Category: Follies of the Human Condition

Christmas shuffle

The Best of Christmas Last year our eldest daughter (then 3, now 4), The Frogger, fell in love with the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. This year she is obsessed with “A Holly Jolly Christmas”. It is no coincidence that both songs are performed by Burl Ives in the Rankin/Bass classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Cut to me, in the car, frantically pushing buttons to cycle through CDs and play Burl Ives singing “A Holly Jolly Christmas” in order to fulfill the heartfelt request of my child. Experienced parents will know that there are a variety of potential motivations for such behavior beyond simply avoiding a tantrum, for example cutting short a half-hour of repeatedly yelling the same three lines of the song with 73.21% accuracy.

Having found the correct CD and as I pushed buttons to get to the right track, I began to wonder if I was taking the shortest route to my song of choice. There are three possible routes to any given track on my car’s CD player. Continue reading “Christmas shuffle”

Suicide squeeze

I am an unapologetic fan of violent, contact sports. I have wonderful memories of being a participant in violent, contact sports. On the rugby teams I played for, I was usually the guy tasked with bringing both the violence and the contact to the other team. These sports are fun to play. They are fun to watch. But, predictably, that violence takes a toll on the human body.

The recent murder of Kasandra Perkins and subsequent suicide of her killer, NFL player Jovan Belcher has focused new attention on the risk of violent behavior/suicide in these athletes. So much so that Major League Baseball is reportedly working on a program to help identify troubled athletes and get them help before things go really wrong. This sounds like a good thing (provided it is executed well), but wait…did you say MLB? As in baseball? Continue reading “Suicide squeeze”

HIV: Cancer Killer?

Photo by Samantha Celera
Photo by Samantha Celera

Recently, I saw an article referencing a young girl’s leukemia being fought by HIV viral transformation. The headline was surprisingly restrained, but the mere mention of HIV (a pathogen surrounded by fear and misinformation, like AIDS denial) risks leaving many readers thinking an HIV infection cured a young girl’s leukemia (not true!). So, I headed to the scientific literature to see if this flashy headline’s mention of HIV was really warranted. Continue reading “HIV: Cancer Killer?”

Take that obesity!

kids
Photo by Lori Yerdon, USAG-Humphreys

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported measurable declines in the rate of obesity in some of America’s children. In Philadelphia, New York City, California and Mississippi major efforts have been underway since the late 90’s to reduce the obesity rate among school-aged children. Children often consume the largest portion of their daily calories at school. Philadelphia and New York City took measures to connect farms with schools to provide fresh produce and created new nutritional standards for meals and beverages to be served. Mississippi and California improved nutrition standards state-wide and California has banned sugar sweetened beverages in high schools. Continue reading “Take that obesity!”

Blast Off!

Finish this sentence, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

Did you say, “Blast Off!” My wife and I both do. But, I suspect that our children won’t, because they will not grow up in an era heavily influenced by space shuttle launches.

I am an advocate for space exploration, but not necessarily manned space exploration. Still, this made me a little sad or nostalgic or it just made me feel old.

*If you start the countdown at 3, I invariably whisper “Contact” at the end.