour fasting period.

So, another "unknown" is lifted from my shoulders - the bp is slightly elevated (probably stress), all other vitals are OK. I am grateful for that, at least.

And so it goes.
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Social Security, Weather, & Angels

Aside from the most recent missive from the SSA, essentially telling me that I am a good-for-nothing rich bastard and therefore will not receive Social Security benefits any time soon - and, blah blah blah, there is little to write about. But, there is this. It took me 4 days to work up the energy to open the envelope.

The weather has been miserable throughout the mid-Atlantic states with a mixture of fog, mist, and rain for over a week. I am grateful that is hasn't been cold with snow, or ice, but still...

Work has been a delight as regulars came in for good food and drink, looking for some 'cheering-up' - yes, I know how to help that along. It's been a great time though this afternoon I was feeling spent until the sister (dining with a regular customer) touched my arm as she was leaving to tell me that her sister made a list of what and who to see this weekend, and that I was the one person on that list.It was difficult to hold back tears.

I've never heard anything like that before.

When the customer approached us, she said, "You know, you are the reason we came in for lunch; to enjoy a margarita, and so my sister could meet you. I wanted her to meet you in person. I've talked about you for years, and she decided she had to meet you herself." As she gave me a hug she whispered that she was sorry she didn't get to see me often in the summer because she and family spend their days on the beach and come in to dine in the evenings. I could find no words. I was overwhelmed.

Please don't think that I write this to boast or toot some horn. It is a shock and I still don't know how to respond to, or process experiences like this. Do we ever know how we touch other people's lives?

There are human angels everywhere and I am happy to know a few. I'll leave it there.


And so it goes.
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Copy-Caturday

At an office near you!

More later.
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An 'In The Closet' Idea

Came across this today and thought it would be a perfect solution for my one walk-in closet situation. Forget the suits, and probably the books, but this would solve many headaches for storage and add additional space for daily preparations for work. (Click the image to embiggen.)

The shelf space shown here is similar in size to my space and could easily house storage crates of seasonal items as well as accessories and odds and ends from electronics to hats, gloves, scarves, and personal grooming supplies, as in shoe and leather care products; and fun campy stuff (whatever that is!) like beads, boas, and bells of one kind or another.  You get the drift.

It could easily be adapted to suit my needs and when I leave here (either in a casket or to a nursing home) the next tenant will have a useful, private grooming space - and so I will have left something behind for use by someone else in the future.

Seriously, I live in a very tiny apartment and need to find creative ways to solve storage issues.  Suggestions, additional ideas, and comments are welcome, of course.

Oh, and if you know of, and used anyone who does this kind of work, I'd appreciate their information.

And so it goes.
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BP Deepwater Horizon, Remember?

Well, all the PR and commercial hype about the squeaky clean Gulf and its untainted seafood has now been shot to hell - where it belongs. Not that anyone cares outside of the Gulf communities living with the mess. Funny, but no matter how loud water-men and locals shouted about this, no one was listening, probably still not.  Money talks. This piece in Science Daily will likely be nothing more than a blip in the news-world. After all, what's a dead-zone body of water compared to the quest for coverage of celebrities and their shenanigans?

ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2012) — Since the explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, scientists have been working to understand the impact that this disaster has had on the environment. For months, crude oil gushed into the water at a rate of approximately 53,000 barrels per day before the well was capped on July 15, 2010. A new study confirms that oil from the Macondo well made it into the ocean's food chain through the tiniest of organisms, zooplankton.
Tiny drifting animals in the ocean, zooplankton are useful to track oil-derived pollution. They serve as food for baby fish and shrimp and act as conduits for the movement of oil contamination and pollutants into the food chain. The study confirms that not only did oil affect the ecosystem in the Gulf during the blowout, but it was still entering the food web after the well was capped.
Oil, which is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and other chemicals, contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can be used to fingerprint oil and determine its provenance. The researchers were able to identify the signature unique to the Deep Water Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Our research helped to determine a 'fingerprint' of the Deepwater Horizon spill -- something that other researchers interested the spill may be able to use," said Dr. Siddhartha Mitra of Eastern Carolina University. "Furthermore, our work demonstrated that zooplankton in the Northern Gulf of Mexico accumulated toxic compounds derived from the Macondo well."
The team's research indicates that the fingerprint of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could be found in some zooplankton in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem at low levels, as much as a month after the leaking wellhead was capped. In addition, the extent of the contamination seemed to be patchy. Some zooplankton at certain locations far removed from the spill showed evidence of contamination, whereas zooplankton in other locations, sometimes near the spill, showed lower indications of exposure to the oil-derived pollutants.
"Traces of oil in the zooplankton prove that they had contact with the oil and the likelihood that oil compounds may be working their way up the food chain," said Dr. Michael Roman of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
The study was led by East Carolina University with researchers from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Oregon State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and U.S. Geological Survey. The paper, "Macondo-1 well oil-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesozooplankton from the northern Gulf of Mexico," was published in the February issue of Geographical Research Letters.

 If people are too complacent to pay attention to the problem (or believe the BP PR and advertising) they will get what they do not deserve - disease, respiratory infections, cancers, and death. Big oil calls the shots, not only in the US, but globally.  As I said, Money Talks!

And so it goes.
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Colonialism Helped Launch the HIV Epidemic a Century Ago

With ACT-UP commemorating their 25th anniversary recently, I found this article very interesting. Very interesting, indeed. From the Washington Post:

We are unlikely to ever know all the details of the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But a series of recent genetic discoveries have shed new light on it, starting with the moment when a connection from chimp to human changed the course of history.
We now know where the epidemic began: a small patch of dense forest in southeastern Cameroon. We know when: within a couple of decades on either side of 1900. We have a good idea of how: A hunter caught an infected chimpanzee for food, allowing the virus to pass from the chimp’s blood into the hunter’s body, probably through a cut during butchering.
As to the why, here is where the story gets even more fascinating, and terrible. We typically think of diseases in terms of how they threaten us personally. But they have their own stories. Diseases are born. They grow. They falter, and sometimes they die. In every case these changes happen for reasons.
For decades nobody knew the reasons behind the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But it is now clear that the epidemic’s birth and crucial early growth happened during Africa’s colonial era, amid massive intrusion of new people and technology into a land where ancient ways still prevailed. European powers engaged in a feverish race for wealth and glory blazed routes up muddy rivers and into dense forests that had been traveled only sporadically by humans before.
The most disruptive of these intruders were thousands of African porters. Forced into service by European colonial powers, they cut paths through the exact area that researchers have now identified as the birthplace of the AIDS epidemic. It was here, in a single moment of transmission from chimp to human, that a strain of virus called HIV-1 group M first appeared.
In the century since, it has been responsible for 99 percent of all of the world’s deaths from AIDS — not just in Africa but in Moscow, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, New York, Washington. All that began when the West forced its will on an unfamiliar land, causing the essential ingredients of the AIDS epidemic to combine.
It was here, by accident but with motives by no means pure, that the world built a tinderbox and tossed in a spark.

The chimps of Cameroon

Many simians, such as gorillas and monkeys, can carry a virus that resembles HIV. But scientists now know that HIV-1 group M was born from a virus circulating among a community of chimpanzees concentrated in Cameroon, a sprawling country with bustling Atlantic Ocean ports, populous highlands, and a lightly developed southern region where relatively few people live even today. This was home to the chimps.
Finding a more exact location took a remarkable degree of scientific ingenuity. An international research team led by Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Paul Sharp of the University of Edinburgh developed an elaborate project that involved searching for the simian virus in chimp feces collected across a vast swath of southern Cameroon.

To read the whole, fascinating piece, click HERE.

In memory of all those we have lost.

And so it goes.
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St. Patrick, Queen Victoria & a Sazerac Cocktail

St. Patrick's Weekend is over (thanks be to G*d!) and we're none the worse for the experience.  This little beach town boasted a forecast (forecast, mind you) of sunny skies, light breezes, and temperatures in the low 70s F. Never happened.

Oh sure, I walked to work Thursday morning under sunny skies and a morning temp around 62' F. By 11 o'clock a mist rolled in off the Atlantic, the sky grew dark and within an hour the temperature dropped 20' F.  No joke.

By 2 pm the winds kicked up and there was a heavy downpour lasting until the end of my shift at 4.  All this time the Weather Channel is touting "sunny skies and a temperature of 72' in Rehoboth Beach." Again, no joke.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday brought more mist, fog, and less than comfortable temperatures. Of course the heat was on at the restaurant; I even had to turn it on at home when I arrived at a cold, damp 54' apartment.  Brrr!

The restaurant was not as busy as in past years, but I think the weather did us in. Still, the usual crazies in costumes, shamrock hats and beads, and swilling green beer began their pub-crawl early on Saturday.  Pulling on the front door at 10 am, already 3 sheets to the wind, and whining because we didn't open until 11:30 - a-whole-hour-and-a-half.

Don't know where their launch pad was, but I have my suspicions. Thankfully, all our drunks arrived later and were in a happy mood. I find it harder and harder to deal with obnoxious drunks anymore, so this was a plus for us all.  As my shift was ending, a party of 13 lesbians burst into the place and virtually took over the hi-tops in the bar.  They sang as they placed shamrock stickies on all faces within arm range. Dressed in green velvet coats with green top hats and green carnations, they had a great time. 

As I enjoyed my AS cocktail, I received a shamrock sticker on my cheek, and more than a few kisses from the gang.  It was fun. No green beer for me; had a Bombay Sapphire with olives and after making rounds of tables of regulars, headed home to a quiet evening and supper.

Sunday saw a busy lunch with many diners nursing hangovers (welcome to vomit city!) and opting for lighter American dishes - and Margaritas - before the drive back to DC, PA, or NJ. A rather quiet, subdued group to say the least. A most welcome turn of events, IMHO.

At home last night I made a Sazerac and listened to some light jazz as my dinner cooked.  Took a hot shower and upon hitting the sheets remember nothing until this morning. 

The sun finally made an appearance, so I knew it was going to be a good day...and I was right. Took a walk on the beach before work. Wonderful. Nice lunch crowd and the new server is working out very well. He's young, bright, and from Mexico City.  Unfortunately, today was his 22nd. Birthday, so he got the full treatment** - from the kitchen & wait staff, and the doslocosguys.  He was stunned at first, but got into the moment pretty quickly. He has no family here and no girlfriend, and was overwhelmed by the outpouring of friendship and love.

**The full treatment: It can be humiliation; a sombrero is placed on the head, a cake with candles is presented (pictures are taken by friends and family) as an animated rabbit sings "They Say it's Your Birthday" by the Beatles, then the staff sings the traditional "Happy Birthday" as we rattle noisemakers and make a general racket unto the Lord, to the horror of the birthday person.  Lots of fun.

Have the next 2 days off and have a few fun ideas if the weather cooperates and I get the chores out of the way tomorrow. We shall see. No matter, I am grateful for the time off to relax and recharge.

And so it goes.
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1940 Census Results to be Made Public

This is a BIG deal. It is being called the 'release of confidential data' after 72 years.  More like government 'suppressed information'.  Think connotational indices. Words are wonderful things, aren't they? We won't go there just now. This image alone gives me the creeps.

In any event this new information will likely be a treasure trove for blogger buddy, Ron, and my cousin who do great work investigating their family histories.

NEW YORK (AP) — It was a decade when tens of millions of people in the U.S. experienced mass unemployment and social upheaval as the nation clawed its way out of the Great Depression and rumblings of global war were heard from abroad.

Now, intimate details of 132 million people who lived through the 1930s will be disclosed as the U.S. government releases the 1940 census on April 2 to the public for the first time after 72 years of being kept confidential.

Access to the records will be free and open to anyone on the Internet — but they will not be immediately name searchable.

For genealogists and family historians, the 1940 census release is the most important disclosure of ancestral secrets in a decade and could shake the branches of many family trees. Scholars expect the records to help draw a more pointillistic portrait of a transformative decade in American life.

Researchers might be able to follow the movement of refugees from war-torn Europe in the latter half of the 1930s; sketch out in more detail where 100,000 Japanese Americans interned during World War II were living before they were removed; and more fully trace the decades-long migration of blacks from the rural South to cities.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor and scholar of black history who has promoted the tracing of family ancestry through popular television shows, said the release of the records will be a "great contribution to American society."

Gates, whose new PBS series "Finding Your Roots" begins March 25, said the "goldmine" of 1940 records would add important layers of detail to an existing collection of opened census records dating to 1790.

"It's such a rare gift," he said of the public's access to census records, "especially for people who believe that establishing their family trees is important for understanding their relationship to American democracy, the history of our country, and to a larger sense of themselves."

Margo Anderson, a census historian, said the release of the records could help answer questions about Japanese-Americans interned in camps after the outbreak of WWII.

This census is an important snapshot of what the country looked like near the end of the great depression.  Please read the whole piece HERE.

And so it goes.

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Long Live "Napoleon"

I was able to snag tickets when this cinematic wonder played Radio City Music Hall (with full orchestra) while on tour of the US.  That was 1981.  I had read about Abel Gance and this film extensively in film school.  I had no idea Kevin Brownlow was still working to restore the piece.  It was a breathtaking experience and one that would require many viewings to truly "get" all the innovations Gance applied in the making.

Now there is this - 30 years on - it will be shown again at the Silent Film Festival in San Francisco.  From today's NYT:

SOON after Abel Gance’s “Napoleon” had its premiere in Paris in 1927, he wrote a letter to his audience, soliciting open eyes and hearts. “I have made,” he wrote, “a tangible effort toward a somewhat richer and more elevated form of cinema.” He had created a film towering in ambition, scale, cost, narrative and technical innovations, and believed that nothing less than “the future of the cinema” was at stake. His audacity had merit. The origins of the widescreen image can be traced to “Napoleon,” which also featured hand-held camerawork, eye-blink-fast editing, gorgeous tints, densely layered superimpositions and images shot from a pendulum, a sled, a bicycle and a galloping horse.

The film was an astonishment, and it was doomed. One hurdle was its length — his early versions ran from 3 hours to 6 hours 28 minutes (down from 9 hours) — while other difficulties were posed by Gance’s advances, specifically a process later called Polyvision that extended the visual plane into a panorama or three separate images and that required three screens to show it. Partly as a consequence, distributors and exhibitors took harsh liberties: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cut it down to around 70 minutes for the American release, a butchering that seemed to encourage bad reviews. Gance continued to rework the film, adding sound for a 1935 version and, decades later, new material. Yet even as he was taking it apart, others — notably the British historian Kevin Brownlow — were trying to restore “Napoleon” to its original glory.

In truth “Napoleon,” as it was initially hailed, no longer exists, which raises ticklish questions about authorship. In his book on the film, Mr. Brownlow lists 19 versions of “Napoleon” — including those created by distributors, Gance and Mr. Brownlow himself, who for decades has tried to restore the long-lost full version. Mr. Brownlow’s latest restoration (Version 20?), will play four times at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival starting next Saturday. But unlike in 1981 — when an earlier, abridged Brownlow restoration played around the country — no tour is planned. Yet while this may be the last time this particular iteration is screened in the United States, Francis Ford Coppola’s company, American Zoetrope, and the preservationist Robert A. Harris, who own most of the rights, are quietly working with Mr. Brownlow’s company and the Cinémathèque Française on still another restoration.

By the time Gance, who died in 1981 at 92, started on “Napoleon” he had already been anointed a cinematic pioneer, primarily for his touching 1919 romance “J’Accuse,” set against World War I, and his frenzied 1922 tragedy “La Roue,” about desperate desire in a poor railroad family. Both were successes and inspired feverish acclaim. The Cubist painter and future filmmaker Fernand Léger said that with “La Roue” Gance had “elevated the art of film to the plane of the plastic arts.” Jean Cocteau declared that “there is cinema before and after ‘La Roue’ as there is painting before and after Picasso.” Gance answered this praise with the even more ambitious “Napoleon,” calling it “the greatest film of modern times.” 

Read the rest HERE.

More later.

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