learning to read

rollin' with it

i am acquainted with a four-year-old who, after five months immobilized in spica casts under a tentative diagnosis of osteogenesis imperfecta, over the past fortnight, has been diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, biopsied, has endured the installation of a central line, a day or two of intravenous morphine, and several infusions of his first course of chemotherapy.

tonight he wants to eat sushi.

circumspectly (vorsichtig?)

in light of recent sensational reports of a decision by a german regional court,
i thought it timely to link a couple earlier works pertaining to the subject matter:

Recipe for Imprinting the Neonate and matthew 5.29

wanting also to post a link to adam wagner's sober assessment of the issues and their implications, admittedly in europe and the united kingdom, over at uk human rights blog, i was a-foraging for the link in yet another animated discussion of circumcision over at metafilter, when this google-ad/headline juxtaposition shook my cognitive equilibrium:



now, if you'll excuse me, i'm'a go see about some mail-order brides. . .

Cry1Ab contamination made them grapes sour!

from Dinesh C. Sharma, over at India Today (a little bit cut up):

Till now, [proponents of] GM crops have maintained that Bt toxin poses no danger to human health as the protein breaks down in the human gut[; its] presence . . . in human blood shows that this does not happen.

Scientists from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, have detected the insecticidal protein, Cry1Ab, circulating in the blood of pregnant [and] non-pregnant women, [as well as] in fetal blood. . . .

The research paper has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the journal Reproductive Toxicology[:] The study covered 30 pregnant women and 39 women who had come for tubectomy at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke in Quebec. None . . . had worked or lived with a spouse working in contact with pesticides. They were all consuming [a] typical Canadian diet that included GM foods such as soybeans, corn and potatoes.

Blood samples were taken before delivery for pregnant women and at tubal ligation for non-pregnant women. Umbilical cord blood sampling was done after birth.

Cry1Ab toxin was detected in 93 per cent and 80 per cent of maternal and fetal blood samples, respectively[,] and in 69 per cent of tested blood samples from non-pregnant women. . . .

Author, Sharma, offers a pretty generic quote from two "researchers" (Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc) who may be authors of the described study; look out for the Aris, Leblanc, et al., in a forthcoming issue of Reproductive Toxicology.

the world peace game

kids say the darnedest things when they're livin' what sun tzu wrote.

bratii and antihumor (cont'd)

<--continued from] (cast: E__ - 12; P__ - 11 ; K__ - 9(ish?); S__ - 6(ish?); J__ - 9 mo.)

E__ I find to be a little bit inscrutable. She has developed, and often appears to me to be, very solitary, and/or very close to my mother. During the family visits or her visits alone she tends to either be off alone working patiently and slowly at some craft or other (often drawing or writing letters), or else with my mother, helping with whatever task is at hand and learning whatever my mother talks about when she has a willing receptive audience, and often patient clear explanations of things. And that's pretty much how she was this time. More affectionate. More confident. She was focused on some craft, apparently oblivious and disinterested when I reported the "mommy doesn't love me" event to my mother, but piped right up to ask which well known adage about the apple and the tree I had meant.

fun with the bratii and antihumor

cast: E__ - 12; P__ - 11 ; K__ - 9(ish?); S__ - 6(ish?); J__ - 9 mo.

Fun with the bratii was had this year on two occasions while they stayed with their parents at my parents' house this holiday. On Sunday, Xmas day observed, J__ and I met, discovering many common facial expressions, vocalizations and gross gestures. We communicated a lot, saying who knows what but apparently enjoying it. By today - when my sister hosted a new year's eve party at our parents' house for whoever on her huge mailing list was in town (as it turned out, not too many, but with a bevy of additional kids) and available for 9 hours - J__ was comfortable enough with me to grab my fingers to pull herself upright. And comfortable enough standing there with my fingers to permit her mother to fetch a camera and then actually mug for the shot. Then, as her mother turned away, she decided to let go with all of her hands at the same time. I fleetingly imagined the scenario in which, at my touch and out of the view of her parents, J__ should first stand, and then take her first steps, right then/there! So, out of consideration for my sister, I pushed her over and told her never to trust anybody, and her mother came over disapprovingly to stop the crying jag. Seriously, I did not push her over. I did experience the fantasy developmental milestone scenario. But, in fact, when J__ let go, she was not properly balanced. I had been trying to keep one finger in her no longer grasping hand, and was not ready for her to fall, but did manage to, not particularly gently, catch her. We were both surprised by that too.

riparian charts for lost canoers

I have been talking a lot with an enrapturing lady about whom I hesitate to speak in detail beyond saying that I find her wonderful, if a little hard to get. She's been the beneficiary (or, at least, object) of most of my attention lately.

Spent the past weekend at the Chesepeake bay beach house of my sisters' inlaws (sis and family now live out west, but have been visiting here). Apart from seeing her and all the brats, it was especially nice to paddle a canoe around for a couple hours.

Haven't been playing too much music (though I did have a chance recently at a party to perform in front of live people for the first time in maybe 10 years . . . with qualified results), and my reading has suffered a bit, but I did just finish reading Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers, which is a masterpiece.

The poet who recommended it to me said every paragraph is a masterful work of art in itself, and, having read it myself, now, I cannot (and would not) contradict his assertion.

Also: I have been enticed to dip my toe into the twenty first century by getting a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Now my pockets are too full, but I at least have a timepiece. And I can make and receive calls, which, I understand, is what those things are for. Big sort of beneficial surprise (I'm new to speaking about phone plans) is that I can speak to subscribers of the same phone service provider for free, and, as it turns out, each member of my family already is such a person.

Also, I'm learning to "text". That's what's up.