Category: Brief Messages or Announcements

Deer Sport Fashion Camouflage After Hard Rain

The night of August 19, 2022 some loud thunderstorms rolled through our area. The next day we saw deer in our backyard with a lot of weeds stuck all over their coats. The doe and her two fawns (which we frequently see) were covered with the stuff. One of the fawns looked like it was wearing a weedy hat.

I compared it to pictures on the web and it looks similar to Virginia Stickseed (Beggar’s Lice), a common wildflower in Iowa. I’m not sure though; I’m definitely no botanist.

On the other hand, Beggar’s Lice tends to be pretty common where the deer population is dense—because they won’t eat it.

Maybe the loud storms scared them into running through the burr weed patches.

Update August 25, 2022: Here’s a picture I took yesterday of the deer after a week. They’re still festooned with Beggar’s Lice.

Art in the Iowa City Parks

We went for a walk today in a couple of different parks recently. We were looking for the new art works that have been placed recently. We saw HOOPla in Mercer Park by Tim Adams and Succulent Bloom by Mike Sneller at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. You can read more about art in the park in the Little Village magazine.

HOOPla happened to have a Chinese mantis on it. Sena thought it was part of the sculpture at first when seeing it from a distance. Then it moved.

We didn’t get to see all of the new art pieces, but plan on it soon.

Iowa State Fair Remembers Chet Randolph

The other day Iowa PBS remembered former Iowa PBS Market to Market host Chet Randolph with a flashback to his 1978 Reflections on the Iowa State Fair. His point about the Iowa farmers and the role of agriculture in this state is well taken. We enjoy the Fair because of Iowa farmers, who may enjoy it in a different way than most fairgoers.

According to Bob Quinn’s story in 2002 upon Randolph’s death, the icon of Iowa agriculture set a great example of how to respect the opinions of others while defending your own and be ready to accept “a better answer.”

Chet started out in Mason City, Iowa as a farm news broadcaster and in his early days, he made part of his show an offer to do chores for farm families who otherwise would never have had the time to take a vacation. He spent about 16 years (1975-1990) hosting Market to Market back when it was first called Farm Digest in 1974.

Picture credit of Chet Randolph “choreboy” Gene Champ.

KCCK Big Mo Blues Show

Tonight I heard this song on ‘da Friday Blues with John Heim aka Big Mo on KCCK and I thought I heard the lyric “Buckle up buttercup” and it didn’t make sense. Then Big Mo said it was “Pucker up buttercup.” It made sense then.

That’s called a mondegreen.

Hepatitis C Testing and Treatment Update from a Retired Psychiatrist

There is a very informative CDC media briefing transcript about why so few Americans are getting tested and treated for Hepatitis C.

I’m a retired consultation-liaison psychiatrist and I used to be the go-to consultant to the hepatology clinic back when the only treatment was interferon-alpha. Because interferon-alpha was associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, notably treatment-emergent depression, I was frequently called to help assess potential treatment candidates and on-going follow-up for some.

A significant number of patients could not tolerate the psychiatric side effects.

Back in the day, interferon-alpha was really the only treatment. Now there are many treatments available and Hepatitis C is a curable disease.

Yet, few Americans are taking advantage of the new curative treatment. There are several reasons why, including the barrier of the high cost of treatment and insurance restrictions. The patients with the highest prevalence tend to be younger than age 40 and struggle with injection drug use, commonly opioids.

A large number of those at risk for Hepatitis C don’t know they have the disease. It’s vital to know where free Hepatitis C testing is available, which can be found at the CDC web site.

Improve Your Sleep!

Listen to the IPR River to River Podcast episode from June 7, 2022 as host Ben Kieffer interviews University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics neurologist and sleep disorders expert Dr. Eric Dyken who explains sleep disorders and how to get a better night’s sleep.