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Big Mo Blues Show Penultimate KCCK Party
John Heim, aka Big Mo of Iowa KCCK radio blues show delivered his penultimate program last night. I heard the “penultimate” title from Ron Adkins who announced it on his Afternoon Jazz show which comes just before the Big Mo blues show. It’s one of those adult words that Big Mo would probably never use—only…
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Ticks Among Us
I was struck by how much ticks and tick-borne illness is in the news lately, although it shouldn’t be surprising as it’s that time of year for people to be outside in the garden or the woods. There’s a great podcast on Rounding@IOWA on tick borne illness that I thought was pretty interesting. I was…
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Shout Out to Dr. Fawad Taj for Psychiatric Times Article on Cannabis and Psychosis Risk
I rarely see an article that impresses me as much as the Psychiatric Times piece on psychosis risk and cannabis by Dr. Fawad Taj, MD. It makes sense that he is also a consultation-liaison psychiatrist. He’s on staff in the Dept. of psychiatry at University Hospitals of Cleveland. There is a highly esteemed scholar special…
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Mental Health Affirmations for May 6, 2026
Today is May 6, 2026 and the Mental Health Awareness affirmation for today (from the Mental Health Awareness calendar) is about Affirmations: “Affirmations can improve people’s overall well-being, help them feel better about themselves, and reduce anxiety. Pick a supportive phrase and repeat it today.” I picked one from the list of suggested affirmations: “I…
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Thoughts on Nature
Yesterday afternoon when Sena came inside from working in the backyard garden, I noticed she had some swelling around her lips and eyes. Despite applying OFF! Deep Woods she got trapped in a swarm of gnats. This reminded me of a similar swarm last spring around this time while we were out at Terry Trueblood…
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The Excitable Electrons
I’ve talked about some of my college professors when I was attending, Huston-Tillotson College in the 1970s. It’s an HBCU in Austin, Texas. But I haven’t talked about my teachers elsewhere. That just occurred to me in the last few days. I had some exciting teachers at Iowa State University in Ames in the early…
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Shout Out to Dr. George Dawson for Medical Reasoning Post!
I just wanted to make a shout-out to Dr. George Dawson for his post from yesterday, “Medical Reasoning vs. A Diagnostic Manual.” It reminded me of the diagnostic challenge of catatonia, which I saw several times during my career as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist. There’s an excellent recent review of the evaluation and management of catatonia.…
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Svengoolie Show Movie: “Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell”
Svengoolie Intro: “Calling all stations! Clear the air lanes! Clear all air lanes for the big broadcast!” His brain came from Moe. His soul came from Larry. His hair came from Curly Joe. I don’t know how much of “Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell” Sena actually saw, but I stayed awake for the whole…
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The Whole Milk Powder Catastrophe
Today, Sena reconstituted the Hoosier Hill Farm Whole Milk Powder. At one point in the mixing process, it reminded me of Ready-Mix concrete. She made enough for a quart of finished product, which won’t make even one sidewalk square but whatever. I suppose this is one of the three things we could list as being…
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Red-tailed Hawk in the Rain!
Well, Sena came running in the garage from the back yard covered with dirt! She excitedly told me she found a spot out in the garden to get a good picture of the Red-tail hawk sitting on the nest. It started raining while we were out there, but you can still see the hawk settling…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 