letter june 15, 2010

Dear Everyone

Our ‘main’ computer is down again due to some persistent virus, and so this letter is a bit delayed. Of course, none of you noticed one way or the other, I am sure. I posted links to the Puerto Rican aikido seminar a while back, andof course you all looked at every one of the 400+ photographs. It’s a sign of our decadent times that instead of critically editing the photos and only posting the good ones, every picture was posted. Who knows, perhaps we differ in the ones we like, and why should a choice be made for someone else? Most of the photos, by anyone’s criteria, are probably not very good (certainly the ones that I took or that I am in). I don’t know if any of them represent what aikido is like anyway. Check it out on youtube.

I was in Philadelphia last week for the annual neuropathologist meeting. There are about 650 neuropathologists in the US, and probably 2/3 of them were at this meeting, for at least part of it. I only go about every 2-3 years, but I may start to go more frequently with my new job. Next year it is in Seattle in late June, so I am already trying to convince Cindy to come. It was nice to see old friends. Pathologists in my age cohort are starting to rise up in the ranks. Two good friends of mine, Dan Brat and Arie Perry had books out. The price of this may have been high- - both of them recently became divorced (or perhaps, now that they were unmarried [except Arie not only got remarried, but is in train of moving to San Francisco], they had time to pursue their careers?) The generation a few years older than us has gotten to the peak of professional responsibilities (e.g. departmental chairs, since most neuropathologists are at academic institutions). There were a few really fascinating talks. Three stand out in my mind - - one from David Louis on gliomas that have a methylated MGMT gene, and how drug treatment of these tumors selects for a resistant clone that expresses the MSH6 gene; one by Elizabeth Henske on clinical features of tuberous sclerosis, and how rapamycin, an inhibitor of the mTOR pathway can make their tumors shrink, and even reverse their learning deficits; and the last by Joseph Dalmau on autoimmune synaptic encephalitis - - patients who have antibodies to synaptic proteins, and whose lethal encephalitis can be reversed with steroids and other immune system drugs. All three of these talks were on new definitions and treatments of these diseases that could barely even be considered five years ago. Arie Perry also gave a talk where he sang one of his famous neuropathology songs http://www.neuropathsongs.com/samples-1.htm

Of course, while I was in Philadelphia by myself, I had to do some aikido. I went to the aikido of center city dojo (http://www.aikidocentercity.com/) the head instructor there, Donovan Waite (http://www.aikidocentercity.com/27.html), is pretty famous in aikido circles, and justly so. He was showing relatively simple techniques, but doing them so elegantly I could hardly understand what he was doing. He also trains in a slightly different style from me, which also contributed to my misunderstanding. Too bad I am not able to work with him more often. He does come to Chicago once a year for a seminar, but he belongs to a different organization (USAF) from me. Back in the old days, when the AAA was still pretty strong (and I was still an AAA member), this would have been frowned on - - but know I am in a pretty independent group, and so perhaps, if I have the time, I will try to see him the next time he is in town. An extra pleasure afterwards was going to bar that the aikidoka recommended to me that was about 2 blocks from the hotel. Not only was it beer week in Philadelphia, so I was able to sample some interesting brews, but there was a French family in the bar, and I was able to converse with them semi-intelligently.

Another great pleasure was watching the Blackhawks mow down the Fliers on Wednesday night. I arrived in Philadelphia just in time to watch the last period and the overtime (with the anticlimactic final goal by Patrick Kane) from my hotel room. I also played hooky from the conference and watched the US – England soccer match in the hotel lobby with Dan Brat.

The big news at home, beyond the fact that the kids are all out of school, is Nicola’s successful completion of her driver’s licensing process. Now she holds a license to drive independently of supervising adults. I don’t think it is going to get much use, nevertheless, I expect our car insurance rates to increase. I am taking her to see some northeastern private colleges in a couple of weeks (yes, Yale among them). Jasper is swimming and Lucas is playing tennis. Cindy is trying valiantly to de-fur Meeko, who if having her semi-annual blow-out.

Love, H.