Lotsa links today, but that’s the kind of week it’s shaping up to be.
I was listening to a podcast a few years back — I think it was Chapo Trap House — when one of the dudebros said something that stuck with me: Eventually, every con man will try to sell you supplements.
And whaddaya know, in a grifter-led administration, many of the incoming grifters are cut from the same cloth:
President-elect Donald Trump’s top political appointees want you to buy supplements.
Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Trump’s pick for surgeon general, sells her own line of vitamins. Kash Patel, Trump’s choice to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, recommended pills on Truth Social in February that he said could “rid your body of the harms” from Covid-19 vaccines.
Mehmet Oz, the TV personality whom Trump named to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, promotes supplements sold by online retailer iHerb. He has advertised multivitamins, supplements for “brain power” and fish-oil pills that he said “probably slowed” the progression of his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease.
Kash Patel has pimped even skeevier supplements.
I wonder if these people are expected to kick up to the boss as a result. Probably buying a Mar-a-lago membership at full retail will do.
A friend of mine wrote about the sketchy FDA oversight of various nutritional supplements a while back. The most horrifying was so-called black salve, offered as a treatment for skin cancer:
In late October 2018, a 50-year-old woman filed a complaint with the Food and Drug Administration, claiming that a topical salve she’d purchased to remove a spot on her nose had a horrifying, disfiguring side effect. The paste, called Indian Herb, wound up “eroding” her nose, she said, burning a hole through her skin.
FDA inspectors were dispatched two weeks later to visit the product’s manufacturer, McDaniel Life-Line. But if they were expecting to find a legitimate manufacturing operation when they arrived in tiny Felt, Okla. (pop. 149) that November, they may have been surprised to find that Indian Herb was being prepared in an ordinary kitchen, using a blender and other household utensils, by Bruce McDaniel and his wife, as the FDA wrote later in a letter to the company. The blender was stored in a trash bag kept in the garage when not in use, the letter noted.
And this is the sort of thing so-called “crunchy moms” will reach for instead of a phone to call a doctor. And the likely incoming head of Health and Human Services will think it’s just fine.
Speaking of which, one reason I’m not feeling quite as blue about the incoming administration is due to this story, which I read today, about how so many of the policies cheered on by Trump Country will come back to bite…Trump Country:
The Archer Daniels Midland wet mill on the outskirts of Decatur, Ill., rises like an industrial behemoth from the frozen, harvested cornfields of Central Illinois. Steam billowed in the 20-degree cold last week, as workers turned raw corn into sweet, ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup. Three miles away, a Primient mill, which sprawls across 400 acres divided by North 22nd Street, was doing the same.
To Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, this bedraggled city — set deep in Trump country — is the belly of the agribusiness beast, churning out products that he says poison America, rendering its children obese and its citizens chronically ill.
To the workers here, those mills — the largest in the world — are their livelihoods.
Yep. If nothing else, it’ll be entertaining, watching the leopards eat all those faces. Although I suspect nothing will happen.
Good thing the information ecosystem is in such good shape! Oops, maybe not:
The Ashland Daily Tidings — established as a newspaper in 1876 — ceased operations in 2023, but if you were a local reader, you may not have known. Almost as soon as it closed, a website for the Tidings reemerged, boasting a team of eight reporters, Minihane included, who cranked out densely reported stories every few days.
…The reality was that none of the people allegedly working for the Ashland Daily Tidings existed, or at least were who they claimed to be. The bylines listed on Daily Tidings articles were put there by scammers using artificial intelligence, and in some cases stolen identities, to dupe local readers.
That’s a simultaneously horrifying and entertaining story, because one of the bylines that kept appearing in this so-called pink-slime publication was that of a real journalist. Sure, he lives in the U.K. and has only been to Oregon once in his life, but there’s his name on all those AI-written stories. I can hardly wait to see what someone could do with mine.
And that’s the midweek wrap-up. What a time to be alive.
Mark P said on December 10, 2024 at 10:06 pm
I guess these days we have to take our entertainment where we can find it, like sitting in a deck chair smoking a cigar and sipping whiskey while watching the other passengers fight each other for a space on one of the Titanic’s lifeboats.
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Cheez Whiz said on December 11, 2024 at 12:55 am
I have the same reaction to all these horror stories.
“What did you expect?”
Thing is, we’re in this no-mans land where everyone pretends that everything Trump poops out is an accomplished fact, not a proposal.
Why everyone is pre-emptively freaking out is an interesting question, but in a month it won’t matter. Trump will be President and he will will start doing things, and the Republican Congess will start rubberstamping his nominations. THEN you call all start freaking out over something real.But again,
“What did you expect?”
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Jeff Borden said on December 11, 2024 at 10:01 am
There’s an interesting editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times today, reflecting on a speech made by Tom Homan, the incoming overseer of our great deportation, to a Republican holiday party on the northwest side. Homan declared Chicago will be “ground zero” for his troops, prompting the S-T to note Illinois harbors under 500,000 undocumented immigrants. Two large red states led by loud-mouthed immigrant bathers, Texass and Floriduh, are home to millions of these poor souls. But Chicago is the favored punching bag of the shrieking tRumpanzees, so sure, we’re ground zero.
I’m going to enjoy the howls, the moans and the groans from the morons who voted for this. I’m all outta sympathy. They have fucked around and are now going to find out just how big a mistake they made.
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Scout said on December 11, 2024 at 11:54 am
The other day a friend of ours said she was going to feel sorry for the people who voted for the pain coming their way. The rest of us just stared at her for moment before we all said, practically in unison, some version of “fuck those idiots”. They’ll get what they deserve… the problem is the rest of us will get screwed too. So yeah, fuck them all. I’ve become a cynical old cranky crone with no shits to give for ignorant, racist, misogynistic morons who swallowed the lies the media and the billionaire tech bros fed them and voted to bring the inevitable chaos down on all of our heads.
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Colleen Condron said on December 11, 2024 at 2:12 pm
I sometimes see records of patients who have chosen alternative therapies for their cancer. They see practitioners who prescribe IV vitamins and macrobiotic diets. One patient treated her breast cancer with cayenne pepper on an open lesion. Now vitamins and good diets certainly can have positive effects, but they aren’t going to slow down or get rid of your cancer. And don’t get me started on the conspiracy theorists who maintain the cure for cancer exists, but is being withheld because pharmaceutical companies make more money by treating it instead of curing it.I am no fan of big pharma, but the idea they are sitting on a cure is real tinfoil hat stuff.
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Dave said on December 11, 2024 at 2:42 pm
I knew a couple who, when she discovered cancer, went to alternative healers. She’s just as dead.
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Jeff Gill said on December 11, 2024 at 2:53 pm
Steve Jobs.
(sigh.)
Oh, and the FBI director is going to jump rather than be pushed. We live in interesting times.
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Mark P said on December 11, 2024 at 3:09 pm
I’m sure you have all heard the joke, what are the last words of a dumb red neck?
“Hey, y’all, watch this!”
I think that’s us, talking to the rest of the world. We just took a vote, and dumb won.
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Julie Robinson said on December 11, 2024 at 3:13 pm
Or is it “hold my beer”?
Cayenne pepper on an open breast lesion? OMG.
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Suzanne said on December 11, 2024 at 3:41 pm
Dave @12, we have a friend who had cancer about 10-12 years ago. Two of his friends were diagnosed about the same time. They vigorously encouraged him to go the natural healing route like they did but he went the chemotherapy route.
He is still alive to have a 2nd occurrence of cancer; his friends both died years ago.
I, too, marvel at the number of times since my cancer diagnosis that I have been told that there is a cure for cancer but big Pharma in collusion with oncologists won’t let anyone know because they want the money to keep flowing. Like my leukemia is exactly the same type of disease as a brain tumor or bladder cancer.
We live in idiocracy and we are all going to suffer. The adults are no longer in charge.
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Colleen Condron said on December 11, 2024 at 3:45 pm
Dave…the saddest cases are the people who come in with early stage disease and choose the woo woo treatment. The cancer grows, and they come back with metastatic disease, and at that point all treatment is palliative….there’s nothing else to be done.
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Sherri said on December 11, 2024 at 3:51 pm
I share everyone’s frustration with the people who voted for the leopards, and I enjoy schadenfreude as much as anyone, and yet…
The problem is, the leopards won’t eat the smuggest faces, or the most deserving faces, they’ll eat the most vulnerable faces. Maybe there’s just no way around it, maybe we’re just doomed to go through a crisis that makes the pandemic look like child’s play, but I can’t cheer it on.
I’m a bad Christian; I walked away from church when Trump was elected the first time, don’t really think the resurrection is all that important, and think scripture should be read with a critical eye. But what I do believe, and even sometimes live in, is love your neighbor. I don’t have to like them, I don’t have to agree with them, but I have to at least be willing to extend them grace. More so if I have any status or power imbalance over them.
I was raised in a church that believed that the most important parts of Christianity were believing that Jesus had been sent to the world to die for sins and convincing others of that. I think the most important part of Christianity is love your neighbor, something the Southern Baptists are not really in to.
Thus endeth my sermon. Peace be with you.
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David C said on December 11, 2024 at 4:24 pm
I was roasted by one of my sisters-in-law for saying the circumstances of Christ’s birth and death are less important than what he did and said in between. It’ll surprise you that she’s a Trump voter.
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Deborah said on December 11, 2024 at 6:24 pm
As I’ve mentioned here before we gave up our car in Chicago but still need one in NM. A few days ago we took our jeep in to the shop for some needed repairs, an appointment we made back in September before we left NM for the fall in Chicago. We had expected to find out the costs would be way high and not worth doing and instead just getting a new vehicle. Only we still have no idea what vehicle we want yet. We wanted an electric vehicle but so far haven’t found one that has enough clearance underneath to regularly drive up the road to our cabin, there are a few but they are outrageously expensive. But today we got some good news from the shop that after they make a few repairs that aren’t too exorbitant we’ll be good to go for probably a couple more years, fingers crossed. We had decided that if they told us an outrageous number we would lease a vehicle for a couple of years and hopefully by that time we will have a clue. Now, thank goodness, we don’t have to do that.
Sherri, I wish I felt the way you do about my fellow man, but I’m getting more and more jaded as time goes on, I’m having a hard time watching the getting their faces eaten and still not understanding what they’ve done, to all of us, unfortunately.
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Sherri said on December 11, 2024 at 6:37 pm
Oh, Deborah, I *feel* the same way. I have to choose to work hard to act differently.
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Deborah said on December 11, 2024 at 9:01 pm
Sherri, I was raised staunchly in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and later after graduating from an LCMS college I became a member of a a newly formed Lutheran synod that followed the actual teachings of Christ a bit more, the love they neighbor branch, but even that became something I couldn’t participate in for various reasons. I’m not sure I would even recognize anything being espoused there anymore. I either wasn’t paying attention and this stuff was going on all along or things have changed dramatically. I don’t have any regrets for leaving, it was for me, my only choice.
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JodiP said on December 12, 2024 at 12:40 pm
I really agree with Sherri @12. The most vulnerable will suffer the most. And because they are poor and more likely to be Black and brown, it’s up to us to be allies and fight.
One concrete example: The house voted yesterday to sign a bill, which contains a provision to strip healthcare for trans kids in military families. Eighty democrats voted for this, and there is some thoughts that they are willing to throw trans rights under the bus because of the misconception that this issue helped the dams lose the election.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-trans-health-care-defense-bill_n_675a0d36e4b02802b83c42c5
Please reach out to your senators and ask them to vote no on this bill.
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Dexter Friend said on December 12, 2024 at 12:43 pm
Battling chronic hip pain I have had for 43 years now, about 30 years ago I went to a chiropractor. The examination room I was led to had walls lined with supplements, with a stethoscope as a prop on a stand. The quack appeared , decided I needed a surgeon, and tried to saddle me with a big bag of pills at an outrageous cost. (I have been to 4 surgeons, all had reasons to not accept me as a patient.)
Dr. Patel, who is a paid contributor to MSNBC, last night said RFK’s plans will attack funding for childhood vaccinations and result in an original 6X explosion in measles and other diseases, and then the number will increase “exponentially”. Trump. Disaster on the horizon.
Jeff B. : I have seen videos of homeless refugees living in police stations in Chicago. Then , cut to Chicago natives hovering over burn barrels, freezing. All Trump/Homan goons have to is round ’em up at the cop shop and take them away.
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Jeff Borden said on December 12, 2024 at 1:09 pm
The orange blob is already walking back his promise to lower grocery prices. How shocking.
Tom Homan is a prick, a bully, a loudmouth and an asshole. Hopefully, he’ll fail miserably…like everyone else in this shit show is likely to do.
BTW, if not for the 14th Amendment, four of Lumpy’s five spawns would not be U.S. citizens. Ivana and Malaria became citizens AFTER the births of their hellspawns. God, he’s so fucking dumb.
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Jeff Gill said on December 12, 2024 at 2:36 pm
Love is the core commandment, love God (which is a definition we can spend a couple of threads on, but let’s say we’re being asked to love the source and origin of where love comes from?) first, and right on the heels of that one, love your neighbor. Jesus got asked very pointedly “and who is my neighbor?” to which the good rabbi answered with a question framed as a story, about a fellow set upon by random evil and pointless violence, describing all the good people who shrugged their way past, and the obviously awful person from Samaria (I mean, everyone knew Samaritans were horrible awful no-good people, like folks from Ohio assume about Michiganders, and vice versa) turns out to be the one who stops, helps, and goes the extra mile and then some.
This, Jesus said, pretty much shuts the front door on “who is my neighbor.”
On dismissing death and the after things, I’d say more as a pastor than as a systematic theologian, people are hungry for some sense of confidence about what comes next. They’re less interested in details than some systematic theologians seem to assume, they just want to know they — and more often, and with more intensity, those they love who’ve already gone on — will be okay. The Coldplay video director’s cut that just came out has Dick Van Dyke, who turns 99 tomorrow, saying “I’m acutely aware that I could go any day now, but I don’t know why, it doesn’t concern me, I’m not afraid of it. I have that feeling, totally against anything intellectual, that I’m going to be alright.” This is a guy who taught Sunday school at a Presbyterian church for many years, and has a couple of books out on his faith, but I think he’s making a summary statement which is what Christian faith can be and often is — simply a reassurance in the present moment that we don’t have to worry about the later part, which can allow us to be more loving of neighbors and even of our enemies with that concern out of the way.
None of that’s meant as an argument, just to say my own heart on why I’ve preached and served with resurrection a factor in the mix. It’s not the whole faith buffet, but it’s a flavor we need to savor the meal together as we gather at the table.
P.S. I have no supplements to sell any of you, other than to drink more water. It probably could help.
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Sherri said on December 12, 2024 at 2:47 pm
I’ve said that everybody is angry, and with good reason, but why?
Our institutions are failing. They’re failing for many reasons, but a major one is that we need them to solve more complex problems than they were ever designed to solve.
Today, we expect our institutions to solve problems, but also consider the impact on everyone, not just the majority; the environment, including water, air, trees, animals, emissions; and taxes, and the community’s generally low appetite for paying for things.
Our communities complain about homelessness, but also complain about any attempts to build housing. Our schools are being asked to graduate everyone, while being bombarded from all sides about what they’re doing wrong. Everyone can see a solution that looks obvious to them, but they can’t or won’t see how that solution doesn’t work for someone else, or don’t care.
Electeds (not all) have figured out that we live in an attention economy, and that the easiest way to get elected and reelected is not to get things accomplished but to make noise. So rather than doing the hard work necessary to accomplish things, it’s easier to introduce splashy nonsense legislation that will go nowhere but that will activate the groups who will endorse you for taking a stand. (I’ve helped fill out endorsement questionnaires; none of them ask about what you’ve accomplished, they ask about your stances on things.)
I remember when my daughter was young and riding her tricycle, another parent put his daughter on a bicycle with training wheels. Suddenly the other girl could go much faster, faster really than she was ready to cope with. I think we’re all angry because we’re all going faster than we’re ready to cope with.
And the message of the incoming administration is, who needs training wheels? Throw them all away! Everyone for themselves!
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Suzanne said on December 12, 2024 at 4:01 pm
Jeff, I have recently read 2 memoirs that posit some theories on death and what comes next from a more scientific viewpoint. Both are excellent.
One is In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife by Sebastian Junger (who wrote The Perfect Storm). Junger wrote it after a near death experience and it delves into physics and philosophy and what he saw while he was almost at his limit of life.
The other is This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist’s Path from Grief to Wonder by Dr Alan Townsend. The author’s daughter and wife (also a scientist) both had brain tumors in the same year; the wife did not survive. It’s a thought provoking, heartfelt book that made me think differently about the afterlife.
I saw the Dick Van Dyke video. What a treasure he is!
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Mark P said on December 12, 2024 at 5:25 pm
I was at the pharmacy a couple of days ago standing behind a youngish woman with partially shaved head and some pink hair. She was wearing a sweatshirt with something printed on the back. I moved around until I could see what it said — “Rage against the vaccine” printed around the figure of a skull with a skeletal hand holding a syringe. It doesn’t seem like the typical MAGAt kind of thing. Maybe a new demographic?
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Deborah said on December 12, 2024 at 6:38 pm
Someone coined the phrase “angertainment” which I think is spot on. People love to be angry about stuff, they relate stories about how they told so and so off with great relish. We humans love to be angry, it doesn’t solve problems but it lets us vent some steam off for a bit. But the relief doesn’t last long so we have to pump it up so we can repeat, repeat, repeat. I read an article in the NYT about the game Connections which I play every morning. The woman who designed the game and produces it daily says that the game makes lots of people angry for this or that reason , she realizes that and it’s part of the game to her because people love to be angry. So true.
Dexter, have you been seeing all of the articles out there now about chronic pain since the Mangione info about his severe back pain? It’s everywhere.
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Deborah said on December 12, 2024 at 6:48 pm
We’re out at our Abiquiu cabin it’s so nice to be surrounded by nature again. We have a rental car until Tuesday when our Jeep should be ready so we were able to drive out here for a bit. The car is a Nissan Rouge that definitely doesn’t have enough clearance to make the trip up to our land regularly, we were creeping the whole way. It’s about the same size as our Jeep but definitely sits lower.
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Jeff Gill said on December 12, 2024 at 9:47 pm
Northern New Mexico has a wide variety of medium to moderate sized rocks. I’ve driven past the turn to Deborah’s Abiquiu home, and can testify: the road like the landscape on either side is covered with an assortment of hatbox sized rocks, all hungry for a taste of your oil pan.
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Dexter Friend said on December 13, 2024 at 11:49 am
Jeff Gill, when I was an elementary student studying Egypt and mummies and The River Styx, I developed a terror of dying, which wore off when those classes ended. When I had to leave the baseball team to come home and say goodbye to the family, knowing I was soon to be in Viet Nam, I remember looking around my room and thinking that would be the last look. Reasonable, that time, to think death was imminent. Then as I aged, I had a recurring dream of dying at age 57; I have no idea why. Now at age 75 , through stages of Christian belief, then denial and atheism, then a return to Jesus when the shit hit the fan with the booze, then a calm steady acceptance of what I cannot control, I truly take it one day at a time, no fear of death. My doctors can’t find much wrong with me to indicate I am near the end, so let it happen.
Right now my biggest thing is this Lions season. Can they do it?
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Dorothy said on December 13, 2024 at 1:21 pm
Nancy Pelosi tripped and fell down stairs in a Luxembourg palace and now she’s in the hospital. Nance looks great in her high heels, but me thinks she needs to switch to flats. She’s in her 80’s FGS!
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Sherri said on December 13, 2024 at 4:32 pm
When I talk about extending grace to everyone, I mean recognizing that everyone has suffered trauma. In the case of RFKJr, certainly he has suffered trauma, some of it self-inflicted to be sure. If he were rude to me in a personal interaction, I would certainly take all of that into account.
Extending grace to him does not mean that I think he should be anywhere near any position of power, much less one that has anything to do with public health. Extending grace to him does not mean I don’t think he’s a dangerous man, who will be responsible for the deaths of many people, especially children, if he’s put in charge of vaccines.
I don’t believe that anyone is inherently good or evil. I believe that we are all damaged, and in the wrong circumstances, our damage can cause great harm. Our challenge is to recognize our damage and avoid or mitigate the harm we cause in the world. Many people don’t recognize their damage, and only work to avoid or mitigate harm to themselves. When those people are place in power, great harm occurs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/health/aaron-siri-rfk-jr-vaccines.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hE4.3YE4.FSqcn7zUIrSW&smid=url-share
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alex said on December 13, 2024 at 4:58 pm
Well, I went and got myself a Fire TV stick and I’ve clicked through all the free stuff and I’m totally nonplussed. So what’s a good and inexpensive pay service that gives the most bang for the buck?
I’m really not much of a TV or Hollywood cinema watcher, but do like art and foreign films.
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David C said on December 13, 2024 at 5:27 pm
I swear it’s getting so if you pay for everything you really want to see you end up paying a cable bill’s worth.
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tajalli said on December 13, 2024 at 6:09 pm
The Criterion Collection for dvds of old movies are available at my library as well as Kanopy and Hoopla for streaming with a library account. The selection is probably not as extensive or for first-time access as paid streaming services but paired with inter-library loan programs, there’s lots.
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Deborah said on December 13, 2024 at 8:39 pm
Jeff G, I wouldn’t say quite hatbox sized rocks but you definitely have to pay attention as you drive up that road. It’s a fairly steep climb at one point so mud or ice can be a challenge. We got together as a neighborhood over the years and have worked out a way to have the road maintained periodically. It crosses an arroyo which runs sometimes in the summer during the monsoon season and wreaks havoc with the road. The latest work was completed recently and the arroyo crossing is in very good condition now.
We are back in Santa Fe and won’t be going back to Abiquiu until the 18th for various reasons. It’s still unseasonably warm which is both pleasant and scary.
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alex said on December 14, 2024 at 12:44 pm
The NYT recipe for boeuf bourguignon popped up today and the picture looked so delish that I’ve decided to make some. I’m about to go out shopping for it but it may be hard to find some pancetta versus humble old bacon. The store web sites that say they have things in stock are typically wrong in my experience, especially the grocers.
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alex said on December 14, 2024 at 7:37 pm
Finding pancetta was no problem, but I went to three different stores trying to find pearl onions before giving up and subbing shallots. Just got done caramelizing those along with the shrooms and the aroma c’est magnifique. The method they recommend here is simpler than Julia Child’s and produces awesome results.
And I’m sharing: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018528-beef-bourguignon?unlocked_article_code=1.hk4.0gEG.if83tpSpxPs9&smid=share-url
I may be doing this again for one of the upcoming family dinners in the next few weeks. Wish I could perfume my house with it every day.
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David C said on December 15, 2024 at 1:00 pm
We got a call yesterday from the neurologist my wife was supposed to see in February for a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. When I took the call, I thought since Mary was on the list for cancellations that her appointment would be moved up. So I hand her the phone and he gets a shocked look and said “I’ve been waiting for months”. The doctor retired and now she’ll have to get on some other doctor’s five month wait list for an appointment. I wondered why they were calling on a Saturday, now I know. We’re planning on moving in the spring and now we wonder if we might as well just get an appointment in Grand Rapids, but she’s miserable with cramps in her leg. That bothers her more than the tremors. If I massage her calf before bedtime she can get to sleep but it doesn’t last long. I try to tell myself that the doctor retired due to health reasons and it couldn’t be helped but it’s hard to be magnanimous when she needs relief and she’s not getting it. Sorry, just venting about another angle on our fucked up medical system.
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Deborah said on December 15, 2024 at 1:30 pm
David C, how depressing to have an appointment be canceled after waiting so long. I’m sure you’ve looked into lots of causes and other symptoms so disregard what I’m saying here if you’re way beyond this. I have leg cramps when I’m trying to sleep and I’ve found that it’s usually associated with dehydration. I take potassium, magnesium and calcium daily for it too. I hope you get some answers
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Dexter Friend said on December 15, 2024 at 1:42 pm
Alex, just buy them all…not that expensive, get Max, Netflix, Britbox, to start. There’s always new content somewhere, and many old films and series to re-visit. I love the Britbox mini-series. Of course I have to brew a cuppa Twinings Earl Grey when I tune in to Britbox.
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Jeff Gill said on December 15, 2024 at 1:45 pm
Sitting here in Bloomington, Indiana with my mother; she thinks I’m Dr. Pol’s son Charles and keeps asking me where my baby is (nota bene: I’m 63, and don’t look like Charles, but Pol is always referring to him as “my eldest” which is the one tag Mom can keep in mind for me, so there we are). We got a hair wash done after watching a Christmas cantata my wife and (not baby) son both were in back home in Ohio; at the Great Clips she told the stylist we’d just gone to church, and that I’d left my baby at home. That got me a quizzical look…
We’re moving her from my sister’s house to memory care, but not until after New Year’s. Of course, that means we’re paying full room & board for a month, but we nailed down a fairly ideal sized room in a conveniently located setting which if we just waited until we were ready (say Jan. 8th) the only memory care room might be thirty minutes further from my sister’s and two thousand more a month… it’s all madness, but I have trouble envisioning an ideal alternative, so here we are.
Twinings “Pure Peppermint” has been helping me get to sleep at night as my last beverage of the evening.
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David C said on December 15, 2024 at 2:36 pm
We’ve found all of those helpful, Deborah. Leg cramps are a classic symptom of Parkinson’s though and they only do so much. Other than taking over most of the house work, I feel pretty useless to make her feel better. The leg massages are something I can do that helps and it’s pretty cozy with her legs over mine while I do my thing especially on a cold winter’s night. I doubt Mary would consider it, but I’ve heard from a Parkinson’s caregiver online support group that I’m on that edibles are helpful. I’ve hinted around and if she told me she’d try it, I hightail it to the UP to get some. Wisconsin is still in the dark ages as far as legalized marijuana is concerned.
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Sherri said on December 15, 2024 at 3:30 pm
But the leopards won’t eat our faces!
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/us/trump-immigrant-deportations-rome-georgia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hk4.QfLt.CGGcw8wTVU0q&smid=url-share
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