FEEL BETTER RECIPE

Are you stressed? I AM. The news stresses me -- the troubles everywhere in the world, and what's happening in our country. 

Would Ayurveda help? (It's alternative medicine, traditional in India, that seeks to treat body, mind, and spirit using diet,  herbal remedies, exercise, meditation, breathing, and physical therapy.)

Wolfgang Preuss spent two decades in Germany installing phones, faxes, outfitting TV and radio studios. When he realized that he was chain-smoking, fixated on caffeine and alcohol, he visited an Ayurvedic Center.

Emerging from a ten day stay, the newly calm, convert Preuss refocused his life in order to set up a Ayurvedic clinic in Germany. After an exhaustive search, he bought a very old building outside Frankfurt, and went to work on renovating it, paying meticulous attention to Ayurvedic principles -- using "natural" material, even for walls and floors, as well as plumbing, piping in drinking water from a spring a few miles away in a suburban parkland.

In 1993 he opened "Parkschlosschen" with a resident staff of specialists -- doctors and therapists trained in Ayurvedic meditation, massage, skin brushing, herbal inhalations, as well as cooks expertly able to provide vegetarian meals (no coffee, tea, alcohol, sugar, meat or any animal products), except the one essential that is used in Ayurvedic medicine for detoxification -- clarified butter, that's called "ghee." (pronounced the way we say "gee" when surprised.) It's butter that's been boiled, strained. It helps brain functions, sleep disorders, and alertness.

Being an enterprising cook myself, with sleep problems and a big desire to improve brain functions, I searched and found a recipe.

1 pound butter
Place butter in saucepan
Medium-high heat, bring to a boil for 2 to 3minutes, reduce heat,
Butter forms a foam that disappears; second foam forms on top of butter.
Butter turns  golden.
After 7 to 8 minutes, brown milk solids will be in  bottom of pan.
Pour and strain residue (use strainer or cheesecloth)
Store in airtight container.

All the Ayurvedic routines sound like something to try if you are an insomniac, depressed, and stressed. The Parkschlosschen Clinic, which has been successfully treating older people since it opened, now has many guests their thirties. 

If you, like me, would like to know more about how you might utilize this alternative medicine by yourself where you live, here's the link: WHAT IS THE AYURVEDIC PHILOSOPHY AND APPROACH.

Gee, it might be fun to clarify some butter ... Gee, I can buy it on line -- 7.5 oz.  $6.95!! We'll try Ghee on our bagels in the morning!!

Aii-EEK NEWS!!!

The Washington Post blared perturbing news, scary news, about NUKES AND FLOPPY DISKS!! 

The "Nukes and Floppy Disks" article was quoted, repeated, in -- wow -- all the major U.S. and UK  newspapers. It was a news alert on CNN, CBS-TV, ABC-TV,  FOX TV, and BBC. I heard well-known anchors, columnists, and reporters express grave concern.

Apparently, old IBM computers that use 8-inch floppy disks, are currently being used to coordinate key strategic forces such as nuclear bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Pentagon confirms this. The U.S Government Accountability Office confirms this. They are also saying that those IBM computers which were manufactured in the early seventies will continue to be used until the end of 2017.

Why?  Because updating government computers, memory banks, data, history, files, reports will be a massive job -- aside from installing new equipment and renovating thousands of offices, everything that the government is using now will need to be replaced and re-located as well as re-checked, and updated.  

Summing up the decision not to change what's working now, the US Government says "Using old systems disconnected from digital networks is a buffer against hackers. Low tech is safer tech."

My reaction to this news is

So, I'm including this sort of down-to-earth, unemotional video.

(VIDEO) THE CULLUMS ON POLITICS

John Cullum and Emily Frankel share how they feel about the year of non-stop media "hot" news -- gossip, polls, opinions, rumors.

Do they agree about issues, and favorite candidates?

See, and hear how they disagree.

SPIFFY CADILLAC CARS

 Yowie, how would you like to drive around town in the new 2016 Cadillac?

Auto experts rave: "Refreshingly American."  "Delivers opulence and a plush ride in a smart, innovative, high tech way." Auto Week says, "Long, wide luxury cruiser, delivering understated elegance at a price point where Germans offer only bare-bones mid size sedans." Auto Blog.com said, "The most important car GM has made in years, and it's a winner at $53.496."

My Father had a full-sized, long, wide Cadillac Fleetwood with white sidewall tires which my kid brother wanted to drive.

Our Fleetwood Cadillac, represented the pinnacle of my Father's financial success as a business man, head and co- owner of a children's dress manufacturing company. We were "in the money" -- one of my sisters had just graduated from Antioch College, married, and had a baby. The other was about to marry into a local, well-known, large family -- my 17-year-old brother, six years my junior -- handsome, tall, blond curly hair -- was one of the most popular guys in high school, while I was studying dance, trying to establish myself in New York, as a modern dancer.

Dad, who loved music, literature, and art, did not approve of  my brother -- his slang, his pals, the music he played, or his flashy clothes -- especially the white buckskin  shoes he wore every day, and polished every night. (They looked like this photo.)

They argued a lot and it worried Mom.  Dad was taking medication for high blood pressure. Even so, we were a loving, close-knit family. Before my brother went off to college, he saved up his allowance and bought himself a second-hand convertible -- more than 10 years old, but still a snazzy car -- if you pressed the buttons and shoved a little, the top magically lifted off.

At Antioch College, in early April just before the spring break, my brother and a friend went canoeing. A woman saw the two boys, the upside-down canoe in the water, and called the police. The water was killing cold. They didn't find my brother's body till a week later.  It tore our family apart.

That summer my father had a series of small strokes. My newlywed sister didn't see much of my parents -- she and her husband did a lot of socializing with his family and ritzy neighbors. My older sister got involved with a young lover, separated from her husband, moved to NYC with her baby daughter, and worked for a publisher.

Daddy died that September. The Fleetwood sat in our garage till the Susquehanna river flooded about a year later, and Mom sold everything and moved to a much smaller house. I never saw the house. In New York City, I connected with a dance partner. We choreographed solos and duets and I started booking a tour of college campuses. We used money Mom gave us. With money she got from  Daddy's life insurance, Mom bought us a Chevrolet station wagon for our tour. While we were touring, Mom moved to a nursing home.

Life moves on. My older sister's daughter, who lives on the west coast is like my daughter now -- she  reads my blog and comments on it. One of my middle sister's seven children -- a daughter -- is on Facebook, but I have no contact with her or my sister's other offspring, though I'd like to know more about them. Also my husband's huge southern family -- I've never really fitted in with them. Even so, every August 22nd, I am aware that it's my brother's birthday. He never got to drive his convertible with the top down. I remember there were only three cars in his funeral chain, but a long, long line of cars that escorted Mom and me in a stretch Cadillac limo to Daddy's funeral.

That 2016 Cadillac -- the evolution of it -- that it's now more attainable inspired me to drive around in my past wishing -- wishing that my brother hadn't died, wishing the family hadn't been torn apart. 

Hey, why am I sharing this story? Why have I been thinking about the price of cars, studying photos of Cadillacs and convertibles -- like this old 1963 Beetle which belonged to Paul Newman -- it looks like the one my brother bought except his was yellow.

I'm not a car nut, but I have to say that Cadillacs have punctuated phases of my life. My Father's Cadillac continues to affect -- infect -- what I feel about family things in my life.