-
Black History Month 2024 Theme is African Americans and the Arts
February is Black History Month and in 2024 the theme is African Americans and the Arts. This reminds me of a blues artist I heard on KCCK on the Big Mo Blues Show last Friday. His name is Toronzo Cannon and his career as a blues guitarist and songwriter is skyrocketing. I heard his song…
-
Thoughts on the Passing of Artie Hicks
Yesterday, I was thinking about Artie Hicks, one of my old English teachers at Huston-Tillotson University, which was Huston-Tillotson College back in the mid-1970s when I was a student there. I looked him up on the web, just out of curiosity—and found his obituary. That seems to happen a lot lately. Anyway, he was a…
-
Old Doctors vs Young Doctors
I ran across a recently published web article that originated from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), to which I don’t have access because I’m not a subscriber. The title is “Do Younger or Older Doctors Get Better Results?” and it’s in the form of an essay by Pete Ryan. It’s been picked up by over…
-
Making My Own Race Card
Tomorrow’s schedule for the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Human Rights Week has Michele Norris presenting the MLK Distinguished Lecture, “Our Hidden Conversations.” It’s based on her Race Card Project which produced her new book “Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity.” Sena and I probably are not going to…
-
Martin Luther King Day About Peace and Unity
I noticed that Iowa City and Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas have a couple of things in common regarding the celebration of the Martin Luther King holiday this week—one is inclement weather. The other thing is hope for peace and unity. I was a student at Huston-Tillotson (one of the HBCUs) back in the 1970s.…
-
Calm After Winter Storm Finn
Winter Storm Finn was a very blustery thing. Sena got a video of our backyard, though, which presents the calm after the storm. The heavy snow makes all the trees bow, as if in homage to nature, whatever its form. That said, we’re hoping Winter Storm Gerri tones it down a little.
-
The Intergalactic Angle on Your Point of View
I finally watched the movie “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” the other night. It was released in 2005 and based on Douglas Adams’ book of the same title. In fact, he co-wrote the screenplay. A lot of it was not in the book. I thought a couple of scenes were noteworthy and pretty funny.…
-
Thoughts on “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Sena and I got to talking about a Twilight Zone show we saw over the holidays. It was a 1964 episode, not the regular program but short film that won a Cannes Film Festival award in the early 1960s, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” The quick summary is that a Southern plantation owner is…
-
Complexity Intervention Units Past And Present
Here’s another blast from the past about Complexity Intervention Units (CIUs) or what used to be called Medical-Psychiatry Units. I co-staffed one for 17 years at Iowa Health Care, the organization formerly known as Prince. No wait, that used to be called the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. They’re rebranding. I was looking up CIU…
-
Who Gets the Credit?
When I think about peak moments, I remember this guy back in junior high school who decided to try to break the Guinness Book of World Records for skipping rope. I don’t remember his name but the school principal and his teachers all agreed to let him do it during class hours. They marked out…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 