Black History Month begins February 1, 2023. There are many learning resources available and activities available.
Websites include:
African American Museum of Iowa (Building is closed for renovation although online collections are available for viewing)
Last night on the KCCK Big Mo Blues Show I listened to something I haven’t heard since the mid-1970s. It was a radio commercial for the Green Beetle and Frank’s Liquor Store. It ran right after the song, “Memphis Women and Fried Chicken.”
I think I first heard this radio ad while I was a student at Huston-Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in Austin, Texas in the mid-1970s.
I heard it early on in the evening in my sweltering college dorm room. Later on, I heard a stirring rendition of the opening song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” for another radio program, the name of which I can’t recall. I don’t know who sang it, but her voice was breathtaking. I have not heard a better version of it since.
The contrast between the “Old Crow Boogie” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was striking. No matter what race, culture, gender we are, we struggle to reconcile these opposites.
The FDA VRBPAC 178th annual meeting on future Covid-19 vaccine regimens includes two main discussion topics:
“Future periodic vaccination campaigns:
Simplification of COVID-19 vaccine use:
Among the members attending the web conference is University of Iowa Professor Stanley Perlman, MD, PhD, Departments of Microbiology and
Immunology, Professor of Pediatrics, Mark Stinski Chair in Virology.
The meeting is today from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM ET.
Update: Dr. Stanley Perlman MD, PhD from the University of Iowa will be the acting voting chairman of today’s meeting.
Update: Dr. Jerry Weir gave a clarifying and practical bird’s eye view of the issue at hand which began at 2:30 PM on the live play today (the meeting is being recorded). The questions and comments for Dr. Weir by Offit, Levy, and Chatterjee were also helpful to hear.
Update: Voting Question is:
“VRBPAC Voting question
Simplification of current COVID-19 vaccine use:
Voting Result: Unanimously upvoted.
As we were listening to the Mike Waters Wake Up Call radio show on KOKZ, we were disoriented when he gave the temperature as “83” degrees and that it’s “Wednesday evening”. The more he talked, the more bizarre he began to sound and I wondered if KOKZ was for whatever reason broadcasting a past recording of his show.
Then he announced that it’s National Opposite Day, which occurs on January 25th annually. It’s not a holiday on any calendar, and when I looked it up on the internet, I found out it arose from a kids game. It dates way back to the turn of the 20th century.
You get the idea. What would be opposite goal of a game of tag? You’d have to try to catch each other, of course!
This holiday creates a paradox for itself. You’re supposed to declare that it’s Opposite Day, but that would imply you would have to not observe it. Huh?
We had pot pie for breakfast today. Does that count?
Remember, the 178th Annual Meeting of the FDA Advisory Committee on the future of Covid-19 Vaccination Regimens is this Thursday from 8:30 AM-5:30 ET.
The details so far include the voting question:
“Simplification of current COVID-19 vaccine use:
Here are crucial announcements.
Sena bought me Bigfoot pajamas. They clearly show Bigfoot doing the Patty walk, which refers to the historic sighting of Bigfoot caught on video decades ago in the Patterson-Gimlin film.
The Amaryllis leaves have grown to about 11 inches! There is no flower.
Cattle ranchers are now putting diapers and masks on their cows to reduce methane emissions. Soon there will be statutes requiring humans who fart and belch in public to take Beano gummies several times daily. You know who you are.
The FDA 178th Meeting of the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet in open session January 26, 2023 to discuss future Covid-19 vaccination regimens. The meeting will run between 8:30 AM-5:30 PM ET.
I just found out about the National Day of Racial Healing, which is today. It follows the National MLK Day, which this year was yesterday. The annual National Day of Racial Healing was started in 2017. The website tells what the event is about:
“The National Day of Racial Healing is a time to contemplate our shared values and create the blueprint together for #HowWeHeal from the effects of racism. Launched on Jan. 17, 2017, it is an opportunity to bring ALL people together in their common humanity and inspire collective action to create a more just and equitable world.”
Read more about the origins of the National Day of Racial Healing here.
I first saw a photo of the sculpture honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King, called “The Embrace” a couple of days ago. I remember my first impression being that it would have been nice to see a full sculpture of the couple rather than disembodied arms.
Sena mentioned it today because it was unveiled at Boston Commons. This was just before my mindfulness meditation, so I just told her that I saw the picture of it and said I would have to think about it some more.
As I sat in meditation, it occurred to me that “The Embrace” expressed what I think is a basic abstract idea, which is the challenge for us to embrace the notion that we’re all humans who ought to accept each other, and be kind and generous to one another.
That’s what I think the Kings did. That’s why Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize.
You could make a sculpture of the King as a couple embracing each other after he won the Nobel Prize. It would have been beautiful. On the other hand, you could make a sculpture which tries to do more than that. How difficult would it be to make a representation of what it might look like if all of us embraced our humanity—and each other?
It sounds too difficult. Yet the artist managed to do just that. Anyway, that’s my two cents.
Sena does a lot of gardening, which means she uses a shovel frequently. She has quite a few corns on her feet for which she’s tried a number of remedies that run the gamut from scraping with a variety of simple tools to—sand paper. There, I said it and I’m glad.
Maybe a little foot scrub?
The old shovel probably contributed to her developing a number of corns on her feet. She got a new shovel with a special footstep which we hope will cut down on corns.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 