Adrienne Cannon writes: I am thinking of the various trips I have taken as a solo traveler when I awaken in a strange location with no companion to talk to. Then I learned to quietly observe life around me (often quite different to my “American” background) even though I wasn’t part of it. Instead of feeling sad about my solitary state I began to treasure those calming moments of contemplation and observation. When I had to schedule appointments during pandemic lockdown and I was one of the few people in a pool, in a class, in the locker room or other places where few people were admitted at the same time, I began to understand that being solitary is not the same as being sad or lonely. In the past, I have made friends on those solo trips by reaching out after too much solitude. And so it seems during those lonely days I have made new acquaintances. They are often a little younger than I am and I happily call on them to join me in my active hours that sometimes outstrip the energies of many of my contemporaries. more »

Now those statues are coming down as the state religion is being dismantled. World history tells us that it takes about 150 years for major conflicts to be finally resolved. Descendants of two-sided wars continue to squabble for several generations before ceasing to see each other as the enemy. The North/South conflict followed that pattern. I know the country is highly polarized and that the South is mostly on one side of that polarization, but it looks like the Civil War of 1861 is finally ending. more »

"When she became First Lady as a result of JFK’s assassination on November 22, 1963, Bird began a taped diary. A few years after her death in 2007, the LBJ Library made the 850 entries public. This book is heavily dependent on that diary, interpreted and expanded by an experienced author with a research team. Consequently, it is 95 percent about her 62 months as First Lady, with minimal material on her earlier and later life." "Life with Lyndon was a political as well as a personal partnership, though Bird was always the junior partner. She had family money; he had family connections. Together they elected him to Congress in 1936 and the Senate in 1948. She used her inheritance to buy an Austin radio station in 1943 and a TV station in 1952. The fact that her husband was in the Senate didn’t hurt when it came to getting licenses and advertising revenue. He made the couple powerful; she made them rich."   more »

To conduct the study, the team examined data from more than 8,000 visits to dermatology clinics by both adults and children between October of 2015, 2016 and 2018 and each February of the year that followed. They found that, during the Camp Fire, clinic visits for atopic dermatitis and general itch increased significantly in both adult and pediatric patients. “Fully 89% of the patients that had itch during the time of the Camp Fire did not have a known diagnosis of atopic dermatitis, suggesting that folks with normal skin also experienced irritation and/or absorption of toxins within a very short period of time,” Wei said. more »