Chuck Norris Turns 70

Chuck Norris Turns 70 -- We Present a Norris Fact for Every Ass-Kicking Year

This man has been kicking people square in the head for 70 years ... to the day.

That's right, Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris woke up this morning (actually Chuck Norris doesn't sleep, he waits) at the ripe old age of three score and 10. And there's no question that he could still kick your organs inside-out just for breathing the same air as he does.

Anyway, despite our best efforts we could not find an address for Mr. Norris to send him a birthday cake (made of nunchucks), so we've had to settle with a round up of our 70 favorite Chuck Norris facts. One bonus fact first: As decreed by Mr. Norris himself, Norris facts don't have to actually be, uh, true.

Keep reading and enjoy ...

1. Since 1940, the year Chuck Norris was born, roundhouse-kick-related deaths have increased 13,000 percent.
2. On his birthday, Chuck Norris randomly selects one lucky child to be thrown into the sun.
3. Chuck Norris mistakenly sent Jesus a birthday card on Dec. 25. Jesus was too scared to correct Chuck Norris and to this day Dec. 25 is known as Jesus's birthday.
4. Chuck Norris was born three months premature, because he had asses to kick.
5. Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb.
6. And on the first day Chuck Norris was created ... and he took care of everything else later that afternoon.
7. Chuck Norris once kicked a horse in the chin. Its descendants are known today as giraffes.
8. Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
9. Chuck Norris drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls.
10. Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.
11. James Cameron wanted Chuck Norris to play the Terminator. However, upon reflection, he realized that would have turned his movie into a documentary, so he went with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
12. Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because Chuck Norris only recognizes the element of surprise.
13. Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
14. Chuck Norris once ate a whole cake before his friends could tell him there was a stripper in it.
15. The role of Alf in the hit 80s TV show was played by Chuck Norris's penis.
16. Chuck Norris sleeps with a pillow under his gun.
17. Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
18. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, Chuck Norris can actually roundhouse kick you yesterday.
19. Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
20. Chuck Norris doesn't wear a watch. HE decides what time it is.
21. Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.
22. They once made a Chuck Norris toilet paper, but there was a problem: It wouldn't take shit from anybody.
23. Police label anyone attacking Chuck Norris as a Code 45-11.... a suicide.
24. The original title for Alien vs. Predator was Alien and Predator vs Chuck Norris.
25. Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
26. There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.
27. If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.
28. Chuck Norris has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game UNO.
29. Chuck Norris got a blow up doll pregnant.
30. Google won't search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you.
31. There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist.
32. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.
33. It takes Chuck Norris 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
34. Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
35. Chuck Norris uses a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.
36. Aliens DO indeed exist. They just know better than to visit a planet that Chuck Norris is on.
37. When you say "no one's perfect", Chuck Norris takes this as a personal insult.
38. Chuck Norris once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"
39. Chuck Norris never wet his bed as a child. The bed wet itself out of fear.
40. If at first you don't succeed, you're not Chuck Norris.
41. Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.
42. We live in an expanding universe. All of it is trying to get away from Chuck Norris.
43. Chuck Norris invented black. In fact he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink.
44. Chuck Norris played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.
45. Chuck Norris' first job was as a paperboy. There were no survivors.
46. When Chuck Norris does a push-up, he isn't lifting himself up -- he's pushing the Earth down. Observe ...
47. A Handicapped parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Chuck Norris and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
48. Chuck Norris is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.
49. The phrase 'dead ringer' refers to someone who sits behind Chuck Norris in a movie theater and forgets to turn their cell phone off.
50. What was going through the minds of all of Chuck Norris' victims before they died? His shoe.
51. Contrary to popular belief, the Titanic didn't hit an iceberg. The ship was off course and accidentally ran into Chuck Norris while he was doing the backstroke across the Atlantic.
52. For some, the left testicle is larger than the right one. For Chuck Norris, each testicle is larger than the other one.
53. Godzilla is a Japanese rendition of Chuck Norris' first visit to Tokyo.
54. When Bruce Banner gets mad, he turns into the Hulk. When the Hulk gets mad, he turns into Chuck Norris.
55. Human cloning is outlawed because if Chuck Norris were cloned, then it would be possible for a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to meet another chuck Norris roundhouse kick. Physicists theorize that this contact would end the universe.
56. There are no such things as tornadoes. Chuck Norris just hates trailer parks.
57. When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
58. Chuck Norris and Mr. T walked into a bar. The bar was instantly destroyed, as that level of awesome cannot be contained in one building.
59. Chuck Norris does not follow fashion trends, they follow him. But then he turns around and kicks their ass. Nobody follows Chuck Norris.
60. The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably.
61. When Chuck Norris says "More cowbell," he MEANS it.
62. Chuck Norris once sued Burger King after they refused to put razor wire in his Whopper Jr., insisting that that actually is "his" way.
63. Every time someone uses the word "intense", Chuck Norris always replies "you know what else is intense?" followed by a roundhouse kick to the face.
64. If, by some incredible space-time paradox, Chuck Norris would ever fight himself, he'd win. Period.
65. Chuck Norris invented a language that incorporates karate and roundhouse kicks. So next time Chuck Norris is kicking your ass, don't be offended or hurt, he may be just trying to tell you he likes your hat.
66. When an episode of Walker Texas Ranger was aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side.
67. Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
68. In a fight between Batman and Darth Vader, the winner would be Chuck Norris.
69. The square root of Chuck Norris is pain.
70. Chuck Norris once participated in the running of the bulls. He walked.

Bill Maher: New Rule: Let's Not Fire the Teachers When Students Don't Learn -- Let's Fire the Parents

I like Bill Maher. He hit the nail on the head with this one.

New Rule: When Students Don't Learn -- Let's Fire the Parents

New Rule: Let's not fire the teachers when students don't learn - let's fire the parents. Last week President Obama defended the firing of every single teacher in a struggling high school in a poor Rhode Island neighborhood. And the kids were outraged. They said, "Why blame our teachers?" and "Who's President Obama?" I think it was Whitney Houston who said, "I believe that children are our future - teach them well and let them lead the way." And that's the last sound piece of educational advice this country has gotten - from a crack head in the '80's.

Yes, America has found its new boogeyman to blame for our crumbling educational system. It's just too easy to blame the teachers, what with their cushy teachers' lounges, their fat-cat salaries, and their absolute authority in deciding who gets a hall pass. We all remember high school - canning the entire faculty is a nationwide revenge fantasy. Take that, Mrs. Crabtree! And guess what? We're chewing gum and no, we didn't bring enough for everybody.

But isn't it convenient that once again it turns out that the problem isn't us, and the fix is something that doesn't require us to change our behavior or spend any money. It's so simple: Fire the bad teachers, hire good ones from some undisclosed location, and hey, while we're at it let's cut taxes more. It's the kind of comprehensive educational solution that could only come from a completely ignorant people.

Firing all the teachers may feel good - we're Americans, kicking people when they're down is what we do - but it's not really their fault. Now, undeniably, there are some bad teachers out there. They don't know the material, they don't make things interesting, they have sex with the same kid every day instead of spreading the love around... But every school has crappy teachers. Yale has crappy teachers - they must, they gave us George Bush.

According to all the studies, it doesn't matter what teachers do. Although everyone appreciates foreplay. What matters is what parents do. The number one predictor of a child's academic success is parental involvement. It doesn't even matter if your kid goes to private or public school. So save the twenty grand a year and treat yourself to a nice vacation away from the little bastards.

It's also been proven that just having books in the house makes a huge difference in a child's development. If your home is adorned with nothing but Hummel dolls, DVD's, and bleeding Jesuses, congratulations, you've just given your children the gift of Duh. Sarah Palin said recently she wrote on her hand because her father used to do it. I rest my case.

When there are no books in the house, and there are no parents in the house, you know who raises the kids? That's right, the television. Kids aren't keeping up with their studies; they're keeping up with the Kardashians. We're allowing the television, as babysitter, to turn us into a nation of slutty idiots. By the way, one sign your 9-year-old may be watching too much One Tree Hill: if she has an imaginary friend with benefits.

Jackie's Dairy Barn in Leominster, MA has an AWESOME lobster roll

Can't remember the name of it but it had fried mozzarella sticks, fried clam strips, fried onion rings, fried shrimp, and french fries. It was heaven on a cardboard plate. :)

Mickey's Manifesto

The guy about whom I spoke in my last blog sent me some of his thoughts on how America could be made better. I disagreed with some of his thoughts so he dumped me. I was stunned. My first thought was maybe we can agree to disagree, but apparently he needs a girl who thinks just like he does, rather than a woman who thinks for herself.

The bold font is his manifesto and the non-bold is my response.
I think his brain exploded and he shut down because he just broke off all communication with me.
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Term Limits for Elected Federal Representatives

President and Vice-President, One Term of Six Years Only.
Why? I’m fine with two, 4 year terms. However if you give me a reason why you think one six year term is better I may change my mind.

Senators, Term of Six Years, Limit of two terms only.
Congressmen, Term of Three years, Limit of three terms only.
Okay that sounds fair but, they should be staggered so that not all the Senators and Congressman are leaving at the same time.

Anyone that serves as an elected official will be banned from acting as a lobbyist or power broker in Washington D.C. for no less than Ten Years.
I can live with that, and if they can’t shame on them. It means they were probably up to no good.

Any congressman that wishes to run for the senate must wait at least one full term of the senate before executing that run.
Ooo, I like that idea. 

Any senator that wishes to run for congress must wait at least two full terms of congress before executing that run.
Ooo, I like that idea. 

On the other hand . . . why are we allowing them to double dip in the federal pension pool. Why does one need to be both a senator and a congressman in one lifetime?

Any Tax Increase Will Require A 3/5's Majority To Be Implemented.
I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know what is required now.

Any Tax Reduction Will Require A Simple Majority To Be Implemented.  Okay

Anyone that owes taxes, interest, or penalties for unpaid taxes, is prohibited from holding public office.
Hmm, okay; but part of me wants to say no and I’m not sure why. I’ll have to do some research before I can rebut this.

Ban All Public Sector Labor Unions!
Define? You mean like teacher unions, plumbers and contractor unions? Sorry disagree completely. I think they need to be scaled back and revamped because they have darn near priced this country out of existence. However, there are way too many unscrupulous employers that left to their own devices will not abide by basic laws of common decency.

Labor Unions create an antagonistic relationship between employer and employee.
No, they do not. I have been a member of quite a few, including the AFL-CIO and the CAW.

Public employees are employed by the public.

If a person views the public as an adversary that person shall not work in the public sector.
Bull Shit. As an educator I gotta disagree with you on this one. Your average Joe is a moron and I will not take orders form them in my classroom.

Any Religious Leader of any faith that uses his/her pulpit to promote a political agenda is in violation of Separation of Church and State and shall lose their Tax Exempt Status.
• No, I gotta call bull shit on this one too.
• First of all that will create Mc Carthyism. People will be bringing tape recorders and steno pads to services waiting for the preacher to slip up and say something partisan or political.
• The entire church/congregation should not suffer for the sins of one man or woman. That’s ridiculous. If you want to fine the clergy that may be one thing; but who is going to be the official monitor of this stuff?

Profile update

After my most recent online dating debacle, with a Republican masquerading as a Libertarian. I decided to update my dating profile,to include the following:


I am a registered Democrat with mild Libertarian leanings.
I am a United Methodist and a struggling Christian. I'm not having a crisis of faith. It's just hard to be a Christian good or otherwise.
I don't own a gun, but I am a member of the NRA. If you think the 2nd Amendment needs to be repealed DO NOT send me a message. I'm not changing my mind.
I eat meat and love bacon.
I love shellfish, bivalves, and mollusks, but HATE oysters.
Not particularly fond of fish with fins, but I will eat fried catfish, cod, solid white tuna, or tilapia.
I like baked salmon but hate lox.
I think sushi is bait in a pretty wrapper.
I do not eat organic, but I try to avoid processed foods with preservatives and things I can't pronounce. The exception to this is of course candy. :)
I don't like the war, but I have great respect for the people who defend our country.
I believe that unions serve a purpose; but they are about to price our country out of existence. They need a revision, an over haul of sorts.

If you can't deal with that stuff, then you can't deal with me, STOP reading.

Chlordane Exposure Leads to Diabetes & Parkinson's Disease

Chlordane Exposures and Diabetes

Chlordane, a family of compounds used as insecticides from 1950 to their ban in 1975, was used both to treat crops such as corn, soybeans and vegetables and to treat termite infestations in homes.

Chlordane levels persist even today in animal fats, grains and vegetables and have been measured in the air of homes at up to 40 times the U.S. EPA guideline levels. Why be concerned?

Exposure to chlordane compounds has been linked to a variety of symptoms from headaches, lethargy, and upper respiratory infections to breast, and testicular cancers, leukemia, allergies, depression and Parkinson's disease.

Persons who have been diagnosed with diabetes and/or insulin resistance and would like to reduce their exposures to chlordane compounds should take the following actions in this order:

•If you live in a house built before 1988 that is located in the southern three-quarters of the United States, test the air in your home for chlordane compounds.
•Reduce your consumption of meat and dairy fat.
•Peel vegetables like potatoes and carrots that were grown in soils of unknown chlordane history.
•If chlordane is found in your home air, install a heat-exchange ventilation system as they have been shown to markedly reduce chlordane levels.
==========================


My dad used to own, his own exterminating and pest control business. He sold the business and his client list in the late 1970's for health reasons. Dad had developed some respiratory issues which were resolved within 6 months of his not working with chlordane anymore. In 1983 chlordane was taken completely off the market in the United States. It was widely used as an insecticide for agricultural applications. Unfortunately, I expect there will be many farmers that end up with Parkinson's and a host of other unpleasant ailments and diseases.

Chlordane used to be the gold standard for eradicating termites, crab grass, and various lawn insects.

In later years he has developed: diabetes, an enlarged prostate, and Parkinson's Disease.

Legal Dilemna

About 2 weeks ago we finally bit the bullet and had a whole new septic leach field dug. We have had our septic tank pumped 4 or 5 times since Mother's Day 2009. It's a 5 year old house! That is not normal.

Unfortunately the developer has moved out of state and claimed bankruptcy, so we can't sue him. :angryfire2: He took a lot of shortcuts that are causing us and many of our neighbors lots of money, headaches, and in some instances there are safety issues. :irked:

The guy who did it quoted mom a price of $3,000; but hasn't sent a bill yet, because the cosmetic landscape work isn't done yet. They weren't here 20 minutes before the back hoe hit the buried Comcast Cable line. :irked: He apologized and said he would fix it before he left for the day. I was pissed because we have the Comcast bundle. That meant NO television, NO internet, and NO landline for the 9 hours they were here and working. I had to read a book! :yikes:

True to his word, he fixed the cable line before he left, but some tv's had service and some didn't. I called the Comcast and they came out the next day but since it was monsooning they said they would send somebody later that day. They didn't. I called again and someone came out the next day ran a whole new cable line and checked my modem and made sure everything was online. The cable guy said there might be a fee of $75 on our next bill for the service call and running of new line. Also, and this is the best part, it would take 2-4 weeks for the sub-contractors to come out and re-bury the cable.

Saturday, Chad the septic guy, comes by the house because the toilet in the master bath was having issues. He asks my dad if he could help him out and talk to Comcast because Comcast sent him a $1400 bill for burying the cable. Dad and I are afraid Chad will add that $1400 to the initial bill of $3000. I realize the economy is bad but I don't think my folks should have to eat the cost of Chad's mistake. I appreciate the fact that he tried to fix it. But the cable was cut in like 3 different places. He left exposed copper wire and it was raining when he left. This is probably why the 2 tv's that were working stopped getting reception.

So my question is: Can the septic contractor bill my parents for the $1,400 cost of burying the cable?

Best Tea Party Pick-up Lines

Best Tea Party Pick-up Lines
* My federally-protected wetlands are now open for drilling
* If you dress like a Freedom Maid we can Freedom Kiss while I pull on this Freedom Tickler. Wee wee?
* I can only perform if you rip up a photo of Darwin
you look like a white Michelle Malkin so meet me in the back of my truck
* Hey baby doll, you and I have a rendezvous with destiny. Your shining city on a hill or mine? *LOL! :)
* "I cry like Glenn Beck when I think of us being apart."
* You know i like washing eveything with bleach. sometimes i just want the colored to be white too.
* I'm into you like the bullets in McCain
* You read the newspaper today?? Well the word of the day is legs you tryna come to my house and spread the word??
* Glenn Beck is the real Founding Father & he happens to be my own, personal Jesus Christ. We can find him, tonight.
* If you like small government, I've got something else really small to show you ...
* That three wolf moon shirt is hot. It really goes with your mullet.
* Darlin' you can taste my teabags anytime. If you can find 'em..."
* "I think the first black president is the closet thing to hitler ever! now lets have sex"
* Hey baby, I can see Russia from my house.
* Usually, women laugh when I tell them I'm a Minuteman.
* Wanna see my paintings of an eagle crying over the New York skyline on 9/11?
* "Baby....all these other tramps Palin comparison to you *wink*"
* "I like Bush."
* Your really not too good lookin. Let me throw a flag over your head and we will do it for our country!
* "Don't make a mess on my sheets...I have to wear them at a rally tomorrow."
* It looks like a baby's arm holding a tax cut.
* slides foot under adjacent stall* *waves hand under stall* *clears throat*
* Help find my Weapons of Mass Destruction
*"Let me ask a reasonable question for unreasonable times... are those things real?"
* You had me at being 50 pounds overweight in sweat pants and ur mispelled socialism sign
* Baby, can you whisper "invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity" to me?
* Forget the Four Horseman, I'm hung like the horses.
* Ohh baby, I love chicks with mullets.
* Lets make war, cuz jus like Bush once Im in you I'll never leave.
* Oooh honey....How bout I give you some cash for your clunker.
* How about we have a nice candlelit dinner, then get naked and wait til we're married?
* So umm... I hear the bag part goes like this...
* Hey baby, I bet you know your way around a lynch mob.
* I hear Boston has the best parties.

Black Fashion Magnate Eunice Johnson Dead At 93

Eunice Walker Johnson - (April 4, 1916 – January 3, 2010)By Margena A. Christian

Mrs. Eunice Johnson, producer and director of the Ebony Fashion Fair and secretary-treasurer of Johnson Publishing Company, died of renal failure at her home in Chicago. She was 93.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will honor her work on January 11 as a philanthropist and fashion icon. The tribute, planned some time ago, was several months in the making.

“Mrs. Johnson elevated the image of Black women being fashion conscious, fashion forward and affluent,” said Kenneth Owen, assistant producer of Ebony Fashion Fair, who was handpicked by the fashion pioneer 26 years ago to work alongside her.

Born on April 4, 1916 in Selma, Ala., Mrs. Johnson came from a prestigious family. Her sophistication and fashion sense wasn’t bought. She was born with it. Mrs. Johnson’s father, Dr. Nathaniel D. Walker, was a doctor who practiced medicine for five decades, while her mother, Ethel McAlpine Walker, taught education and art at Selma University. The institution was founded by Dr. William H. McAlpine, her maternal grandfather, who also founded the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. and was close friends with Booker T. Washington.

Education was important in the Johnson household. She graduated from Talladega College with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in art. A master’s degree was later earned in social work from Loyola University in Chicago.

Mrs. Johnson was working as a social worker when she quit her job to support her husband John’s vision of starting a magazine that focused on Black life. When he was having trouble trying to find a name for a new magazine in 1945, he asked her for guidance since she had a degree in art. She chose Ebony because it means “fine black African wood.” The magazine would go on to define generations.

To those on the outside looking in, Mrs. Johnson appeared to be living in the shadow of her late husband John H. Johnson, founder of the Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines. Those who really knew Eunice Walker Johnson understood that she was the wind beneath his wings. She stood by her husband in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, in good times and in bad until his death in 2005.

Mrs. Johnson dined with kings and queens, presidents and musical royalty, yet she remained down to earth. To hear her speak revealed a story. When she opened her mouth, her heavy, southern drawl would make people look twice.
“She was a shy woman. She wasn’t somebody you could approach and talk to right away,” said Audrey Smaltz, the Ebony Fashion Fair commentator from 1970 to 1977. “She was an astute fashion person who had more than just fashion in her background. She was an interior designer. She was a lover of art. She had the greatest art collection you could imagine. Because of Eunice Johnson, I met Pablo Picasso and Giorgio de Curico. She introduced me to luxury, art and culture way beyond what I went to school for. I graduated with an art degree. She took me to a Ph.D.”

Always impeccably dressed and wearing designer fashions herself, everything came back to fashion and education.

What started out as a charity benefit in 1958, turned into the birth of the Ebony Fashion Fair. As the show got underway, the models ran into problems with make-up, unable to find shades to match their skin. The solution? Fashion Fair Cosmetics.

At the inception of the Ebony Fashion Fair, Mrs. Johnson would travel to Europe with her husband to buy clothes. They would “beg, persuade, and threaten to get the right to buy clothes,” Mr. Johnson once said. The resistance came, he recalled, because certain designers thought that White women wouldn’t value their designs if they were worn by Black women.

A few of the leading designers finally agreed to sell fashions to the Johnsons for the show. Among the first Blacks to buy from French haute couture fashion houses, they started out spending half a million dollars annually.

“She was eventually known in fashion circles as the largest buyer of European haute couture,” said Owen. “As time progressed she would spend a million dollars each year on 200 complete ensembles featured in the hour and a half presentation.”

Mrs. Johnson bought creations from designers that others were afraid to take a chance on because they were unknown and just starting out. Valentino, Roberto Cavalli, Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent were among the names. “They were young and in their 20s, just starting out,” said Owen. “They were looking for people to buy their high-end couture. That started her personal relationship with them because she was there before they made a name for themselves.”

Often criticized for not having more Black fashion designers, the Ebony Fashion Fair did showcase throughout the years the creations of Stephen Burrows, Patrick Kelly, Willi Smith and B. Michael. In later years it featured L’Amour, Quinton de Alexander, Kevan Hall, Fusha, Anthony Hankins, and even the Steve Harvey Collection.

Hands on until the end when her eyesight began to fail her, Mrs. Johnson made certain to see a complete run-through of each fashion show with the models before it hit the road. One year when she wasn’t excited about the show’s new direction using rap music, she made the models scrap everything and start all over.

Committed to community service, Mrs. Johnson received many honors from the United Negro College Fund, The Boys & Girls Club of Chicago, Alabama A & M, Loyola University and many others. In 1988, Mrs. Johnson returned to her alma mater, Talladega, to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. She also had an honorary degree from Shaw University.

Fiercely independent, Mrs. Johnson could be seen driving around Chicago in her two-tone Rolls Royce. She let nothing stop her. Like Frank Sinatra, she did things her way. And she did it with style.

To date, more than 4,000 shows have been performed in the United States, the Caribbean, London, England, and Kingston, Jamaica. Ebony Fashion Fair has raised more than $55 million for various scholarship groups.

What are you doing New Year's Eve?

I am preparing for a quiet New Year's Eve at home with the folks. My family does the festa dei sette pesci on New Year's Eve; because we are usually too busy wrapping gifts & going to church and whatnot on Christmas Eve to cook.

This time last year dad was in the hospital and we didn't know what was wrong. Mom did the whole elaborate 7 fishes thing and brought it to his hospital room along with a small deli platter, & sparkling cider. I think she was afraid it would be his last NYE. Yes, he was that ill. He went in the hospital 12/27/08 and came out 3 weeks later and 30 pounds lighter. He was home 4 days and then had a relapse and ended up in a physical rehab for 2 more weeks. It's been a rough year healthwise for me and him; and I am ever so grateful he is here for another New Year's Eve.

The festa dei sette pesci menu:
1. Mussels Marinara
2. Alaskan Snow Crab legs
3. Lobster tails and drawn butter
4. Cocktail Shrimp
5. Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo
6. Clams Casino
7. Fried Catfish (hey we're black not Italian)

To Whom it May Concern:

To Whom it May Concern:
I am not responsible for the banning of CigarBabe or anyone else on that site. I do not have an 'in' with the moderators or the administrators of this site. As a matter of fact, I feel fairly confident in stating that many of the current mods don't even like me. They are NOT at my beck and call and never were.

If I were to hazard a guess as to why CigarBabe was banned she probably did to a few other people what she did to me. She has a bad habit of gaining peoples confidence and trust online and then anything said to her on the phone or in a text message, IM or e-mail goes into her liquor soaked memory banks. She then thinks nothing of posting private information about you, your mate, or your family in a thread.

This is kinda ironic to me. A few years ago she lambasted everyones favorite Arliss, for posting her personal information on a site; and he was banned immediately. Maybe it's like when kids are beaten or phsyically abused some grow up to beat their own children and physically abuse them. She had personal info posted online, so now she does the same to others.

FWIW: She told me things about her life, health, and marriage that I would never dream of posting here or anywhere else. Then again I'm not much for drunk posting.

Nashville Christmas

I was afraid the trip would be a nightmare because my dad has a lot of trouble walking now, cause of his Parkinson's. Steps are all but impossible for him. Since this was a bus trip run by the Senior Center I was dreading getting him on and off the bus. But the bus driver was really patient and helpful, so the only bad part was when I had to lift his 6'2". 185 lb. body out of the bus seat. Now, my back is killing me.

The lady who planned the trip did a decent job of it; but we didn't have a lot of information before we got there. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see that we were staying at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel! We got there about 3:30 Friday afternoon, took a nap had dinner in one of the 6 restaurants in the hotel and then we got back on our bus to go to see the Rockettes Christmas Show at the Ryman Auditorium. It was beautiful! I have always loved the live nativity and all the pretty costumes. It always makes me tear up with joy and I am not one of those girls that crys all the time.



Saturday, we got up early and had the breakfast buffet. AWESOME FOOD! I ate like a refugee. Then we went to a craft show which was in the hotel and the Hall of Trees, Christmas tree display. Mom was kind enough to buy me a nice, little dress with bling on it to wear to the Opry that night at the craft fair.






While waiting for the shuttle bus to the mall I browsed one of the hotel gift shops and found myself a pink cowgirl hat for only $20! When we were at the mall I saw almost the exact same hat for $49.98. I love a good bargain and I was so happy I did a little happy dance.

Then mom and I took the free shuttle to the Opry Mills Mall and shopped! Mom has been on a quest for black flats for months and she finally found a pair she liked and that fit. She wears a 7.5N so finding shoes for her is always a chore. The mall was packed tighter than I don't know what. There was a Subway in the mall so we picked up a foot long FEAST and some chips and took it back to the hotel so we could eat dinner with dad, before boarding the bus to go downtown to the Grand Ole Opry!

I've seen the Grand Ole Opry on tv a million times, but it was such a thrill to be there. I didn't realize it was such a small venue, but the acoustics are excellent and there isn't a bad seat in the house. BONUS: They not only allow but encourage you to get out of your seat and take flash photos of your favorite performers! There were a bunch of acts but the ones I enjoyed most were Jean Shepherd, John Conlee, Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, The Whites, and of course Trisha Yearwood. I love her! She sang: She's in Love With the Boy, How Do I Live?, and Your Cheating Heart. Back on the bus and back to the hotel.

We packed and loaded up, and were on the bus by 10:30 Sunday morning and headed back for home.

I didn't see a single motorcycle the whole time we were in Nashville, which I thought odd at first. However, it was unseasonably cold and some areas east of the city actually had 1-3 inches of snow Friday night, into Saturday morning. I've never been on a motorcycle when it's under 50 degrees so I'm guessing riding in the snow and the cold is less than fun.

All in all it was a good trip, mom and I bickered a few times but we do that at home too.

Just Ranting About the Usual

Dad fell twice last Thursday (12-3-09), the 2nd fall landed him in the ER with a mild concussion. His first fall was when I was at my shrinks office. Apparently he fell walking from the driveway into the garage with his 4 pronged cane. He gets nervous about steps. Fortunately, we live in a ranch house with no steps. He got all nervous & shaky due to the 1.5" elevation in the concrete from the driveway to the garage. Mom got hysterical and started crying cause I wasn't there to pick him up, as I did the previous week when he did the same thing. Finally she ran next door to our neighbors house and one of the guys there was able to come and help get daddy up and into the house.

The 2nd fall happend maybe 4 hours later at Captain D's. Mom had decided she didn't want to cook dinner that night so they went out. Dad fell walking out of the restaurant with his cane. The floor in Captain D's was not wet, it's just how he is now that the disease has set in.

I wasn't there cause I had to take the handyman home. I hired a handyman to help me get the 8' Christmas tree that mom prefers out of the shed in the backyard, and into the house. There is also a 6' tree but she doesn't like that one. At this point my life revolves around keeping mom happy so she doesn't bitch at me. Actually that's pretty much the story of my life.

The handyman also had to disconnect the old broken tv in the folks bedroom, take it out of the entertainment center, move it to the garage; and hook up the new 27" flat panel, LCD, HDTV to the cable box. Mom had purchased a new TV on black Friday. Dad as you know has Parkinson's Disease and is unfortuately all but useless to us around the house. I just didn't have the strength necessary to lift that large old television up and out of its perch.

Oh, the handyman is also a bit of a computer geek and he was able to install my new soundcard. He also sharpened my pocket knife. All that for $20! God Bless America.

Mom fell Sunday, getting off the bus, in the parking lot, at the senior center. She made it through the entire trip w/o a mishap and falls getting off the bus 5 miles from home. Her knee went out on her, this happens often . . . like daily. Usually if she wears her knee brace she doesn't fall all the way to the ground like she did on Sunday. She was lucky her only injury other than her pride was to her left elbow. It's a little bruised and the skin was scraped off in about a 2" area. I have been putting Neosporin on it and a clean bandage daily. It is healing nicely.

Tomorrow I have to schlep all the Christmas decorations out of the shed and into the house. Then I have to start writing out moms and my Christmas cards and get them into the mail.

Friday, I have to do the grocery shopping, start decorating the tree and do a host of other junk.

It's National Family Caregivers Month!

Top 10 Ways to Celebrate National Family Caregivers Month 2009

There are many ways to celebrate family caregivers and to take action and communicate the important messages of NFC Month. The following are ideas and guides to help you create a successful National Family Caregivers Month in your community:

* Offer a few hours of respite time to a family caregiver so they spend time with friends, or simply relax.

* Send a card of appreciation or a bouquet of flowers to brighten up a family caregiver’s day.

* Encourage local businesses to offer a free service for family caregivers through the month of November.

* Participate in the National Family Caregivers Association’s FREE national teleclass: Safe & Sound: How to Prevent Medication Mishaps The free one hour teleclass/webinar will be November 12 at 2 p.m. ET. For more information visit: National Family Caregivers Association.

* Help a family caregiver decorate their home for the holidays or offer to address envelopes for their holiday cards.

* Offer comic relief! Purchase tickets to a local comedy club, give a family caregiver your favorite funny movie to view, or provide them an amusing audio book to listen to while doing their caregiving activities.

* Find 12 different family photos and have a copy center create a monthly calendar that the family caregiver can use to keep track of appointments and events.

* Offer to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for a caregiving family in your community, so they can just relax and enjoy the holiday.

* A United States postage stamp honoring the more than 50 million family caregivers in America is officially “under consideration” by the U.S. Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee for introduction as early as 2011. Sign the petition at National Family Caregivers Association and ask others to sign the petition letter.

* Help a family caregiver find information and resources on the internet or to locate a local support group.

I know many of us are caregivers and the stress is sometimes monumental. For me the internet and blogging are a welcome respite from this labor of love.

Sister, Love Thyself!

This blog was sent to me by a good friend in Jersey. I'm glad she shared it with me; and in turn I shall share it with you.

Sister, Love Thyself

It’s the Rosa Parks syndrome.

We black women are taught to be martyrs, to lay our bodies on the altar of our community, in the well-worn tradition of our mothers, and their mothers, and so on and so on and so forth, so that our children—preferably, our male children—can go forth.

Before Mother Parks sat down that day on the bus, she had done all sorts of work for the community as a civil rights worker, but she wasn’t given time to speak at the historic March on Washington. Neither were other black women.

But I can bet you all that fried chicken the male speakers invariably ate—after the March—was cooked by black women.

Every woman of every complexion is taught–outright or by observation–to ignore her own needs for the good of others; I think that’s a universal woman thing. But I don’t know any white women who are taught that, white guys just have the right to listen to songs calling them “bitches and hoes” because it’s part of white male rage, the need to for them to blow off historical steam. Unless it’s Rush Limbaugh, nobody tells white women that white guys have had it so hard in this country, so let them play their mean-spirited, woman-hating music.

And though a lot of white people, men and women, don’t believe a white woman’s testimony when she accuses a white man of rape, a white woman doesn’t have the entire white community on her back, telling her to recant.

Even black women’s magazines differ from “mainstream” (i.e. white) women’s magazines. You never get articles in mainstream magazines advising white women to marry men who have less education than they do and/or who make less money than they do or even, to marry men who have been to prison. You don’t have articles chiding white women for being uppity, reminding them that they can’t really be too choosy about their romantic partners.

Tangent: I’ll never forget years ago, in the aftermath of that “other” march—the Million Man March—Essence magazine had this whole spread on the March. But black women weren’t even invited by Minister Louis Farrakhan to attend the March, which was billed as a “Day of Atonement.” I kept asking myself, if this is a March for men, why is it in a women’s magazine? And then there were my other questions: if a brother wanted to “atone” for what he had done to his wife and/or the mother of his kids, how come he spent hundreds dollars to travel hundreds of miles away from her to say so? I mean, he couldn’t get a babysitter and take a sister out to the Red Lobster within a twenty-mile radius or something?

The notion that black women should never occupy an uppity space means that she must feel responsible for saving the community in which she was raised; she must never get above that community, even if she hurts herself in the process. I’m all for doing the essential work to help black folks, but it’s time for us to find a way to keep this community going without destroying black women in the process, and one of the ways I’ve decided is just to tell other sisters, “You matter, to me and to yourself.”

In my own life, I try to give my sister-friends affirmation, what I call the “woo-woo,” a term I stole from Sinclair on “Living Single.” Remember that show? It was the precursor to “Sex in the City,” only instead of living in Manhattan, those four black women lived in Brooklyn before it was all edgy-like.

Sinclair was my favorite character, a quirky, strange-dresser woman who looked at the world the way she saw it: through nice, sweet, loving eyes. She was the quintessential, idealized black woman, only without the crack-addict relatives sleeping on her couch always asking her, “Can I hold five dollars?” And whenever one of her friends was feeling down, she would pat her and say, “Woo-woo. Woo-woo.”

Whenever one of my close friends has been depressed, he or she will call me. Most have to call instead of visit, because all but two live in other states, far away. On the phone, if I hear sadness, I will ask, “Do you need the woo-woo?” And then I’ll begin my litany: “You’re fabulous. You’re so cute. The world doesn’t know your power. You are touched by the hand of God.”

Or if I’m depressed, I’ll call up one of them and say, “I need the woo-woo bad.” In this way, I can cut through the preamble, and get right to what I need, which is reassurance that I am loved and accepted, just as I am. Sort of like an emotional quickie, without the need for condoms and such.

There’s one friend I have, Kim, who doesn’t even wait for me to tell her I need woo-woo. She just knows. Kimberly is the can’t-live-without sister I’ve been friends with for thirty years. She’s the one I’ve shared every cycle of my life with. And I do mean every, if you get my drift.

Kim was the one who insisted that I start this blog. Really, she pushed me to start it because she knows that I needed to say certain things out loud, in public, even if it makes other people uncomfortable to hear them.

She’s not in this crazy, writing world of mine, where the publication of a poem in a journal that only a thousand people read—out of the three hundred million people in the country—can define a person’s self-worth, and can determine whether your peers will speak to you at the annual Associated Writing Programs conference.

And because Kim and I go back so far, have grown up together, we know that when you’re a young girl, you say you are never going to ignore yourself for others; you promise yourself you’ll never be your mother. Kim and I talked about that–laughed about it– just a couple of weeks ago. It has been on my mind ever since.

If you’re a black woman, in your secret heart, you insist you’ll never sing your black mother’s blues song–but then suddenly, you are your mother, for better and worse. Sure, you’ve inherited the good things, like her great skin, her cute and (mostly) firm breasts, her love of God and her recipes for cream biscuits and peach cobbler. But you’re carrying her emotional loads, too.

You’re taking care of others who can’t or won’t take care of themselves. You’re waiting in vain for somebody to say “I appreciate you” for the work you do at home or the office. You have an inability to stand up for yourself because “ladies” just learn to suffer with grace. You’re depending on God to change the hearts of others because Jesus can work miracles on even the worst person. (We ask a lot of Jesus in this community, don’t we?)

Everyday, you’re driving yourself crazy while repeating that same “keeping it together” mantra as your mother did– and you’ve probably also inherited at least one of her health problems, too. The same extra thirty pounds. Her grapefruit-size uterine fibroids. Her high blood pressure. Or her diabetes.

Usually, I blog about something that strikes me that I’ve read about in the news, but this issue with black women and self-love is something I don’t need to read about, because it’s going on with me every day—in my body, in my life, in my family, or on my job. It’s also going on with all my black female friends, whether they are married or single, child-free or mothers, and I see it with sisters I meet when I travel or who email me because they read a poem I wrote somewhere.

As a black woman, I have to give the woo-woo to myself, if I want to do more than just survive–if I want to thrive. And I am determined to do that. No disrespect to the mothers of our past, because they’ve given us some real gifts. But I decided this year that the Black Woman Martyr Look ain’t cute for me. I want my reward now, not in heaven, and I don’t care who thinks I’m selfish or unloving or “un-Christian” or too loud or too pushy.

When I say “reward,” I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about peace of mind. I’m talking about health of spirit and body. I’m talking about self-love.

I understand now that sometimes, you have to fight for self-love. It just doesn’t get handed to you–not when you’re a black woman. I strongly suspect it doesn’t get handed to anybody. And people can stand in the way of your self-love. If you can’t be ladylike and just calmly walk around them, then sometimes, you got to learn judo in order to kick people’s you-know-whats. Then you carefully roll them to the side of the road, so you can walk peacefully on your way.

The lesson about claiming self-love and leaving some people or causes to the side is a difficult one, because we sisters want to help and maintain our community and also, honor our mothers who kept this whole thing going for so long. And also, let’s face it: co-dependence has been going on a long time in the black community under the guise of “No brother or sister left behind.”

The girl-children–even the grandchildren– of those black women from Mother Parks’s self-sacrificing generation are grown now, and some of us are even mothers. For those of us who still need to learn self-love–and that’s a whole bunch of us–we can’t say that we’ll start valuing ourselves only once we’re fully valued by others, love ourselves only when we’re fully loved by others, because that time may never come.

We can’t wait for God to give us our reward in heaven or for someone nice to hand us glory now. Remember what even the most self-sacrificing of black grandmothers used to tell us, back in the day? “God helps those who help themselves.”

I am Sick & Tired of Being Sick & Tired

Just to recap and get everyone up to speed:
5/26/09 Hysteroscopic Myomectomy
7/6/09-7/24/09 The painful & heavy period from hell!
8/25/09 Hysteroscopic Myomectomy. That's not a typo, I had 2 surgeries in three months time. If only my garden grew things as well as my uterus grows fibroids.
9/4/09 Deep Vein Thrombosis of lower right calf.
9/20/09 I was watching Mystery Diagnosis and realized I have Non-Classical Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia 9/21/09 E-mailed my Reproductive Endocrinologist to tell her I have NC-CAH.
9/25/09 Post-Op check up & blood work. The idiot endocrinology resident insisted I had Cushing's not NC-CAH.

They sent me to the lab and took 6 vials of blood. And I was given an orange jug for the 24 hour urine test.

10/5/09 Shockingly bad news
Renal Failure
Well I had a complete blood workup done and thats what the results apparently pointed to. My primary care physician told me that I was anemic, had no vitamin D, am diabetic, and apparently I have very poor kidney function. When I asked what that meant she said I was at risk for renal failure. Which I automatically translated to mean I would need dialysis and/or a kidney transplant. I think I went into shock at that point because although normally very vocal, my brain just sort of shut down and I couldn't speak. It was at this point that my primary care physician told me that I should forget about ever becoming pregnant because it would probably kill me and if I lived my baby would be put at risk of various birth defects, such as low birth weight, heart disease, and other things.

When I say I have no vitamin D I mean zip, zilch, nada. She put me on a presciption dosage of Vitamin D, 50,000 iu's twice a week.The average over the counter vitamin D caplet has 400 iu's.

Yes, that's right I am as mouthy and brassy in real life as I am on line. I believe in asking doctors questions. But I was truly stunned.

Not sure about the rest of that day. I know I called my mom on my way home; but she wasn't there. When I got home I just kicked off my shoes, curled up on the sofa in the den, tried not to think about Julia Roberts character in Steel Magnolias, and went to sleep until dinner.

10/10/09 My repro. endo's nurse called me at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon to tell me they need to do more blood work. FYI - A call from a doctors office on a Saturday is NEVER a good thing.

10/15/09 I go into Atlanta for the bloodwork and this time I write down the test names so I can check them online. Guess what? They are just now testing for NC-CAH. Apparently the 6 vials of blood they took to test for Cushing's all came back negative. The 3 vials of blood they took Thursday were to test for Non-Classical Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia.

Son of a gun, turns out I do know my body pretty well. Imagine that? After only 43 years I know my body better than some young pup medical resident.
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This was of course in the midst of my computer dying and the Great Georgia flood of 2009. Meteorologists have said that this was not one of those piddly little 100 year floods; but a 500 year flood. Hence there being no previous record of a flood this bad. Seventeen counties have been declared a state of emergency including the one in which I live.
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Also during this time my dads neurologist put him on Mirapex for his Parkinson's Disease. Guess what? One of the side effects of Mirapex is visual, olfactory, and auditory hallucinations! Talk about the treatment being worse than the disease. Mom and I thought "OMG! He's gone senile overnight and it's getting so bad so quick." We didn't know what to do. We finally thought to call his doc as this was a new medication. Sure enough, he told us to cut dads dosage. Literally overnight his hallucinations ended.
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The really disturbing thing is my primary care physician, Dr. Sharon Haynes wait and see attitude about my kidneys and the diabetes. This is serious stuff! My doctor has NOT put me on any diabetes medication or insulin, has not recommended a change in diet AND has not laid out a treatment plan for my kidneys. WTF!?!?! Until a cousin who is a retired nurse, visited me on Saturday, I didn't even know that I should be seeing a nephrologist for my kidneys.

Diabetes Increases Risk of Eye Disease

Roughly 40% of people diagnosed with diabetes in the United States have some form of diabetic retinopathy. Retinopathy refers to non-inflammatory damages to the retina of the eye, in most cases, due to problems with blood supply. The retina is a tissue located at the back of the eye and sensitive to light. Retinopathy leads to decreased vision and eventually blindness.

Diabetics also has higher risk of other eye problems such as cataracts (loss of transparency in the eye lenses) and glaucoma (build-up of fluid pressure in the eye).

Early Retinopathy
Early retinopathy is also known as nonproliferative retinopathy.
Poor blood sugar control in diabetic patients makes small blood vessels in the eye (called capillaries) become particularly fragile and develop weakened spots called micro aneurysms. Fluid is then leaked onto the macula, which is responsible for precise vision. This problem is referred to as macular edema. As the disease progresses, some of the damaged blood vessels are closed off, blocking the blood supply to parts of the retina. No new blood vessels grow during this stage of retinopathy.

Later Stage Retinopathy
During the later stages of retinopathy, new capillaries grow in the eye to supply blood to the areas that are damaged. This is why this later stage of retinopathy is often referred to as proliferative retinopathy.

These new capillaries are very fragile. Bleeding from these new capillaries can severely reduce vision capacity and cause blindness. In some cases, bleeding can lead to retinal detachment and the retina is detached from the wall of the eye.

Risk Factors for Diabetic Retinopahy
According to the Wisconsin Epidemiologic Study of Diabetic Retinopathy (WESDR), 3.6% of type-1 diabetes and 1.6% type-2 diabetes were legally blind in the study.
The main risk factor for developing diabetic retinopathy is the duration of diabetes. Among patients with type-1 diabetes in the WESDR study, 8% develop any form of diabetic retinopathy at 3 years after diagnosed with diabetes, 25% at 5 years and 80% at 15 years.

On average, it takes 15 years to go from the first stage of diabetic to blindness if it is not properly treated.

Early Detection of Retinopathy Can Prevent Blindness
Early stage of retinopathy is treatable. If you have diabetes, you should have your eyes checked every year. If you have some difficulty seeing clearly, seek an ophthalmologist immediately. Good control of blood sugar levels, for instance through metformin use or lifestyle modifications, also prevents the onset and slows down the progression of retinopathy.

Rude Questions From Strangers

Lately my mom has been perturbed by acquaintances and strangers asking her a weird question. My mom is 79 and my father is 81. My mom could pass for 50 in a heartbeat. My dad on the other hand is in the advanced stages of Parkinson's. He no longer walks but shuffles with the aide of a rollator. Sometimes he drools, and he has trouble speaking. Yet they manage to go to the local senior center three days a week. Last week a rather rude woman, whom she had only spoken to once or twice before asked if that man she came with every day was her father or her husband? Mom was aghast! When she told me I was horrified at the womans rudeness and audacity. It seems to me and mother agreed, that she should have quietly asked one of my mothers closer friends at the center. More importantly, why did she need to know?

Has Fear of H1N1 (Swine Flu) Changed Your Routine?

From Altar Wine to Beer Pong, Flu Fears Curb Life’s Rituals

Yolanda Ray works in the kind of place where people “really love to eat and snack.” Colleagues are quick to tempt one another, she says, with homemade dishes and sugary treats laid bare for the taking on desktops. Before the age of swine flu, the arrangement was fine. But now, employees at Rudd Equipment in Louisville, Ky., have new company-wide directives: No sharing of unwrapped candy. Cakes and pies must be cut and wrapped at home. Food needs to be served with utensils. She added, “Sometimes I feel like the swine flu police.”

In offices, churches, hospitals, college dorms and schools — and even at yoga classes and in apple orchards — the fear of swine flu is turning age-old rituals on their head. What used to be O.K. is not anymore, as the flu has ushered in new standards of etiquette that can be, in turns, mundane, absurd and heartbreaking. Students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., are being asked to refrain from playing beer pong, a communal drinking game, after an outbreak of illness that officials feared might be swine flu. Roman Catholic parishioners of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., have been instructed by the bishop not to shake hands at the sign of peace, and wine is not being offered for the sacrament of communion.

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As many of you know I am kind of a germaphobe. I also have the immune system of a 2 day old infant. Yet, I am not freaking out about H1N1, because I'm already doing most of the stuff the CDC and various health officials recommend in so far as hand washing and cleanliness.

I think it's time for the religions who do communion from one chalice or cup to change. The first time I went to a church where everyone drank from the same cup I was about 7 years old and I was HORRIFIED! Even then I knew that 100 people drinking from the same cup was a great way for germs and sickness to be transferred. I know that the Priest or Reverend wipes the cup with a cloth which has allegedly been soaked in alcohol or some disinfectant after each sip. I just don't buy that it is really disinfecting after the 10th person or so. As for the 'Passing of the Peace' , I have never liked that tradition just because of the germ thing. During cold and flu season I find myself making mental note of just who is coughing and sneezing into their hand so that I know NOT to shake their hand at the 'Passing of the Peace'.

In the church in which I was raised, we took communion from individual mini-silver chalices. None of this cross-contamination business happens in any of the dozens of United Methodist churches I have attended since childhood. In my current church they use miniature clear plastic cups. Kind of like the Nyquil cup, but smaller. I like this because they are disposable. There is no question that so-and-so didn't wash & polish them properly; because you get a new one each time.

MRSA - Infection Control in Dialysis Settings

My beau's mom is really sick. She has diabetes, high blood pressure, she lost 2 toes to diabetes in April. Since then she apparently has had a few bone infections. She is also on dialysis 3 days a week. To say she is unwell is the understatement of the year. Tex likes to know the bottomline, the worst case scenario, so he can prepare himself and his younger siblings. He won't like hearing that 23% of dialysis patients die due to MRSA but that appears to be the fact.

Infection Control in Dialysis Settings
68 slides:

Slide #4 - 23% of those who get MRSA in a dialysis setting die. :(

Slide #7 - Cause-specific hospitalization rates among hemodialysis patients, 2004-05:
• Vascular access infection = 132 admissions / 1000 pt-yrs
• Bloodstream infection = 102 admissions / 1000 pt-yrs
• Pneumonia = 86.3 admissions / 1000 pt-yrs

Since 1993, rates have increased for:
Bloodstream infection (+29%)
Cellulitis (+24%)
Pneumonia (+19%)