Category: reflections

  • 24th Anniversary of 9/11 Attack on America: A Reminder of Our Connection to Each Other

    24th Anniversary of 9/11 Attack on America: A Reminder of Our Connection to Each Other

    I’m thinking about the upcoming commemoration of the 24th Anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attack on America. There will be the annual event in New York City. In Muscatine, Iowa, there will be the annual Patriot Day ceremonies sponsored by the City of Muscatine and the Muscatine Fire Department. After the morning ceremony, the Memorial Stair…

  • Big Mo Pod Show: “Hickory Smoked Blues”

    Big Mo Pod Show: “Hickory Smoked Blues”

    Today, the Big Mo Pod Show was about how blues music can you help you “exorcise your demons” as Big Mo himself put it today. Isn’t that what it’s always about? And I can’t explain how that even works. But I don’t always understand how it works. I’m going to admit I’m not sure at…

  • One More Time: Another Ramshorn Journal Editorial

    One More Time: Another Ramshorn Journal Editorial

    This is the 2nd editorial I wrote in 1975 about fraternities during my freshman year at Huston-Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson University, one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, HBCUs). There are a couple of misspelled words (“incidence” should be incidents; “altruish” should be altruism). On the whole, it’s a more developed piece than the…

  • I Was a College News Reporter After All

    I Was a College News Reporter After All

    It turns out I was a news reporter for the Huston-Tillotson College Ramshorn Journal after all! I wrote a few of them, including an editorial about Greek fraternity hazing in 1975. I’m including it in this post below. It has an apparent typo in it (“Motherhood” should be brotherhood). It’s typical for fired up freshman…

  • Big Mo Pod Show: “Spiritual IV”

    Big Mo Pod Show: “Spiritual IV”

    I’m trying to figure out what the meaning of the title is of this week’s Big Mo Pod Show. It’s “Spiritual IV” and I looked at all of his past pod shows looking for Spiritual I-III. I can’t find them. The other thing I noticed about the pod show is that the theme of many…

  • In Memory of Leonard Tow, Founder of the Tow Foundation and Humanism in Medicine

    In Memory of Leonard Tow, Founder of the Tow Foundation and Humanism in Medicine

    I just found out that Leonard Tow died on August 10, 2025. In humility, I express my gratitude and respect for his creation of the Tow Foundation, a big part of that being the Humanism in Medicine Award, of which I am one of the many recipients over the years. I hope this great tradition…

  • Pride or Rhetoric? What Would Dr. Melvin P. Sikes Say?

    Pride or Rhetoric? What Would Dr. Melvin P. Sikes Say?

    I noticed the headlines about the DEI flap at The University of Iowa, the one with the official apparently spilling the beans about University of Iowa’s DEI program not going away despite being illegal while maybe being unaware of being filmed. I’m not going to retell the story. However, it does remind me of a…

  • Shout Out to Dr. George Dawson for Post “The Autocratic Approach to Homelessness”

    Shout Out to Dr. George Dawson for Post “The Autocratic Approach to Homelessness”

    I want to give a shout out to Dr. George Dawson for his post today “The Autocratic Approach to Homelessness” in reference to President Trump’s most recent executive order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” As a retired psychiatrist, I look back and remember seeing the problem of the homeless mentally ill a lot.…

  • A Small Update to a Pseudo-Rap YouTube Video and a Big Tribute to Dr. Robert G. Robinson

    A Small Update to a Pseudo-Rap YouTube Video and a Big Tribute to Dr. Robert G. Robinson

    I just noticed something about one of my YouTube videos that I made sort of as a combination gag and educational piece about pseudobulbar affect. It needed a couple of updates—one of which is minor and which I should have noticed 10 years ago when I made it. It’s a pseudo-rap performance (badly done, I…

  • The Hummingbird is a Blur!

    The Hummingbird is a Blur!

    Yesterday I noticed a hummingbird hovering about the flower pots on our porch. I hurried to get my point and shoot camera and shot video, through a window as usual and it was getting a little late in the evening too, so light was low.   Can I blame the bird for always looking like…