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David Mitchell

(today) Reminds me of those days when we were kids and we played "tug-o-war".

The real question before (this) "House" - and one that may decide the most important "issues" for future generations is,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Which make and model of air frier (out of literaly hundreds of makes and models on Amazon) should I buy?

You are "free to caucus" among yourselves and report back to me. Your advice will be taken under consideration.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Folks,

O. K., this is the year in which most, if not all, of us will turn 75.

I just crawled down in our crawl space under a couple of furnace ducts to change a furnace filter. With my dust mask and knee pads this has become more difficult in the last few years.

So, I was wondering what houshold and outside tasks are becoming too difficult/impossible/dangerous for us to be performing at our age? Take into account all that goes along with being seniors including reflex time, visual problems, ballance, strength, etc.

Jim

David Mitchell

Jim,

Getting out of bed in the morning (er, I mean early afteroon)

---------------

Meanwhile I was going to make a joke today about the 6th vote on the "floor", but when I got to my laptop it was the 8th vote. So I went out to run a few errands and its now 11 failed votes. How long does this have to go on? 

In a news letter today (or yesterday) John Kasich proposed an idea floating around the back hallways of Congress about naming a modrate Democrat who would form a colalition of "centrists" to  actually move forward and get something done (a strange concept in and of itself). This has gone way past ridiculous!

David Mitchell

Hertz Criminal behavior 

I got behind in my reading over the holidays and was going to add a story to Mary Margaret's piece about Southwest Airlines.I have been hearing the same story (third hand) from a younger buddy who flies for Delta (abaout 18 years since flying an Air Force tanker in the first gulf war). And I get the impresson tha Delta is a much better managed company.

But I have a different story that just broke in th news in early December. Some of you will have heard it but those who have not, I will summarize.

During the initial crazy rush to travel coming out of the first Covid shutdwon, you will recal that most of the rental car companies were caught short, having sold off some of their car inventory to cover debt service. And the entire car rental busines became it's own little nighmare. As my job has me standing in a driver waiting area at Savannah Airport, we are right near the rental car desks - about 8 or 10 companies. And we are closest to the Hertz desk, so we saw the huge lines - sometimes 60 to 80 people waiting. 

Hertz's behavior during this mess was incredibly incompetent. They were giving out reervations for ars that they did not even have, leaving many people to wait hours, try another company, or even rent U-Haul trucks. And of course they all jacked their fees up to approximately triple their normal rates. And most noticeably, they stopped paying their staff to stay on duty for the normal late hours. People were arriving with reservations and no one was at the desk to give them their reserved car.

In one occaison, I had a young Black lady (about 25) with a small baby in a baby carriage and a huge suitcase, approach me asking "Sir, is their a USO desk here?" I said "yes but they are closed this time of night". She began to cry right there in front of me. She was soldier at nearby Ft. Stewart and could not get her car to drive home, and her husand was also a soldier but was deployed and not able to drive the hour from Ft. Stewart to pick her up. She was going to have to get a hotel room (many near the airport) for the night and come back in the morning for a car. I was so mad, I paced around for a few minutes and walked back over to her and handed her a wad of $20s and said, "This is your miitary discount for your hotel room."

I actualy saw worse incidents (a famiy of 8 stranded at the empty desk at midnight) but I want to gt on to my main story.

In early December, Hertz was found guilty and ordered to pay about $160 million to about 350 people for one of the most ridiculous screw-ups I have ever heard of. Hertz had been listing some of their legitimately rented cars as "stolen" (why, I do not know), and police were stopping and arresting these drivers as car thiefs. I watched sevrala videos, one of three police officers surrounding a car with guns drawn and the driver was an innocent young mother with little children in the car. There is one case where a guy went to jail for 30 days before he could convince someone of the mistake.

There was actually a public denial by Hertz executives at one point - claiming no knowledge of the situation. But the very next day, someone inside the compnay leaked a spreadsheet showing each and every such car and full details of the cars and the arrests!

I have been telling this to everyone I know and hoping people will stop doing business with this criminal operation.

Joseph D. McCarthy

Dave, for what it's worth.  We purchased an air fryer listed by Paula Dean on the ShopHQ service (Internet and on television.  We have had it for about three to four years.  It is especially good on Baked potatoes, but we also like it for fish and pork chops (shh, don't tell the Rabbi).

As far as Hertz.  They called the police when the renters went beyond their initial term - whether they had called in to extend the rental terms.  When my Brother-In-Law and his wife went to Hawaii they found that people were renting trucks because they hadn't raised the rates on trucks.  Thankfully My Brother-In-Law had made reservations well in advance for his rental.

Dr. Jim, except for driving across country, and up to Portland, OR, I am excluded from doing almost everything.  When I had my stroke the Doctor told my wife I should  not do anything on a ladder,etc.

So now I clean the gutters, trim bushes/hedges, replace faucets and parts for the toilet.  

Joseph D. McCarthy

Merry (Jan. 6th) Christmas, as it is accepted elsewhere, to all.  Can't remember the actual name used to describe this celebration of Christmas.  But Merry Christmas to all.

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

January 6th, El Dia de Reyes, is the day that Spanish children anxiously await the gifts brought by the Kings the night before.  There are Reyes parades in all towns around Spain.  Btw the Kings arrive by ship to Barcelona before the big parade. 

For our Ukrainian friend, Joe McC, I am including also a Ukrainian Xmas card. Joe, you wrote me about your family coming from Ukraine but I am not sure that the others know it.  The Orthodox celebrate Christmas on January 7th according to the Julian calendar.  We will be celebrating our first Jan 7th Xmas tomorrow at the home of our Ukrainian family of friends.  Lots of delicious food and laughter are guaranteed. 

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

How Three Kings' Day is Celebrated Around the World - The Points Guy

I sure didn't want to imply that Spain had exclusive rights on the Three Kings Night!  Check out what they say about celebrating in Portugal.  Who knew?

Michael McLeod

Mr. Hamilton:

I may have slowed down a bit physically but what reassures me is that my mental faculties haven't diminished one whit.

By the way, have we met? 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike McL.,

Hmmm.... Keep that mind intact and don't get any commotio cerebri  injuries from falling frozen iguanas!

Jim (You remember, from IC and BWHS)

Michael McLeod

Seriously Dr. Hamilton. (Something told me I should address you as such). You seem nice so I'm happy to continue this conversation with you.

I have no issues physically apart from tiring more easily.

But I am forgetful. I understand changes in the hippocampus have something to do with that. I've been told to simply start backing things up - writing things down, get more organized, provide written reminders to myself. Other than that I can't think of anything other than practical steps - cutting down on alcohol, good nutrition and exercise - that will delay the disintegration.

I'm not sure how a lifetime of writing for a living factors into the brain I've got now that I'm trying to slow it down a bit, become more practical, do less daydreaming. That's a hard trick for an old horse to pick up.

As to memory I've done some reading and you may or may not care to explain what educated hippos have to do with any of this. Pink elephants, sure, but educated hippos I do not get.

David Mitchell

this just in,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Matt Gaetz apparently will NOT win the "Miss Congeniality" trophy after all. 

But watch out folks, this new group of (my) GOP guys wants to void the recent Democrat increase in IRS funding, which is already so woefully understaffed they are letting billions in tax revenues slip through the system un-audited* and un-challenged.

*(kinda like our "Orange Jesus" buddy from "Mara-hide-in-the-closet", who paid less than I did for a couple of recent years while raking in many millions)

Good work guys!  And by all means, let's don't ever have a simplified, fair, honest and just Tax system.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike,

In med school back in the early '70's, most of us would surely agree that neuroanatomy was the most difficult and complicated topic to master. Looking back and realizing what we have discovered in the past 50 years, that was like addition and subtraction compared to differential and integral calculus.

Memory is stored and chemically/electrcally transported among many places in the brain via neurons to synapses where several chemical neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, glutamate, seratonin, gamma aminobuteric acid, dopamine and others are secreted. The hippocampus, whose major neurotransmitter is acetylcholine, is sort of the processor (akin to a computer processor) for the memory. Anatomically close to hippo are the two amygdalae nuclei which are also important in the memory processes.

Bottom line, many other brain structures participate in this train of chemicals which carry on various memory functions like recognizing taste, smell, faces, tasks, locations, knowledge and just about everything from long ago to what we did five minutes ago.

Neurotransmitters, of course, have other functions in the brain (and other organs) and medications are often used (especially in psychiatry) to modulate their amount in order to treat certain diseases and disorders.

Like all chemicals, I suspect that stored neurotransmitters that are storing information ("memory") eventually degrade and maybe that is why we forget certain things. Renewing those pathways on a regular basis may keep them supplied with fresh neurotransmitters. I guess this would be what I would call "use it or lose it".

As a medical/neurology/psychiatry/neuroscience arena of understanding we are probably not any longer in a state of infancy, but we are probably only in our pre-teen years. And as for therapeutic intervention (treatment), we are newborns.

Jim 

Michael McLeod

Thanks Jim. Whoever you are.

And a larger thanks, in all seriousness, for all of the times you have responded to my med questions in a way that was as clear as you could make it without a) dumbing it down too much and b) sounding patronizing. This area of modern science - the very fabric, the miraculous cerebral cross-weave of our thoughts -  is particularly, fabulously fascinating. 

I really do appreciate it. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike and Others,

And I thank you and several of our classmates who have brought up medical topics on this forum and through personal email correspondences which allow me to reload my memory's store of neurotransmitters as well as add some new pathways regarding issues that have occurred in recent times 🧠.

Jim 

David Mitchell

Jim,

In all of your medical posts on this Forum I do not recall one time that you ever mentioned the health benefits of the four basic food groups - Cheeseburgers, French Fries, Ketchup, and Coke.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave,

Seems to me that all of us who are reading this Forum today are in their mid 70's and were likely raised eating a lot of these things (often at Sandy's across from Watterson on High Street) before the world discovered what a "normal" cholesterol level should be. Of course, as kids we actually played physical games and sports as opposed to exercising our fingers on a keyboard or control stick. Perhaps that played a protective role.

I am also a fan of almost anything in moderation 🍔!

Jim 

Michael McLeod

dave: with that knack for getting straight to the heart of a subject you should have been a journalist. 

Michael McLeod

Random High School Memory:

I think this is from a production of Tammy Tell Me True," which was some lame-ass production I was in, and for some bizarre reason I remember another actor's line:

"She's a caution."

It stuck in my mind because it's an odd, old-fashioned saying - I think it just refers to somebody with an outgoing personality - but also because of the way the actress, whoever it was, delivered that line - with a hammyemphasis on "she's" that extended it for longer than a single syllable word deserves. 

I know. Bizarre, right?

But I'm just in the realm of memory at the moment and I was wondering if anybody else has particulary odd, random memories of relatively inconsequential or downright meaningless things.

Mark Schweickart

Hey there fellow wordsmiths. This caught my eye recently and I "thought" you mIght appreciate it:

Which reminded me of this Dr. Suess title, struggling to find a rhyme:

Oh, and Mike – I would venture to say that the majority of my memories would fall into your category of being random and mostly meaningless. Now ain't that a caution?

Michael McLeod

Mark: synchronicity. somebody gave me a coffee cup with that through thing on it just last week. 

David Mitchell

Mark,

Curious to know if any of the rain and flooding has hit your area?

----------------

And Mike, I remember that play. I was a courtroom lawyer and had all of maybe two lines. I seem to recall that I was questioning Clare (playing Tammy - the lead) on the "stand" in the courtroom and she was talking abut her pet turtle. My big line was (questioning her statement)

"I see, Myrtle the Turtle?" 

I thought Clare had posted some of the photos from that play somewhere here on the Forum -???

Theresa Zeyen (Kucsma)

Our Eglish language is a phonetic puzzle for sure. 
Ghoti could spell fish. Anyone want to explain how?

Michael McLeod

Theresa! Thank you for this!

It is indeed a very strange fish in the c. 

You have hooked me on this one.

If nobody else bites on it I will.

Meanwhile, have you noticed how people are starting to use exclamation marks as decoration for otherwise lame-ass declarative sentences?

Like, "We will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible!"

I honestly think it's a form of illiteracy. Or something worse. Also:

It makes me so mad!!!!

Mark Schweickart

Dave – Although the weather has been ferocious throughout California, luckily the area in which I live has been spared from anything serious happening. A lot of rain, to be sure, but no flooding or trees uprooting, etc.  But then again, as soon as one storm passes, another appears on the weather radar maps. So this may go on for a while yet. Thanks for asking.

Also, regarding your "Tammy Tell Me True" reminicence, I too was in the courtroom scene. I was a cab driver called to testify named "Cruickshanck," or something like that, but unlike you, no memorable lines have stuck in this old brain. 

Theresa – regarding your Ghoti = fish, I could see that "f" in fish could be the "gh" in "tough or cough" as in the Dr. Seuss title I posted. And I could see that the "ti" could be like any word ending in "tion" like "action" or vacation" etc., but I could not think of a word where an "o" has the same sound as the "i" in "fish." So I had to cheat and ask Jeeves on the interweb (i.e. Google) where I am told there is only one word that has this peculiarity. So you stumped me. And not to give it away, I will leave it at that. Thanks for the word puzzle.