NEW WAY TO CURE DEPRESSION

WOW!! "Time Magazine," said there's a new pill that will cure depression that affects 300 million Americans. I have been, more or less, one of  them.

The six page center-fold article, loaded with history, detailed the effectiveness of pills, such as Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft, and Luvox, that depressed friends of mine have taken.

Ketamine  -- that's the new drug!  Ketamine is what Anesthesiologists use to put people under before they are anesthetized for surgery.

"In the past 20 years I have not seen anything like this," says Dr. Cristina Cusin, a clinician, researcher who runs the Ketamine Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Studies have shown 60% to 70% of people with treatment resistant depression respond to Ketamine."

Dr. Cusin revealed that approximately 400 patients have been involved with the studies. The Ketamine injection treatment lasts 7 to 14 days; to maintain the cure you need to keep getting injections; it costs $400 to $800 per treatment; it's not covered by insurance insurance.

Time explained that there are many private Ketamine clinics throughout the United States. Since it is FDA approved as an anesthetic, physicians can prescribe it for any condition they believe it may help, including depression. It's injected into a muscle. There are, so far, no rules governing clinics, but patients trying it, were saying it makes them feel "great... not depressed... hopeful... energetic... capable of activity..."

Major drug companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Allergan are working on Ketamine, and other similar drugs. They've announced that they may have a pill like it or better, by 2018, and 2019.  Doctor Gerard Sanacora, head of Yale's Depression Research Program says: "I think it's the most exciting treatment of the last 50 years. There's a lot we don't know about it, but any new drug that almost makes it to the finish line is a huge win."

...."huge win...no rules" makes me uneasy.... 

Even so, for decades, since its first issue in 1923, Time Magazine been a major reliable, highly respected source for news. Like most of our newspapers and magazines, Time is in a survival mode with its readership declining and costs rising, so Time's been reformatting, firing and hiring new top executives. A new pill grabs readers (like the magazine's 2016 centerfold article that highly touted a- "possible cure for Altzheimer's" which may or may not cure Altzheimer's.) Anyhow, in a year or two maybe Ketamine will help a lot of depressed folks who don't respond to treatment.

Like me. Having been been psychoanalyzed and also had short term therapy with a few other excellent therapists, I've learned a lot about what causes my depression. But aside from Freudian stuff, who isn't depressed nowadays, with so many terrifying, serious,  unsolvable issues hanging over our country as well as the world?

Hey, I perk myself up -- cure myself with work -- a project, something I'm doing like writing this blog. Work gets me learning, expanding, striving, and with it comes some tingling moments of excitement, daydreams. Sure, dreams fizzle, but momentarily thinking that what I'm writing might reach a lot of people, might get published -- those big and little thoughts keep firing up big and little hopes...

...me and and Emily Dickinson...

Sure, a pill might help, but you can change the subject in your brain. Hey, try it now. Focus on anything you could do right this minute -- quickly shove away the idea -- then, focus on it again. Even if it's a tiny, itty-bitty bit of nothing, grab it. Cure yourself for ten minutes, an hour, even a week.

GET A CHIP IMPLANTED IN A HAND

"Three Square Market," a company in Wisconsin, is giving employees an option of being implanted with microchip. "This is the future," said the company's CEO, Todd Westby.

A microchip the size of a grain of rice is easily injected under the skin. Suddenly, the touch of a hand, a wave of your hand can do a lot of things for you -- open doors, turn on lights, start the coffee machine, lock or unlock your cell phone, car, even your lock box.

The microchips are radio frequency ID tags, the same technology widely used in things like key cards. Chips have been implanted in animals for years to help identify lost pets and now the technology is moving to humans. Tech start-ups have sold tens of thousands of implant kits for humans in Europe. In some cities there are even implant parties where people bond, and celebrate getting chipped together.

“This is serious stuff," said an executive editor at CNET. "We’re talking about a connection to your body. You can’t turn it off, or put it away. It's in you. Each 'touch' leaves a digital footprint which can compromise one’s privacy. It’s easy to hack a chip implant."

CBS NEWS reporter, John Blackstone said, "It could put your privacy at risk," and referred to implants as a dystopian vision, ala "Brave New World," Huxley's novel about people in the future living dehumanized lives. Coincidentally, the movie channel has been running the 2004 film, "The Manchurian Candidate," about a human who's chipped and controlled, and ordered to kill a candidate at an election -- some ads are even juxtaposing pictures of Trump.

So would you get a chip implanted? This video about a Swedish company will help you decide.

FIXING IT YOURSELF

The big guys who control what most of us use everyday, are telling/selling, compelling us "do not attempt to repair your device." They say: "If you try to fix it yourself, you're inviting hackers.  You'll have more troubles, serious troubles. Repairs must be done by our skilled technicians."

Apple, along with other phone makers, as well as Deere Co (maker of tractors), are lobbying and halting -- yes halting -- "Right to Repair " legislation. They're worried. They make billions from repairs and Right to Repair & Fair Repair is now in 12 States.

Peruse this.

Get some handyman books on this and that ...

Take a look....

Get specific

Pick up a tool or two....

This can be you.

All aspects of YOU yourself -- brains, brawn, and beauty -- are utilized when you fix it yourself. 

It's a way to fight helplessness about wars, immigration, global warming, racial issues, healthcare, taxes, scary headlines, and it's good exercise.


Hey, if you yourself cannot make the-whatever-it-is work, use your brain, brawn, beauty to find a local expert -- ask folks who own or operate or work for businesses in your neighborhood for suggestions; check references; negotiate; make an appointment; watch what they do. And learn.

It's interesting. It's fun.  I've done it. If I can do it, so can you.       

WHAT ROGER FEDERER MEANS TO ME

A few weeks ago, everyday our kitchen television was tuned to men's and women's tennis at Forest Hills. My husband, John Cullum, is full-time fan and keeps me up to date. I peek over his shoulder.

I have loved, admired, and saluted Roger Federer for years. Before Forest Hills, every time I heard his name, the fact that he's now 36 was mentioned. I figured he and 31-year-old Rafael Nadal would be playing each other in the finals. I know how it feels to be told that you can't do what a younger  athlete can do, but Federer, winning the Australian open and Wimbledon earlier this year, has proved he's still a winner.

I was stunned when I saw Federer lose in the Quarter Finals -- upset, as I watched as he congratulated the winner, Juan Martin del Potro, and left the court.
He told reporters: "I didn’t think I played bad, I can do better maybe, sure, but I think the decisions that we both took, me serving, him returning, or whatever  it may have been, you know, it just didn’t go my way. The way I played or am playing right now, it's not good enough in my opinion to win this tournament."

The way he thinks/speaks about his work inspires me to think/speak to myself Roger's way, about my own work.

The vision of him in 2016 after the Forest Hills finals is still strong in my mind -- his friendly, kind manner that said I'm happy for you, as he shook hands with the winner, Novak Djkovic.

He thanked Djkovic for being  such an excellent player, and said, quietly, one sentence about being  back next year.

My ears tingled. My heart sang -- "Yes, be back next year. and try hard again."

Wherever  he is right now, today, he's not mourning or reviewing what he might have  handled better in that Quarter Finals Game with Del Potro. He said he'll be back next ear and he will be back. Right now he's probably playing tennis somewhere with his usual  intense total concentration -- like McEnroe said, "playing his usual  beautiful game."

Playing the game beautifully ...Yes, whatever Roger Federer did, does, and will do in tennis is a gift he gives me.

MEET AN ASTOUNDING WOMAN!!!

This is Arundhati Roy.

I saw the photo, the headline "Captures India's chaotic beauty," above a review of her new book in Newsweek Magazine. Her face ... this photo ... got me reading the article.

Apparently in her book "THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS," author Roy wanders at night near her home in Delhi, observing the poor people who survive there among palaces, mosques, and cemeteries, trying, as an writer, to make what's not seen, clear and visible.

In this book, her second book that was written twenty years after her award-winning first novel "GOD OF SMALL THINGS," Roy moves from a family in an old graveyard, to what's happening in distant Kashmir where a love triangle unfolds -- a college pal and a journalist -- two people whose mixed background, (parents from different classes) resembles Roy's own background.

Roy says to write about India, without addressing its caste problem, would be like ignoring the legacy of aparthied in South Africa. The 55-year-old Roy has spent the last twenty years writing about injustices -- local and global -- from the negative ecological impact of hydroelectric projects in India to her support for National Security Agency whistleblower, Edward Snowden.

"It was about ten years ago," Roy said, "that I started feeling all my urgent interventions weren't making any difference. In Kasmir, I couldn't express what I learned about terror and repression with footnotes and facts. Fiction seemed to be, for me, the right thing to do. All the journeys I've made, all the things I have done, form the underpinnings of "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness."

So, did a buy a copy? Am I reading this new book?

Not yet. My desk is piled high with work I must do on my novels that John Cullum's publishing as audio videos. Am I recommending it? Yes.

Those words she wrote, and her face -- the look of her sticks in my mind -- woman, girl, amused, thoughtful, hugely observant. She inspires me to do the same things in my work. Maybe she'll inspire you too.

INTRIGUING DOG FACTS

There are around 80 million dog pets in our country. About 44% of Americans have at least one dog.

We don't have a dog anymore, but I remember many moments with our Lhasa Apso, Teechi, and still miss her.

I was intrigued by a six-page, featured article in Time Magazine about Canine research facilities that have been established around the world, and how they tested the question, "Can dogs actually count?"

Apparently the test dogs tended to chose a board with more shapes, not less. Other tests proved, "Dogs understand an object's permanence -- if an object is tossed out of sight, they look for it." Babies do not do that when they throw a spoon on the floor.  

"Do dogs do better than 3 to 4-year-olds?" Kids were taught to turn a lever to open a box and get a treat. When the lever was rigged so it wasn't needed, children continued to turn it. Dogs just opened the box.

Brain size facts: "A human brain is one fiftieth (1.50th) the mass of average body. Horses are dullards at 1:600th; lions are little better at 1:550th; Dogs are comparative scholars with an impressive 1:125th. But... (I love the way the author of the article, Time's Senior Reporter, Jeffrey Kluger, put it), "Dog brains don't have the real estate that humans have."

The article explained, "The 3 pillars of a dog's world are reward, pleasure, expectation." Using food rewards, experimenting with 2 smells -- puffs of a chemical that smelled like nail polish remover -- puffs of a green grass smell -- "Dogs learned to go right to the green grass smell."

Various research reports conclude: "Dogs tend to behave socially. They recognize faces of humans  and other dogs. They experience jealousy when a treat is fed to  a dog mannequin." With 2 dogs, side-by-side, one trained to pull a lever that would get food to the other, it was noted that the first dog  pulled the lever when the second dog was a playmate; it was noted that for unknown dogs, the test dogs didn't pull it.

"Do dogs alert someone if someone is injured or there's a fire? Tests showed that dogs do not bark if there's a fire, or an injury. A dog owner, walking his dog, fell to ground. Nearby, 2  humans were seated, but the dog didn't do anything. Since, in the majority of  cases, dogs tested did nothing, the researchers have said, "Dogs alerting humans in life and death situations is because of dogs' awareness of something weird or not safe."

"Do dogs follow pointing? Other species, such as dolphins, elephants, and bats, learn the meaning of pointing only from experience with humans who taught then by pointing. Researchers concluded, "Dogs know the hand is used to indicate something."

Do dogs understand and learn "displacement" of toys? It was noted that dogs, after playing with a toy and the researcher removed the toy, go to the place where researcher put the toy.

What about dogs remembering when you're home from a long time absence? Researchers say, "Dogs have awareness of the past, and the future, and possibly the rate at which time passes." Monitoring cameras show how dogs left alone, stir, check the door, and become restless while waiting for you to come home.

What about will power? In an experiment with dogs trained to sit without moving for 10 minutes, the dogs, after 20 minutes, given a new task, were less likely to complete a new task than dog who spent the same 10 minutes doing whatever it pleased. Science says it's because of depletion of glucose in the prefontal cortex. They say that after a 'sit and stay,' if you give a dog a sugary drink, the dog will stay and function with the next task longer and better.

If you, who are reading this blog, have a dog over a long period of time, you may come to other  conclusions about your dog's intelligence. The days when we had a dog (also a cat, fish tanks, and a bird) are long gone. My husband worked as an actor on different coasts, and I maintained my dance company by touring -- we were not able to be good pet parents. Even so, my memories of interacting with our dog are vivid and continue to haunt me with guilty-mama thoughts -- Teechi was part of our family, so of course, I'm fascinated by information about something that was, and still is, so important in our lives.

Here's a link to Jeffrey Kruger's article in Time: SECRETS OF THE CANINE MIND.

AGE-ITIS

  A well-known actress we know is suing a major movie website because when it revealed her age, she started losing jobs.

My husband, a legendary performer, is currently being offered jobs for  dying grandpas, and great-grandpas with Alzheimer's. Why? Because his  age is more or less known, and producers  feel if you're over  sixty, you are old. (J.C. would probably do better if he gained 20 pounds  and walked with a cane.)

Picasso's haunted, sad-faced self-portrait of his older self is on the left.  There are wonderful memorable words about age in in Shakespeare's plays. In all the arts, and in life, words/words like birds, ads/fads, a-mill/a-thousand new, true, cure-you things are affecting, infecting people with AGE-itis.

It's what every one gets soon or later in little and big ways before or after a birthday....well... maybe every birthday, Guys, maybe daily, so you need to do some little and big things, even very major things NOT to get it.

Starting now, keep away from ANY food, food supplements, pills, talk shows, advisers, therapists, knowledgeable friends, counselors, TV doctors, real doctors--keep away from humans who say, "At your age you should... you shouldn't..."

ALSO, keep away from I should be earning a good living. That's deadly. Also historical summaries: At age (?) others in my field were already established. Beware of "a person my age shouldn't wear..." Beware of "a person my age can't..."

If you're trying to sell a book, play, painting, style, a concept -- trying to land a job, go to college, learn a new language, craft, skill, technology, do not think about age. Do not wonder if anyone else has tried, at your age -- to become a famous, successful, income-producing whatever... Just do it.

Watch out for age-cliches, age-rationales, age as a factor. NEVER think at my age I need a flu shot, vitamins, must keep my weight down, exercise, walk, jog. It's okay to be aware of bladder control, but why do I forget things, why didn't I hear that -- THAT will get you to conclusions about how often you need to see the doctor, the dentist, the optometrist.

See doctors if, or when you absolutely need to.

Also,  if you're registering or joining something that asks your age, lop off a large chunk of years. If you can't lie, then skip whatever it is.

A world science panel recently said "Age 90 Is the new 50.” I don't think 90 is  the new anything, but if age 90 IS the number that says you are old, think of Betty White, and Warren Buffet, and if you're  actually approaching the 80 number, don't utter, mutter, or murmur it to anyone, including yourself.

So what about celebrating your birthday. I suggest DO NOT. If you get birthday cards, get the return addresses from the envelope, and throw the cards out. You can't stop people from saying "happy birthday," but a bunch of people singing "Hap -py  B i rth- day To Y O U" should be studiously avoided.

Aging is easier if you do the things I've mentioned above, carefully, discreetly, and gracefully. If you can't lie, or avoid your loved ones, well... you will age a little -- not a lot -- if you wisely, carefully, cautiously keep eyes and ears open, keep on your toes, and steer clear of the pitfalls listed above.

Am I worried about age? Well....

No.

Not really. I just worry about getting AGE-ITIS.

HUH? WHA? WHAT?

That's me!

That's what I often look like as I watch films on our bedroom television set.

I am not sure what the actors are saying.

For instance, if leading characters are arguing -- it sounds climatic and I do hear a few words -- I find myself supplying appropriate dialogue, based on what I have gathered thus far about the story that's unfolding.

Quite often, more often than I like to admit, it bothers me -- sometimes characters whisper, or it's just bad 
pronunciation, or the actors get so deeply into what they're feeling, they don't pay attention to pronouncing words clearly -- they just let words run together.

I can't blame this on our TV set. News and commercials are clear. But it's seriously annoying. Quoting Shakespeare's Hamlet, I tell the television, "Speak the speech I pray you as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines."

The other day, in desperation, I fixed the settings on our television to display captions. The dialogue appeared in a white strip with each word easy to read. It's somewhat distracting from the story that's unfolding, but it helps.

Maybe it's just as well that I am missing dialogue -- the stuff I am not hearing is stuff I don't want to hear.

Hey, maybe, probably, the dialogue I am inventing improves the film!

Hmm.

I turned off captions.  Now, I simply murmur --

JOANNA QUAAS, 91

Joanna Quaas, ninety-one-years old, is doing what athletes one-quarter her age often struggle to do.

I'm riveted.

To do a plank, lie on a mat or floor, face down, forearms on ground, clasp hands together, squeeze muscles in buttocks, straighten your legs -- here's the basic position.

Joanna Quaas is doing an advanced plank, straightening her arms, like in a push up, sustaining it for more than a minute.  I can manage to do it the basic position for 16 seconds.

Joanna Q got her start in gymnastics at 10-years-old, but had to quit because her family moved from Saxony, East Germany to a different part of the country. When World War II erupted, she was required do a year of social service, then married. After having three children, and playing competitive handball for fun, Quaas took up gymnastics again at 57 and has continued to exercise one hour a day. She  said, “My face is old but my heart is young. Maybe the day I stop doing gymnastics is the day I die.”

Golly, that hits me -- reminds me of me, around 6-years-old, making  a pact with God to "Dance till  the day I die." Hey, I'm an ex-dancer who's earned a living and danced professionally all over the world -- nowadays, I warm up and dance every day for about 40 minutes. Do I do it beautifully...? Well, I think so -- I don't perform my dance on a stage for an audience, but I feel wonderful, like a  real dancer doing it.

Realty:  I'm a full time writer, hunched or slumping at a desk working on a computer throughout the day, except when I'm doing my dance.

Hey, we age. We can't stop aging, but being able to do what one used to do is major -- even if you can only do it more or less -- striving, trying, working to keep 'cutting the mustard' is what we have to do -- need to do -- to make aging not a bad time, but a good, interesting, okay, part of life. 

Golly, if I added a plank exercise to my daily workout,
instead of being hunched when I'm working, I might be able to attain, and even maintain a sitting-tall posture. 

Watching Joanna Quaas, a not sleek, svelte, pretty young woman, observing Joanna in the video below and in all the other videos I've watched, I delight in this older woman's sense of humor, and obvious pleasure as she performs advanced gymnastics and that incredible "plank."

No doubt about it, I'm giving  the basic "plank" a try. She inspires me.


Guys, if you're intrigued, and want to try doing a plank at home, here's a link to video: BEGINNERS Workout.

ZUCKERBERG FOR PRESIDENT

Mark Zuckerberg's been visiting large and small towns. Dressed in a suit, shirt and tie -- not in the usual T-shirt and jeans -- Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about the future.

Buzzfeed.com says Zuckerberg is preaching "compassionate globalism" like he preached at Harvard's Commencement on May 25 -- it was "an unmistakable political platform, putting forth the idea that the U.S. explore a "universal basic income, a stipend distributed to all Americans that will provide a cushion against technological disruption." Though Facebook's CEO has said more than once that he is not running for president, Buzzfeed says: "If Candidate Zuckerberg ever happens, he will most certainly look like the 33-year-old man whom we just saw at Harvard."

Vanity Fair says, "If Mark Z doesn't want people to think he's running for president, he hasn't been all that convincing. A year ago he pressed the Facebook board to approve a clause that would allow him to retain control of the company if he took a leave of absence  to serve in the government." The magazine mentions that he hired David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, to help run the philanthropy he runs with his wife -- The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative -- and says the most obvious sign of his ambition is-- "during the past three months he's been rubbing shoulders with farmers, factory workers, Nascar drivers -- in Texas he planted a garden, in Wisconsin at a family farm, he fed a calf."

According to the New York Times -- "It's a stunt. Pit stops, like the Addiction Center in Ohio, have been meticulously documented on Zuckerberg's Facebook page. Zuckerberg himself says that his travels are a way to connect with Facebook users. Those who know him say he's serious about escaping the Silicon Valley bubble as his company grapples with questions about its responsibilities and its role in the lives of its users. The trips he's making, colleagues say, have "plunged him into self reflection."

Wired.com says, "If Mark Zuckerberg wants to make the world a better place, he should start closer to home," referring to the fact that fewer than 4 percent of his US employees are Hispanic, and just 2 percent are black," but even if Facebook's hiring practices might not seem world-changing, Mark Zuckerberg is the respected leader of one of the world's most powerful companies, and other firms will follow his lead. Wired.com quotes what Zuckerberg said in his recent speech at Harvard: "Changes start local. Even global changes start small with people like us. The CEO should take care not to skip over the simplest solution."

Are you thinking hmmm....?

I am sensing the father, husband is concerned with what his 15-month-old daughter, and the new baby (due in September) will inherit, and thinking what he could do if he were running our government, aware that he would be able to make life on the planet much better for millions of people if he were president.

President? Wow!

As as a Facebook user, frustrated often by its rules and regulations -- the fact that there is almost no way to contract a human on Facebook -- feeling serious concerns about my privacy and the ways in which Facebook is making millions of dollars, I do not like Facebook's boss -- I don't like "LIKE," the word that Facebook's creator has turned into a word that everyone uses for expressing important feelings. But this young leader's strong, clear sense of our thinking, his experience, his enormous success makes me feel that he could be a president contender in 2020, or the election after that.

Yes, maybe he should be thinking about running the world.

Here's a pared-down video of the Harvard speech. You can criticize the speech, the 33-year-old Zuckerberg smiling too much, his excessively sincere quality, but he's got powerfully important things to say.

NEW MEANINGFUL WORD

New words fascinate me. This one is in Merriam Webster so it's been officialized.

Wise people have said,

Willa Cather, recognized back in 1913 for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, said: "Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact."



Boris Yeltsin, politician,first President of the Russian Federation said: It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold."

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. Boris Yeltsin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html?q=new+word

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. Boris Yeltsin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html?q=new+word

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/boris_yeltsin.html

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/boris_yeltsin.html

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/boris_yeltsin.html

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. Boris Yeltsin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html?q=new+word

Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact. Willa Cather
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/willacathe156258.html

Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact. Willa Cather
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/willacathe156258.html

Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact. Willa Cather
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/willacathe156258.html

Perhaps what's most memorable, and important is what this wise man told us:

The New Meaningful Word is nice-sounding, not ugly, obscene, but practical. It's sensible. Yes, this new word could be a good word for the guy who agrees and  accept what the judge rules.

It's also a good word for these guys who, over the past six months have believed, supported, obeyed bull-baloney-blather, and daily phony-baloney pronouncements.

Yes, nowadays, a lot of people are evolving.

Yep. Yessire! They've evolved. They're now "sheeple." 

Am asking quietly -- are you one of them?

TOOTH HEAL THYSELF

I noticed in The Week Magazine, a small article headlined, "Tooth Heal Thyself."

I grabbed it, and read every word. I'd just had my teeth cleaned. It takes a half hour to get to get  there, an hour in the Dentist's office, another half hour to get back home; costs about $300 to get "no urgent problems, come back in six months," though I have a cap that needs to be replaced, which will be three appointments that will be costly in time and money.  

Can one NOT go to the dentist and keep one's teeth in shape? The magazine article mentioned that you could keep your teeth healthy, even heal a cavity by chewing on a stick.  

I googled -- read articles in Newsweek, and Time -- found references, quotable quotes from established scientists confirming that you-yourself can heal cavities with "nutrient rich foods" -- finally, bumped into the World Health Organization. In bold print, in its international reports on oral hygiene that were published in 1986 and again in 2000, the World Health Organization  recommends the use of Miswak.

Here's link to the Wikipedia photo and article: "Minerals in this root or twig include potassium, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and calcium oxides. These ingredients all strengthen the tooth enamel. The bark contains an antibiotic which suppresses the growth of bacteria and the formation of plaque. Research shows that regular use of miswak significantly reduces plaque, gingivitis and growth of carcinogenic bacteria."

On Miswak's website, (it's pronounced "miz wa"), I learned that Miswak, (Salvadora persica), was used by the Babylonians some 7000 years ago; was later used throughout the Greek and Roman empires, and also by ancient Egyptians, Muslims and Inca civilizations; is used in different parts of Africa, Asia, especially the Middle East, and South America. "It naturally strengthens and protects the enamel with resins and mild abrasives for whiter teeth and fresher breath; reduces stains from tobacco products, coffee and teas; the form of the twig massages the gums, and makes it easier to get to the hard-to-reach places for a standard toothbrush. It is used in place of the ordinary toothbrush and toothpaste -- the miswak stick requires no toothpaste whatsoever."

I'm picturing myself chewing on it. You can buy it on Miswakstick.com for $1.99 -- buy a few, a bunch, or purchase it on Etsy, Ebay, Walmart, Amazon.  My husband said, "Let's try it -- let me be the guinea pig." Our two sticks will arrive in about a week.  

. 

TODAY'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE

Time Magazine recently published the 100 Most Influential People In The World 2017.  (If you want to read it, click the link.)

Jeffrey Bezos and LeBron James are on the list.

Bezos continues to amaze me. The more we get to know him, see what interests him, get a sense of where he is going business-wise, I am impressed by his ideas. He focuses on what the world needs now. Yes, I'm hearing the melody of "Love Sweet Love," but he is singing that the world needs a future where people can live, work, play with hope and joy, and a feeling that they are doing something important. Yes, I'm thinking of the Ten-thousand Year Clock, and Blue Origin, his space Rocket that's soon going to travel to Mars, projects Bezos has been expanding and financing, along with many, many other things he's providing for us.

Time Magazine's list includes major, important people's names, but without question Jeffrey Bezos is my choice for "number-one, influential."

LeBron James is also my choice for number-one influential.

James' talent, amazing mind, and hero's energy and drive -- to win, to do what needs to be done for his team.

With his fame, name, and winning, he made a foundation.

He has invested in the next and next generations.

He is intensely focused on inspiring and encouraging kids.

He is teaching them that talent, study, perfecting one's talent, combined with passion and tenacity and decency, can do the impossible.

Yes, Lebron James and Jeffrey Bezos are at the very top of my list, Emily Frankel's list, of who is major, important, profoundly influential.

SLENDERMAN GAMES

I'm haunted by a crime that happened four years ago. Two 12-year-old girls stabbed another 12-year-old girl 19 times and left her lying on the ground bleeding to death. It has to do with Slenderman, a game the girls played. 

Click the name -- you'll see what you have to do in order to be allowed by Slenderman to play it.

It would take me hours, I think, to learn to play this game, and even then, I'm not sure I could follow the rules, and do the eight thing you must do in order to be accepted and allowed to keep playing the Slenderman game.  Anyhow, here's what I learned about the crime from an article in the news magazine, "Pressreader."

To celebrate her 12th birthday, Morgan Geyser invited two other 12-year-olds for a sleepover party -- Anissa, her current best friend, and Payton Leutner, her best friend since 4th grade.

Morgan Geyser    -      Anissa Weier

Payton Leutner

Morgan’s mother, Angie, told the police, "It was a joyful evening -- they were being normal little girls, running up and down the stairs, holding hands, and giggling.” Angie had no idea that her daughter and Anissa had made a pact months earlier to become “proxies” of Slenderman by murdering Payton. (proxies are surrogates).
       The girls carefully planned it --they were going to cover Payton’s mouth with duct tape, stab her in the neck, pull the covers over her, and then, as fast as possible head, for Slenderman’s mansion, which they believed was in Nicolet,Wisconsin, 200 miles away.
       That night, however, they decided to wait until the next day. Morgan later told the police, “I wanted to give her at least one more morning.”
       In the morning, after a doughnuts and strawberries breakfast, Morgan hid a kitchen knife  in her jacket, and headed with her friends to a local park and its bathroom. Morgan told the police, "There was a drain for blood to go down. We were gonna sit Payton on the toilet, stab her, lock the door and then leave for Nicolet.”
       Anissa, during her interrogation, explained that it was easier to kill someone if they're
sleeping or unconscious, so she'd pushed Payton’s head against the concrete wall, but when Morgan handed over the knife, "We just hugged each other."
       After Anissa and Morgan smoothed things over with Payton by promising to let Payton pick the next game -- they convinced Payton to play a game of hide-and-seek. “Morgan and I were gonna be like lionesses, chasing down a zebra,” Anissa explained to the police, describing how she led Payton to a hiding place in the woods. "As soon as Morgan found us, Morgan and I pounced."
       Anissa told the police that she'd pushed Payton down and sat on her, but when Payton shouted that she couldn’t breathe, she got up. Morgan, worrying that Payton's screams would attract handed Anissa the knife and said, “I can’t do it. You know where all the soft spots are.” Anissa took the knife, but then, gave it back to Morgan, saying, “You do it. Go ballistic. Go crazy.”
       Morgan said,  "I’m not doing it until you tell me to,” so Anissa took a few steps back and said, “Now!” Morgan tackled Payton, sat on her legs and said, “Don’t be afraid, I’m only a little kitty cat.” and whispered, “I’m so sorry,” and started stabbing her in the arms, legs and torso, piercing her stomach, pancreas and liver, missing a major artery near her heart by one millimeter. “It didn’t feel like anything. It was like air,” Morgan told police, demonstrating, making a stabbing motion with her right arm.
       “I hate you! I trusted you,” Payton screamed, when Morgan finally got off of her. Payton stood up and started stumbling toward the road. Anissa stopped her, grabbed her arm and told her to lie down while she and Morgan looked for help. Instead, Anissa and Morgan headed for Nicolet.
       Payton eventually crawled to a sidewalk. Blood soaking into her black fleece jacket, she lay there until a bicyclist discovered her, and called 911. A few hours later, Anissa and Morgan were found walking along a local highway, en route, they said, to Slenderman’s mansion.

Payton, now 15, completely recovered, is a Freshman in Waukesha (Wisconsin) High School. Morgan and Anissa, in custody for the past two years, are in jail with bail set at $500,000. Anissa's trial is set for September 11; Morgan's trial is scheduled for Oct 2. They may be tried as adults, and face 65 yeas in prison. Morgan has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, Anissa claims she has been assaulted in prison. 

I'm astounded -- that Slenderman, a spooky, strange, imaginary, very tall, fatherly, godly spirit in a horror game, seized the minds of these children and so profoundly inspired them.

Maybe this vision and the game element fulfills something that some children nowadays, need.

What can we do? Try to stop Slenderman and online games, with rules, laws, policing, legislation, even though what's forbidden and illegal becomes more desirable,  more passionately pursued.

I think grownups can do it -- by finding ways to rejoice in realities -- belittling, confronting, ho-ho putting down what's imaginary -- poking fingers into an unreal, imaginary spook and popping him like a balloon. By being there, interacting with their children, sharing nothing-to-do time with their children, grownups can garbage an imaginary hero.

Guys, we can't let a generation grow twisted. We need to dullify their need for heroes to worship. It could be hugely time consuming, boring, but grownups can make a Slenderman hero silly-foolish, stultifying, intolerably dumb-dumb boring.

Lots of things we have to do to survive are boring. We gotta do it! 

SNEAKER LOVE

I put my foot on my desk and took this picture. You can see the sneakers I wear everyday, and note the bad spot where the sole is coming away from where my toes are.

My husband, actor singer John Cullum, periodically re-attaches the soles with glue. Each sneaker, with the newly glued sole clamped in a vise, sits on his desk for 24 hours. When they're fixed they look ... not pretty ... actually, they look awful but I but I wear them again and again, because... golly, can't throw them out.

Anyhow, sneakers are very IN. Famous folks like Kanye West now design their own styles. People are spending $2000 to $25,000 for refurbished, famous brand sneakers that a super athletes have worn. Does buying what a celebrity, like Michael Jordan, wore endow you, or bring you closer to him/her -- to achieving what that person achieved?

 

You can even buy Chuck Taylor's  sneakers. Basketball player, coach, shoe salesman/evangelist in the 30's, Chuck's the man behind the All-Stars Converse Sneaker, the most successful selling basketball shoe in history. By the way, if LeBron's one of your heroes, you can buy a pair of his sneakers for a much lower price.

If you're not sure what you want, head for Kixify Market Place, and click all. You'll be amazed.

I gather that Sneaker-itis started in the late 18th Century with people wearing rubber soled shoes called plimsolls -- they were crude, with no right foot or left foot. Around 1892, U.S. Rubber Company came up with more comfortable rubber sneakers with canvas tops called Keds. By 1917, Keds were mass produced.

They were nicknamed "sneakers" because they were so quiet -- a person wearing them could sneak up on someone. Around that time Marquis Converse produced the first shoe made for basketball, the  Converse All-Stars shoe that Chuck Taylor made famous. In 1924, a German guy Adi Dassler created Adidas, the sneaker that track star Jessie Owens wore when he won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics.

Kids began wearing them as fashion statements, especially after seeing James Dean in sneakers in the popular movie "Rebel Without a Cause." 

Then, in1984, Michael Jordan signed a contract to wear a Nike shoe that Nike called Air Jordans -- the most famous sneakers ever made, even more famous after Jordan retired from the NBA. Meanwhile, Nike, Reebok and Adidas are competing, changing the look of sneakers with wild colors, adding this and that, producing shoes for every sport, sneakers that folks hang on to and love.

Like me and my favorites with the Cullum-glued soles. Hey, if you've got a pair from your olden days that you'd love to get fixed, contact Red Star Cobbler in Chicago. The owner Ray Ramirez charges $25.00 for a basic sneaker cleanup. It might take quite a few months till he gets to yours but wow -- he'll make 'em beautiful again and more precious!

Yes, my favorite sneakers are precious. I write-talk more constructively when I'm wearing them. Maybe that's why people wear their favorite sneakers -- they make you feel as if you can walk, run, do sports, do whatever you do -- better.

No doubt about it -- it's sneaker love -- my sneakers are my good luck, rabbits-foot.

NEW WORDS

A FEW words, maybe for you,

Are definitely NEW.






 Mmm.

ONE new word might be fun.

If you wanna have two...
well...
This word might do.
well...
It depends on who are your friends.



Hey, if you often "cosplay" ...

mmm

It does confuse,
But amuse your pals,
(those boys and gals),
Who choose not to divulge
The pleasures in which they indulge.



(Do you strike a match,
and join them?
Say ahem lightly, politely?
Natch!)


But new words like birds fly by...

So,
With a realistic sigh,
Just try
To make sense
In one dense sentence...

Make it your intention to mention
            To pronounce --    
            To announce --
Say loudly some time today:

"GUYS, 
YOU ARE ON
FLEEK!"


"YOU ARE FAMO!"
 
For quite awhile, your SEN PAL, BAELESS PAL,
Your toking smoking TOOKAH pals will smile!
And in the end, comprehend,
Seek to be fleek,
And like Santa's elves,
Use the new words themselves.


Here are other new words added by Merriam Websters this year:

And these:
LOLcat: In case you hadn't heard, it refers to pictures of cats you find all over the Internet accompanied with funny captions, typically with misspellings and incorrect grammar.
Five-second rule: It  makes people feel better for eating food that's fallen on the floor. This rule says it will still be uncontaminated if it's only been five  seconds.
Mahoosive: Exceptionally big.
Keyboard warrior: Someone who aggressively posts on Facebook or other social media sites.
Digital footprint: The information about you that can be found online.
Duck face: An exaggerated pouting expression, often made for a selfie.
Man crush: The non-sexual admiration one man has for another.
Some abbreviations also: Jel, for jealous; xlnt, because excellent is way too long; and IDC, meaning I don't care.

Hey,  IDDC -- I definitely do care!  Do you?