Summing Up

Nascar and GW
Spent Sunday catching up on the boob tube. 2 or 3 morning News Shows , then got to watch GW strut his stuff at the Daytona 500 (was surprised he didn't come blasting onto the track in full driver regalia, doing a few spinouts in the infield or something - must be losing his touch. He did wear a Daytona 500 jacket and made sure he got all the requisite photo ops with various military personnel present. I'm sure the WH was all over that. And of course he enjoyed the jets streaking overhead (even a Stealth bomber) and upward camera angles to reflect his beaming face against the blue skies was just added wizardry. Laura was close at hand for this one - wonder how she liked the race? She doesn't strike me as Nascar material. Had to suffer through another rendition of Lee Greenwood singing his America song - time for some new material maybe? Earnhardt Jr won the race in a rather boring final 10 laps or so as Tony Steward just didn't have the juice to catch him. Of course I walked away from the race during one of the major pileups - that's usually the way it works. Like most Americans, I'm there for the blood and guts. LOL

Big John returns!
John Daly cranked up a win on the PGA tour after being winless since the '95 British Open. Was nice to see the big ol' sot back in the saddle again. Made a fabulous bunker shot on the first hole in the playoffs to come within a few feet of the hole, then got to watch his opponents both flub their 3' putts. Some are just destined for great things and others have to keep sucking it up for another day. Wonder how it feels to have your wife and her parents up on criminal charges? How does he keep himself removed from that mess?

HBO and Women's Suffrage Movement
Watched Iron Jawed Angels on HBO , the story of Alice Paul and the Women's Suffrage Movement during the Wilson Presidency. Excellent performances - sort of a modern approach put on a historical movement - was done quite effectively I thought. Sure made Wilson out to be a jerk. The force feeding scenes were rough to watch though during her days in the slammmer. The show repeats itself this week. For the schedule click here . HBO and Showtime often turn out quality TV, unlike the rest of the normal crap on the major channels. Thank God for satellite dishes out here in the boonies.

Chickens for RA?
Wandered off for my usual 4 month visit to the rheumatologist - looks like I'm gonna live a few more years. :) Same ol', same ol', they don't have anything really to offer except for drugs and some of the new "biologicals" like Enbrel and Remicade are not completely without flaw. Rheumie mentioned he was starting to have problems with some of them , even having one of his patients contract MS. Think I'll stick with my RA and save a few bucks (Enbrel and Remicade run about 12K/year) and avoid the MS. A friend reports that she is having excellent success with undenatured chicken collagen in a trial being run by Dr. Trentham in Boston. Apparently he has found a new pill form vs. the liquid form he used back in the mid 90's in similar trials. I'm not sure of the exact dosage one would start on and am trying to find that out. Not being a toxic drug certainly sounds encouraging.

Politics
For an amusing look at the Democratic Debate Sunday Night, check out Electablog . The comments in parentheses are great.

Movies
Just finished watching Finding Nemo . Wonderful movie - surely seen by the entire planet already except for me. Hilarious dialog - great animation - a 5 star effort.