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MORE ORGAN RECITALS

6 June 2019

I've said this before and I will probably say it again ... when you reach "a certain age" and you meet up with people you haven't seen in awhile, but with whom you share a significant period of time in your history, there is a certain familiarity, and yet strangeness because of the long passage of time.

But the sure-fire break the ice topic of conversation is the traditional "organ recital."  Which body parts you've been dealing with, which friends have had transplants, pace makers, cancer, hearing aids, incontinence, strokes, heart attacks, dementia, etc., etc., etc.  By the time you finish getting caught up, you have found other topics to discuss and the discomfort is gone.

As my friend and I were making it through this usual check list, Walt was on the other side of town having lunch with some of his old work buddies, two of whom showed up in new walkers and so there was lots of talk about types of walkers, which were best, etc.

Tell me again why "living to a ripe old age" is a good thing????

This cartoon reminds me that there is a wonderful cover story on Alex Trebec in People magazine this week.  I would not have known that since I don't read that magazine unless it's in a doctor's office, but he gives a nice interview about the state of his health.  Pancreatic cancer is nearly always fatal because it isn't diagnosed early since there are no symptoms, and when he first announced his diagnosis, he was quite adamant that he was going to be one of the 9% who beats this disease.  At the moment, he seems to be holding to that promise.  Doctors say all his tests are looking good.  Nobody is saying "cautiously optimistic" yet,  but it ain't as dire as it was 6 months ago.

Also, he has got to have the very best wig maker in the world.  In his latest televised update for fans, he said that he knew people were wondering about his hair and that when James Holzhauer started his $2 million run on Jeopardy, you see Alex with his own hair, but by the time his run ended, some 35 episodes later, Alex's hair was a wig. But you'd be hard pressed to tell.

The new era of Twitter and Facebook has given fans access to their favorite celebrities that they never had before.  As I said the other day, I think one of the reasons for Outlander's incredible fame is how open they are communicating with fans.

(NCIS's Brian Dietzen is too, for that show)

But sometimes it seems a bit much!  The other day, Caitriona Balf, who plays Claire on Outlander, sent out a tweet which kind of blew my mind.  Apparently some fans saw what appeared to them to be a baby bump and asked about it.

“To all those who think it’s appropriate to ask,” Balfe wrote, “No, I’m not pregnant. Just having my period and was bloated… So yeah… Thanks for asking." She concluded her post with a pair of hashtags: "Not really" and "Not all stomachs are washboards.”

Can you imagine going on social media and asking someone if they are pregnant because it looked like they had developed a little tummy?"  How incredibly rude.  But yet apparently enough fans commented that she felt the need to answer them.

Another reason why I would never want to be a celebrity.  You reallly have to work at guarding your privacy and too many people feel that your life is open game to anybody who wants to jump in there.

And in the "how do I hate the current administration this week" category, after learning about the children left in a van for 39 hours because of an ISIS screw-up, I learned that apparently to "save cost" in the kiddie prisons they are eliminating English lessons and soccer (cause soccer is so expensive, ya know)

The Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun discontinuing the funding stream for activities - including soccer - that have been deemed "not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation."

Then today came the report that children's medicines are being taken away from them by border patrol and not being returned.  You know little things like diabetes medicines, seizure medications and other things.  I guess the death rate for the kidnapped children isn't high enough yet and they have to give it a boost. That'll teach those people fleeing for their lives to try to find safety somewhere.
 

PHOTO OF THE DAY

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