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Baby it’s Finally Cold Outside

January 14, 2012 by mountainmornings

I don’t know about you, but I really really hate it when evidence-based, clear cut science gets pre-empted by politics. Maybe it’s because science isn’t sexy enough? Or maybe it’s because we’ve all been blissfully happy riding around in January with our sunroof open, but newsflash – mother earth is in dire need of our attention – NOW! An ex-UVA climatologist – currently at Penn State, but still embroiled in litigation with our esteemed Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli over his grant applications – Michael Mann will be back in the Blue Ridge speaking about “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From the Front Lines” for UVA’s Enviro-Day, January 17th. http://helpdesk.evsc.virginia.edu/EnviroDay.html
Here is the amazing scientific commentary website he founded called Real Climate – http://www.realclimate.org/

“Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming” is Mann’s latest book written with Lee Kump to debunk some of the myths the Right like to pull over our tree-hugging eyes. None other than the Yale Forum on Climate Change credits this publication with the most “…stunning and informative graphics and illustrations. Hear that? Repeat: Stunning and informative.” Here is their review: http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2008/09/dire-predictions-unique-and-uniquely-illustrated/
What I like, the last section is devoted to “Solving Global Warming.” And its simplicity. “We don’t need an elaborate climate model to understand the basic physics and chemistry of greenhouse gases, so at some level the fact that increased CO2 warms the planet is a consequence of very basic physics and chemistry,” explains Mann.

Here is his famous hockey stick graph model showing simulations of Northern Hemisphere mean temperature changes over the past millennium.

Can we start to SAVE more than a puck in the future? It’s only our children’s future we’re playing politics with.
http://video.thescore.com/watch/rundown-top-11-saves-of-2011

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What Do the 1% Do?

January 12, 2012 by mountainmornings

Camelot was a staple on the record player while I was growing up. The Flapper had a thing about Broadway, so imprinted in my memory are the lyrics to some of the greatest show tunes ever – Gypsy, Oklahoma, Funny Girl. I actually saw Barbara Streisand playing Fanny, since we lived only an hour away from the Great White Way. And my first attempt at show biz was playing Sir Lancelot At Camp St Joseph for Girls, age 11, because I was the tallest; singing “If Ever I Would Leave You” to a captive audience of nuns and campers. “Broadway Bound” was the caption in my high school yearbook!

Which is why this frustrated song and dance girl couldn’t help but hum about the simple folk last night. Michelle Obama was in town, at a fundraiser on an Albemarle estate. I met the owner of said estate at our sport’s club once; it was held at the home of Dave Matthew’s band drummer, Carter Beauford. Carter is a sweet guy, we chatted about my rock star son, and I even met Dave Matthews there once or twice. Along with his trainer, they were a totally kind crew and most people left them alone. Turning to Bob, I wondered why we weren’t invited to said fundraiser? “We were invited,” he said, “we didn’t go because the tickets were around $35,000.” Oh!

I was having so much fun watching the GOP eviscerate each other over who was the most cut throat capitalist, I almost forgot we Dems have to raise about 800 million for a re-election campaign. Aside from the sheer folly of that, Brad and Angie were meeting with the President back at the White House last night, while the First Lady was hobnobbing with our 1%. Yes, it’s not only Republicans who know how to make and invest money. The question we’ll have to ask ourselves in this election, is what as a nation do we value enough to vote for. Is Camelot still possible? I’m willing to bet on it.
“We all rise together or we all fall together.” — Michelle Obama, 1/11/12

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Flinty

January 10, 2012 by mountainmornings

Are you following the Republican caucuses? One pundit I could listen to for hours is Chris Matthews, and this morning he described the New Hampshire voters as “…flinty.” Although not familiar with this adjective, I knew exactly what it meant when he said it. Of or pertaining to flint, “…unyielding; unmerciful; obdurate: as in ‘a flinty heart.'” Anyone who digs in this Albemarle red clay dirt knows a thing or two about flint; and having lived in New England for over a decade, I knew the Hardball host was spot on.

Let’s look at the positive side of flint. It is an extremely hard and opaque piece of quartz that can be used to make a fire, just in case you find yourself lost in the woods. It’s not decorative like chalcedony, it’s useful. Humans have fashioned tools out of flint for centuries. When your ancestors have forged a living out of such rugged terrain, you’d better believe the New Hampshire voters are made of strong stuff. And if you happen to love covered bridges, and who doesn’t, you can take a virtual tour of over 50, like this one @ Happy Corner, here: http://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/bridges/table.html

Enough about New England, and on to Old England. The second season of Masterpiece Theater started out this week with a bang – right through that lying, villainous valet’s hand! I’m officially an old codger because I adore Downton Abbey. I’m sure we Boomers are leading the American addiction to a period series about WWI era landed gentry and their servants. And some are asking why? As much as I love our native son, (Grisham’s new legal series The Firm was opposite DA on Sunday night), I just can’t look away from these characters. Maggy Smith being one flinty example!

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I’m All Yours

January 7, 2012 by mountainmornings

From the sublime use of social media, to the ridiculous but still entertaining, Facebook has been asking people to post the top song from the year of their birth. So here goes – “Buttons and Bows” by Dinah Shore! Shimmy shimmy shake girl!!

And thanks to the Bride for encouraging me to dance again. Just left the downtown Mall with endorphins churning from a magical Nia dance class at Studio 206. Could the New Year get any sweeter?

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Indefinite Detention

January 5, 2012 by mountainmornings

Something happened on New Year’s Eve that not many national news networks picked up on; instead they reported the latest celebrity divorce and weight loss strategies of the stars. And the adnauseum chronicle of pre-Iowa caucusing. This is where social media is filling the gap. I noticed it on a news feed, and then got an action alert in my email –

“President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law. It contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision. And it has no time or geographic limits. It can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.” It was signed by the Executive Director of the ACLU, Anthony Romero.

And snap, being the third charmer to reinforce the insanity of this bill, Jon Stewart did a bit about it too! “…Destroying Our Own Way of Life Before Terrorists Have a Chance to Do it For Us.” You have to love the little red Gitmo, right?
http://gawker.com/5866210/jon-stewart-bashes-obama-for-backing-indefinite-detention-bill

We’ve been through this before, detaining Japanese Americans during WWII. Ronald Reagan apologized for that blunder. Now we can hold Americans abroad without trial as long as the hostilities exist? I don’t pretend to be a lawyer, but I know when freedom shudders. We Americans are supposed to be free from fear, but passing this bill while everyone was busy toasting in 2012, or sleeping, was a cowardly act. To read more about it: http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/three_myths_about_the_detention_bill/

Want to sign a pledge to defend freedom?
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?s_subsrc=120103_NDAA_redirect&pagename=120103_NDAAGOLAsk&JServSessionIdr004=ifa1ufc8c1.app217a

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And No Religion

January 2, 2012 by mountainmornings

Let’s just admit it. We are usually asleep by the time the ball drops in Times Square. But these last few years we’ve had a hospital gala on New Year’s Eve and it just keeps getting better and better. Which means we end up staying later and later. Still, determined to see Gaga and Kathy Griffin with our man Anderson, I managed to get home just in time to see Kathy in her bra and listen to Cee Lo Green singing John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

Imagine my dismay! The outright sacrilegious audacity of the man to change “And no religion too,” to “And all religion’s true.” I was furious. I kept saying to Bob, who was trying desperately to fall asleep, let him change “F*#^” You” to “Forget You,” but WHY WHY WHY impose his religiosity on the rest of us? And it seems, I’m not the only one…http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/cee-lo-green-outrages-john-lennon-fans-by-changing-lyrics-to-imagine-20120102

This comes on the heels of a small road trip through TN right before Christmas. If you’ve never listened to conservative talk radio, which I never do, you would be absolutely astonished at the amount of Islamophobia that comes over the airwaves in certain parts of the South. There had been a demonstration at Memphis Airport because two Muslim clerics had been thrown off a Delta flight for acting suspicious. Interfaith groups went to this peaceful protest to support the clerics, and this particular radio station, which caters to Christian Fundamentalists, sent their representative. Oh the scathing links to Bible passages and doomsday scenarios.

One might think the religion that brought us the Inquisition, was preparing a holy Crusade to keep the flag of Islam from flying over the USA!

And here I was, on New Year’s Eve, back in the birthplace of Jefferson – who btw built a library at the center of his university and NOT a church for a very good reason – trying to reconcile this lyric debacle. Words have meaning to this word nerd, and you can’t try to make a classic song into a pop, feel good everybody’s OK and religion does no harm song Cee Lo. Read your history books, and keep your paws off my Beatle.

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Letting Go

December 30, 2011 by mountainmornings

It’s that time of year again. Not Chinese New Year, or that Rosh Hashana one, but the all American time to dress to the nines and drink to 2012. Cheers! And if you live in the South, it’s time to soak your black eyed peas.

Bob tells me that the custom of making Hoppin John for the New Year with rice and bacon is actually a Jewish thing. Well not the bacon part. It seems that in the Talmud, there is a story of God giving in to his people; along the lines of “OK if you must keep a good luck charm, keep black eyed peas in your pantry.” Sephardic Jews brought this tradition to Georgia, and a meal was born.

So Happy New Year you’all! Out with the old and in with the new. The Bride wanted to know what resolutions I’ve made. I don’t normally make them, why set yourself up for disappointment. If I’m going to make major changes in my life, I’ll do it when I’m good and ready. Not by some arbitrary calendar date. But here are my top 2 mini-resolutions:
1). Resolved to live in the present. Let go of past grudges. Let go of hope for the future. If you don’t get this, read more about Buddhism.
2). Resolved to celebrate more, for no reason. Like making latkes when it isn’t even Hanukah.

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Walking in Graceland

December 27, 2011 by mountainmornings

Two movies of two very different women have captured my attention this week – Marilyn and Maggie. On Christmas Day, when Bob was saving lives, I went to our local art theatre, Vinegar Hill, to see “My Week with Marilyn.” Michelle Williams embodies Marilyn Monroe, she doesn’t just play her. It’s a marvelous bit of film making, made even more special by my husband’s distant relation to Arthur Miller (her husband at the time). Stranded in Britain to film “The Prince and the Showgirl” Marilyn is at her most vulnerable.
When she asks her young 3rd assistant director, “Who’s side are you on?”, we are offered a glimpse into her psyche. A not so pretty side of a sexy, movie star on the brink of fame who cannot help but view her life and loves as one continual battle for survival.

A female warrior of a different kind, Margaret Thatcher will be portrayed by our grande dame of tinsel town, Meryl Streep, in the upcoming “Iron Lady.”

The year was 1979 when a British grocer’s daughter stormed the House of Commons. Women’s Lib was fairly new across the pond and Maggie ignored it, preferring to joust with the her male opponents wielding her rapier wit and a pocketbook. Like Marilyn, she was an outlier who forged ahead despite a cultural inclination to keep her in one place. Say what you will about her policies, and she was a Conservative of the first order, Maggy was a relentless and formidable leader.

I was riding on top of one of those open-air, red London buses when I sensed her power start to slip. Thatcher made a deal with Reagan to allow our planes to take off from British air fields and bomb Libya. It was the first time I felt like an ugly American abroad- fear was palpable. The British people didn’t want to promote war. “I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another,” Thomas Jefferson

Thanks to the Flapper, I’ve been a pacifist my whole life. I saw enough of Vietnam. Thank you President Obama, for ending the war in Iraq. Let them have their civil war, we had to have ours. And I think I’d get along famously with Meryl, another Jersey Girl. What I didn’t know is that she is fighting to build a National Women’s History Museum in Washington, DC.
http://www.nwhm.org/

We may not be able to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, but we private citizens can sure as hell put our blue suede shoes on the ground to build a museum!

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24/7

December 24, 2011 by mountainmornings

Some places are always open, even on Christmas. Thank you to all the Emergency Physicians working this weekend – please try and stay safe out there and out of their departments.

And if you’d like to know where some of the best Emergency Medicine residents are trained, take a peek at this Vandy video – you might see the Bride if you look close enough!

http://www.emp.com/we-vandy-2011-video-challenge

And just a reminder, don’t drink and drive, or get on an ATV or do anything fairly complicated. Happy Everything you’all.

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Angels Welcome

December 22, 2011 by mountainmornings

Imagine you are traveling over the holidays. Added to the hustle and bustle of ornaments, caroling, wrapping, and eggnog let’s just say you find yourself checking into a hotel, alone. You’ve been reminiscing with family; maybe finding out something new about the siblings who grew up without you. They each have a story, and you’re not in it.

The Salvation Army came to the house Christmas in 1948 and Mike was mad. He was 11 and decided to get a paper route in order to support us. Self- reliance was a skill we all learned early.

Then an angel appears. There’s no sound of bells, no trumpets. Just a girl at the front desk with a name tag, “Angel.” Or maybe it’s a nurse named Van And you know that despite it all, life continues. Even now, especially now when illness strikes and we switch to a running game. When everyone wishes you a Merry Christmas. Love survives. Travel safe

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