I was recently wheeled from a “prep room” to a, “procedure room” by a registered nurse who reviewed how fortunate I was to be where I was: a nationally renown cardiac center. The theatre where my procedure was to take place was packed with computers, covered tables with instruments, and three very efficient looking workers in scrubs. Pulled alongside the operating table, there was a need to move over from the gurney and I questioned if it would just be easier for me to get of

No more Kings videoconference from 1/26/26 Given the unusual posturing of the ICE formation in Minneapolis, the trolling finds me asking, “What do I know?” as opposed to, “What do I think or feel?”  They are two very separate approaches to thinking about the news—in all its forms. The nurse Alex Pretti was killed and while I know videos don’t tell the whole story, enough is seen to know that he was physically controlled and no longer any sort of threat and yet nine or ten bul

Maybe I will blog on this later? Look up the Greek myth about Daphne Mine's Electric!

Articles https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/opinion/marie-gluesenkamp-perez.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share . This is different and interesting, if we are live in a United States Stop Meeting Students Where They Are https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/youth-reading-books-professors/685825/?utm_medium=offsite&utm_source=flipboard&utm_campaign=all Unusual Things: At a local supermarket, the in-store Starbucks is next to the self check out space; while Kernie was ordering a

RAISING SELF-RELIANT CHILDREN in a Self-Indulgent World H Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen I found this book in a by-the-poolside library/exchange. I offer a summary and commentary below. The book’s intention is to provide a template for helping any impaired individual achieve self reliance, be they developing children or people with psychopathology or substance abuse issues.  I, for one, felt successful in this regard with my children when at twenty-five years of age, each was

When asked where I grew up, having been raised in a Navy family, I have fewer places to note than many, “Navy Juniors.” Chevy Chase, Maryland comes up last on my list. My year in Chevy Chase began while playing on the front lawn in Southern California. I was seven years old. My mother, Lethe, came out and proclaimed to me, “Your father has orders.”  Being concrete (still!) and a child of an officer, I dutifully responded, “What does he want me to do?”  I was rewarded with a s

Unusual things in the last monthj: I visited NYC for three days and witnessed  Santa Con: The boozy tradition attracts revelers from all around the New York City metro area in an all-day merry celebration, stopping at dozens of bars up and down the borough. This year's festivities kick off at 10 a.m.  I ate at a restaurant with a view of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. I experienced my first non-elective hospital admission—more on this next month Articles : From th

After the atmospheric river MOMA Moma and it matches my living room

As much as I enjoy the stimulation of international travel, it has been Kernie to not only catalyze, but sell many of our many trips to me.  Egypt had come up as a destination for maybe a decade. I deferred, suggesting alternates.  Why is that?  Egypt is in the Middle East. Enough said, right? Egypt has fought Israel multiple times and my government has stood with Israel, right or wrong. I assumed, as an American, that  I would be judged by that. I thought we would not be wel

THE BIG ONE :  OSTERHOLM This book is a bit dense with lots of detail and an, “I told you so” attitude by one of the authors who predicted hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US late Spring of the first year of Covid and was criticized by his peers for being so pessimistic…….What follows draws from the book, TWIV (this week in virology podcast), and experience. In my second year of medical school, as in all medical schools, my class studied the 1918-1919 World wide influen

There is also an Ocean View, Nebraska Been there, done that.

Books: East of the Mountains , Guterson Following the Equator  Mark Twain Shows: Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road on Apple. Interesting as in unusual or firsts: Car wash in SD asks as you pay, no touch or touch—no touch meant  no brush rubs your car…..and not whether you touch the credit card to the glass vs insert it….. Eisenhauer, This Piece of Ground—a locally done play in San Diego. Working girls. The musical with music written by Cindi Lauper Stream:  Life NBC/Peacock

There was a time when Kernie and I did yoga regularly at the local LA Fitness. We lost our favorite yoga teacher and never matched up with a new one; Covid took care of that. Our favorite yoga teacher was a picture: “Get your yoga butts on the mat ya’ll, we are starting.” An athletic blond woman with dreadlocks to her mid back led the class in lycra outfits. Her southern accent was disarming and she had an easy going manner, telling anecdotal stories about her family as she c

Timothy Keller I read this book  for the second time since receiving it in 2017 this past month. The premise of the book, then as now,  pulled me in: an Evangelical minister sets up a church in downtown Manhattan against the advice of just about everyone. The demographics are wrong: single, liberal, self centered people working in the dynamic center of the economy that is the USA. His church proved a success. There is a lesson to be learned there! The first half of the book s

Unusual things this last month:   4 flats on one bike ride and needed a rescue. Staycation: Kernie was away 10 days I drew a pen and ink picture for the first time in a year!!!          Trumpsters in Mexico: My Spanish teacher described a suburb of Merida where a number of expatriates from the US live. They are largely fans of president Trump. They live in Mexico because their middle class retireement allows them to live well outside the USA..... Streaming:  The

:) Yeah, but who reads signs? Good Rules Can't we all?

I was a confirmed agnostic before I went through puberty. Kernie was not so lucky. Our religious traditions and upbringing were about as...

Ben and Me By Eric Weiner This book reflects on Franklin’s biography and the author contrasts what he learns with our modern world and...

UNUSUAL THINGS THIS MONTH:  Kernie rehabilitated post operatively such that she is going to Europe this month. Mark Volman died on the...

I read Ayn Rand with avidity when an adolescent. This quote from Atlas Shrugged is still memorable to me and I am reminded of it every...