Willoughby and Wendy

Men's sex drive can be a pain. It is always intruding.  A guy looks at a beautiful woman and his pulse quickens, his chest puffs up, and his brain goes into neutral.  Sure, as he gets older, he becomes more accustomed to being rearranged for a short time.  He learns to keep some of his reaction to himself and he probably stops blushing.  

Somewhere long ago, I read that having a full bust line is like having male lures hung around your neck.  I can see that some male reactions are complimentary and welcome. Maybe dealing with an alert and sophisticated man who can and does treat a woman as an intelligent, valuable conversationalist and source of ideas and comments.  Just the other day, I learned about Paula Stone Williams, a transgender woman who was a man until her 60's.  She has TED Talks and videos on YouTube about her experiences comparing both sides of the human gender divide.

I have many posts in this blog about the value of meditation and mindfulness and there is indeed piles of evidence that meditation can enrich one's life, no matter what circumstances a person faces.  Within the last couple of years, I learned about psychology professor Willoughby Britton of Brown University, who has focused on the downside of meditation.  For some people, trying to just be can elicit fears and haunting ideas and Professor Britton has specialized in studying the ill effects that some people experience, what they are, why they occur and what can be done about them.

https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/research/varieties-contemplative-experience

Just today, I learned about Wendy McElroy, a Canadian writer who explains the positive side of pornography for women.  I haven't read any of her work but I suspect that there may be something to be said for pornography for both sexes.  Of course, what kinds, how it is created, how it is used - all such considerations matter. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Wendy+McElroy&t=brave&ia=web

 I read and hear steadily about the misuse of pornography and people, the degradation of women by pornography, and pornography addiction.  I just looked up "Are any women addicted to pornography?" in Duckduckgo and found over 6 million results.  Generally, it is a good idea to look carefully at the positives and negatives of anything and everything, if you or somebody has the time and energy.

Choices and her

I wrote my dissertation on using mathematical decision theory for designing a simulation of the work of a school principal.  Unless you are quite kinky, you would not find any part of it stimulating or arousing. You can download it free and see for yourself with the link on the bottom of the page here:

https://sites.google.com/site/kirbyvariety/dissertation-blog-links

I like the idea of the Oxford University "Very Short Introductions".  There are over 600 volumes in the series, which are generally available for $8 and are downloadable.  Reading and understanding the titles is an education in itself.  https://www.veryshortintroductions.com/

Recently, I read in the volume on choice/decision theory much discussion of irrationality in choice.  Mathematicians love to try to find tight logical principles that cannot be violated by a thinking person.  Unfortunately for them, life can be very tricky so no matter what I choose, what I decide, it may be a good choice in the context, for that time, for me, and my goals.

The principle that was maybe a bit over-discussed was the idea that introducing an additional option that I don't choose ought not change my preferences.  Suppose the waiter says I can have soup or salad.  I choose soup.  Then, she says,"Oh, I forgot. You can also choose an appetizer."  The decision theorists don't want me to say that point, "Oh, I would like a salad, not soup."  Why did I switch from one of the first alternatives to the other when the choices were increased?  

As a teacher and educator (and husband), I say, "Who cares?"  I offered Lynn a list of options for dinner:

• Cod

• Steak

• Swai

• Pizza

• Chicken thighs

• Pork chops

• Something else

She reminded me that I used to make tuna with pasta and she said she wanted that.  https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2012/06/dishes-i-am-proud-of.html

We both realize that the list includes "something else" and she was just choosing what she was invited to choose.  Still, I maintain that it is very difficult for a husband to predict what a wife will do.

Putting thought behind expression

I am still thinking about free speech.  I write a blog post each day that several of my friends say they like reading.  I don't place ads on the blog and I don't get paid to endorse products.  I do mention products that I like, such as the Kindle reader. I have a couple of friends who put writing online and I have offered talks about blogging.  

I think carefully about what I want to write.  I don't just write whatever comes to mind first.  I omit information that I think is personal, for me or for others.  I stay aware of what would probably be embarrassing or unnecessarily disagreeable.  When I think how easy it is to hurt, embarrass or alienate someone by accident, through careless choice of words, I realize there is no such thing as completely free speech.  The better I get at expressing ideas forcefully, imaginatively, memorably, effectively, the more powerful and motivating my writing becomes.  The same seems true of anyone else.  

A distinguishing feature of humans is their speech.  Today, we have a bit more technology to help us understand what is happening inside a functioning thinking human brain and body, but it is still quite limited and rough.  So, speech and writing are still our main tools for thought, discernment, analysis and mutual comparison and influence.  The book "The Ten Thousand Year Explosion" posits two main forces in human life and change over the last 10,000 years: agriculture and writing. The increase in food supplies and in understanding of what is healthy, life-enhancing food has certainly assisted in the human population reaching 7.5 billion. 

But writing, the internet and the ability to transmit voice and images has reached new levels of what can be done and by whom.  And, I need to add: how quickly.  I am just beginning to grasp how important speed is as a component of human life and interaction.  From the speed with which I can think to the speed with which I can type to the reaction speed of this computer, or my car, everywhere speeds and turn-around times have a big effect on my thought and life.  

Does this clash with our theme?

I had some promising ideas for today's post but I never got around to it. 

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=round+toit Now it is late in the day and I need to get this written.  

I was reading Dave Eggers' "A Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius".  The title seems to be an exaggeration but it doesn't mean that the work was composed by a genius who staggers.  It is supposed to mean that reading the book will be overwhelming, leaving me staggering.  So far, I am doing ok.  

Eggers had a tough childhood with a mother who was permanently very sick and disabled.  He describes the furnishings of his house.  He basically says that the furnishings didn't go with each other in support of any unifying theme.  That is where I disagreed with him.  I figure that either the unifying theme of a room, or a house, or the way one dresses or a period of history is easy to see or it isn't.  But, Dave, if you don't find or read or sense a unifying theme, that doesn't mean there isn't one.  Dave falls back on an idea of patheticness.  If a couch or chair or painting is forlorn, rejected, not appreciated or admired or loved, his family would take it in.  I feel there might be more to it.  Besides, if his mom or dad or grandmother had a tendency for contrast or clash or competition, it might be fun for him and for me to discover their thinking.  Might lead to better understanding of immediate ancestors and perhaps of himself.  You never know.  Today, you feel like you have uncovered a bit of your father but five years from now, the same idea is still with you.  Suddenly, it's you!  Later insights are possible, too.

Free speech for some

I have an ecopy of "Free Speech:A Very Short Introduction" by Nigel Warburton.  I haven't read it but I am getting interested in it. I have read that China is following in the footsteps of Russia and attempting to use social media to influence opinion in the US and other countries.  

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/05/19/the-kremlins-disinformation-playbook-goes-to-beijing/

I have read before that other countries have used social media to try to influence populations at home and abroad.

I imagine the whole world (of humans!) is getting slowly united.  Somewhat like a new bride and groom recently married, there are times when one group finds another's ideas, beliefs, practices and opinions to be outrageous, ridiculous, insulting, barbaric, crude, etc.  Many governments are reputed to punish dissent, disagreement and other deviations from what they or the person at the top has approved.  Even we have crimes of slander (speech about someone that falsely claims something that damages another's reputation) and libel (written or printed such claims).  

Nevertheless, if a foreign leader or "channel" or article says we need to destroy all chocolate and I run to the local store and start melting candy bars, people are going to be upset.  With me, yes, but also with that foreign source that seemed to spark my behavior.  I have read of the well-known Supreme Court justice who said it is criminal behavior to yell "Fire!" falsely in a crowded theater.  I guess there are limits to what can be said.  

I am a little cloudy on what is ok to say if I am a US citizen but not if I live in China or Russia.  I have a sense of the same difficulties that emerged for regional universities when it became clear that a college over in that part of the state or the country started communicating to young people in our part that their campus might be more fun than our campus. They were ignoring the boundaries that we had previously respected.  If a Russian citizen tells me that my position on abortion or race or the environment is wrong, am I more likely to start believing as he or she advises me to than if an Oregonian or some Connecticut Nutmegers tell me that?

Watching other lives

Yogi Berra said,"You can observe a lot just by watching." I think one can say that careful observation, maybe with notes made and pictures taken, can pay off.  It usually works best accompanied by thinking about what is seen.  Observation coupled with questioning and thoughtful analysis is often considered the fundamental tool of science, of furthering knowledge and understanding.

Most of the time, our moods and current situations have a grip on what we pay attention to, what we can observe.  I enjoyed this comic from the For Better or Worse strip the other day:

https://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/2020/05/24

We have probably all seen how the sight of little kids, the presence of little kids, even the thought of little kids, puts us all in a state of increased awareness and sensitivity.  Even puppies, or kittens or fawns, with their evident caution and wonder, can change the filters we use to see and think and appreciate and exclaim.

https://www.google.com/search?q=little%20kids

You can use the link to see pictures of little kids.  Just the idea or image of them can get us observing the world differently.

It is not just primary school kids.  If you are in your 80's and you see people in their 20's or 30's, their age, habits and talk can put your own life in a perspective that develops from their presence.  I have known students in the 20-30 age bracket who feared reaching 40.  That age seemed like the beginning of stilted, joyless times.  Of course, we have a way of reaching the next age without having quite the soggy burden we feared.  

When I was hypnotized, I used as a goal "getting new eyes" - not better vision but more ability to harbor the wonder of the little kid.  As Oscar Wilde wrote, a child of seven finds a story of a boy opening a door to find a witch exciting but a child of 3 or 4 is excited by a boy opening a door, period.  Sometimes, I get helped by concentrating on the fact that THIS minute, whatever it contains, is unique, never came before and won't ever be again.

Tunes and tears

I have a cabinet of CD's.  Every now and then, I like to select one without looking or choosing.  Today, my fingers found Eddy Arnold. I hadn't listened to that CD for probably 20 years.  It is titled Eddy Arnold Greatest Hits.  There is the same tone, rhythm and sense about the songs as there was when my sister and I did the dishes to his music in our big house 70 years ago. 

Listen for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJojlO7IFQ

If "Please Help Me, I'm Falling" doesn't do it for you, it might be a bit too much of a lament.   Try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMKxREAAL5M

When we had a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, I was surprised at how many singers and how many songs were in my head from years ago.

The word was "fickle"

Sometimes, it is fun to play a game after dinner.  Our son-in-law, that fine addition to our family that our daughter arranged decades ago, had an important birthday recently so Lynn arranged for a nice dinner.  Afterwards, we played a game.  We can play parlor games, using our living room as a parlor.  We have had good times with them before playing Password.

You know the idea: there is a little card with a piece of red plastic on it.  The word to be used is written in red and it is not in large letters.  There are two teams of two people each.  When Lynn and I are partners, I read the target word and I am allowed to say one word to her, choosing my word so that she will know what the target word is and say it aloud.  If she hears my choice but her response is not the target word, a member of the other team tries to do the same thing.  Clues are offered ten times and if anyone guesses the right target, that team gets points, each attempt reducing the point award by one.

Naturally, all four players are attempting to imagine what goes on in the current listener's mind with each clue.  The most common strategy is to say a synonym and hope that the responder gets the right idea.  So, if I say "night", you might guess the word to be something associated with night and say 'dark'.  Or you might say a concept that often goes with night like day.  Because there are so many options, such a universe of possibilities, we often find that two or three words are needed before it is clear what we are talking about.

After four words are used as targets, the 5th word is starred, is worth double points and is often harder to communicate.  One starred word last night was "fickle".  I have read that one translation of the title of the famous operatic aria is "Women are fickle".  I just looked up 'fickle' and found

changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties, interests, or affection.

"Web patrons are a notoriously fickle lot, bouncing from one site to another on a whim"

Similar:

capricious changeable variable volatile mercurial vacillating inconstant

This word is indeed used once in a while, sometimes to mean actually unfaithful, like adulterous, but often to mean "being mildly flighty."  We were having trouble so I tried another direction and said, "Pickle" hoping a rhyming word might be of use.  Lynn had read the word to be ready to try with her partner and knew what I was doing but tried imagining what might be happening in the others' imaginations.  She started laughing uncontrollably.  She did land before we had to call for medical aid.

Maybe we are improving

I wonder about the effects of higher levels of communication on humans in general.  There seems to be a moment when people get a doctorate or other high credential.  They suddenly grasp how much they don't know even though they are expert.  Then, they realize how much everyone else doesn't know.  As they age, they realize that their knowledge, once cutting edge and up-to-date, has itself aged.  That is much of the message of the book Factfulness by Rosling.  

I wonder if much of humankind is going through some passage or change that might be similar to what seems typical of what the average teenager in the US seems to go through.  I am thinking along the lines of Mark Twain's passage in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer":

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

It seems that much of what goes on relates to this growing realization that a person has limited knowledge and limited energy for thinking, just like if he enters a library or watches instructive videos on YouTube, there is a limit to what he can absorb before getting bored, distracted or fatigued.  

Part of our experience is like the search for a good book or movie.  If we simply take what is on offer or choose more or less randomly, we are not likely to find new experience that extends us or grows us.  Even when we choose carefully, along with sampling and using patience, we don't often add to our insight nicely.  There will be plenty of rejections, realization that the latest material is a repeat of what is already understood, or simple propaganda or a commercial to buy.

Spreading literacy, increased availability of resources and greater experience and sophistication in rejecting deadends and attending to sources that pay off might be happening, I think.

Meeting on and off line

We got together in a friend's backyard and discussed Bill Bryson's The Body: A Guide for Occupants.  It is a fine and fun book.  If you don't appreciate what a marvel your body is, you probably will after reading The Body.  We all put so much emphasis on our minds and our thinking ability and our emotions and feelings, it is easy to forget about the super-complex structures we are.  Maybe more than any other phrase during our conversations, we heard "we don't know".  

It's no shame to not know and that is a good thing because there is so much, so very much that we don't know. Furthermore, the more we learn and the more we understand, the easier it is to see how much beyond our knowledge we still don't know.  

It was fun to sit the safe six feet apart and talk.  It was fun not to be using screens and wi-fi to talk.  It was fun to hear more than one conversation taking place at once and find all of it comprehensible and valuable.

Lynn also had a meeting with friends, also outdoors and also "live", not using mics or cameras or wi-fi.  She enjoyed side conversations that were possible and lively.  I have heard that technologists and programmers have not been able to really duplicate the complexity and speed of message, verbal and non-verbal that flash around among an assembled group of conversers. It's no wonder.  I can be interested in the reaction of one group member to another's comment and quickly throw a glance in his direction with no warning, no hesitation and very short duration.  Uh, just as I thought: he disapproves.  I ask "What do you think, Harry?" and Harry fills me in on why he disagrees.  All the while, the main idea that is on the most of the group's mind continues to be discussed.

Of course, a main feature of actual group meetings is that one only has to show up and sit down.  With many online meetings, it seems to be that initiation, the start and connection is the source of many difficulties.  I am listening to my wife say to a friend,"Everybody has had trouble getting on."  She means to convey there is nothing wrong or stupid or smacking of failure - getting to be part of the gathering is not easy.  There are more ways to not understand, to click on the wrong option, than just walking into the right room.

First mow

I was born and raised in the south part of the US.  Then, more than 50 years ago, we moved to the north part.  90°F with 90% humidity at 9 AM was experienced quite often.  I have found that a Midwestern spring is quite nice.  Right now it is 72° outside with a nice gentle breeze that moves the warmth around.  

Sunlight, warm air, and enough rain recently put the trees and bushes and flowers and lawn into growing mode.  I rode our lawn mower around our giant half acre today for the first time this year.  So far the grass has not had enough time to grow much so this mowing was more ceremonial than serious.  It felt good to be back in the mower seat doing the lawn thing.  

Ever since reading and trying to digest the message from "Incognito" that much, probably most, of me is not available to my conscious mind, I have been aware that thoughts come to mind from an unconscious source.  I was surprised to find that I had forgotten some of the steps and moves to use the mower but when I started to do something, I would get a strong mental nudge that I was forgetting something.  I had to search and think and ponder to discover what.  

If I drive all over the lawn without lowering the cutting blade, nothing is accomplished.  I have to remember to put the blade down.  The first few mows require stopping and removing good sized branches from trees and bushes.  The mower has safety features so if I leave the seat with the engine running, I have to raise the blade and apply the handbrake.  Otherwise, the engine cuts off.  

The battery isn't strong since it sat in the garage for many cold months unused.  It is easy for the engine to get flooded.  I failed to put the engine in neutral properly twice so I hung around waiting for the engine to dry out and the battery to recover, twice.  

Sticks I missed or thought I could ignore jamned the grass intake and I wound up with mostly autumn leaves.  I will do better next time.  

Technology subjects

I made a list of possible topics for today:

Zoom and other substitutes, lighting

New phones we have and their options

The book "City of Girls" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Good movies and the history of film

"Wisconsin Life"

Since we are staying home most of the time, it might be expected that the themes relate to technology and the use of electricity. "Zoom" is just one of the computer programs, like Skype and Hangout, that enable video calls over the internet that include seeing others on a monitor and hearing them

We recently got several new Panasonic cordless phones.  They and some of our older ones give us plenty of opportunity to call or be called.  Of course, they also give us chances to be interrupted by robocalls and their unwanted intrusions, not to mention genuine scams that try to trick us out of money or privacy or safety.

I finished reading "The Body" by Bill Bryson and we did some searching and comparisons to find a new read-aloud book.  We settled on "City of Girls" by the author of "Eat, Pray, Love" and other good books.  I have now read 25% of the book aloud and it is good.  It is not a book that young, red-blooded men would be charmed by, unless they are aware that more than half the human population is female and being female is somewhat different in the main from growing up male.  In general, whichever side of the gender divide one is on, things could have been different.  Besides, most of us are going to be very much concerned with the other gender much of our lives.  

The book "From Gutenberg to Google" by Tom Wheeler and the book "Divine Art, Infernal Machine" by Eisenstein both look at the technology of the printed book from the development of printing in the West to today.  However, I use a Kindle to get books like "City of Girls" and to read it.  If our electricity is down, I can't obtain a book through the air like a cellphone call but most of the time, I can.  

Several of my friends are interested in and knowledgeable about the history of film, of movies.  At lunch today, we again exchanged insults and puns about my barbaric opinion that "Citizen Kane" and Jacques Tati and "The Big Sleep" are films of no interest, but that "The Russians are Coming!" and "In the Spirit" are wonderful and memorable.  So, we used computer and internet technology to argue about film, a different technology.

The length of various tv shows and movies is such that we often have 30 minutes at the end of an evening to fit in an episode of "Wisconsin Life" on Wisconsin Public TV.  This state, like all our American states, has a history and a population of interest and energy.  Last night, we watched a segment about a Wisconsin artist who carves ducks from wood for both decoys for duck hunters and for those who appreciate good art.  The man was struck with macular degeneration at the odd age of 9 but manages with what sight he has to make good art.  

Back Pain

Common advice these days to avoid back pain is to sit less.  With computers, cars and tv, that is not always easy to arrange. Plus, as we age, we have less stamina, less balance and more need to sit.  The books by Joan Vernikos, "Sitting Kills, Moving Heals" and "Designed to Move" may inspire and assist.  A series of visits to a good physical therapist can help plenty.  

I wrote about getting physical therapy for my back here

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2016/04/pain-in-back.html

And here

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2010/12/wonderful-physical-therapist.html

Rearranging my computer set-up and switching to a left-handed mouse can be a big help. Whichever side the mouse is on calls for a slightly different use of the back and arm muscles.  Switching sides gets a new use and a rest for the other side.

My health insurance company offers an app and online course to assist with back pain.  I find the most important single tool to be a heating pad in a recliner.  I used to rely on naproxen but recent evidence has turned up to that medicine and NSAIDS in general can take a toll on a man's hearing, especially if the medicine is taken regularly and the man is young.  Mine wasn't and I'm not but I have been practicing a good mood with some pain instead of medicine.

Chaos looming?

I suspect that the coronation of a king is one of those events where we refer to the steps of the ceremony we performed last time, to "do it again".  If we know what we did last time, and it seems in retrospect to have gone well, we can play the same music, invite the same sorts of guests, say the same words and perform the same acts.  That way, it may go well again.  This performing according to the same pattern used before offers comfort and a feeling of security but it clashes with the drive to innovate, to improve, to bring in something novel and exciting.  

We may also have some basic fear of losing our self-control and our discipline.  The installation of a new queen or pope will probably be designed to be complex, tiring, trying and extended.  That way, when it is over, we will be likely to feel that the new person is really and properly "in", as desired. So, any young whippersnappers with crazy "modern" ideas can just wait 60 years and see how they feel about modifying a wonderful old ceremony.  

Now that we are in the Zoom era, we realize that our impulse to cram even more into our lives can be accommodated by adjusting the computer cam so that others cannot see that we are wearing our pajama bottoms to the "meeting."  But, horrors!  The very thought stirs primitive fears of "letting ourselves go".  Not just our dress for meetings but our way of life.  What if we go to the dogs, become animals, lose our manners, our civility?  What then?

Maybe we had better adhere to the old ways, the performances and procedures that let us know we are "carrying on", continuing on the tried and true.  We may uncover a better way, a clear path toward improvement that is worthwhile.  But there is always the need to actually re-train ourselves in something new if we are convinced we should.  Lynn looked up "time to form a new habit" and found a suspiciously clear-cut answer: 66 days.  I looked up "how many repetitions to form a habit" and found 50 repetitions.  

So, if you want to sit in the Zoom meetings without your pants, go ahead.  But don't be surprised if you feel more comfortable most days if you follow your usual procedure.  When you work in testing or questionnaire construction, the first basic property that gets studied is "reliability".  It is a bit of a fiction of course that anything anywhere stands still, for us or for anyone anywhere.  However, it is nice when we learn that 6 x 7 = 42 and it continues to do so.

Driving through spring

Last week, we drove to a county park that Lynn had visited before but I hadn't.  We live where glaciers long ago flattened the land very well so any hill is a novelty.  The park has a ski hill and a bluff with a good view.  We enjoyed the ride, the company and the different scene.  This week, we went to a different park but one that we have visited several times over the years.  

Drives of a couple of hours through spring emerging in farm country are refreshing for the eyes and the spirit.  Red solid barns and aging formerly red barns.  Newly plowed fields and those too rocky for crops.  Cows munching and cows waiting for milking time.  I have not spent much time on a farm or with animals.  I had chickens peck up all my water color tablets once and I broke a slops bowl feeding hogs.  They didn't seem bothered but split-open snouts and blood running off their chins. While teaching 5th grade, a farm mastiff objected to my presence while retrieving a ball accidentally in his field.  My principal ordered me to get that large, well-horned goat out of the road on the way to our school.

I rode through the countryside both days and never had a thought about my rather sparse animal interactions but once I take a look at my animal husbandry experiences, I can see that I am all primed to oversee the next county fair sheep shearing.  In lieu of more farming animal stories, I offer this Australian sheep shearing tune by the Vienna Boys' Choir:

Anonymous: Shearer's song (Australia) - Arr. Peter Marschik

Wagging tongues, loose pens

I get intrigued by comparisons of the old and the current.  I was surprised at the number of comments in the Bible book "Proverbs" about loose tongues, quiet nasty comments on the side, and other uses of speech that can cause harm and unfair pain. Today, commentators and pundits and expositators often refer to social media and its possible influence on people's opinions and stances.  I notice plenty of comments in Proverbs that apply to school kids and teens bad-mouthing each other or their teachers or parents and angry sources on Facebook and other social media.  Fashions and habits related to the use of various social media platforms come and go: https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2018/02/millennial-job-interview.html

Human speech is too old to accurately date as to its beginning but it can be said that writing was invented in the last 10,000 years.  As "Too Big to Know" by David Weinburger makes clear, it has only been the last 20 years or so, that a big number of people with an opinion or a drive to be noticed or a chip on the shoulder or a holy mission to save us all have been in a position to speak or write to thousands, even to millions of people.

I read today in the British Psychological Society's mentions of interesting psych research that someone has turned up evidence that people often accept some outlandish notion as true because doing so gives them a feeling of being insiders in the know. Sounds right to me.  So: you heard it here first: Steve Jones of Plainville, Arkansas is behind all misbehavior on the part of the wealthy and all the poverty in the US.  Pass it on.

Getting out more

I try not to write about the same old thing.  Sometimes, the same old thing is political.  Lately, of course, it is about a virus and the world's response to it.  Searching for aspects of the world that are worth attention but get less of it, I often use my own life as a source.  Where I live, the weather is an important topic, especially so in spring. 

In Wisconsin, we get distinct seasons in a climate sometimes described as long, cold winters and short hot summers.  We are now passing slowly from the former to the latter.  Many of my friends pay close attention to the problem of climate change and global warming.  Passing into a warm season means for us, attention to the outside.  We just had our riding mower picked up yesterday for servicing. We have a reliable firm nearby that specializes in riding mowers and snowplows.  

Climate change is basically a threat of too much heat but tricky changes can bring cool and cold in places.  Places like the countryside don't especially generate or trap heat.  We have been toying with the possibility of genuine warmth but have not really had much of it.  

More warmth and longer sunlit days mean we can get out and pay attention to plant beds around our house.  Those long winters give us uninterrupted time indoors and I am not used to thinking about what needs doing outside.  For most of the winter, there is basically no outside.  

My wife is the sort of Nordic person who relishes time outside in nature.  She keeps an eye on the plants and the birds.  Now, the spring birds are increasing in number and variety.  Today, we saw our season's first rose-breasted grosbeak and I saw a flash of an oriole.  Lynn has already put the specialized oriole feeder and the hummingbird feeder out.

We have seen our resident male bluebird rigorously body check a woodpecker he is trying to drive away from the area near his nest and sexual behavior in the birds and squirrels.

Take enough vitamin D

"Take enough vitamin D" - from JoAnn Manson, Harvard

Relayed by Prof. Ed Miller

Hello. This is Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

I'd like to talk with you about vitamin D and COVID-19. Is there potentially a protective role?

We've known for a long time that it's important to avoid vitamin D deficiency for bone health, cardiometabolic health, and other purposes. But it may be even more important now than ever. There's emerging and growing evidence that vitamin D status may be relevant to the risk of developing COVID-19 infection and to the severity of the disease.

Vitamin D is important to innate immunity and boosts immune function against viral diseases. We also know that vitamin D has an immune-modulating effect and can lower inflammation, and this may be relevant to the respiratory response during COVID-19 and the cytokine storm that's been demonstrated.

There are laboratory (cell-culture) studies of respiratory cells that document some of these effects of vitamin D. There's also evidence that patients with respiratory infections tend to have lower blood levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D.

There's now some evidence from COVID-19 patients as well. In an observational study from three South Asian hospitals, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was much higher among those with severe COVID illness compared with those with mild illness. In fact, there was about an eightfold higher risk of having severe illness among those who entered with vitamin D deficiency compared with those who had sufficient vitamin D levels.

There's also evidence from a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation looking at acute respiratory tract infections (upper and lower). This was published in the British Medical Journal 2 years ago, showing that vitamin D supplementation was associated with a significant reduction in these respiratory tract infections. Overall, it was only a 12% reduction, but among the participants who had profound vitamin D deficiency at baseline (such as a blood level of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D of less than 10 ng/mL), there was a 70% lower risk of respiratory infection with vitamin D supplementation.

So the evidence is becoming quite compelling. It's important that we encourage our patients to be outdoors and physically active, while maintaining social distancing. This will lead to increased synthesis of vitamin D in the skin, just from the incidental sun exposure.

Diet is also important. Everyone should be reading food labels which list the vitamin D content. Food sources that are higher in vitamin D include fortified dairy products, fortified cereals, fatty fish, and sun-dried mushrooms.

For patients who are unable to be outdoors and also have low dietary intake of vitamin D, it's quite reasonable to consider a vitamin D supplement. The recommended dietary allowance of vitamin D is 600-800 IU/daily, but during this period, a multivitamin or supplement containing 1000-2000 IU/daily of vitamin D would be reasonable.

We are in the process of planning a randomized clinical trial of vitamin D supplementation in moderate to high doses to see whether it has a role in the risk of developing COVID-19 infections and also in reducing the severity of disease and improving clinical outcomes.

In the meantime, it's important to encourage measures that will, on a population-wide basis, reduce the risk for vitamin D deficiency.

Thank you so much for your attention. This is JoAnn Manson. Stay safe.

Dr JoAnn Manson is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School; and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Books and scary poetry

Random, unread and repeated - I have too many books in my Kindle account.  It is not my fault and it is not Obama's fault.  It's the lure of low prices that may be only temporary and the result of being undisciplined.  I needed a randomizer so I could pick books I have already bought and give them a good try.  I didn't have a randomizer but with an aging, short memory, I have found that switching my listing to alphabetical by title or by author works as well.  Plus, every now and then, I like to re-read something that was especially good or especially murky.  

Edgar, Ogen and me - Edgar Allan Poe is often considered a Baltimorean even though he was born in Boston and raised by unofficial foster parents in Virginia after the death of his parents.  He was imaginative as a writer and poet but died at the age of 40.  Ogden Nash is an outlier among poets. He also lived elsewhere but is associated with Baltimore.  He liked to do unusual things with poetry but not of a high-class kind.  Every day that I write in this blog, I use scrap paper.  Many of the sheets have Nash's work printed on them.  Just today, I met his poem called "The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus".  Santa got the last laugh.  Jabez Dawes was convinced that Santa didn't exist but HA!

Then, Jabez fell upon his knees

With cries of "Don't!" and "Pretty Please!"

He howled "I don't know where you read it,

But anyhow, I never said it!"

"Jabez" replied the angry saint,

"It isn't me, it's you that ain't.

Although there is a Santa Claus,

There isn't any Jabez Dawes!"

Said Jabez then with impudent vim,

"Oh, yes there is, and I am him!

Your magic doesn't scare me, it doesn't"

And suddenly he found he wasn't!

From grimy feet to grmy locks, 

Jabez became a Jack-in-the-box, 

An ugly toy with springs unsprung, 

Forever sticking out his tongue.