9 Dec 2025 – Go Retire Psychiatrist

Wave for Wagyu Beef in Iowa!

Sena bought some Wagyu beef the other day at Walmart. It was $8 for 4 ounces. I know I said you could entice Bigfoot to shovel snow for you by giving it Wagyu beef—but I was just kidding.

But I’m not kidding when I tell you that Wagyu beef is available in Iowa. Now, Walmart probably gets its Wagyu beef from somewhere other than Iowa, but there are about 40 registered Wagyu operations in Iowa and even in Iowa City. Wagyu originated in Japan but there is such a thing as American Wagyu.

World-class Iowa City Wagyu farm enriches local dining

Normally when I hear that meat is heavily “marbled” I think it’s unhealthy. But according to the National Institute of Health, Wagyu makes for healthy eating partly because it has monounsaturated fats which makes it healthier for your heart.

The producers locally here have a bull named Oh-No and I guess he’s named after the cows who moo Oh-No whenever he gets a glint in his eye because I guess Oh-No needs doesn’t need any Nugenix Total-T. He produces perfect offspring just like himself every time.

So, if you’re looking for the great American Wagyu, look no further than Iowa City.

New Ebonwood Cribbage Wars Board Baptism!

Well, we got the new Ebonwood Cribbage Wars board last night. It was delivered shortly after 8:00 p.m. We took it for a test spin this morning and our inaugural game went for well over 2 hours. By some miracle and partly because of the sadistically placed final Blue Penalty Box just outside the winning hole—I won! Sena had a comfortable lead most of the game until then. We both tripped over a couple of Blue Time Traps. Sena lucked up on the little Green Advance zone and I lucked up on landing in the first Red Skip zone.

We both were a little confused by the board because it lacked some key directional arrows in the lower left quadrant which we got used to on the little board. In fact, it’s a good thing we learned how to play by practicing on the little board. The Ebonwood board is 16 inches square and, while it was easier to peg because the holes were better spaced and bigger, the single blue streak across the exit from the Blue Time Traps also was misleading because it looks so much like the single line Blue Penalty Box.

Photos of the little board and the Ebonwood board side by side shows the differences between the two. The little one seems crowded with lettering which can be hard to read and the peg holes are tiny but the directional arrows are helpful. There’s a lot more real estate on the Ebonwood board, but it could have done with a couple more directional arrows to clarify the pegging paths. The special zones are made of different colored resin inlays.

compare big and little cribbage wars boards

And of course, there seems to be no way to shorten the time it takes to play a Cribbage Wars game. On the other hand, we tend to get absorbed by it and often hardly notice that we spend more than 2 hours playing a game. We did get through a game in a little over an hour a couple days ago, but that’s the exception to the rule.

An interesting side note was the answer to Sena’s question by one of the makers about the origin of the name Ebonwood:.

Sorry for the late reply on this. We used to be a strictly table top gaming accessories company (back when myself and the other cofounder started in my garage). Then we realized that if we wanted to sell cribbage boards, and other non ttrpg items our name “Deathroll Gaming” might not give the best impression. So we sat down and brainstormed up Ebonwood. Something a lot more elegant than a strictly TTRPG sounding name; but it also allowed us to keep with the TTRPG stuff as that name fit both worlds.

I think TTRPG stands for Table Top Role-Playing Game. The board ships with a deck of cards and pegs. It doesn’t come with a printed set of rules but they’re all over the internet anyway. It’ll set you back $210.

The length of the game is the main reason why we haven’t yet filmed one. Luck plays such a big part in every game that it’s almost impossible to predict how long one will last. We’ll film one eventually, but hopefully I can edit so that it doesn’t put people to sleep. Time traps are the main issue. During a game, I usually start remembering the chorus of one of the songs in the Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.”

Let’s do the time trap again.

What’s the Skinny on a Vaccine that Might Prevent or Slow Down Dementia?

You don’t want to just take my word for it but there seems to be conflicting messages on a live, attenuated shingles vaccine called Zostavax.

One message is that “the live, attenuated herpes zoster (HZ; shingles) vaccine” might prevent or slow down dementia, especially in women according to a study in Wales and Australia. The article doesn’t mention the name Zostavax (the trade name for the live, attenuated herpes zoster vaccine), which according to a Wikipedia article was “discontinued in the U.S. in November of 2020.”

The other message is that partly because of several lawsuits against Merck (the manufacturer, which faced a lot of Zostavax lawsuits) regarding possible severe, potentially life-threatening side effects alleged to be associated with it, production and marketing of the vaccine was discontinued in the United States as of 2020. The other reason was that Shingrix, a recombinant form of the vaccine, was developed.

Shingrix is said to be superior to Zostavax, although it is also associated with some side effects.

I don’t know why I don’t find any FDA or CDC notifications that Zostavax is no longer available in the United States. Both agencies have archived approval notices still on their websites.

CIDRAP doesn’t mention that residents of the U.S. can longer get Zostavax (in other words, the live attenuated vaccine against shingles) as of 2020.

One of the problems I find with web-based information is that some of the entries can be confusing. I found several articles on line from law firms including one which posted a report on November 14, 2024 that two Black Box Warnings were published by the FDA about Zostavax. I could find only one safety warning on the FDA website (not labeled as “Black Box”) and it was about the new recombinant vaccine, Shingrix. It’s been associated with Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) and it’s dated March 24, 2021—a year after Zostavax was removed from the market in the U.S.

OK, as an old retired doctor, my bottom line on this issue of live, attenuated herpes zoster vaccine being touted as an agent that could delay or prevent dementia is that it would be a lot more helpful to me as a consumer to know the whole story about the product. It might be scientifically interesting but it’s moot because the product is not even available in this country and for good reason. And even if it were, would the potential risk and benefit assessment be favorable to recommend its use? And how does this affect the ongoing disagreement dividing the country about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines? Only about 20% of Iowans are even getting the flu shot this season so far.

One thing people could do which might slow down some of the cognitive impairment is to take up the game of cribbage. As far as I know, it has almost no detrimental side effects unless you insist on playing the muggins rule.