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Food for Thought
I’m giving a shout-out to a couple of child psychiatrists, one I know only from a blog, The Good Enough Psychiatrist. The other is an assistant professor in the University of Iowa Child Psychiatry Dept. I’ve never met her. Since Jenna gives her name in the About Me section of her blog, I’m going to…
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Speaking of Spanish
Every once in a while, I get an urge to try to learn to speak, or at least read Spanish. Recently, Men in Black was on the Telemundo broadcasting network. I tried to watch it but gave up after a few minutes. The dubbing was disappointing because the actors don’t speak Spanish and the dialogue…
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Falling Leaves
The leaves are falling everywhere, including our back yard. Just watching them drop like a snowfall is mesmerizing. It feels like it’s going to snow. Temperatures have been low enough for frost and freeze warnings around here. The mowers were bundled up, wearing stocking caps and gloves yesterday. Fall is Sena’s favorite season. Temperatures are…
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Kindness Is Still Out There
The other day, Sena and I were talking about growing up in Mason City, Iowa. As kids, both of us were the ones who lugged the groceries home. That was back in the days of paper sacks and, for me and her, food stamps. The food stamp program got started during the Great Depression. The…
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Thankful for Peaceful Fall Days
The other day we took a walk in a different direction on Scott Boulevard. Sometimes the scenery is just as beautiful in the west as it is in the east. There were three trees turning a bright red. Maybe there were maples. The birch trees are pretty any time of the year, but for some…
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Autumn Walking Colors
Sena got some new pants with an autumn leaves print. It fit really well with the colors we saw on a walk down Scott Boulevard. We always see something a little different along the way. We never noticed that the Sitting Man pedestal has a hole in it shaped like a heart. It could have…
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Autumn Miracles
We saw the miracles of autumn the other day, out on the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. It was quiet, only a light breeze set the flowers and grasses swaying. There were almost no birds out. No ducks were out on Sand Lake. On the other hand, I guess there were birds, sort of. We greeted…
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Thoughts on Jack Trice
I was outside doing yard work the day before yesterday and my neighbor across the street walked over to say hello. We got to talking about sports and football came up. His wife stopped watching football because it was so violent—but then switched to watching hockey. He wondered when the Iowa Hawkeye vs Penn State…
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Stop Me If You Heard This One Before
I saw one of my favorite X-Files episodes the other night. It’s titled “Monday.” Mulder goes through the day repetitively doing the same things, including fumbling his chance to thwart a bank robber who blows up the bank and everyone in it, including Mulder. See the Wikipedia for a full spoiler alert but I’m going…
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This is National Suicide Prevention Week
Thanks to Dr. H. Steven Moffic for his Psychiatric Times article, “A Psychological Autopsy on My Only Patient Who Died by Suicide.” In it he describes his own experience with a patient who committed suicide. He also reminded us that this is National Suicide Prevention Week. It’s also National Suicide Prevention Month. The quote I’m…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 