Dear everyone,
The first snowstorm of the season has hit. We have 2-3 inches on the ground so far, and
another 1-2 hours of snowfall left. The
roads are already a bit of a mess (I drove to the library, normally something
walkable), and I am a little worried since I am driving to the United Center
late this afternoon to see a Blackhawks game with Andy, who got the tickets via
a charity auction, I think. My car, as a rear wheel drive, doesn’t drive well
in these conditions. Meanwhile, I see, the Bears are shellacking the 49ers (a
team with an even worse record). Jami
Walloch invited me to see this game; I’m glad I had a good excuse to avoid
it. Of course, I could have gone to the football
game, and then onto the hockey game, except for all of my parking and driving
anxiety. Also, this weekend was for
aikido testing, which was most of Saturday afternoon, and most of Sunday
morning. There were a few people testing
for high rank (3rd and 4th degree black belts),
which is always exciting to watch.
We still have some leftovers floating around post-Thanksgiving
excess. Four big meals in four days also
mean I have a few pounds floating around my mid-section as well. I doubt I will
be rid of them before we go to Cancun; although I hope I will get more regular
exercise there. Too bad Gabe won’t be
there to push me along. I had a pretty good time during our annual November
bacchanalia; it’s great that we all get along, more or less.
Last weekend Cindy and I saw Concussion. This was a low level conspiracy story about
the discovery of traumatic brain encephalopathy (TBE) by Dr. Omalu, a member of
my organization, the American Association of Neuropathologists. It was fun to see shots of Pittsburgh, and
the characterization of people I actually know, or know of (e.g. Dr. Joe
Maroon, the craven neurosurgeon, or Dr. Cyril Wecht, the principled coroner). Will Smith did an excellent job of acting - -
I don’t know if Dr. Omalu is like that at all, but I couldn’t see Will Smith
beneath the character. Of course, Hollywood tarted up the whole story, and made
everything seem more sinister than it was in reality. Still, finding an actually physical change
that correlates with ‘dementia pugilstica’ may help us diagnose concussive
injuries (bomb blasts) in military personnel.
I think it may be a big issue for big contact sports like football,
hockey, lacrosse, etc. in the future.
What mother wants to risk their child becoming mentally ill by the time
they are 40? The main problem is that
there are many professional athletes who suffer similar injuries without any
symptoms, so there must be some other unknown factor involved. Like most neurodegenerative disease, you can
have perfectly healthy appearing elderly people whose brains are full of ‘pathologic’
changes, and people with severe dementias without any obvious microscopic
problems.
This weekend we saw Trumbo, a movie
with Brian Cranston playing the titular character, who was a key figure among
blacklisted Hollywood professionals. Again,
Hollywood goes too far (well, there is a real conspiracy this time) but the movie
turns Trumbo into a saint (Cindy says “crusader”), and the anti-communist people
into figures of the Inquisition. Now
that we have elected the ‘carrot-in-chief’, and we have seen some of the people
he has selected to cabinet offices, it was a bit hard to watch the movie. I hope we don’t return to jingoistic
characterizations of those we disagree with.
Love,
H
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