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Dr. Brent James Could Be Health Care's Saving Grace

2009-11-08T16:03:32Z

The health care debate of 2009 has had so many moving parts that it has sometimes seemed impossible to follow. The crisis behind the debate, though, is about one thing above all: the scattershot nature of American medicine. The fee-for-service payment system -- combined with our own instincts as patients -- encourages ever more testing and treatments. We're not sure which ones make a difference, but we keep on getting them, and costs keep rising.

Any bill that Congress passes this year is unlikely to fix these problems. The lobbying groups for drug companies, device makers, insurers, doctors and hospitals have succeeded, so far, in keeping big, systemic changes out of the bills. And yet the modern history of medicine -- the story that James tells -- nonetheless offers reason for optimism. Medicine has changed before, after all. When it did, government policy played a role. But much of the impetus came from inside the profession. Doctors helped change other doctors.

John Lundberg: New Website Aims To Be An iTunes For Poetry

2009-11-08T12:27:46Z

The new website PoetrySpeaks is aiming to serve as a social networking hub and online marketplace for poets. Visitors are greeted with a sleek, jukebox-style display of poet portraiture and an unpretentious atmosphere. And it's immediately clear that PoetrySpeaks casts a wide net: among the home page's collage of clickable poet heads, spoken word poet Kevin Coval appears next to William Butler Yeats.

Click on your poet of choice, be it a hipster or an Irishman, and you'll be taken to a web page that includes a list of audio (and maybe even video) recordings. And here's where things get interesting. As with iTunes, you can preview each recorded poem then decide if you want to spend 99 cents to download it ($1.99 for a video version). The site is, quite literally, banking on your interest in poetry.

Here are a couple of the poems for sale: "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Wild Nights, Wild Nights" by Emily Dickinson.

Will the iTunes model work for poetry? Site creator Dominique Raccah certainly thinks so. She told the Wall Street Journal that "Poetry has a marketing problem. This is a solution." Her publishing company, Sourcebooks (which is also backing the site) has a history of applying out-of-the-box techniques to market the art. It produced two popular poetry anthologies, Poetry Speaks and Poetry Speaks to Children, by bringing the texts to life--pairing the books with CDs of the anthologized poets reading their work.

Another interesting aspect of PoetrySpeaks is a section called YourMic, whereby anyone can upload an audio or video recording of a poem and share it with the site's online community. Take a look at "Price of Retribution" by 15-year-old Emanuel Vinson of Chicago. YourMic poets can't yet market their work, but Raccah hopes that the site will evolve to include a self-publishing capability.

To help build a community, all PoetrySpeaks visitors are encouraged to create free profiles whereby they can share their favorite poets and poems and show off their own work. Members can also rate and review each other's work. And the site is wired into social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and that other stuff that gets confusing for those of us over thirty.

The poems available on PoetrySpeaks are currently limited to those that Sourcebooks owns the rights to, along with a few publishers that the site has signed agreements with (Tupelo Press, Marick Press and Naxos Audiobooks), but the site is planning to grow. It's a new business model for an old art form, and any lover of poetry should be interested in seeing how the combination works.

Kari Henley: How To Reclaim Spare Time

2009-11-08T12:17:13Z

There is something nostalgic about spare time. Like an old friend you knew once and somehow lost touch. Spare time sits on the side of a broken fence, wheat stalk between its teeth - daring us to watch puffy clouds, or go kicking through Autumn leaves, instead of hen-pecking at the keyboard. Spare time beckons, yet few can hear the whispers over the whir of cpu's and blare of CNN. How do we rope, lasso and reclaim Spare Time?

For many of us, having a moment or two to spare has been replaced by the unending bleeps of text messages, incoming email, unending tasks, hectic schedules of work and family, and constant financial pressure to survive the recession. Most of us cannot make it through a day without drifting to the computer half a dozen times to check email, or carry the cell phone around for a constant fix. Clearly the impact of such a lifestyle cannot be good for us long term.

When I was growing up, the TV shows on air included Andy Griffith- the ultimate in spare time. Remember the theme song whistle during the opening shots; Andy heading out fishing with little Opie? Everyone stood around a lot, talked to each other and managed minor small town incidents. We certainly couldn't have a cop show like that now, with a lot of hanging out, instead of busting up drug rings. Does anyone have time to whistle anymore?

My other favorite childhood show was the Brady Bunch, (which I heard was Michelle Obama's favorite too). They had a LOT of spare time- even housekeeper Alice. All those kids hung out together after school, went on vacation, sang in a band with matching costumes; and those of us watching had enough spare time to memorize every single episode within the first five bars of the opening scene.

What if the Brady Bunch was set today? Imagine Carol running with her super size Starbucks in her super size mini van, conducting a meeting on her cell while in route to take Bobby and Cindy to soccer practice, Jan to her violin lesson, Greg to football, and Marsha to cheerleading. While Mom is multi-tasking; the kids are plugged into iPhones, cell phones, texting, and checking emails. No one is talking to each other, unless it is to pick a fight, and they certainly are not singing, "We're Gonna Keep On, Keep On, Keep On Dancin' All Through the Night."

The temptations upon our time are not in the same stratosphere as they were a generation ago - hence spare time is relegated to the back pasture of our lives. However, I suspect a lot of the activities that consume all hours of the day and night are not as important as we think they are, and learning to step back and evaluate priorities could help generate some vital time... to do nothing.

There has been a lot of news coverage about our declining happiness levels. No wonder we aren't happy - we don't have time to be. A recent UPenn study found that women are categorically less happy than they were 30 years ago. Russell Bishop wrote a piece exploring the fact that men aren't that much happier, and Cara Barker this week conducted some interviews with children, discovering that many of them were unhappy at the lack of contact and connection with their parents.

Sometimes being "happy" is kind of like realizing your nagging headache is gone. The insight is not dramatic, like a bolt of lightning, but comes in a quiet, gentle awareness of relief. Happiness is like that. It takes a healthy dose of spare time to find it. I think Spare Time and Happiness are "BFF", don't you?

Here are a few tips to reclaim Spare Time:

Email Self-Control- declutter your inbox by unsubscribing to anything you don't need or read regularly, and try not to continue long email conversations that aren't necessary. One of Therese Borchard's tricks is to take weekend breaks from her computer. Imagine! This is a great way to scrounge up a ton of free time - think of it as email Sabbath, (Reading this column, however, is an acceptable exception).

Social Networking is junk food, plain and simple. Let's face it - Facebook is the Doritos of friendships and Twitter is a super size box of Fries. Both are tempting, and both are ultimately not all that healthy. Take the time for some "slow food": home-cooked friendships that require face-to-face time. If you are IM'ing someone in your office, get up and try walking over for a change. Facebooking your best friend? Pick up the phone or stop by; imagine how you look from space, hunched over terminals sharing the daily chatter.

Find the "in-between" moments of the day to embrace as spare time. Driving is a great opportunity to do some deep breathing, turn off the noise in your head, and notice the scenery around you, rather than listening to talk radio, eating, or talking on the cell phone. Find the moments in the shower, doing dishes or walking the dog to flatten out as buffer zones of nothingness.

Force yourself to be bored. Remember being bored? It is the MacDaddy of spare time. Kids today think five or six seconds of spare time equals being bored, and many adults' tolerance for unfilled moments is not much better. Set aside several hours once a month with nothing particular to do - and see how it affects you.

Spare Time sauntered into my life last week when swine flu blew through my house. With sick kids, life comes to a grinding halt. Spare Time roped me in by force- and it was not comfortable. To rebel, I filled it with all sorts of backlogged projects like putting together good will donations, painting peeling trim, and clearing up the yard. At long last, I surrendered (the key) and just hung out. It became rejuvenating, and felt great.

We are not wired to go 24/7 with mental chatter. Sometimes just listening to the wind blow is enough to keep you from going over the brink. How does good ole' Spare Time show up in your life these days? Love to hear your comments, and please click on Become a Fan to receive weekly notices, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Carl Honore: In Praise Of Slow Food

2009-11-08T12:13:10Z

When a friend of mine moved from France to London last year, one local tradition left her perplexed.

It wasn't the British penchant for talking about the weather, or for apologizing when someone else steps on your toes.

It was that Londoners often eat while walking down the street.

"Devouring a Niçoise salad and dodging pedestrians at the same time is not a sign of civilization," my friend concluded, with Gallic hauteur. "It's a sign that you need to slow down."

You can say that again. In our fast-forward culture, we have lost the art of eating well.

Food is often little more than fuel to pour down the hatch while doing other stuff -- surfing the Web, driving, walking along the street. Dining al desko is now the norm in many workplaces.

All of this speed takes a toll. Obesity, eating disorders and poor nutrition are rife. We are also missing out on the sensual pleasure and social connection that come from eating good food together.

The bright news is that people all over the world are taking a slower approach to food -- and eating better as a result.

The Italian-based Slow Food movement now has 100,000 members in 132 countries, including the fast-food-loving US. The search for a kinder, gentler relationship with food is reflected in other trends, too: the renaissance of the farmers' market; the rise of school gardens; the growing popularity of cooking classes; the organic, fairtrade and eat-local movements; the thriving artisanal production of everything from cheese and chocolate to bread and beer.

The recession may also be helping. To cut back on restaurant bills, people are eating at home more. But unlike in the last downturn, when sales of frozen meals soared, more of us are taking the time to cook from scratch. The US is now racking up the highest levels of homecooking since 1992.

There is so much to be gained from investing more time in what we eat.

Buying fresh ingredients means knowing where your food comes from and what's in it. In a world where so much happens through computer screens, making a meal by hand, touching the raw materials, feeling your way through a recipe, tasting, adjusting, engaging all the senses, can be a soothing release.

Eating more slowly, chewing every mouthful, pays dividends, too. It helps digestion and guards against gluttony by giving the stomach time to tell the brain that it is full.

It also allows you to savor what you put in your mouth. Of course, this works better with Slow food, which is packed with natural flavors, textures and aromas that linger on the palate and in the mind. By contrast, processed food is designed to be eaten quickly: Pay it too much attention and you start to realize how vile it tastes.

Sharing a slow, convivial meal can also bring people together. It is no accident that the word "companion" is derived from the Latin words meaning "with bread." As Oscar Wilde noted, breaking bread together can even help us bond with those we find hardest to stomach: "After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations."

At the same time, studies from around the world show that children who have regular family meals are more likely to do well at school, enjoy good mental health, and eat nutritious food; they are also less likely to engage in underage sex or use drugs and alcohol.

Yet Slow food need not be a luxury for the rich. As Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the 19th century French gastronome, put it: "The pleasures of the table are for every man, of every land, of every place in history or society."

In other words, a Slow meal does not have to be a five-course banquet of handmade delicacies. Small, affordable and simple works, too. You can prepare a fresh tomato pasta or vegetable soup in less time and for less money than it takes to order in pizza or sushi.

Start by fencing off time in your schedule for cooking and eating. Then get reacquainted with your kitchen. Grow a few herbs, like mint, rosemary or thyme, in the garden or on the windowsill. Buy your own fresh ingredients and cook with them. Turn the preparing of food into a communal affair by enlisting others to help with the chopping, grating, stirring, simmering, tasting and seasoning.

When the cooking is finished, eat together round the table with the electronic gadgets switched off so you can savor the food and let the conversation flow.

But, hey, don't beat yourself up if you fall short of the Slow Food ideal. Nobody's perfect. And I mean nobody:

The last time I bumped into my French friend, she was racing down a London street munching on a sandwich.

When was your last slow meal, and aren't you due another one soon?

Christina Pirello: Children's Health And The Meat Industry

2009-11-08T12:12:34Z

When did our children become disposable?

This loaded question was posed around the conference table in Anthony Geraci's sunny office at the Baltimore School District headquarters as a group of us talked about programs designed to help our kids make healthier choices in their lives, beginning with the food they eat.

As Food Service Director, Tony has worked closely with the district's dietician to make systemic changes that have resulted in the kids in Baltimore schools trying new foods and slowly becoming more health conscious. But it has not been without controversy and therein was the question we posed.

When school began in September, the kids of Baltimore became the first in the country to adopt 'Meatless Mondays, an international program that asks people to cut meat from their diet one day a week. Their goal is simple: reducing meat consumption by a mere 15% can improve human and planetary health. Endorsed by esteemed medical institutions like the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, this seems like a no-brainer, right? Impressed with the credentials and the program, Baltimore decided to take part and see what would happen. I'm not sure anyone was ready for the firestorm of attacks being launched at them by the meat industry.

Leading the charge is, of course, every vegetarian's favorite villain, J. Patrick Boyle, CEO of The American Meat Institute, whose mission in their own words includes: being the most effective, credible and widely recognized voice of the meat and poultry industry, and valuing livestock and poultry as nutritious food sources. The mission statement also says that the 'AMI values honesty.' Ah, irony.

The attacks launched against Meatless Mondays in Baltimore schools are anything but honest. If they told the truth, they would say that by eliminating meat for one meal a week in our kids' diets, we are affecting their bottom line. They have little regard for our children's health. If they did, would growth hormones, steroids, antibiotics and other toxins are so heavily used in the foods they peddle to our kids and call valuable sources of nutrients? If they told the truth, they would acknowledge the connections between childhood obesity, diabetes and heart disease and the excessive consumption of meat products. If they told the truth, they would admit that reducing meat intake by even the smallest amount results in dramatic improvements in human and planetary health.

While Meatless Mondays has received an endorsement from PETA, the infamous animal rights group, it has little to do with the program itself, except to applaud its efforts. The idea of not eating meat on Monday originated back in World War I as an effort to conserve resources. But that's not good enough for Mr. Boyle. In his letter to Andres Alonso (CEO of the Baltimore school district), Mr. Boyle stated that this campaign is a way for animal activists to brainwash young children. Yes, Mr. Boyle, we can't have our kids going all healthy and compassionate on us and valuing life!

His letter continues: "I was disturbed to read about your school system's decision to bow to an animal rights organization in holding "Meat Free Mondays." This initiative is sponsored by the Grace Spira Project at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The name Spira refers to Henry Spira, who is widely regarded as of the most extreme animal rights activists in the 20th century." Puh-leeze!

In a show of admirable will, the school district has not buckled under the pressure of the meat industry. And it has been fierce! Who would have thought that meatless lasagna, cheese sandwiches and broccoli could wreak such havoc? Mr. Boyle has gone as far as stating that Meatless Mondays seeks 'an end to the United States' efficient and advanced food production system that delivers to Americans the safest, most abundant and affordable food supply in the world.'

Even the school dietician's public assurances that the ultimate goal of this program in schools is to help children have a better relationship with vegetables and to start the discussion about the impact of food choices on health, communities and the planet have fallen on deaf ears in the meat industry.

Meatless Mondays is a positive program designed to educate our children to be healthier for life and is being attacked from all sides. Troy Hadrick, a rancher, wrote on the Advocates for Agriculture website that Meatless Mondays are obviously designed to push children toward vegetarian lifestyles by telling them that 'they can't have meat on Monday because meat isn't healthy for you.' He goes on to advocate parents doing whatever it takes to keep this information from their children. Yikes!

As ranchers and lobbyists rail about one school district's plan to make our children healthier by teaching them to have a better relationship with veggies, Fairbanks Farms in North Carolina has recalled more than 500,000 pounds of meat contaminated with E. coli, resulting in 2 people dead and more fallen ill.

What was it that Patrick Boyle said about the safest food supply?

Here's what's interesting. We vegans and vegetarians are more often than not dismissed as petty, unimportant nuisances to meat producing conglomerates. They paint us as Birkenstock-wearing, ungroomed, tree-hugging puppy lovers who mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

So why is that all these people, from the American Meat Institute to cattle ranchers to lobbyists are so up in arms with one school district taking meat off the menu for one meal a week? Trust me when I tell you it has nothing to do with your children's health and welfare. Could it be that they fear a change in thinking that's in the air? Could it be that they sense that Americans have had enough? Enough of their cheap, subsidized, poor quality meat, loaded with antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids...enough of their swill that is stealing the health of their children and families? Could it be that they are shaking in their cowboy boots at the idea that the children of the future might make better choices than what they have been marketed to want?

The American Meat Institute and their ilk would have us eat more meat, even in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the food they produce and the way they produce it is directly linked to many of the lifestyle diseases that threaten to extinguish the light on the health of our children...obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

This generation of children could be the first that lives shorter, sicker lives than their parents. So many of these problems could be avoided if children ate more whole grains and vegetables and less meat.

Instead of attacking visionaries like those in the Baltimore school district who want nothing but the best for our children, they should be applauding the efforts to create a strong and healthy future for this country.

It's time to stop thinking only of our bottom lines, our profit centers and the health of our checkbooks and make the health of our society a priority. We won't find long term vitality in 99-cent burgers, no matter what Patrick Boyle says. We won't find it in grilled chicken in a bucket either. These organizations have only the health of their business in mind, not the health of our children. For them, our kids are a disposable demographic that can be replaced by another generation.

Who will be next on their hit list, Catholics who still choose not to eat meat on Fridays?

Straight Ex-Spouses: Legalize Gay Marriage

2009-11-08T07:05:36Z

As the debate over legalizing same-sex marriage in the District grows louder and more polarized, there are people whose support for the proposal is personal but not often talked about. They are federal workers and professionals, men and women who share little except that their former spouses tried to live as heterosexuals but at some point realized they could not.

"My Vagina Fell Out": Woman Shares Health Horror

2009-11-08T06:29:40Z

Allison Henry isn't the first to suffer from a horrifying medical condition that few women talk about. But her case was particularly bad, and she's just one of the few brave souls willing to come forward so that others will have the courage to seek help.

Cocaethylene Studied: Cocaine, Alcohol Mix To Create Toxic 3rd Chemical

2009-11-08T03:24:09Z

Drug addiction clinics say they are becoming increasingly concerned by the health risks associated with the chemical -- the only known example of the body forming a third drug following the ingestion of two others.

For not only is cocaethylene toxic in the liver, it is also blamed for heart attacks in the under-40s and a surge in social problems. But because so little is known about the drug, few experts can agree on the nature of the threat to users, and indeed society as a whole.

Juliet Linley: "He's Got to Become Independent"

2009-11-07T20:23:57Z

Sara lives in Rome and has three boys. She nursed them all for 3-4 years; in other words, until they decided of their own accord that they no longer needed the comfort of their mother's breast.

Today, they are aged between 15 and 28: They're smart, healthy and -- most of all -- independent.

Sara loves telling the story about her eldest, Lorenzo, who moved from Rome to Milan to go to university. And then stayed on in Northern Italy once he found a job there.

When Lorenzo was three years old, and had recently been joined by a baby brother, Sara's neighbors pushed her to send him to kindergarten. He was too attached to his mother and needed to learn at all costs how to become independent and how to socialize with other kids.

Sara tried, but he refused point-blank. There was no way he could be cajoled into trading his home and his mummy for teachers and school mates. Sara accepted his choice.

When he was five, Lorenzo happily went off to elementary school (and we can only assume the neighbors drew a great sigh of relief, clearly thinking It Was About Time). Everything went smoothly until Lorenzo's final school exams, at the end of which he decided -- of his own volition -- to attend university in Milan.

Those same Roman neighbors who had been so insistent about imposing independence on the child at the age of three, were aghast. They could not believe Sara would allow her son to go so far away (5 hours by car) at the tender age of 18 ...

Scott Atran: A Memory of Claude Lévi-Strauss

2009-11-07T20:13:21Z

In 1974, when I was a graduate student in anthropology at Columbia University, I wanted to organize a discussion of universals with people whose ideas I wished to know more about than I thought I could get from their writings. At the time, I was working for Margaret Mead as one of her assistants at the American Museum of Natural History, so I asked her how I might go about getting my wish. She said "talk to these people and see if they'll meet." So I went to see Noam Chomsky in Cambridge, Jean Piaget in Geneva, and Jacques Monod in Paris, and they agreed; but I wondered if Levi-Strauss would because he seemed so aloof. Margaret licked her lips and laughed: "Well, that's his look, aloof and frail, but he's more playful than he lets on and he'll outlive me by thirty years if a day. Just tell him I sent you."

I ran from La Bastille to the College de France on Rue des Ecoles and up the steps to knock on his door. He opened it, saw the sweat running down my face and, asked rather coldly: "Monsieur, que'est-ce que je peux faire pour vous?" I said I was an anthropology student from America and had a bunch of questions for him. He was gracious but distant and said, "Ask two."

First, I asked him why he believed binary operators to be one of the fundamental structures of the human mind. He shrugged and sighed and then replied:

When I started there was still no science of mind.

Saussure, Marx, Mauss and music were my guides. Since then things have changed. Psychology now has something to say.

Then, I asked him why he became an anthropologist and he said:

I wanted to be a musician but having no talent I read philosophy and wanted to find out how different one human being's thoughts could be from another and how much of that difference is truly the same. In Brazil, an opportunity came to try to find out, and I am still trying.

He dabbed his nose with a handkerchief, rose from his chair in that regal, crane-like manner of his, thanked me for coming and started walking me back to the door, when I turned to him and said. "Margaret Mead te dit bonjour." His dour demeanor turned into a child's joy. "Would you like to come home to dinner with now?" he asked, with a lightness that belonged to another person, another time. I declined with some idiot excuse because I still stank from running. But I asked him if he would join the discussion with Chomsky, Piaget and the others that I had forgotten to tell him about until then. "Yes," he said kindly, "just tell me when."

At the discussion, which took place over the course of a few days at the Abbaye de Royaumont outside Paris, Lévi-Strauss sat patiently, said nothing as others spoke their piece or pontificated, or pleaded and shouted their oppositions. But his doodles of cats and other real and fantastical animals were stunning, and those he left behind were the objects of a fierce competition among some of the conference's participants, including myself. On the way to our last lunch, Noam Chomsky ─ who had dominated this conference of Nobel-prize winning biologists and world-famous mathematicians, philosophers, psychologists and anthropologists as I have never seen anyone do before or after ─ walked up to Lévi-Strauss and said in a shy sort of way: "Perhaps you remember me, when I sat in on your class at Harvard with Roman Jakobson?" Lévi-Strauss looked at Chomsky and said: "I'm sorry, but no." Those were the only words he would utter in the conference room.

In an interview the following year, Levi-Strauss was asked what recent intellectual developments he considered to be important. He said that what had transpired at Royaumont was the most significant intellectual event he had thus far encountered in the second half of the twentieth century. He also implied that his time was over: "I imagine myself in the New World with Columbus for the first time," he mused, "a symphony of sounds, of colors, of smells, of desires, and of hopes. Then I imagine myself on the moon with the astronauts, and all I see is gray, dust and barren rocks, and the earth I long for is far out of reach."

Trish Kinney: Politically Correct or Perfectly Crazy

2009-11-07T19:48:19Z

PC can sometimes stand for perfectly crazy. I'm just sayin' ... what seems to qualify as Politically Correct these days can leave you scratching your head or screaming like a lunatic.

Take for example the brouhaha about our basketball-crazy President who loves to gather his boys (don't even go there ... I didn't mean it that way) for a pick-up game every now and then, or apparently a more formal tournament from time to time that may include groups outside the usual insiders. If you are like me, you will find it impossible to believe that some have questioned why there are no women included. If I am a woman, and I am, and I am not offended, which I'm not, by being excluded from guys' pick-up basketball games, which have been going on ever since that fellow hung the peach basket and threw a round ball up and hoped it went in and then decided to award points when it did, then I think it's ok to point out that this is not where the women's rights movement needs to spend its time and energy. Surely no one is going to try to make a case for integration of the sexes in basketball. Let the boys have their games, for God's sake. (I was going to tell the women to "go shopping" while the boys are playing but thought better of it. Not nearly PC enough even for this piece.)

And then there was the story about how many rounds of golf our President has played while in office, not one of which included a woman in his foursome. Of course, shortly after, a woman from the administration (reportedly a good player) was seen in her golf clothes ready to join the President for a round. Whether that was actually a response to the media exposing the singular gender of all of the President's golf buddies or not, it sure looked like it. Do we actually need a token woman in this role? Shoot me if you must, but actually the golf experience does change when a woman joins an otherwise male outing. The guys just can't be the guys, you know, with the beer swigging and the betting and the cursing when the ball hooks out of bounds (surprisingly often, by the way, the pain of which seems to be remarkably lessened by words that begin with "f" or "s"). When a woman is along, the guys feel they have to behave themselves, which is no fun. So don't kid yourself. There's no equality involved.

Moving on to the theatre, it was announced last week that the revival of The Miracle Worker on Broadway would star Abigail Breslin, the young film star nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Little Miss Sunshine. Immediately the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, an advocacy group for blind and deaf actors, weighed in saying they strongly opposed the producers' decision not to audition actresses who had Ms. Keller's disabilities. The producer stated that the only way they could attract investors with the reasonable expectation of a financial return was to cast a star, a box office draw, and a disabled actress who met that requirement simply could not be found. The Executive Director of the advocacy group was quoted in the New York Times as saying "I understand how difficult it is to capitalize a new production on Broadway, but that to me is not the issue. There are other, larger human and artistic issues at stake here." That is all well and good, but if you cannot raise the money to mount the production, no actress will get the part but worse yet, no audience will be exposed to this remarkable play. And as for selecting a very young actress to carry the considerable weight of this show, the producers have a responsibility to their investors, the playwright, and the audience to make the best choice on all levels. That would include the experience and talent to take on one of the most challenging and celebrated roles of all time as well as the visibility to attract an audience to support the cost of the production. No actor is owed any role for any reason. (Julie Andrews learned that the hard way when, after her Broadway triumph in My Fair Lady, Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn was chosen to play the role in the movie even though she was not a singer.) It is hard to imagine that the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts is concentrating their efforts on trying to dictate casting for the show rather than finding every way possible to insure the success of this wonderful piece of American theatre featuring such an inspiring triumph over unthinkable disability starring one of the most gifted young actresses working today.

I was going to leave you with some cool examples of Politically Correct language but apparently it is politically incorrect to reprint such lists without permission so, for your own protection, be careful when you speak about manholes, gifted children, old people, white lies, flip charts, manning anything, founding fathers, and black sheep.

I recently gave a radio interview about my book, Silver Platter Girl, and the host encouraged his listeners to be sure to come back after each commercial break because I was so willing to tell it like it is, so transparent, not PC at all. That I dared to openly discuss sexual abuse on the radio apparently made me not Politically Correct. That's perfectly crazy, of course, but that's another blog.

Alexander Vreeland: At Kawolo Hospital

2009-11-07T19:41:51Z

At Kawolo Hospital, in a suburb outside the capital of Uganda, I looked around a group of doctors, nurses, mothers and children and I found myself surrounded by people who understood my story.

Shortly after the birth of my daughter Victoria, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. The second time that she got severely sick, Sandra and I immediately took her to the emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. After a preliminary examination the intern on duty told us that it looked like PCP, the AIDS pneumonia. He was right. Over the next days we discovered that Sandra, Victoria, and our older son Reed had HIV. My life changed dramatically on that fall day in 1988.

In Mukono Health Clinic #4, we sat in a cleared out maternity ward. The walls of the ward were pealing and the small windows were cracked. I shared my story with the small group that had assembled, and numerous people in the room offered us a window into their lives as well. They stood up, one after another, and in soft, broken English talked about their lives. I could relate to their stories: a tall, elegant woman in a green, tribal pattern outfit spoke about her fear of revealing her HIV status to her own family; a seventeen-year-old girl in a white and navy blue school uniform talked poignantly about choosing to change schools to avoid the social pressure and stigma that she was faced with once her classmates discovered her diagnosis; an inhibited, college-age man wearing glasses shared that he had been near death several times and that he struggled to be consistent taking his medication; a social worker talked to the group about trying to find the words to help a teenager discuss his HIV status with his girlfriend.

At the clinic I also heard the stories of those who were not able to readily express them: I saw a stunned mother, standing over her day-old twin daughters--they had just been told that they had HIV; I heard the story of a child who was caring for his mother as she was suffering from repeated cases of PCP and numerous opportunistic infections. They stood up one at a time. Most were able to speak in English, while others needed to be translated from their native tongue. Even though they were likely invited by the clinic's organizers to share with the group, I could tell from their expressions that they did not expect to be speaking to people who had actually lived very similar stories.

The stories and medical realities in these poor African Hospitals today are not so different from my first experiences in the Pediatric AIDS clinics at New York Hospital and Bellevue Hospital in the late '80s. At that time the only medicine available were capsules of AZT, and they were not yet available in children's dosages or in a child-friendly format. PCP was still a death warrant for most children. No one knew how long anyone with the virus was going to live, but we knew lists of people who were either about to pass away or had already left us.

My time in Uganda made me extremely proud of what the Foundation is doing. I can still remember attending a board meeting in the late '90s when it was announced that a research project, in part funded by the Foundation, had discovered that Nevirapine had been found to block the transmission of HIV from mother to child in about fifty percent of cases. The board embarked upon an entirely new facet of our mission. With funds from the Gates Foundation, we started to implement the treatment in the countries with the greatest need.

My concern at the time was that helping to block transmission during birth was only one small part of what we needed to do to combat the virus. It seemed inhuman to me to diagnose a mother's HIV status, help her have an HIV-free baby, and then walk away. She probably had a husband and other children who were living with HIV. They surely needed medicine, most probably counseling, and possibly even a little help to keep their kids in school.

Well today, the Foundation's program in Uganda is helping with all these issues and many more. They are confronting the complexities of this illness and bringing help to afflicted families, partly by giving families tools to help themselves.

In 1993, Alexander Vreeland founded Kids for Kids, an annual fund-raiser for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation, which over the years has raised over twenty-two million dollars for HIV treatment and research. He first served on the Foundation's Advisory Board, and then joined the Board of Directors of the Foundation between 1998 and 2003. He currently lives in Paris, France with his wife, Lisa, and their seven-year-old daughter, Olivia.

Sarah Schmelling: ISO My Twitter Persona

2009-11-07T19:33:00Z

One day in the middle of my first-ever book tour, a thought woke me up early in the morning. I'd just had an event at a popular L.A. bookstore. I saw old friends, answered great questions, sold a good amount of books. But that next morning I realized: I hadn't tweeted it. My book is related to Facebook, so I'd created a Facebook event page, told all my book's fans there, as well as my own friends. I'd e-mailed people I knew in the area who might not be Facebook-friendly. I spread the word as much as I could. But I hadn't written anything on Twitter about it.

If there was a reality show for book authors in the vein of Top Chef or Project Runway, my fellow competitors would be gloating. "How could she not tweet it?" they'd ask, as if I'd forgotten to salt my artichoke dish or finish the back of my dress made of cornhusks. "Any writer in this day and age knows they have to pursue every outlet for self-promotion." Then they'd ridicule the sound of my voice or use of metaphors.

I realize this is a bit ridiculous. I know the chances of a crowd of people who hadn't heard about it anywhere else seeing my tweet and dropping everything to get to Book Soup on a Wednesday are slim; that crowd actually boosting book sales even smaller. Still, I felt like the good student who slept through an important test. How much is Twitter worth in my grade as a book promoter? I think I've covered the other basics, and had great fun doing it: building a website, making a funny video, creating a Facebook fan page (and just spending a lot of time on Facebook, where I'm more comfortable anyway), getting the word out. But Twitter seems to be my weak event in the publishing gymnastics.

Part of my problem is I'm not sure who I am on Twitter. I joined too early, perhaps. Back when people really did just write what kind of yogurt they were eating or when they'd be heading to the gym. To be there now as an author, it seems, you need to have a Twitter strategy. A persona. All kinds of writers are there, of course, but those who consistently play a role -- funny, helpful, snarky, friendly, wise -- seem to get the most attention. And those who get it wrong ... well, we all know the hazards of tweeting while reading one's reviews. So if I want to use Twitter in the best way I can, who should I be?

It seems to me, these are some of my choices:

The Heavyweight: This guy means business; he follows everyone who's ever mentioned the word "write," and spends eons of time cultivating his community of writers. His tweets are all re-tweets and replies. He's made Twitter one of his key priorities and he's taking this one all the way. But as I see his very serious headshot filling my page, I have to wonder: When does he have time to, um, write?

The Literary Mama: Oh, I could be her. I'm currently pregnant, craving Maple Brown Sugar Cream of Wheat and have a toddler upstairs who's refusing to take a nap. But there are "Mommy Bloggers" who write books who have this so mastered and covered from all angles, that I wouldn't know where to start. Plus it's all very personal, and I kind of don't want to tell you what that stuff is stuck in my hair.

The Comic Relief: This is probably who I should be, since I did write a humor book. This person's tweets are ridiculously funny; especially the replies, even out of context and without any hint of meaning. But again, unless you're naturally funny at any hour, humor takes time, and I've spent a lot of my day singing "Twinkle, Twinkle" and getting avocado out of the carpet (see above).

The Omniscient Narrator: This person shares everything going on in the publishing world: fun links, news, clever commentary. She's the go-to person to follow if you want to know all that's going on with books, writing, what new e-book technology came out today. But that's exactly it: I'd much rather follow this person than be this person.

The Make-Believe Tweeter: Clearly, this is where most writers, especially fiction writers, should be most comfortable. Why be ourselves when we could be Mr. Darcy or Peggy Olson, or my favorite, London Bridge (currently having it out with Tower Bridge)? But as fun as this must be, and unless your book stems from your Twitter profile (ala FakeAPStylebook), how does it help you as an author?

Maybe I'm going about this wrong. Maybe all that matters is being on Twitter regularly, being consistently interesting, and really connecting with people. But I have so little time. I'm asking you, Twitterverse, how does a writer who needs her sliver of work time to respond to e-mail, do interviews, keep up a website, and actually write, make the most of Twitter? And if I don't have time to do it well, should I do it at all?

Christina Patterson: Why Negative Thinking Makes the World a Better Place

2009-11-07T16:29:02Z

Some years ago, I went on a "positivity" course. My sister had died, my father had died, and I'd had cancer, and a broken heart, and I wasn't, quite frankly, feeling that cheerful. Perhaps, I thought, I could brainwash myself into feeling a bit better.

And so in a central London hotel, with cream walls and a blue carpet, and tables with those pump-top coffee flasks of sour filter coffee, and sad little plates of biscuits, I tried. Paul McKenna did his best. And it's worked for him! It's clearly worked for him. The man who has learnt to "turbo-charge" his brain with "the Power of a Positive Perspective" has, apparently, thought himself into being very successful (or at least very famous) and very, very rich. Assuring us that we could "Master Our Emotions and Run Our Own Brains" and "Design Our Destiny" and unlock "The Secrets to Inner Happiness and Contentment," he had us making pictures in our mind, and taking part in orchestrated laughter, as if laughter can blow the problems of the world away.

Sometimes, it can. Real, spontaneous, cheekbone-aching laughter can blow the problems of the world away, at least for a moment. But forced laughter can't and pictures can't. Or at least, they can't for me. I sat through the weekend, and drank the coffee, and ate the biscuits, and even listened to the CDs, but it didn't make any difference. I still felt sad.

It was, actually, a relief to stop trying. Just as it was a relief, when I told friends the results of the biopsy, and they looked me in the eye and told me it was awful. What wasn't a relief was the handful of people who said, "Don't worry, you'll be fine!" Oh, really? So you're psychic? Or you've secretly retrained as an oncologist? Or are you just trying to make yourself feel better?

There's a lot to be said for negative thinking. Not only because it spares people the tooth-grinding irritation of Pollyannaish predictions of eternal sunshine based on precisely nothing (and usually coupled with the aggressive assertion that they're "good") whose chief aim is to imply that you're rivals in a competition that they're winning, but simply because it makes the world a better place. It makes the world a safer place and a nicer one.

And the experts, apparently, agree. "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts," says a professor of psychology in this month's Australian Science Journal, "negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world." People "in negative mood," he concludes, can cope with more demanding situations than their sunny neighbours and are "less prone to judgmental errors, more resistant to eyewitness distortions and better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages."

Well, I could have told him that! Who started the Iraq war? A man who told Vanity Fair, after his first "election" to office, that he was "not really the type to go through deep wrestling with [his] soul," and who, in his new incarnation as a motivational speaker, told an audience at Fort Worth last week about the rug he picked out for the Oval Office to reflect his "optimism." And a man who, according to his Rottweiler-in-chief, Alastair Campbell, "had this extraordinary ability whatever was going on around him to put a smile on his face and go into his room and make people feel better about being there." But not, perhaps, the soldiers whose limbs have been blown off in the conflict, or the wives of the soldiers who've been killed, or the people in the country he set out to save, who have watched more than 100,000 of their compatriots die.

And who wrecked the global economy? Men and women (but mostly men) who sold mortgages to people with no credit rating, or savings, or sometimes even income (beyond their welfare check) and then, when it all went a bit pear-shaped, wrapped up the debt in a nice velvet ribbon and sold it on. And thought it would all be fine. It would all be fine because they said it would, and because they said it loudly, everyone believed them.

No wonder "Dr. Doom" is doing rather well, aka Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who predicted the global financial meltdown and whose economic forecasting is proving the hottest new thing in town. Bad news is the new good news as the boys who suffered a (mercifully only momentary) blip in their bonuses force themselves to listen to the boring bust stuff so they can quickly boomerang back to boom.

Some of these people, frankly, deserve to be disemboweled. Most people who are, however, don't. Of 71 patients who were, according to a recent study, because they had cancer of the colon, 41 were told that they could have surgery to reconnect their bowels while the others were told that they couldn't. The ones without hope were, apparently, much happier. They just got on with their lives. Perhaps they knew, as the Bible says, that "hope deferred makes the heart grow sick," and perhaps they knew that Dante's exhortation to the entrants of hell, to abandon all hope, was actually the key to a kind of heaven.

Anne Naylor: Can An Ordinary Person Enjoy A State Of Grace?

2009-11-07T12:00:00Z

As a divine being, a Soul, you bring spiritual light and love into this world.
You create a space for grace to be in your life.
Dr John-Roger

Can we create the conditions in which we lead grace-full lives? And if so how? Is it even possible to expect to live gracefully, with the world in so much chaos? My view is that there has never been a better time.

To live in grace is surely to experience our burdens being lifted from us from time to time; that our passage becomes smoother and more enjoyable, even when conditions seem hard to bear.

From Dictionary.com, here are some definitions of grace:
a.
the freely given, unmerited favour and love of God.
b.
the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.
c.
a virtue or excellence of divine origin: the Christian graces.
d.
Also called state of grace, the condition of being in God's favour or one of the elect.

Here are some of the attributes that I believe can lead towards living more grace-fully:

1. Surrender...
... to a higher power

Let go of trying to control outcomes that may be beyond your sphere of influence. This is not so easy if you like to know what is going on, to make things happen exactly the way you want, and to direct the future. These days the future appears uncertain at best, so to try to control it is very frustrating. No wonder so many are suffering from sleeplessness. Click here for my earlier post on Sleeping Well.

A higher power you might see as God, or the Universe, or simply life itself. Years ago, travelling in India, I came to realize that there is much more to life than meets the eye. This "much more" is something extraordinary and life-sustaining. Grace seems to be part of it.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace -
only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.
Anne Lamott

2. Sacrifice and forgive....
.... the negative emotions: fear, doubt, anger, resentment, guilt, blame, shame

To dwell in negative emotion is to drain your energy and leave you feeling depleted and discouraged. To unblock the drains has two meanings. One is to release the negativity that may be clogging your thinking and well-being. Another is to let go of attitudes, relationships or some commitments that may be exhausting you.

Forgive yourself, not always so easy. Forgive others you feel have wronged you. You cannot change the past. You can create the future you would like to enjoy.

You are so weak. Give up to grace.
The ocean takes care of each wave
till it gets to shore.
Jalal ad-Din Rumi

3. Cultivate faith and trust

People who work in the arts fields - writing, painting, acting, music, sculpting - get used to a certain lack of security and develop ways to sustain their confidence and energy levels. A successful novelist friend uses these statements, which I love.

I am trusting and patient
I am calm
I understand that everything is happening perfectly
I have faith

Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression
of the inward harmony of the soul.
William Hazlitt

4. Serve with compassion...
.... give to those who can benefit from you

Anguish and anxiety trap us in a narrow vision of what is possible, for ourselves and others. The good news about bad news is that it can awaken our sense of compassion for those who are in a worse state than our own. Expressing empathy through action can serve you as much as those you serve.

In my recent post about Service I explored the value of our giving and serving.

5. Be thankful...
.... for all of the good you enjoy right now

Gratitude opens a channel (and the heart) for receiving. However little you feel you now have, and the losses you may have had to bear, be mindful of those blessings which in the past you may have taken for granted. Even small things, taken into account, can help you to relax and feel better.

Gratitude and grace seem to go hand in hand. I have found that when I have been grateful in a less than pleasant situation, grace has extended a friendly hand to me, a gift of some kind.

Grace is available for each of us every day - our spiritual daily bread -
but we've got to remember to ask for it with a grateful heart
and not worry about whether there will be enough for tomorrow.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

6. Be the blessings that you are..
... keep going!

It may just be one small step at a time, but each step you take will make a difference. It may not be the "perfect" step. If not, you will learn from it, so in that way each step will always be perfect.

Know that beneath the razzamatazz that is daily life, you are unique, and rich with many blessings in your innate nature. We all are.

7. Be prepared to be pleasantly surprised...
.... expect the best

As you stay open to expect the unexpected, you never know what good might be waiting for you around the next corner. Allow yourself to receive the best for you.

Grace is clear Spirit energy that comes to you without any conditions on it.
Dr John-Roger

As we grow aware of and appreciate the smallest signs of grace showing up, more are likely to meet us. What we celebrate, we receive more of. May you be enriched and rewarded with many blessings of grace in this coming holiday season.

Hayley Westenra sings Amazing Grace:

Have you ever been aware of the presence of grace in your life? Who do you consider to be a grace-full or gracious person? How do you think we could experience more grace as a way of being? I would love to hear from you.

Please feel free to leave a comment below, or contact me at clearresults@mac.com

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