Monday, July 8, 2002

I should have written this Thursday night so I could post it before the end of the Fourth, but I didn't feel like it. I wanted to savor the day.   We have a several-year-old tradition of inviting some friends to join us on the lawn of Los Gatos High School for a Fourth of July concert by the San Jose Wind Symphony. The music was grand as always, but this time the temperature was moderate, and we grabbed a seating area perfectly positioned for the shade to move on to us within a half hour of arrival and keep us cool throughout the concert.   Talk about heaven on earth. Wonderful music, including Sousa, Gershwin, Cohan, and the 1812 Overture, complete with cannon and musket fire by the James River Squadron Civil War Reenactors.   Stars and Stripes Forever finished off the concert, and we were off to burgers and beer in our back yard. All of this was made more poignant by the knowledge that a lot of people aren't here to enjoy the Fourth this year. We have a lot of work to do before the next Independence Day: some will be putting their lives on the line to thwart those who would do us harm, and the rest need to be putting our citizenship on the line to ensure that the nation and its ideals will be handed down intact to succeeding generations. 10:29:21 PM      comment [] First, studies showed that Omega-3 fatty acids in fish like Salmon have a beneficial effect, and then came the discovery that chocolate can be good for you. Now the New York Times reports that a small but increasing number of scientists are coming to the conclusion that our current low-fat diet guidelines may not be so good after all. Foods considered more or less deadly under the low-fat dogma turn out to be comparatively benign if you actually look at their fat content. More than two-thirds of the fat in a porterhouse steak, for instance, will definitively improve your cholesterol profile (at least in comparison with the baked potato next to it); it's true that the remainder will raise your L.D.L., the bad stuff, but it will also boost your H.D.L. The same is true for lard. If you work out the numbers, you come to the surreal conclusion that you can eat lard straight from the can and conceivably reduce your risk of heart disease. Does this mean I can have more than one filet mignon a year? 8:22:44 PM      comment [] Botswana's life expectancy has gone from developed-world standards before the onset of the AIDS epidemic to a possible 27 by 2010 if current trends continue. That's twenty-seven. The grim statistics are laid out in this Guardian article. No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; [sigma] any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. -John Donne (Via Lance Knobel) 8:01:45 PM      comment []

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