reminiscence – Page 7 – Go Retire Psychiatrist

The Pizza in a Bowl Enigma

Sena got a couple of pizza bowls and it’s quite an experience. It might be one of the things extraterrestrials would not invent because they don’t have mouths big enough to eat anything but chick peas one at a time.

Don’t get me wrong. The pizza tastes great. Has anybody figured out how to eat them? The importance of crust for pizza doesn’t occur to you until you don’t have it.

First of all (and second of all too for that matter), what is the etiquette required? How about the utensils? We tried eating them with spoons but then opted for forks. Adding a knife seems like overkill—until you find out how forks work.

You pick up the whole gooey mess and it gets all over your face. Have plenty of napkins ready, maybe even a wash cloth or a hose. I even use a knife and fork to eat pizza with a crust, which I admit some would call fastidious.

This reminds me of Pizza in a Cup. If you remember the movie “The Jerk,” which starred Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters, there’s the scene of them eating Pizza in a Cup. I can hardly believe that movie was released way back in 1979.

You can see that some of the comments below the YouTube indicate that not everybody believes the crust makes the pizza. Some even openly admit they purposely make pizza in a cup. And you can find recipes on the web for it. When I was in college, we went out for pizza with friends, one of whom blotted her pizza slice with a paper towel. I’ll bet she would have run away from pizza bowls.

Pizza in a bowl is in the same category as pizza in a cup—Foods That Puzzle You.

Old School

We were reminiscing about our elementary school days following a discussion of news article about what some educators want to do with the school day schedule. Apparently, kids are pretty sleepy in class and teachers think it’s because they’re sleep deprived. Apparently, they’re not getting enough sleep at night and the proposal is that the school day schedule ought to be pushed ahead, the day starting at 9 AM instead of 8 AM.

Maybe the kids should be off their electronic devices a little earlier in the evening.

I guess there have been studies supporting this idea for years, but of course I hadn’t heard of it. Nobody seems to be in a hurry to change the system.

What we remembered were the consequences imposed by teachers and principals when we didn’t perform up to expectations in class, or misbehaved in class or on the playground.

Sena had a little trouble with remembering the vowels, a e i o u and sometimes y. She had so much trouble with it that she had to stay after school to write that out over and over on two big blackboards. It took quite a while. That was back in the days when blackboards were big and covered one entire wall of the classroom. There was always more chalk available if she ran out. Sometimes the penalty for her not paying attention was a few sharp raps on the top of her head with a No.2 pencil. Most often it was for talking out of turn or not paying attention.

I got caught a couple of times for throwing snowballs on the playground. I think it was at least a couple of times. The consequence for this infraction was to sit in the principal’s office drawing little circles resembling snowballs on a sheet of paper. They had to be small so that it took you a long time to fill up the paper. If you made them too big, the principal made you flip the sheet over and do it again. I think if you got writer’s cramp, you had to switch hands.

My brother and I had to walk to and from school. We had to get up early and sometimes the snow was up to our knees. It was about a half-mile walk to school. One winter day, I was walking home and found a dog frozen stiff as a statue next to the sidewalk.

I spent most of time after lunch looking at the clock, wishing the hands would move faster to 3 PM, when school let out. I would walk home and because I was a latchkey kid, I just let myself in the house.

I guess moving the time up so that kids can be more awake during the morning wouldn’t hurt anything. Maybe the curriculum will be simplified a little bit too. Things like geography could be easier. You could change the name of the Gulf of Mexico (or is it the Gulf of America now?) to something that makes more sense—like the Gulf of Water.

If you can’t learn that, maybe you need to have your head rapped with a No.2 pencil.

Super Bowl Commercial “Mean Joe Frank” 2025 Looked Familiar!

We watched the Super Bowl last night and one of the many commercials (always a big thing) looked vaguely familiar only after Sena pointed it out. It was the Fareway Frank commercial about Fareway stores. It was a reprise of the famous 1979 Coca-Cola commercial with Mean Joe Green, defensive tackle for the Pittsburg Steelers and a kid. When you compare them, the similarities are obvious. There are two Fareway commercials that are the same, but have different titles, one of them being “Mean Joe Frank.”

The Hey Kid, Catch commercial with Mean Joe Green featured a 9-year-old kid named Tommy Okon. I couldn’t find a name for the kid in the “Mean Joe Frank” version.

But you can find film information on Turner Classic Movies titled “The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid” which is based on the commercial. The kid is Henry Martin who later starred in the movie, “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” (1982).

This led to reminiscence of Fareway Store in Mason City, Iowa. I used to walk to Fareway to get groceries and walked back carrying at least two big paper sacks. My arms were always pretty sore when I got home. I used a wagon later on, but had to be careful crossing the railroad tracks on the way back to ensure the eggs didn’t break.

There are Fareway stores all across Iowa and several neighboring states now, but the first one opened in Boone, Iowa in 1938. It popularized the idea of shoppers picking out their own items from the shelves rather than letting a store employee pick them out from the shopper’s list. The store name was inspired by what was sold (“fare”) and treating customers and employees fairly.

The Fareway Frank character was called Forrest Frank in 2024 although it looks like the company has settled on Fareway Frank.

The other Iowa connection worth mentioning is that rookie defensive player for the Philadelphia Eagles (Super Bowl winners), Cooper DeJean, who played for the University of Iowa Hawkeye football team, made a pick-6 interception touchdown in the game.

While the Fareway Frank version of the Super Bowl commercials line-up didn’t make the short list (or any list for that matter) of favorites, it sure did bring back memories for us.

Black History Month 2025 ASALH Theme

This is Black History Month and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) theme this year is African Americans & Labor.

When I look back on my youth, I think of my time learning on the job to be a survey crew technician and drafter for a consulting engineer company in Mason City, Iowa, Wallace Holland Kastler Schmitz & Co. (WHKS & Co.).

I was probably not the first black person to work for WHKS & Co. One other black person who was one of very few role models for African Americans was a guy named Al Martin, who I’ve posted about before.

My time there was in the 1970s and there were not many job opportunities open to minorities. I learned more than just the skills specific to the job. I learned that I could succeed in life, which was valuable later on. I developed the confidence to seek other opportunities which included going to medical school and becoming a physician.

Although racism was not absent at WHKS & Co., there was just enough open-mindedness to support my ambition to move forward in life despite the barriers to success in society that existed.

I think the ASALH theme for Black History Month in 2025 is vital to reflect on in the present day. People from all walks of life can relate to this.

Carter G. Woodson is considered the father of Black history and was the founder of Black History Month.

Keep Hope Alive

Just a reminder, Isabel Wilkerson will be giving her presentation, ” “Caste: How the hierarchy we have inherited restricts our humanity” from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, in Prem Sahai Auditorium (room 1110) in the Medical Education and Research Facility.

I’m about halfway through her book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” It’s a very difficult read, as I anticipated. It’s full of horrendous descriptions of what those in lower castes suffered, whether from the time of the Nazis, India, or America. I can read it only for a short while and then I have to put the book down and take a break. I get so I feel like I need an inspirational lift.

And it just happened the other night. I heard a poem on TV I’ve heard before, “I am Somebody.” Although it was written in the 1950s by Reverend William Holmes Borders, a civil rights activist and senior pastor at Wheat Street Baptist Church, it was recited by Reverend Jesse Jackson in 1963.

I remember seeing Reverend Jackson cry the night Barack Obama was elected President in 2008. I never heard the original speech Reverend Jackson gave in 1988, during the second time he was running for President himself.

I think it was probably because I was focused on starting medical school at The University of Iowa. I began my studies in August of 1988 in what was then the summer enrichment program for minority students.

One of Reverend Jackson’s speeches contained the other memorable cry, “Keep hope alive!” You can hear it and read the transcript.

You must not surrender! You may or may not get there but just know that you’re qualified! And you hold on and hold out! We must never surrender!! America will get better and better.

Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive! I love you very much. I love you very much. —Rev. Jesse Jackson, 1988.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 2025 Events and Some Thoughts

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week started January 20, 2025. There will be several very worthwhile events, many of which are listed here.

Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Humanities Medal, will deliver the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Lecture on February 5, 2025 at the University of Iowa Medical Education and Research Facility (MERF); Prem Sahai Auditorium. General admission is free although it’s a ticketed event, more information here.

I was searching the web for articles about whether and when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Iowa and found one that sparked personal memories of defeat, which Dr. King talked about when he visited my alma mater, Iowa State University in Ames in 1960, where he said:

“The Negro must not defeat or humiliate the white man, but must gain his confidence. Black supremacy would be as dangerous as white supremacy. I am not interested in rising from a position of disadvantage to a position of advantage.”

This quote was in an article entitled “Mentality Has Outrun Morality” in the January 23, 1960 issue of the Ames Tribune.

It reminded me of two episodes in my life which left me with a strong sense of defeat in the context of racism.

One of them was ages ago when I was a young man and somehow got involved in a pickup game of basketball with guys who were all white. I was the only black man. This was in Iowa. The members of my team were those I worked with. The opponents were men my co-workers challenged to a game of basketball. I had never been in such a contest before. I think we lost but what I remember most vividly is a comment shouted by one of the opponents: “Don’t worry about the nigger!” I sat on the bleachers for the rest of the game while they played on. I remember feeling defeated—and wondering whose team I was really on.

The other incident was also long ago (but I was a little older), when I was a member of a debating team at Huston-Tillotson College in Texas (now Huston-Tillotson University, one of America’s HBCUs). We were all black. We were debating the question of whether capital punishment was a deterrent or not to capital crime. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise with my opponent. He just kept a running speech going, punctuated with many “whereas” points, one of which I’m pretty sure included the overrepresentation of black men on death row. I had never been in a debate before. My professor remarked that my opponent won the debate by being bombastic—for which there didn’t seem to be a countermeasure. I remember feeling defeated—and wondered if I was on the wrong team.

There’s a lot of emphasis on defeating others in sports, politics, religion, and the like. On a personal level, I learned that defeat didn’t make me feel good. I’m pretty sure most people feel the same way.

Dr. King also said “We can’t sit and wait for the coming of the inevitable.”

I’m not sure exactly what he meant by “the coming of the inevitable.” What did he mean by the “emerging new order”? Did he mean the second coming? Did he mean the extinction of the human race when we all kill each other? Or did he mean the convergence of humanity’s insight into the need for cooperation with the recognition of the planet’s diminishing resources?

I don’t know. I’m just an old man who hopes things will get better.

Did You Know They Won’t Be Making Yardsticks Any Longer?

Anecdote alert! Sena just got back from shopping and had a priceless little story about shopping for a yardstick for measuring window film to apply on a door window. I suppose I should say that the title of this post is a dad joke that some people might not get.

Sena asked a Menards worker where to find a yardstick. She said the guy looked like he was in his thirties. His English was probably a little rough. He looked puzzled and directed her to the lawn and garden center. She clarified that a yardstick was something like a ruler. He replied that they didn’t carry school supplies.

Another worker was in the same aisle and chuckled. He directed her to where the yardsticks were.

You know, I haven’t seen a yardstick in a long time. We don’t own a ruler although we have a tape measure. Just to let younger people know, a yardstick is typically a piece of wood 36 inches long (which is 3 feet), marked off into inches, and used for measuring things.

The worker who didn’t know what a yardstick was could probably relate to football games because the length of the field is still divided into yards—but only if he’s a football fan, I guess. But you don’t measure distances to a first down on a football field with a yardstick. . Incredibly, they measure it with a chain between two sticks. None of your lasers for the officials.

We had a yardstick in the house where my brother and I grew up. You could also use it to reach stuff that rolled under tables. You could make comparisons by saying “By any yardstick, blah blah.”

And you can make dad jokes about yardsticks. By the way, the company that makes yardsticks won’t be making them any shorter either.

Big Mo Pod Show: “Blues: The Universal Mixer”

We listened to the Big Mo Pod Show (Sena stuck with it for about the first hour anyway) last night and then I got a mini-education in the forms of music, at least, as it relates to timing and rhythm. The theme was “Blues: The Universal Mixer.” Frequently, the blues show and the podcast remind me of previous eras in my life and lead to a few free associations.

The 5 songs reviewed by Big Mo and Noah are probably recognizable to many listeners. As usual, I have to search for the lyrics because I seem to have an inborn tendency to hearing mondegreens. And as usual, I don’t always pay the most attention to the songs chosen for the podcast.

But Big Mo did a little teaching session about rhythm forms, which he related to a couple of songs on the list. One of them was “Wait on Time” by The Fabulous Thunderbirds. I happened to notice that a couple of lines in the lyrics of “Wait on Time” reminded me of another artist who didn’t make it to the list on the podcast but was on the blues show playlist last night. That was Junior Walker and the All Stars. Their song “I’m a Road Runner” was one of my favorites because it reminded me of how I ran all over the hospital as a consult psychiatrist. But I can’t relate to the song as a whole.

The lines the two songs share are:

“Wait on Time” lyrics:

“Well, I live the life I love
And I love the life I live
The life I live baby
Is all I have to give”

“I’m a Road Runner” lyrics:

“And I live the life I love
And I’m gonna love the life I live
Yes, I’m a roadrunner, baby.”

Although the lyrics are similar, the themes are different. The guy in the song “Wait On Time” is promising he’ll get back to his lover someday. On the other hand, in the “I’m a Road Runner” lyrics, that guy is making no such promise and is actually is saying just the opposite.

Big Mo pointed out that there is a common rhythmic form in blues that easily mix with other forms of music, including Latin forms (I don’t understand that music lingo but I think I hear and feel what he means). He mentions that Bo Diddley mixed certain rhythms like that into his music, which surprised me because I didn’t know that. It may be why I like Bo Diddley.

Big Mo didn’t play “I’m a Road Runner” last night but played another hit from Junior Walker and the All Stars: “Ain’t That The Truth.” Just an aside, that tune is mostly instrumental and has a total of only 4 lines apparently, which express a common blues sentiment about relationships:

“Say man, what’s wrong with you?
Oh man, my woman done left me
Say it, man, play me some blues, jack
Get it, baby
Ain’t that the truth”

Several artists covered “I’m a Road Runner” including but not limited to the Grateful Dead and Steppenwolf. Bo Diddley did a song called “Road Runner” but it was not the Junior Walker tune. There’s a YouTube video relating it to the cartoon Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote.

I’m not a roadrunner by any definition, but I learn a little something new just about every time I hear the Big Mo Pod Show.

The Flowers Are Doing Well

The Christmas Amaryllis/Hippeastrum flowers are doing well.

I’m getting older and often I wake up early in the morning feeling anxious and a little blue. I look at the news headlines about people who die and often they’re my age or even younger. Maybe the Christmas holiday does that.

When I get this feeling of dread, I try to think of what I can be grateful for. It’s hard to think of big dramatic experiences. If I sit still long enough, it’s the little acts of kindness that drop down like snowflakes, slowly.

The grade school teacher who took the time to figure out I needed eyeglasses because I couldn’t see the blackboard.

The preacher who sat up all night in a chair with my sick mother when my brother and I were little kids and didn’t know how to help her.

The company that hired me for my first real job when I was a teenager. If they hadn’t done that, I might have become homeless.

The guy who took me to an autumn outdoor art show where he was exhibiting his paintings on a brisk autumn day. Man, it was cold.

The guy who took me to a Minnesota Twins baseball game in the summer. Man, it was hot.

I remember a couple of best friends. We weren’t friends long—but it was long enough.

The friends who supported Sena and me on our wedding day. I still remember it with gratitude 47 years later.

And looking at the flowers helps.

Dirty Deepfakes

I saw an article about the unreliable ability of humans to detect digital deepfakes in audio and video productions (Mai KT, Bray S, Davies T, Griffin LD. Warning: Humans cannot reliably detect speech deepfakes. PLoS One. 2023 Aug 2;18(8):e0285333. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285333. PMID: 37531336; PMCID: PMC10395974.).

I was a little surprised. I thought I was pretty good at detecting the weird cadence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) speech patterns, which I think I can distinguish pretty well. Maybe not.

And there are some experts who are concerned about AI’s ability to mimic written and spoken grammar—but it continues to make stuff up (called “hallucinations”). In fact, some research shows that AI can display great language skills but can’t form a true model of the world.

And the publisher of the book (“Psychosomatic Medicine: An Introduction to Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry”) that I and my co-editor, Dr. Robert G. Robinson, MD wrote 14 years ago is still sending me requests to sign a contract addendum that would allow the text to be used by AI organizations. I think I’m the only who gets the messages because they’re always sent to me and Bob—as though Bob lives with me or something.

Sometimes my publisher’s messages sound like they’re written by AI. Maybe I’m just paranoid.

Anyway, this reminds me of a blog post I wrote in 2011, “Going from Plan to Dirt,” which I re-posted last year under the title “Another Blast from the Past.” Currently, this post is slightly different although it still applies. I don’t think AI can distinguish plan from dirt and sometimes makes up dirt, simply put.

And if humans can’t distinguish the productions by AI from those of humans, where does that leave us?