720 Stage IV Pink and Black

Joanne Jacob's education blog mentions the death of Charter Schools advocate Sue Bragato who died January 5, 2005 at 47 from metastisized breast cancer at home with family and friends. Sue put up a web page about her disease to which others contributed.

Susan Andrews tells her story at Sue's site, a story of being shuffled around going from nothing to stage IV (terminal) in a matter of months.

"Can you believe that 15 months after my last mammogram, I was diagnosed with stage IV. Most of you didn't even know there are stages. There is 0- IV. My stage is terminal. Nobody talks about this stage. I'm on an internet support group of stage IV ladies. We lose our friends all the time and the last one we lost was 42, she lived 2yrs after her diagnosis. Some in our group were first diagnosed at early stages and then after a few months or years were restaged at IV. I believe our youngest member is 33.

So how did the American Cancer Society come up with the age 40 for yearly mammograms? We want people to be aware of these things about breast cancer. We are trying to start a campaign for Pink & Black ribbons. The public makes Breast Cancer out to be all fuzzy, pink and cute. There is nothing cute about nausea and vomiting. I got some of the meanest stares at my bald head that I couldn't hide well enough with most hats. Our real situation is mostly unknown by the public. Most people think that after chemotherapy is done, you're cured. Hello, there IS NO CURE." Susan Andrews

Maureen, who found a lump and was told her pain was from an infected cyst, writes:

"The following week when I went back the cyst was gone but the pain wasn't, she than ordered a mammogram since the pain wasn't as bad as the week before. It just showed increased density and to keep an eye on it. My doctor than sent me to a Breast Surgeon who had me have another Ultrasound which now said that the cyst was gone but breast tissue in the subareolar region looked suspicious and recommended a biopsy, which they did and found out I had " Invasive Carcinoma with Lobular and Ductal Features". I pretty much figured I had cancer by than but since I had been so careful with my health and since I felt they caught it in time I was sure it would be maybe a stage 1 and they would just have to do a lumpectomy. After my dx they ordered a Cat and Bone Scan and then I went back to my surgeon who told me there would be No surgery because it had already metastasized to the bones. Since my mother-in-law had died of breast cancer I knew about metastases." Maureen Moore

Ladies, we're not making huge progress against this disease--they are just finding it earlier, finding lumps that may have never been a problem. But when you or the technology find something, don't take "it's probably just a . . . fill in the blank [fibroid, hematoma, a swollen lymph node, infected cyst]. Don't accept, "We'll keep an eye on it," or "Don't worry about it," even if it makes you feel good. They remove and biopsy moles that change color and grow; they remove and biopsy polyps in the colon as soon as they are found; they needle-biopsy lumps in the neck. Get that lump to the lab!

719 Advice for Democrats

Dan Gerstein has a face smacking lecture for his fellow Democrats in today's Wall Street Journal. Still, he just can't resist impugning George W. Bush's record and reputation--his Vietnam service, the Iraq war, his terrorism battles, and even the 2000 election.

He whines that Karl Rove was ruthless and cunning, and Dems "shouda cudda wuuda" this and that. Hello? Did you see any of the ridiculous political ads we were forced to watch in Ohio all summer and fall of 2004? Danny Boy, get a grip before you suggest changes in your party.

He asks a rhetorical question he himself should heed: "When do we stop beating our heads against the wall and try something and someone different?"

Peggy Noonan's advice (and she's a Republican) actually makes more sense. (Jan. 6, WSJ) "The Groups--all the left-wing outfits from the abortion people to the enviros--didn't deliver in the last election, and not because they didn't try. They worked their hearts out. But they had no one to deliver. They had only money. The secret: Nobody likes them. Nobody! No matter how you feel about abortion, no one likes pro-abortion fanatics; no one likes mad scientists who cook environmental data. Or rather only rich and creepy people like them. Stand up to the Groups--make your policies more moderate, more nuanced, less knee-jerk.

Don't reflexively oppose President Bush on Social Security reform. Talk and listen and consider; ask open-minded questions at hearings. If he's wrong--if his prescriptions don't promise to make the system stronger and more just down the road--then make a persuasive case, one a grown-up could listen to and understand. Don't do "sound bites for blue heads in Dade County," be serious. People can tell when you're not. They just punished you at the polls again because you weren't. You have nothing to gain but stature."

718 Women fall through the glass ceiling

Three of the four people fired in the September "circle the wagons" CBS scandal were women. Isn't it great that women have knocked a big enough hole in the glass ceiling that they can fall back through?

Gone are Mary Mapes, producer of the report, Josh Howard, executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday," his top deputy Mary Murphy, and senior vice president Betsy West. Competitive pressures for ratings, not hate for George Bush, is given as the reason for their flub. See? Given opportunity and free rein, women can be just as competitive in the market place as men.

Anchor Dan Rather wasn't fired. I guess he just reads what is put in front of him.

717 So you're not a librarian?

You don't have to be a librarian to enjoy Geoff's Blog Driver's Waltz, to which I've added a link. He's Canadian, an academic librarian, a husband and homeowner, with a herd of pets and has some photo galleries on his web site that are really good. He also has one of the best looking blog skins I've seen, attractive, easy to read and navigate.


Geoff's Daisy

716 Greetings from Iraq

While posting an entry at my blog about new journals, In the Beginning, I was browsing the web page for Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. I came across the story of Captain Kevin Kuwik, the Assistant Basketball Coach at OU who was called up to serve an additional 18 months in the fall of 2003. He's now in Iraq and his letters are posted at the Bobcat webpage. He is a graduate of Notre Dame and has coached in Tennessee and Vermont. He says he'd appreciate some mail--snail or e-mail. CPT Kevin Kuwik, HHC/113th Engineer Battalion, APO AE 09334. kevin.kuwik@us.army.mil

715 Made in Sri Lanka

After tossing about $60 of groceries in the cart, and $25 of HBH (health, beauty & household) purchases, I looked through the 50% off racks in the clothing section. I selected a rose colored, corduroy short jacket with three buttons and three pockets and some elastic at the bottom edge and wrists. I looked at the tag. "Made in Sri Lanka." I wondered if the women who had constructed it in the garment industry there were still alive. I hoped that because they had factory jobs perhaps they lived inland, but I'm suspecting that they were probably in their home villages for the week-end which may have been close to the water. Sri Lanka is an island, after all.

But there's another tsunami coming for those women. In November, the Washington Post reported that as of January 1, 2005 many of the garment industry jobs originally outsourced from the southern US, will be leaving some of the world's poorest countries to take up shop in China.

On Jan. 1, World Trade Organization rules governing the global textile trade will undergo their biggest revision in 30 years. The changes are expected to jeopardize as many as 30 million jobs in some of the world's poorest places as the textile industry uproots and begins consolidating in a country that has become the world's acknowledged low-cost producer: China.

About $400 billion in trade is at stake, but the implications are greater than the money involved. Since 1974, many developing countries have pinned their economic hopes on a complicated system of worldwide quotas that guaranteed each a specified share of the lucrative textile markets in the United States and Europe. By specifying how many blue jeans or how much fabric an individual country could export, the quotas have effectively limited the amount of goods coming from major producers like China, while giving smaller or less competitive nations room to participate. Capital and jobs followed the quotas, helping countries build an industrial base through textile exports.

The jobs are low-paying and tough: Overseas textile plants have been a central target for labor and human rights activists. But the textile industry has, since the Industrial Revolution, provided an opening wedge for broader economic development, and officials in dozens of countries hoped it would continue to do so.

The USA and Europe, in order to protect their own workers, have punishingly high tariffs and quotas for some of these countries affected by the tsunami. After we clean up the ravages of the earthquate driven storm, we'll need to look at what our own policies are doing. I'm sure the message won't be lost on Muslim terrorists.

714 NGOs worth supporting

Diplomad says there are some NGOs worthy of your support. He still has nothing good to say about UN relief agencies--reports they are still having meetings (16 days after the tsunami) while the militaries of the U.S., Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand are the quick responders.

The agencies he says are doing a terrific job are:

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

CARE

Catholic Relief Services

Mercy Corps

Save the Children

"All of these have very dedicated people working under very tough conditions for a fraction of the salaries earned by the UN blowhards. All of these organizations moved extremely quickly (especially IOM) in the wake of the tragedy and have saved countless lives."

713 Oil for Food Scandal

Sunday night the report was released. And who in the media is working on Sunday night?

WaPo reports quietly and calmly on Tuesday:

"The committee that released the audits and other internal U.N. documents is headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker. It is investigating allegations of corruption in the $64 billion program, which oversaw the sale of Iraqi oil for the purchase of humanitarian goods while the nation was under U.N. economic sanctions.

In a 35-page briefing paper, the Volcker committee said the audits highlighted the "wholesale failure of normal management and controls" over some of the program's operations. It also faulted the United Nations' internal auditors for failing to scrutinize areas of the program that were most vulnerable to corruption: the sale and purchase of oil and humanitarian goods."

So the sale and purchase of oil and humanitarian goods were not audited by the U.N.? Well, duh! That means the corruption the Volcker committee found were in the non-critical parts? He found only "inappropriate management?" They spent all these months and found--nothing. I'm no expert in accounting, but it truly is hard to investigate a non-audit.

I'm not going to carefully track this story because others are doing that. Check here for a blog on "UNSCAM." Here's a story from NRO in April. And an investigation from 2003.

712 Necessary Rules of Conduct for Children

A photocopy of three pages of "Necessary Rules of Conduct for Children" fell out of our road atlas today. I have no idea how they got there, but I remember photocopying the article from [Proceedings and Addresses?] of the Pennsylvania German Society [early 1900s]. Since I don't have the whole article I can't give you the correct citation (shameful behavior for a librarian and I'm not sure I want to go into the stacks at OSUL to look for it). Anyway, it is fun to read.

#62. Abstain from all coarse, indecent habits or gestures in school, such as to stretch with the hands or the whole body from laziness; to eat fruit or other things in school; to lay your hand or arm upon your neighbor's shoulder, or under your head, or to lean you head forwards upon the table; to put your feet on the bench, or let them dangle or scrape; or to cross your legs over one another, or stretch them apart, or to spread them too wide in sitting or standing; to scratch your head; to play or pick with the fingers; to twist and turn the head forwards, backwards and sideways; to sit and sleep; to creep under the table or bench; to turn your back to your teacher; to change your clothes in school, and to show yourself restless in school.

#83. All indecent habits which, under Rule No. 62, you ought to avoid in school, much more ought you to avoid in church.

It's possible these are a translation or modification of the rules developed by Christopher Dock, and I'm guessing something similar is used by homeschoolers even today. For a good laugh, try googling the terms "rules of conduct for children" and just see the "suggestions" and "guidelines" and "appropriate behavior" you'll bring up. Things have changed a bit since the 18th century. Although here is a fairly stern one for a library.

711 New book reviewer link--Deborama

Deborama's book reviews is a new link I've added. Like me, Deborama actually has a number of different blogs because she is interested in so many things and just can't contain her enthusiasm. I like that! She describes her self as a "hot" 52 year old Minnesotan living in the UK, and that I can't verify. She could be a 13 year old from San Diego, and how would I know? She's just all over the map spiritually, so that page I'm not recommending--I settled that puzzle when I was 34 and don't wish to get mired down again. Seems to have an interest also in words and food. Me too.

710 What she loves about the South--especially Texas

Ambra collects a few of the things she likes about the South at her Nykola blog.

"Still I say, the South is the only place in all of America where a white person and a black person can sit down together at the same table and eat a bowl of grits. . . Sometimes I wish the South could come up North and teach classes. On the top of the docket of topics would be “How to open a door for a woman, How to say 'Ma'am' and 'Sir', How to say thank you, How to fry food, How to barbebque, How to worship God.”

In defense of the South, a region about which people generally have very few nice things to say, I’m going to re-run my list of things I love about Texas:

Chivalry

Everything’s big

Chapels in the airports

The presence of the following fast food chains: Chik-fil-A, Whataburger, Popeye’s, Sonic

White people who know how to barbeque and eat grits

Nice, friendly, and outgoing people

Christian bookstores within a 5 mile radius

Four bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2500 square ft. homes for sale at the sickeningly low price of $175,000 (you couldn’t even buy a 350 sq ft condo in Seattle for that price)

State pride.

Primetime television starts at 7:00 pm

Biscuits with everything."

Every state is different. When we moved to Columbus, Ohio from central Illinois the people and the weather seemed the same. However, during my first visit to downtown Columbus I noticed everyone smiled and said "Hello." I hadn't experienced that in Illinois, not even in much smaller towns. I'm not sure it's still that way, but it should be.

709 Lawyer was surprised

She was expecting a "vegetable," but instead Terri was sitting in her wheelchair, without tubes, making eye contact, showing understanding and expression. The lawyer, who'd never seen her before was surprised, having thought her family had perhaps been exaggerating her level of ability.

After a 45-minute visit Christmas Eve, attorney Barbara Weller concluded Schiavo was so alert that she "should have been gathered around the Christmas dinner table enjoying the holiday with her family."

Weller, along with attorney David Gibbs, took over the lead counsel role in September for Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who are in a protracted legal battle with her husband, Michael Schiavo, to keep their daughter alive.

Full story here.

708 Woman defies belief, but not aging

A San Diego woman, Debra Scheufler, has filed a lawsuit saying she wants to make advertisers tell the truth about "age-defying" creams that don't live up to their claims. She filed a class action lawsuit in California against Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Estee Lauder for selling anti-aging creams that allegedly employ false advertising.

From the looks of this photo, she has a good case. She definitely has not been able to turn the clock back, but I’ve never heard of a single native speaker of English who thought “anti-aging” would really change her birth date. NBC San Diego story here. Maybe she has spent too much time in the sun?

Hand washing and physicians--the news isn't good

My husband has had a cold for a week, and so far, I don't have it. Mid-week I purchased some Purell antiseptic hand lotion, which air dries, leaves your hands soft and smells nice. He's carrying it around the house along with his Kleenex, Vicks, cough drops and cup of water. I follow him with a cleaner and paper towels. I'm not really a clean freak, but his colds run 7-10 days, and mine last 3 weeks.


Hand sanitizer

Here's a study from the Annals of Internal Medicine that will make you want to wipe down your doctor before s/he lays a hand on you.

"Doctors cleansed their hands 57% of the times that they should have. They cleansed hands most often when a hand-rub solution was easily available. They did not wash hands as often when they had busy workloads with many patient interactions and when they performed activities with high risks for spreading infections. These activities required cleansing hands immediately before examining patients or between examining different body sites on the same patient. Medical students and internists (internal medicine doctors) washed hands most often, whereas anesthesiologists, critical care physicians, and surgeons washed hands least often. Doctors who valued hand hygiene and considered themselves role models washed hands often."

It sort of suggests that the more money you make (older, more specialized), the less likely you are to wash your hands! This study sounds absolutely 19th century. The hand rub solutions cause fewer skin irritations and are more hygienic than soap and water scrubbing.

706 Babs on Barb

Babs, "Girl in Right," takes the blame and shame for Barbara Boxer in this funny post:

"So I admit it. I'm responsible for helping get both Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein into the Senate. I was young(ish) and busy, and thought "boy wouldn't it be great to have women Senators?". What an idiot. I've since realized that it's not important to have women Senators (doctors, lawyers, professors, etc.) unless they're good. Do you want to be on a flight piloted by a woman who got the job because they needed to fill their quota of skirts? How about a trauma patient in the ER?"

I recall all the times in the voting booth when I didn't recognize any of the names--judgeships, commissioners, etc.--so I'd pull the lever for a woman, figuring they couldn't do any worse. Last week we found out that these people, even though female, work their way up to being super-silly.

Babs is a new mommy with an adorable Russian toddler who looks a lot like John Kerry in his bunny suit.

705 Photos of the Relief Efforts at Navy Site

Sent by the American people

"Indonesian citizens are delighted as a U.S. Navy helicopter drops food, cookies and water to them at a village on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Helicopters assigned to Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2) and Sailors from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) are supporting Operation Unified Assistance, the humanitarian operation effort in the wake of the Tsunami that struck South East Asia. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Indian Ocean off the waters of Indonesia and Thailand. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Jacob J. Kirk"

This site of over 19,000 photos by the Navy was pointed out by Doyle.

You can call it Operation Unified Assistance if you wish, but the box tells it all. I sure hope we don’t turn too much of this “coordination” over to the UN--there are lives to be saved.

704 College Tuition Hike

“With college costs running as high as $40,000 a year, House and Senate education committees have tuition control on their to-do lists.” Investor’s Business Daily.

“Tuitions are rising an average of seven percent to eight percent annually, at least twice as fast as overall inflation, according to the College Board, the New York-based organization best known for admissions tests like the SAT. (Only inflation in health-care costs surpasses that.)”

Well, not at Ohio State, it isn’t $40,000 a year. These writers must be planning on sending junior to Harvard or Yale. But even figuring inflation, costs are higher than when I started at Manchester College in the late 1950s. I think my costs were about $1,000 a year (and it was similar at the University of Illinois to which I transferred). That would calculate today at $6,797--and it is unlikely you could do that today, unless you lived at home and attended a regional campus. The costs at Manchester, seem to have increased much faster than a state school, coming in around $24,770 for tuition, fees, and room and board. Still, today’s college student and parent expect many more amenities and wouldn't live they way we did then.

703 A game of cats and mouse

These are the kittens of the librarian of the Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Library (what a mouthful!) at The Ohio State University.


Susan's kittens

Singing in the shower

When did I stop singing in the shower? Is it something you do only when young? Only before your soprano turns to a gravely tenor? Or is it when you forget your Russian? Yes, I used to sing folk songs about birch trees in the shower--sad songs of unrequited love, of soldiers dying, of birds flying away.

That memory was really buried deep until today when I read the following in “Birch Use in the Former Soviet Republics,” by Andriy Boyar, Agroborealis, Summer 2004 (University of Alaska, Fairbanks).

“In Central and Eastern European countries, as well as in Russian Siberia, one of these features [related to the environment] is the relationship of people to the birch tree. Birch forests are a truly distinguished characteristic of the Russian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian landscapes. They are of national pride. Hundreds of songs, legends and fairytales are devoted to birch. The Slavs learned to write and read using flat pieces of split birch bark when paper was unknown to them in early centuries. The beginning of spring is timed from the first appearance of birch leaves; the first spring month in the Ukraine is named Berezen, from the root word for birch.”

I had no idea that birch trees did anything other than whisper your lost love’s name in a very minor key or provide a backdrop for Soviet films. They have medicinal uses and the article includes a list of 28 ailments that birch helps, from gout to bronchitis to dandruff. The author provides relevancy for internet searches for these terms in both Russian and English and the method of using the birch product.

And birch beverages! Who knew? I think I’d heard of kvass, but didn’t know it was made from birch sap. Mr. Boyar provides a recipe in case you want to gather some birch sap this spring (I think it is more difficult than collecting maple syrup). Birch also has cosmetic uses for freckles, pimples, face masks, and oily skin. Birch branches are cleaning tools for sweeping yards and whipping the body in sauna. In rural households it is still used for lighting and heat. Ukrainians decorate with birch branches for Christian holidays and fishermen used to use it for fishing gear. Hail the amazing birch and the ingenious Slav.

There is a lot of research on the versatile birch going on in Alaska, and the previous issue of Agroborealis describes that. These files are pdf, in a nice readable format. Many libraries can catalog these free government agricultural and forestry journals for a local on-line collection so they will come up in a search. This involves staff availability, but if you request it, they may try to accommodate.

701 Today I was unprofessional

If you don't read another blog today, stop by and read "Today I was unprofessional" by Varifrank.

The room fell silent. My hindi friend then said quietly to the Euros:

"Can you let your hatred of George Bush end for just one minute? There are people dying! And what are your countries doing? Amazon.com has helped more than France has. You all have a role to play in the world, why can't you see that? Thank God for the US Navy, they dont have to come and help, but they are. They helped you once and you should all thank God they did. They didnt have to, and no one but them would have done so. I'm ashamed of you all..."

He left the room, shaking and in tears. The frustration of being on the other side of the globe, unable to do anything to assist and faced with people who could not set aside their asininity long enough to reach out and help was too much for him to bear. I just shook my head and left. The Euros stood speechless.