More Delights and Disdains . . .

of a diminutive nature of late . . . Number 18

Disdains:

Seeing the advertisements for the Greenville Scottish Games. On the surface, the games appear to be fun with men in skirts throwing heavy objects around, bagpipers piping, drummers drumming and hundreds of aging extras from Braveheart walking about and yelling “haggis” at the top of their lungs but there is an undercurrent of deliberate exclusivity that bothers me. I suspect that the grip that clan names and tartans have on Americans who claim Scottish ancestry would be destroyed by simple DNA testing. Many a bull has jumped the fence undetected . . .

Delights:

Reading a recent Harvard study stating that one cubic millimeter of brain tissue contains 150 million synapses. These little engines convert the brain’s electric signals into chemical signals. Communication between neurons happens at the chemical synapse. During this communication, dopamine acts as a neuromodulator affecting the cost/reward centers and certain movement centers of the brain. Of course, the actual functions that I am attempting to describe are much more complicated. The report does not mention the properties of the electric signals (volts, ohms, amps) and how those properties impact the converted chemical signals. Curious brains want to know, especially those of us who can, via remote control, increase or decrease the amps in our heads. Now where did I leave that remote?

Learning that Congress just passed the National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act. The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support with only nine U. S. House members voting against it - all Republican. I checked the vote record to make sure that the South Carolina delegation voted correctly and all did except for one who abstained. That would be Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) who did not vote. Now we will see if Congress will match words with dollars.

Viewing a couple of Roger Corman films from the 1950s. Corman died recently and I learned through his obituary that he had directed 55 films and none had ever lost money - a remarkable feat since all of his films were B-movies. This sparked my interest. I discovered that he had launched the careers of several big-time actors including Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern and Charles Bronson whose first leading role was in Corman’s Machine Gun Kelly. The black and white film along with the low-budget TV-show music gave this movie the feel of an Andy Griffith Show where Barney goes bad. The other film that I viewed out of curiosity was Buckets of Blood about a slow-witted wannabe artist who gains acceptance from a group of beatnik artists by plastering over a cat that he had stabbed. The group fawned over the plastered cat and urged him to create more art. When members of the artist group began turning up plastered he was found out. I realize that Corman was playing it straight with plot of the film but with a little nudge it would be a great satire of the 1950’s art world and the beatnik movement. And yes, I have too much time on my hands.

Visiting with my son’s hematologist during his annual appointment. We learned about a new longer lasting clotting agent that would reduce the number of infusions that my son has to do from two to one per week to treat his hemophilia. Considering that he was infusing three times a week when he was in elementary school, I would say that is progress.