Plat du jour

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The man who wouldn't die finally does

Art Buchwald has finally died. Last March I wrote how he had left the hospice where he had gone to die, after refusing dialysis when his kidneys failed. He lived almost a year in that condition--apparently his kidneys still had a little function.

My original post last March contains Buchwald's place in my life, so there's no need to repeat it. American journalism has lost one of its best, and he will be missed by a great many.

12,000 visitors

Yesterday this blog recorded its 12,000th visit. Despite my decrease in posting, people still seem to want to read it. It's not just people doing searches for Clayelle Dalferes or "kicking testicles," both of which do get a stream of people here. What's a bit surprising is that the number of people searching for supermodel Caprice Bourret has greatly decreased of late.

Anyhow, thanks for visiting.

NYJFF: The Rape of Europa

The second film I saw in the New York Jewish Film Festival was
The Rape of Europa. This is a documentary on what happened to the art treasures in Europe during World War II. Based on Lynn H. Nicholas' book of the same name, the film covers a great many facets of what the Nazis, Soviets, French, Italians and Americans did before, during and after the hostilities. It also covers looted Judaica, and even touches upon the ordinary houshold goods the Nazis confiscated from the Jews of Paris.

Some of this was familiar to me, at least in general. I knew that the Nazis, Hermann Goering in particular, grabbed whatever they could get their hands on. I didn't know that the Nazi officials were just emulating Hitler in amassing their art collections. I knew they suppressed the work of Jewish artists, though I did not realize they were also opposed to all non-representational art. I knew Hitler was a failed artist, though I had never heard the story of how he was rejected by an art school in Vienna, by a board with a number of Jews on it. And I had never seen examples of his work, which are shown in the film. I did not know of the museum he planned to build to hold his art collection in Linz, his birthplace and intended final resting place.

But the main thing new to me was the existence of the American and other nationality "Monuments Men"--a small group of art historians assigned to protect any monuments and artwork that were recaptured. Their stories were the most compelling part of the film, along with an interview of a French Jew who was assigned to a slave-labor camp, whose task was to process the property confiscated from deported Jewish homes. Eventually, he had to work on his own family's goods!

The Rape of Europa also spent a good bit of time on the restitution of stolen artworks to their rightful owners, or at least to their families. This is a continuing process. The film opens with a depiction of the attempts to regain Gustav Klimt's "The Gold Portrait" of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Bloch-Bauer's niece, who is interviewed. The Austrian government claimed it and several other Klimt works had been left to them in Bloch-Bauer's 1923 will, and it was exhibited in the Austrian Galerie Belvedere in Vienna. The film ends with the niece's success--after a seven year legal battle it was ruled that the will was negated by the theft by the Nazis and their Austrian allies. The portrait was then purchased by Ronald Lauder (the son of Estee Lauder) for a reported $135 million. He bought it for his Neue Galerie--which is a block from where I'm sitting now!

The film tried to cover a huge amount of ground--too much, in my opinion. Some things were covered in great detail--others were just touched upon, such as why the Nazis never tried to grab any of the Louvre's holdings, which the French evacuated to the south. There was no mention of the fate of the French spy in the Nazis' Paris art looting operation--she managed to record the rightful owners and destinations of all of the art treasures looted from the Jews of France.

The screening, which I saw at the Jewish Museum, was followed by a Q&A with a couple of the film's directors, and Lynn H. Nicholas. They did tie up a few of the loose ends. But the film itself is over-ambitious, and because of that fails to give the full story of several of its topics.

Plat du jour

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NYJFF: Gorgeous! / Comme t'y es belle!

Last night was our first movie at this year's New York Jewish Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Gorgeous! / Comme t'y es belle! It was billed as the "Sephardic Sex in (sic) the City," But I saw very little that made this film Jewish, let alone Sephardic. Yes, the four main characters were Sephardic Jewish women, and they were seen celebrating Jewish holidays, but that was just about it. Otherwise they were simply upper-middle class Frenchwomen, looking for love, as far as I could tell.

Basically, it was a fun light comedy, definitely in the vein of Sex and the City--unrealistic people doing unlikely things. The main difference was that three of the four women were mothers. The funniest part of the plot was one of the characters' entering into a same-sex civil union with her Arabic au pair, so the latter wouldn't be deported (it also brought in one of the most serious parts of the whole movie, the reaction of the au pair's brother).

The film has sold over a million tickets in France. It probably shattered a lot of people's stereotypes about Sephardic Jewish women there. But I don't think the film said anything about real Sephardic Jewish women in France at all.

Plat du jour

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Back in New York

In case anyone was wondering why I haven't posted anything in the last few days, I was off in Cleveland, meeting with the lawyer and accountant for my mom's estate, and helping my siblings dispose of her stuff. Aside from getting her clothes together for donation, we divided up her costume jewelry (I got a few nice things I'll be able to use). We also shipped a carton of books back home, mostly things that caught my wife's eye.

We cleaned out a dozen huge drawers that sort of served as the house's attic. There was all kinds of old stuff, such my father's course materials from the training he got when he became an IRS agent when he returned from WWII, bank statements from the 50's, and thousands of photos. These were from both sides of my family, going way back to when my father was a young man in the late 30's, and when my mother was a baby in the 20's. And some, from my mother's family, were certainly older than that. My sister was lamenting at the pictures of our grandmother, whom she resembles greatly. She wasn't really happy at how she might look in a few years.

But outside of the pictures of my grandparents and their descendents, we were only guessing at who we were looking at. There's no one left to identify the people pictured. It's a shame, but we threw almost all of those out. We did keep the souvenir documents and photos my grandfather brought back from WWI.

There were also tons of pictures of me as a baby and a small child--I was my parents' first. There were some of my sister, 2½ years younger, and only a few of my brother. I brought back an assortment.

So now I'm home, getting caught up with e-mail, snail mail, paying bills, etc. The transmitter for my wife's internet connection seems to have died. Later I'll go out and get a wi-fi one, since her new notebook computer is equipped for that.

Plat du jour

This is not a good thing for a driver to be.

Smoking and common sense

The City of Bangor, ME passed a law making it illegal to smoke in a car that contains someone under the age of 18. This is the first such law I have ever heard of, but apparently they already have them statewide in Arkansas and Louisiana.

Anything that discourages people from smoking is fine by me.

The thing in the article that really caught my eye, though, was the comment of one of the opponents of the law, who said that most smokers have enough common sense not to smoke around children. Ha! If they had common sense they wouldn't be smoking at all.

Plat du jour

A Little Rascals fan?

Springtime in January

Last January I noted a day when the temperature here in NYC hit 62°. Well this year we hit 72°--and we're not even done with the first week of the month.

It was entirely appropriate that we went and heard Igor Stravisnky's Rite of Spring, one of my favorite pieces, at the New York Philharmonic last night.

When in Florida, wear a bra

Bra Slows Bullet Fired Into Air in Fla.
Last May I advised everyone to wear a bra when in Tampa. In light of this story coming out of St. Petersburg, I am now extending this advice to the entire state of Florida.

High definition video disc format war becoming irrelevent?

It's time for the huge, annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and there have been a couple of announcements coming out of it indicating that the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray may turn out to be a non-event, at least as far as we consumers are concerned. LG has announced a player that can handle both formats, and Warner Brothers has announced it will produce discs containing both formats.

The LG machine is coming out a lot sooner than I anticipated (assuming this really does come out--it wouldn't be the first time an electronics manufacturer has announced "vaporware," something that is never actually produced). I would certainly go for a dual format player--though LG (formerly Goldstar) is not exactly a high-end manufacturer. I'd wait a few more months to get a player made by a higher quality company.

But I suspect it might be a while, if ever, before I can find a single machine that plays HD-DVDs, Blu-rays, my DVD-Audios and my SACDs--not that I have all that many discs in the latter two formats. But I do have some, so I may have to keep my current machine, a Samsung 941, in my system. I got it as an interim player, waiting for the high definition formats to come out and perhaps stabilize.

Spam onslaught over?

I'm probably tempting fate by saying this, but the spam deluge that started last month seems to be over. It's been under 50 every day for the last week.

EDIT: Even more interestingly, the spams that have been going out with forged sending addresses in the CDI domain have ended--not a single one got returned to the "sender" today.

Plat du jour

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Weird websearch of the day

video camcorder kick the bucket ,broke
This blog is fourth on the list.

Plat du jour

At least we Scorpios know how to spell.

Living with bears XXVIII

California: Bear eats winning gingerbread house in Tahoe City
Canada: YEAR IN REVIEW: Bear encounters dropped as people got Bear Aware

So which is it?

Two news stories on my Excite homepage:
AP Poll: Americans Optimistic for 2007
Poll: Americans See Gloom, Doom in 2007

And it was the same poll!

Weird websearch of the day

CHRISTOPHER MELONI looks like bert from sesami street
It's still very early in the day, but I think this one will hold up. And this blog was first on Google's list.

Plat du jour

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Three things I learned

...in going to Christmas dinner at my wife's cousins' in Connecticut:

• It is very expensive to rent a car for Christmas...and almost all the rental locations in Manhattan are closed on Christmas day.
• They charge $4.95 extra to buy a $25 American Express gift card in the supermarket.
• It is possible to gain five pounds in a single day.

Plat du jour

Found on a plumbing company truck.

Five things

Helen Boyd tagged me for the "Five Things You Don’t Know About Me" meme. Of course, the answers really depend on who "you" is, as she pointed out. But very few people know these things about me.

1. I was skinny until I was seven years old. Then I discovered food was good.
2. I earned eleven merit badges when I was Boy Scout.
3. I have never had a stitch in my body.
4. The middle toe on my left foot is shorter than it should be.
5. I hate peanut butter.

Pretty boring, huh?

Plat du jour

A bridge player? Or maybe backgammon?

Not even if you have your lights and siren on

LA Firetruck Collides With Train
Lesson to firefighters: you don't have the right of way over a train.

Another '60s rocker dies

Denis Payton, of the Dave Clark Five, has died. The DC5 was one of the earliest groups in the "British Invasion," arriving in the U.S. shortly after the Beatles in 1964. It was one of my favorites back then--though their music never progressed the way the Beatles' or the Rolling Stones' did. Just recently the band was chosen to be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Payton's death makes me sad, even beyond the loss of someone who helped me learn to like rock 'n' roll. He died of cancer at 63--just the same as my father. And it won't be that long before I'm 63. It's a bit scary, actually.

Plat du jour

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Bravo American Express!

A while back I posted an article about how I was getting an American Express Blue Cash card to replace my Discover. I was hoping that I'd no longer be getting so many calls from the fraud prevention department when I just used my card in my normal manner. My hopes have been realized. In fact, I haven't gotten a single call from American Express about my usage. It's wonderful!

But I have had one concern about my new card. My credit limit was lower--only 71% of my Discover limit. This could be a problem: I have about 7.5 weeks' charges outstanding when I usually pay my bill (electronically, always in full), two business days before it's due. I knew I had been using it a lot lately, so I went online to check my balance. Sure enough, I had used up well over half my limit, and there were still two weeks to go before I had to pay my bill. It was probably OK, but I didn't want to take a chance on going over--so I figured I'd make a partial payment now.

Then I noticed a link on the screen: "Request a credit increase." I went there, and they asked only two things: What limit did I want, and what is my household income. I asked for a 50% increase (making it a bit higher than I had with Discover), and put in the income figure (actually, I had to go and check my tax return, and adjusted it to only include the money we'll be getting in the future--there were some large non-recurring items last year). Then I hit enter, and got a confirmation page. The figures were what I wanted, so I clicked the submit button.

I expected to get a message saying they'd consider it and let me know. Instead, they said my request was approved, and my new limit would be available for use within 15 minutes! Now that's good service.

Plat du jour

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Living with bears XXVII

New York: A visit from a bear we named Baldy Butt
India: Bear Mothers Boy, Killed by Villagers
Wisconsin: The Bear Facts: sparked by the unusual sighting of a lone bear cub in the city limits
North Carolina: Bear worries Stanly County residents

Weird websearch of the day

mohaa "no mouse" wine--I have no idea what this is about.

Plat du jour

Three great skates? Why three? Is the extra one a right or a left? Probably a left--two left feet.

A still icky websearch

Last May someone reached my blog searching for "thick tushy blog." I was way down the list, fortunately. Now someone in Germany found me with tushy blog. Now I'm up to fourth on the list. Oy.

But I guess it's my own fault for blogging about it.

Yet more spam

Wednesday I got 139 spam messages. But things are slowing down. They may not even break 100 for yesterday.

Plat du jour

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More spam

The spammers did not rest on their laurels. Yesterday the count was 119. Only one was not caught by my spam filter.

Plat du jour

With whom?

At last some sanity about Christmas trees

They're putting the Christmas trees back up in the Seattle airport. The airport took them down after a rabbi requested they also put up a Chanukah menorah. The airport officials decided that they would have to put up symbols for all religions, which their staff didn't have time for. Instead, they took down the trees.

Of course, many people were outraged. A lot were angry at the rabbi, but he never asked for the trees to be taken down. All he wanted was that a menorah be added. Now the rabbi has agreed not to sue, and the trees will be returned. They will work on a real policy for next year.

I'm not exactly a big fan of religion, atheist that I am. But let's be sensible. Most Americans celebrate something this time of year. The courts have ruled that government has to be neutral when it comes to religion, not completely secular. It's not that difficult to put up seasonal decorations that recognize all religions, without violating the Constitution. I'm glad some people out in Seattle have decided to act reasonably.

A record day for the spammers

Yesterday I received 105 spam e-mails in my main e-mail account--the first time it went over 100 in a day. But not one of them made it past my home-made spam filter into my inbox. They've gotten extremely predictable.

Plat du jour

I like sangria, too.

I can't win

Just when I managed to free up a full day tomorrow, so I can really attack my to-do list, I have to go to a funeral.

Plat du jour

Who bought us?

Question of the day (or even longer)

Why can't I ever get to the end of my to-do list?

Plat du jour

Very patriotic!

Clayelle in the flesh

I get a lot of people reaching this blog doing searches for Clayelle Dalferes, the sultry-voiced announcer on WQXR, NYC's classical radio station. Some are searching for photos of her. But there aren't any on the internet, save for the baby picture she uses on her bio page on the WQXR site. As I said previously, she is a mystery woman, at least visually.

Well now apparently there is a way to see what Clayelle looks like. She and some of the other WQXR announcers are going to be reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the Strand Bookstore on December 16.

I suggest getting there early if you want to get a seat.

Living with bears XXVI

Catching up:
Florida: Bear puts schools on lockdown
Colorado: Bear burglarizes store, Bear suspected as purse snatcher
Tennessee: Bear caught in South Blount County to be relocated, Bear caught near Gatlinburg garbage collection center
Pennsylvania: Man vs. big bear: Both lose, Bear becomes more than nuisance
California: Bear Wandering In Neighborhood Tranquilized And Killed
Nevada: Biologist gives bear the bum's rush
Kashmir: Bear menace plagues villages
Arizona: Game and Fish officers kill bear, upset neighbors

Plat du jour

A New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent.

I guess they don't have any transsexuals in Kansas

5PM Patient: Hey! It's Damn Cold In This Paper Gown

Physician: What can you tell me about this X-ray?
Student: It's a male pelvis with two fractures.
Physician: It's shaped like a male pelvis, but it's not.
Student: How can you tell?
Physician: The lack of a penis outline on the X-ray helps.

Emergency Room, University of Kansas Hospital
Kansas City, Kansas

Overheard by: Stifling the Laugh

via Overheard in the Office, Dec 1, 2006

Did Continental Airlines kill my mother?

The Associated Press is running a little article, Firms Troubled by Sick People in Office, citing a survey that shows 56% of US businesses have a problem with "presenteeism:" employees who show up for work even when they are sick. The employees are unproductive, their illnesses get worse, leading to increased healthcare costs, and they transmit their diseases to other employees.

Even worse, they transmit their diseases to the firms' customers. I try to avoid flying on Continental Airlines whenever possible, because of its Perfect Attendance Program. They trumpet it in their Annual Report. Among other incentives to come into work sick, Continental employees who have no absences are entered into a drawing for a Ford Explorer. Just what I don't want: to be sealed into an airplane with sick people. It's even worse that I might be getting my drinks and snacks from sick crew-members trying to win a car.

My mother flew Continental when she visited me in October. Four days later she had pneumonia, and died shortly after that. Did Continental kill my mother?

Thanks, Google!

Google lists my glob as 12th when you search for kickass blog.

Talking back at the headlines

"Top News" headlines from the Associated Press at 3:12am:

• Bush, al-Maliki Agree Not to Divide Iraq
Some other people may have a say in this.

• Panel Reaches Deal on U.S.-Iraq Policy
A deal only among themselves. It will be politely ignored by Bush.

• Radiation Found on 2 Jets in Spy Probe
2 jets? This is getting worse and worse.

• 7M in U.S. Jails, on Probation or Parole
We're not going to solve the drug problem in this country just by locking everyone up.

• Preacher Arrested in Alleged Murder Plot
Doesn't the Ten Commandments have something to say about murder?

• Army Scammed Into Buying Golf Balls
Are people so stupid they think this kind of stuff won't be noticed eventually?

• Killer Whale Attacks Trainer at SeaWorld
So? It's a killer whale. The guy was lucky.

• Ford Says 38,000 Accepted Buyout Offers
That's an awful lot of people. I wonder where the ones who aren't retiring will find jobs, even with the education benefits.

Spam: NOT back to normal

I thought my spam count was getting back to normal. I shouldn't have opened my big mouth. Yesterday I got 88--the most for any day in the last two weeks.

Plat du jour

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Male utilities?

Man Shoots Doe With Rack of Antlers

MICHIGAN, N.D. (AP) - When Carmen Erickson dropped a deer with a single shot in a cattail slough south of here, he thought he'd downed a nice buck. Unlike his shot, he was a little off. The deer was a doe.

"It's got no male utilities," said Erickson, who lives in Minot. "It has teats ... it was pretty unusual."

Six hunting partners with Erickson witnessed the doe with a 4-by-4 rack.

"I'm sure this story will be around for 10 years," he said. "At least in our group."

Erickson notified the state Game and Fish Department and received a voice mail from a biologist who said these types of deer often are bucks whose testicles haven't descended or for some reason are castrated. Erickson said that is not the case with his deer, however.

"We couldn't find any male genitals on the deer," he said.

"We turned it over, and I got a lot of heat over that. Like I was supposed to know," Erickson joked.

Gary Rankin, district game warden in Larimore, said he has seen a couple of antlered does over the years, but for a doe to have a well-developed rack is unusual.

It is not the first antlered doe to be reported in the region this year. A conservation officer for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported seeing a 10-point antlered doe shot near Robbin, Minn., during that state's firearms deer season. DNR conservation officers in other parts of Minnesota also reported a handful of antlered does.

Erickson said the antlered doe is a first for his crew, which has been hunting together for 25 years.

"It definitely was a keeper, he said.

Spam back to normal?

After another week of high spam count (average: 68/day), with 82 two days ago, suddenly the count went back down to 45 yesterday--little more than normal. So far today it still seems to be continuing at a normal level.

Plat du jour

An angry Yankees fan?

Questions of the day

Why is it that the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League is in the East Division, and the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League is in the Pacific Division?

Plat du jour

Another good blog to read

A few days ago I stumbled upon Paul Soglin: Waxing America. Paul was a fellow student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, and was also on the Madison city council. Before he was elected he had a part-time job driving the airport limousine, and continued at that for a while--a couple of times I had the honor of a Madison council-member helping me with my luggage. He was first elected mayor right about the time I left Madison. I last saw him here in New York at a fundraiser for his campaign for Congress--an election he lost, alas.

Paul's blog is left-leaning, well-written and rant-free, a combination I have come across all too seldom. I'm adding it to my "things-to-read" list.

How I stumbled upon it is a bit curious. Somebody did a search for "crossdress columbus ohio restaurant." Paul's blog was 49th on the list. Mine was down at 63rd.

Plat du jour

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Observation of the day

When I start to pluck my eyebrows, I sneeze.

Plat du jour

Pretty soon--it's really getting cold out there.

Spam, spam, spam

The spammers have really been working overtime lately. For quite a while I was averaging about 40 a day on my main e-mail address. Suddenly this has jumped up to the high 60's. The most curious ones are the messages that seem to be using random phrases from the Bible as the subject. I have no idea what they actually say, though, because I never open them.

Talking back at the headlines

The headlines from the Associated Press "Top News," as of 22:55 ET.

• At Least 112 Die in Attacks Across Iraq
It's a civil war. A lot more will die.

• Bush Opens Stock Exchange in Vietnam
and all of the stocks immediately went down.

• Kissinger: Iraq Military Win Impossible
I guess he learned something from Vietnam.

• House Democrat Wants Draft Reinstated
Fat chance.

• British Police Probe Ex-Spy's Poisoning
Is this the synopsis of the next Mystery! show on PBS?

• More College Heads Earning $50G or More
That should be $500G.

• Mass. Governor Wants Gay Wedding Vote
People shouldn't be voting on human rights.

• 'Never-Ending Kiss' Caps TomKat Wedding
It's really sad people are so interested in this.

Plat du jour

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Living with...raccoons

I've posted many links to articles about bears invading human habitats. I even posted one about a moose. Now we have: Raccoons Invade California Enclave.

I actually saw a raccoon in front of my apartment building here in Manhattan last year. Once it was in the tiny garden we have, and a day or two later it was up in a tree across the street. It must have come from Central Park--I have seen a couple of them there. I wonder how it managed to get across Fifth Avenue. Well, I suppose it could have waited for the light to change.

The funeral, etc.

I spent the day going through my mail, both e- and snail. There's still a fair amount of snail, which I probably won't get to until Friday--I'm going to a Social of the LGBT Law Assn. tomorrow.

I've also been thinking a bit about what happened in Cleveland. My mom's funeral (Sunday) went well. My brother had arranged things with the funeral home just fine. Roughly 40-50 people were there, not including the 5 of us. A few came to express their condolences before the service--mainly those who would not be coming to the house afterwards. The rabbi did a rather good job of summing up her life, based solely on one conversation with my brother. The whole thing lasted maybe 20 minutes (the funeral home later sent over a CD with a recording of it, but I'm really not ready to listen to it again at this point). I cried a lot.

Then we drove over to the cemetery, maybe 10 minutes away. Interestingly, it's only three blocks from the house my mom grew up in. There was a brief ceremony in the mausoleum rotunda, or whatever it's called, with a recitation of the Kaddish. They didn't take the casket downstairs to the actual vault, because the elevator was out of order. The family did go down there afterwards, though. The double vault was covered by a little curtain. The cemetery had removed the marble cover and sent it out to have my mom's name added. We peeked inside, and saw my father's side covered with a piece of styrofoam, with his name scrawled on it. We laughed about that.

This was the first time I had been there since my father's funeral, nearly 25 years ago. I wonder if I'll ever be back--I know some people do like to visit their deceased relatives in the cemetery, but I'm not one of them. Maybe I got that from mom. The only time she went there was to attend funerals. She would stay afterwards to visit my dad and her parents, who are also buried there, but she never made a special trip.

After a few minutes there, we got back into the limousine and they took us home. We sat at the dining table and ate lunch. The rest of the afternoon, into the evening, we talked with the people who came to help us get through the mourning period. But it wasn't particularly somber. The Browns' game quietly played on the TV in the corner. (They actually won!) There was a lot of reminiscing about happy times with mom. A lot of people did express their surprise at the suddenness of her death--they all said things like, "I just saw her 4 weeks ago, and she was fine." But no one was surprised that she had refused medical treatment that might have given her body the time to fight off the infection. They knew how stubborn she was--and how much she did not want to be an invalid, dependent on other people, much less dependent on life support machines. She wanted no part of a breathing tube that might, or might not, be temporary.

Monday we just had visits from a couple who were unable to come to the funeral, and one repeater from Sunday. I took the time to gather a few old things of mine that I wanted to keep, including my high school yearbook and the stuffed bear that was given to me when I was born. It still growls when you turn it over, if only weakly.

Tuesday morning my siblings and I went out to the lawyer's office to set things up for handling the estate. I'm not the executor, so my direct role will be pretty small. I will have to wind up the trust from my father's estate, where I'm the trustee.

I think I'm in pretty good shape now about mom's death. But I wasn't as close to her as my siblings, or my sister-in-law for that matter. I talked to her every couple of weeks, and saw her for a few days two or three times a year. I always knew she was there for me, but she never wanted to intrude in my life--particularly after I got married. She spent more time with my sister and sister-in-law, both on the phone and in person. I know her death has really shaken them up. And as for my brother, he lived with her for the large part of his life, save for his 20's. Then for nearly 25 years it was just the two of them in the house. Now he'll be alone. I hope he'll be OK.

I'm back in NY

I'm back in New York City. I actually got back early Tuesday evening--the plane was delayed only slightly. I've been slogging through dozens of e-mails since then--and that doesn't count the hundreds in my spam folder, which I had to check for false positives. There were two.

I'm very tired. Last night I didn't sleep much, for some reason, and I had to get up early to go and see the lawyer with my siblings. Tomorrow I'll start on the big pile of snail-mail.

Things are moving along

The five of us (three children, two daughters-in-law) have gathered at our old house (where my brother lived with my mom). Calls keep coming in, as are food deliveries, chairs from the funeral home, etc. My sister and sister-in-law took some clothes there for mom, and made the official identification. Cousins are on their way.

We keep busy. It helps.

Change of location

I'm in Cleveland now. Mom's funeral will be Sunday. I'm actually in a hotel accessing the internet via the TV and a wireless keyboard of somewhat limited capabilities. (I have to make sue all of the ltters I type acually go in.) Hopefully I can realy post something frm my brother's computer tomorrow.

My mom didn't make it

My mom didn't make it. The pneumonia never was stopped, and maybe there was something else infecting her lung. I got a call from the doctor Wednesday morning, asking me to come in to discuss possible treatments, some of which she was refusing.

She went out her way, stubborn to the end. She wanted no tracheal tube, and when the heavy mask breathing assister became unbearable, she demanded it be taken off. The doctors said she might not last 24 hours without it, but she was quite clear in her decision, and we had to honor it. I called my siblings to tell them to come to NY as fast as possible.

A doctor did convince her to allow them to put the big mask thing on for 15 minutes, if things really got bad, and I think they did that about 9 pm, but it wasn't enough. Meanwhile my sister and sister-in-law arrived from Massachusetts. My wife and I took a little break, but they soon called us back to the hospital. My brother arrived from Cleveland in time for my mother's last few waking moments.

They made her as comfortable as possible, and she stopped breathing at 3a.m., with all her family around her.

Send Bush a message!

I've been rather preoccupied with my mother, but I'm still going to vote on the way to see her tomorrow. I did do a post on 52 reasons NOT to re-elect Republicans. There is a 53rd reason: we must bring an end to Bush the Lesser's war. If Congress doesn't change the direction we're going, in two years we will have even more troops in Iraq, and a lot more casualties--and the civil war there will go on regardless. Send Bush a message--enough!

Monday report

I think my mom is doing better. Though she still complains about how she feels, there is less of it. They are continuing the intravenous anti-biotics for a few more days, as the pneumonia is still present. There's still a problem of the heart arhythmia that they're watching.

The best part of the day, though, was when the physical therapist came. She got my mom to walk around the foot of the bed, from one side to the other. It was slow, aided by her cane, and it did exhaust her--she took a nap after her little trip. But it was so good to see her up and moving.

My mom can't take most of the food they give her. Breakfast is OK, cereal, banana and cottage cheese. But most of the rest just turns her off. She ordered cottage cheese for dinner once, and what came was a cottage cheese salad that was way too dry. She just ate some of the vegatables accompanying it. They do give her a nutritional supplement drink especially formulated for diabetics. She likes that, particularly when they chill it first.

Tonight though, we solved the dinner problem. I went out and bought her a container of cottage cheese. She ate part of that, with the fruit cocktail that came with her otherwise untouched meal. I also got her some pudding and jello cups, but she was too full. I'll bring them back tomorrow.

Sunday update

Mom's about the same. They finally moved her to the pulmonary unit 10 minutes after I left Friday night. The new room is quieter, but when she is sitting in the chair (where she's a little more comfortable) I have to borrow a another one from the visitors' lounge--there's only one in the room. I had to get her a little clock, as there's none in her half of the room.

I'll be going over to visit her in a little while--I just have to figure out how to get across the route of the NYC Marathon.

Futile websearches

My blog has been getting a number of visitors from people, probably men, searching for "kick testicles" or something containing that phrase. I got one for "women kick testicles" from Saudi Arabia.

Sorry, guys, you won't find anything about kicking testicles here.

Quick update on mom

Things are progressing slowly. Her heart has stabilized, so they are putting her back on her medicine for high blood pressure. The blood transfusion doesn't seem to have had much effect. They are going to be giving her nutritional supplements--though she did eat a fair amount of her dinner last evening. The portion was so big I might have had trouble finishing it.

At the moment, I don't know where she is exactly. Yesterday afternoon, they told her space in the pulmonary unit had opened up, and she could move down there if she wanted (and they might move her even if she didn't want it). Since her favorite nurse is off this weekend, she decided to transfer.

They said it could be as late as 7:30 that she would actually go. At 7:00 they said they were cleaning her new room. Then nothing. I asked and asked. I wanted to see where she would be, but at 11:00pm we were still waiting. I'm going to get on the phone now and try to find her.

Plat du jour

I found this after leaving the hospital last night. S/he must have quite a commute.

Thursday night/Friday morning report

Things are progressing pretty well with my mom. She is able to sleep better now, as her coughing has mostly stopped, and they switched her noisy roommate to a different room. The new one is much quieter--in fact she seems to sleep most of the time. My mom is much more cheerful.

The doctor said the IV anti-biotics would continue though the weekend, so my mom will definitely be in the hospital that long--not that I think she will be strong enough to leave for a while anyhow. They want her eating reasonably normally and walking before they will discharge her. Now she has no appetite, and only eats a fraction of her meals--though she says she does a good job on the cottage cheese and banana for breakfast. They gave her a unit of blood yesterday to help make up for this.

The biggest concern at this point is her heart. Her blood pressure is somewhat high, though the rate and oxygen levels are pretty good. It is the arhythmia that has been noted that has most of the doctors' attention. They said that fluid retention, as evidenced by the swelling of her feet and ankles, is not a large concern, unless it's in her lungs.

My meeting the NYCLA LGBT Issues Committee last night was postponed, so I didn't have to worry about that. My sister-in-law went back to Massachusetts, as she has to work today, but my sister is trying to arrange things so she can come down.

Wednesday night/Thursday morning update

My mom is recovering slowly. All her medications seem to be working--though her blood pressure was somewhat high yesterday. It did go down a bit by mid-afternoon. Her blood-oxygen level also isn't quite what it should be. We are a little concerned about the swelling in her feet and ankles--she isn't walking yet. My sister-in-law and I will be talking to the doctor about that shortly.

Last night I was able to attend the board meeting of the LGBT Law Assn Foundation, of which I'm treasurer. I've got a meeting of the NY County Lawyers Assn LGBT Issues Committee this evening--I'll see if I'm able to go to that. My sister-in-law has to go back home this afternoon.

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning report

My mother's getting stronger. Yesterday she sat up in a chair for 6 hours (only 2 hours the previous day), and was able to scoot herself up in bed by herself, which she hadn't been able to do by herself before. The new medications seem to be working well.

My sister-in-law got in. She's a much better care-giver than I am--she can anticipate my mom's needs much better, so she's proactive, whereas I'm mainly reactive. With her here I was able to take a little break yesterday evening for a small, late, Halloween observance (a weird "burlesque" show--which on Halloween at least is an excuse for young women to do a strip tease (more strip, less tease, for most of them), and pour fake blood on themselves). It was good to get out--I hadn't presented as a woman in over 2 weeks.

Monday night/Tuesday morning update

Things are progressing with mom. She's getting stronger day by day--strong enough at least to start complaining about things. There are some side effect/complications, but nothing major. A cardiologist has been called in to adjust her medication to regulate her heartbeat.

Meanwhile, my sister-in-law is coming in for a couple days. With her here I'll be able to spend a little less time in the hospital, and I think I'll be able to get out tonight for Halloween a bit.

Sunday evening update

Mom's significantly better. She's stronger, they've given her solid food to eat, and she was sitting up in a chair for a while this afternoon.

She's still very sick, of course, and there are side effects of her treatment that that have to be monitored and managed. But she seems to be going in the right direction--which is a relief for me.

Sunday morning update

My mom's doing OK, but as the doctor explained, her immune system has basically taken over her body fighting the infection, leaving her little energy for anything else. So she feels exhausted. It doesn't help that her new roommate has Alzheimer's, and screams a lot, making it hard for my mom to sleep. They're trying to find some way of rearranging the rooms, but many of the patients there are similar to her roommate. The hospital is full, giving them few options.

Update on my mom

She's got pneumonia, a very bad case, according to the doctors. But it's responding to the antibiotics, so things are looking up. She's been able to eat a bit, and she finally is in a regular room instead of emergency--it only took 23 hours to do that. It's in the "ACE" area--"Acute Care for the Elderly."

They said she'd be in the hospital at least through the weekend. I'm guessing it'll be a bit longer than that.

My mom's in the hospital

My mom has been visiting me here in New York. She came last Thursday, and was supposed to go back home Tuesday. But late Sunday night she started feeling sick, and spent most of Monday in bed, very weak. We cancelled her flight back, rebooking it for Wednesday. But she remained weak, maybe even got a little worse, running a bit of a fever, and we cancelled the Wednesday flight also.

Finally yesterday she was so bad I called my doctor, who advised a trip to the emergency room. The paramedics came, gave her oxygen and I think an injection of something, and she improved immediately. Then we all went to the hospital. It was the first time I ever rode in an ambulance--though they didn't use the siren except at one corner.

Anyhow, in the emergency room they checked her over, and over and over and over. A total of four exams by two residents (or whatever they're calling them these days), the attending physician, and my doctor, who came a bit later. All asked the same questions, and came up with the same diagnosis--some pneumonia in one lung. They eventually did a chest x-ray, though I never heard the results. They admitted her, and gave her anti-biotics.

The only problem is, they don't have any available beds. So she's stuck on a gurney in the aisle in the emergency room. She was sleeping on and off, even amid the noise. Hopefully in the morning they'll find a real place for her.

Altogether I spent about 7 hours at the hospital, mostly in the emergency room, except for a couple times when they shooed all the visitors out to the waiting area. There were all sorts of interesting things going on, in both places. But that will have wait for another post.

Get well fast, mom.

Living with bears XXV

Idaho: Baby Sitter Kills Black Bear
Canada: Bear Visits School’s Playing Field, A dog, a bear and a close call
India: Bear injures 8 in Kulgam
Florida: Carrabelle Woman Shoots Black Bear on Back Porch

52 reasons NOT to re-elect Republicans

For years and years people have complained about Congress. Poll after poll show that a majority think it does a lousy job, BUT these same polls show that most people think their representative and senators are OK (though lately the dissatisfied group is up to a third).

Well, folks, guess what--if you think there's a problem with Congress, your representatives are probably part of the problem, too. And it seems to me that the largest group of these problem politicians are Republicans--the party seems to attract more than its share of influence peddlers, perjurers, and, er, guys with an unhealthy interest in Congressional pages.

But if you are still inclined to return a Republican to Washington, take a look at this list on my friend Betty's blog. See if your representative or senator is on it, and click to see what he or she has been up to. To be sure, not all of them have been accused of crimes--some are just servants of the wealthy, or just plain senile. Read all about it. Then, on election day, send someone else to Washington.

Post Office: We don't care about you

The Associated Press reports that the Post Office has started a program to eliminate stamp vending machines in post offices by 2010. They claim it is too expensive to maintain them, especially as they have gotten older. They also claim some machines get little use.

Well, maybe if they didn't return change in dollar coins people would use them more. Or if they sold useful items, like "additional ounce" stamps--currently 24¢. Instead it's usually books of 20 first class stamps--$7.80 at the current rate. Which means if you don't have exact change, or $8 in bills, you get the hated dollar coins back. If they sold books of 7, people could just put in $3, which I think a lot more people carry around--$5 bills seem to be used a lot less than tens and ones.

The post office is increasing its use of automated postal centers, though, which is a good thing. They take credit cards, as well as cash. It would help to have more of them. The last time I went to the post office, two people were monopolizing the single automated machine, with a huge stack of envelopes they were mailing out, apparently from where they worked. Each envelope had to be done separately, with the zipcode manually keyed in, and the requested services entered (there is no "same as previous" option, apparently). So I had to wait on the line (long, of course) to see a clerk.

The thing in this article that REALLY ANNOYS ME is that the postal service is reducing the number of free-standing blue mailboxes. They have done that a little in my neighborhood already. I used to have one right at my corner, but it's gone now--though there is another only a block away, so it's not a big deal. What is a big deal is that they have reduced the number of pickups from that box to one a day. If I don't get my mail in by 11:00 a.m., it will sit there to the next day. To me, this just tells me they don't care about giving us good service.

Plats du jour

I found these three blocks apart.

10,000 visitors!

Despite the fact that I have not been posting much of substance of late, and my daily visitor count has decreased by close to half, this blog has now received over 10,000 visitors. I thank all my readers, especially those who have stuck with me during my periods of decreased output. I do intend to return to my previous level. My intermediate-sized projects of the last few weeks (e.g. my taxes, a visit by my mom) are now pretty much completed (though my Great Office Clean-Up Project must be renewed). So stay tuned.

Thanks again, all.

Say it ain't so!

I just got an e-mail from the guys in Girl Friday saying Lisa Jackson has split from them. It's also on their Myspace page. This is horrible! I love this group. The last time I heard them they were so together I wondered why they weren't playing a huge arena and not a small club.

This is sad.

Plat du jour

Big Man on Campus?

The Queen

Quick review of The Queen: Run, don't walk, to see this film. It's the story of how newly-elected British Prime Minister Tony Blair convinced Queen Elizabeth to change the response of the royal family to the death of Princess Diana in 1997. It is the best film I've seen this year. I don't know how much of the details is true, but it doesn't really matter--it's certainly based on fact, and is a riveting film.

All of the performances are good to excellent, Helen Mirren will certainly get an Oscar nomination for her title role, and Michael Sheen as Blair should garner one also.

Sad websearches

In the last 2 or 3 days a couple people have reached this blog searching for "girls kick testicles" or something similar. I wonder why no one seems to look for "women kick testicles."

Plat du jour

There are a couple of possible captions for this one:

Really Q'd up.
or maybe
Too Q-ute.

Plat du jour

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This is a fetish?

I notice that Sheen V's Place lists this blog under "feeding my fetishes." This blog??!!! I've got to wonder what fetish of hers I'm feeding. Could someone have a fetish for vanity plates?

Plat du jour

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