Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Lucy: From Congo to Chicago

Rich Ratzan directed us recently to Lucy,  a novel by Laurence Gonzales, that that deals with "issues that are currently very much in the scientific and moral foreground."  I am reading it now (at his suggestion) and finding it absorbing, well-written and thought-provoking.  Here is an excerpt from Rich's review:

"Lucy is a novel named for the female hybrid offspring born of a bonobo mother and human father. The result of artificial insemination by her father, Donald Stone, a British anthropologist in the Congo with aims to improve the human species, Lucy is a very human-looking 15 year old girl. An American primatologist in a nearby camp, Jenny Lowe, finds Lucy next to her parents, killed by Congolese insurgents, and whisks her off to Chicago and enrolls her in high school, where Lucy excels at wrestling and meets a friend, Amanda Mather. After Lucy contracts a viral disease that bonobos, not humans contract, Lucy decides to pre-empt those who wish to expose her and posts the news of her hybrid karyotype on Facebook" Download Lucy Ratzan review

Rich Ratzan has a literary blog LITERATUREandMEDICINE that is a valuable resource.  You may contact him at:  RR Email.

 

 

Audiobooks: The Mind's Ear

I confess. I am hooked on audiobooks.  Have been for the past fifteen years. 

1. A fine article, in the Sunday, NY Times Book Review, addresses this increasingly popular pastime.

"Audiobooks are on the rise. Purchasable, downloadable, borrowable from the library, they are making ever deeper inroads into what publishers persist in calling (with touching optimism) 'the book market'.”

"The Minds Ear" is a short, eloquent exposition of this great gift: spoken books.

2.Peter Osnos, a writer for The Atlantic, has another fine article on audiobooks: "The Coming Audiobooks Boom."

3. Here is a third fine article on listening to books, this one by Jonathon Schwartz: "Wired for Sound."

 

Basil D’Oliveira, a Symbol for Cricket and for Equality, Dies at 80

By Douglas Martin

NY Times, November 27, 2011

"Just as Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson pursued their athletic dreams and developed superlative skills before altering history, Basil D’Oliveira, who was classified as colored under South African apartheid, wanted only to play at the highest levels of his sport, cricket. His struggle to do that in a country of government-enforced racial segregation became a powerful symbol in the ultimately successful fight against apartheid."  Read this moving obituary.

Marginal Notes: Reach out and touch something

“Amelia, tell the doctor what you got for your birthday.”

Amelia’s face lights up. “An iPod!” she says.

“An iPod?” Involuntarily, I’m caught up short. An iPod for a 4-year-old?

“She’s always playing with our iPhones,” the father says. “She’s gotten the hang of a few of the games. We figure it’s never too early to introduce kids to the touch screen. She’ll be that much further ahead when she starts kindergarten next year.”  more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for 32 years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Giving Thanks for the Gift of Time

"On Thanksgiving we are grateful for all of the blessings bestowed upon us: good food, a comfortable lifestyle, family and friends.  There is one gift, however, that we may be overlooking.  It is the gift of time."  Len Hoenig, an internist in Coral Gables, Florida, "gifts" us with this short, heartfelt essay that can be considered on Thankssgiving Day.  Len, is no turkey!  See:  Download A Physician Speaks from the Heart 

Umbrella Man Conspiracy Theory

To mark the forty-eighth anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, the Times has posted a short documentary film by Errol Morris “The Umbrella Man.” The film features an interview with Josiah (Tink) Thompson, the author of “Six Seconds in Dallas,” a micro-study of the assassination, and centers on the mystery surrounding a man who appears in the Zapruder film, standing in Dealey Plaza, just as the shots rang out. On a perfectly pleasant day, why was this man holding a black umbrella? It was a question that launched a host of conspiracy theories related to the assassination.

To read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2011/11/john-updike-jfk-assassination-the-umbrella-man.html#ixzz1eU8nqnzH

APOD Keeper!

This is the Astronomical Picture of the Day, APOD, for Nobember 18, 2011.  APOD is originated, written, coordinated, and edited since 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell. The APOD archive contains the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the internet.

This image is a colorful topographic map of the the lunar farside, the side not seen from planet Earth.

Marginal Notes: The Way

Emilio Estevez's 2010 epic cinematic journey “The Way”unfolds along the panoramic backdrop of el Camino de Santiago—the Way of Saint James—the medieval pilgrimage route across northern Spain to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela where the remains of the Apostle are interred.

Filmed on location against the gorgeous landscapes of northern Spain, the spiritual journey of American ophthalmologist Thomas Avery (Martin Sheen) begins as he is called from the comforts of his California home to Saint Jean Pied de Port in France to identify the body of his only son Daniel (Emilio Estevez). Avery elects to walk the Camino on behalf of his son, embarking with Daniel’s ashes which he dutifully portions out along the way.  more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for 32 years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

My Father's Story

Tamar Hoffmann, a holistic internist in Honolulu, Hawaii graces us with the story of her family's escape from Nazi Germany.  It is a moving tale of an ordinary family in extraordinary times.

"My father was was born in December 1921, the first son of a young orthodox Jewish couple in Kassel, Germany.  He had a blissful childhood, living with his parents, two younger siblings and paternal grandparents in a spacious apartment on Train Station Street (Bahnhoff Strasse).

The kids went to a Hebrew school. My great-grandfather taught them Hebrew even before they started school so they could read and recite the prayers. After school they studied and played music, which had a very important role in their lives..."  You will find Tamar's story captivating and moving:  Download My Father's Story

You may contact the author at Tamar's Email.

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