Scientists Find a Shared Gene in Dogs With Compulsive Behavior nytimes.co Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Don't even try to Google hypochondriacs windsorstar.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
When Patients Share Medical Data Online Time Magazine Take a look at an interesting article we found.
February 10, 2010
Doctor to patient: I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you are not a hypochondriac."
But, of course, hypochondria is no laughing matter.
According to one estimate, hypochondria racks up some $20 billion in wasted medical resources and doctor’s visits.
Not to mention the toll it takes on the individual who has projected a minor cough into bronchial pneumonia.
“The Imaginary Invalid,” first performed in 1673, was one of the early creative attempts dealing with the subject.
In Moliere’s play, the main character, Argan, is a selfish hypochondriac obsessed with his own imagined illnesses to the point where he thinks of nothing else.
Hippocrates supposedly coined the original term, which had something to do with the spleen. Don't ask.
The definition later evolved into “illness without a specific cause.”
Now, a new book by Irish journalist, Brian Dillon, "The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives" examines nine prominent people, including Andy Warhol, Charles Darwin and, even, Florence Nightingale, whose hypochondria defined their lives.
He makes the case that protracted illness, whether real or imaginary, enabled many of these artists to "retreat from extraneous duty" and escape into their creative work.
"So, it was a kind of calling, almost a vocation, that structured a life."
Whatever works.
First thing, the experts say, is that hypochondriacs should know is that they're not alone.
The rest of them are on medical message boards.
So getting medical advice on the web means you're getting it from the other 8 percent of the population suffering from the same problem you have.
And the other 30 percent that are aspiring hypochondriacs.
Naturally, hypochondriacs can go hand and (very antiseptic) hand with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
In Victorian times, the more common treatments for hypochondria was hydrotherapy— a water cure that involved drenching the patient daily to bring about a crisis or turning-point.
If you survived the cure, you were likely to learn to live with the "disease."
Today, Cognitive therapy has had the most success in treatment.
Therapists train patients to force their attention away from their symptoms.
Reason being that if focusing on a pain makes it seem more significant, ignoring it can make it seem much less.
Makes sense to me.
And, besides, any doctor will tell you that every pain doesn’t mean there are any complications.
But then what does no pain mean?
Relationship to obsessive-compulsive disorder linkinghub.elsevier. Take a look at an interesting article we found.
What is hypochondria? catalogs.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Hippocrates sjsu.edu Take a look at an interesting article we found.
A friend and his wife were in the car one day when an advertisement for a popular PMS remedy was ...
Feb. 10, 2010 10:08 AM
Where are you on the "Health Anxiety meter"?
3% 44% 50% 3%
"I don't know doctor, it's my eyes...every where I look it seems like I'm seeing snow"
" You Have The Power of Death and Life in Your Tongue ... What You Say Shall Come To Pass ..." GOD ... About 3500 BC
"If You Confess Negative, You Get Negative ... If You Confess Positive You Get Positive ..." Albert Einstein April 18, 1955
"Winter is coming and I just know my old Battery won't make it another Winter ..." And it doesn't .......
"Winter is coming and I just know I'm gonna catch the Flu ..." And he does .......
I'll be seventy-three in November and I have never even had a Cold, in my life ... Never had the Flu ....... And I never shall have either .......
One of my Cars has the same battery I put in it when I re-built it over ten years ago ... All I have done to it is some simple maintenance, kept it clean, and kept the Car in proper working condition, and express Thanks and Positive Confession every day ....... And of course, one of the most Positive things I do, is make a sixty quart pot of fresh Chicken Soup, every week .......
Good morning to two wonderful gentlemen. Cold, I love winter, have a wonderful day.
morning!!!
a tarradiddle....anal glaucoma....i just can't see my ass doing that.
FOLLOWING: LECTURE BY AN OPINONATED BORE: One of the nice things about knowing people who are heavily into endurance sports (running, hiking, tennis, kayaking, etc) is that they (a) listen to their bodies, and (b) treat them like the durable yet vulnerable machines that they are. IIn short, use it or lose it. I can't think of ever meeting a hypochondriac who was a 'gym rat' or was involved in training for some kind of athletic challenge; hypocondriacs I've known all seem to be couch potatoes. (The converse is NOT true: I know many couch potatoes who are certainly not hypochondriacs!) Considering how humans evolved, and looking at how folks now (often) live, it's not a bad idea to remember that the human body works best when it is made to work. Then again, it's good to take advantage of all the medical knowledge that's available; knowledge beats ignorance hands down!
Road Yacht -- ha ha ha ha -- not sure we'll be able to find our car IF we ever get out again. Whatever happened to the warming part of global warming?
ON THE OTHER HAND... Beware people who think they are invulnerable! Examples: Scuba divers who have never had a problem and don't worry about 'the bends' when they two-tank dive to 135 feet to get black coral... Backpackers who don't worry about weather reports because they 'can handle anything'..... Motorcyclists who don't wear a helmet or leathers or gloves or boots because they've never had a wreck.... Mountain climbers who .... well, you get the idea. The difference between an idiot and a hypochondriac is a fine one, but so is the line between being alive and being dead. (I have a decided preference for the former!)
Hypochondria is probably caused by having too much time on one's hands.
Hypochondria is exacerbated, I believe, by the overwhelming information that we're subjected to on a daily basis. Suddenly that muscle pull becomes a heart attack; those headaches are a brain tumor -- the media is intent of frightening us on a daily basis with news ad nauseum where a small percentage becomes blasted until it feels that the twinge is an epidemic.
I needed a category where it said "I worry and do nothing" -- that would be me. I have that peripheral worry thing going on most of the time, but put it off until...................
PS we DO spellcheck and a little larger font so we can view what we wrote -- this one is getting tinier and tinier (talk about sight worry)
Don't get me started....there is a story about a guy going to the Doctor, complaining of feeling poorly,no specific complaint,just feeling not well. . The doctor gave him a good going over,and said it is "all in your mind, go home and take it easy,you will be fine". . The guy put his clothes on and left the Doctor's office. . Moments later, the receptionist ran into the Doctor's office and breathlessly said "that guy just dropped dead walking out of the office!!! What should I do???" . The Doctor calmly said "Call 911, but first turn him around so he looks like he was coming in"....
Too much information inspires fear. Incomplete information spreads hypochondria.
The sad part is that the body can eventually become convinced that it really is sick. Hypochondriacs actually do feel the pain, and sometimes develop real symptoms. As RY says, if you think you're going to get sick, you probably will.
I like to concentrate on the other side of the coin. That the brain has great power to heal as well. If we believe we have the capacity to beat a disease, we are in a far better position to do so.
The human body is an amazing thing.
Kristina~that is usually called denial...and that is not the river. . we as sentient creatures are in tune with the feelings of 'normal', what ever that may be for an indivdual (it is probably not the same for everyone)and when something is amiss, there are subtle signals. I,as a male,have never experienced P.M.S., yet I would be foolish to deny its existance.....
Will the individual in charge of production of new snow please be advised "ENOUGH, ALREADY!"
At the burial service for a noted hypochondriac, it was observed that the epitaph on his tombstone read: I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK
Ah, yes. Being worried sick may eventually lead to being worried to death. Sometimes, like in High Anxiety, you just have to change the color of the drapes in The Psychotic Game Room to get positive results.
Doc Nolan wrote: "The difference between an idiot and a hypochondriac is a fine one, but so is the line between being alive and being dead. (I have a decided preference for the former!)"
I say: DON'T KNOCK IT TILL YOU TRY IT
After Hitler's concentration camps were liberated, scientists were interested in determining what if any common denominator was present differentiating those who survived from those who died. Studied was the population set aside as slave laborers, and given better rations, but whose general conditions were still horrible. After careful study, the survivors seemed to be those who knew there would be others on the outside looking for them, or others outside they felt duty bound to find {families, friends}. In summary, love was the common denominator that kept some going, while others similarly situated chose to give up and die.
bert...for you!!!
you'll get a black screen, click, hold and drag your mouse around.....
http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf
A friend and his wife were in the car one day when an advertisement for a popular PMS remedy was aired. The announcer urgently stated, "Statistics show that more than 30% of Americans suffer from PMS."
more on the honor rollMy friend rose his hand from the steering wheel and said, "And I'm one of them."
His wife punched him on the shoulder and said, "Hey goofball, you're a man. It's not possible."
He replied, "The ad said, 'suffer from PMS', and that I certainly do."
cuukoo -- it may have been for bert but I sent it out as well -- beautiful; thank you, badly needed
There was a span of time when I would talk myself of a cold - I actually looked in the mirror and said "I don't need it, I don't want it, I don't have time for it" and it worked for three years......and then, I got a cold. My sister in law said that I probably needed attention at that time -- who knows. But I do believe in positive thinking and I do believe that you can make yourself sick and help yourself get well.
When I had Legionnaire's Disease I was shocked to find that they considered that I may not make it -- Me? Not make it? Impossible. I got well, and I got well quickly; checking myself out of the hospital when the infectious disease doctor was "away for the weekend" with no one on call.......I believe in the power of medicine when necessary, but attitude is everything.
Most of my family has the same sort of idea, Andy. We just shrug off the minor stuff, figuring it will go away or kill us. Either way, we won't care. When the major stuff comes along, thankfully not often, we go with the flow - treat it and get back to living.
Sadly, this attitude can get you into some serious trouble. When my mother's doctor told her that the sudden, nearly debilitating onset of leg pain was arthritis, she accepted it and tried to cope. After several months of my griping and urging her to demand satisfaction, she returned to the doctor. Then we found out that the pain was from cancer having metastasized to her bones from the lungs.
I don't think knowing about the cancer two months earlier would have changed the course or outcome but it would have been nice to be able to prepare a little longer, as in talk about important things and do things together that we'd always wanted to do.
and as soon as theGovt. can figure out how to charge for it, we'll have to pay to have it
Korthal -- everything alright? What's going on in OC today? I'm watching the snow reach the top rail of my deck; not sure where my car is and it still coming down! Cabin fever -- hmm does that fit today's topic?
All forms of hypochondria are dibilitating, to the "sufferer" and those who suffer them. My mother was one. Shortly after reading about a new medical finding, my mom would announce that SHE had it, too. <SHEESH!> The worst of these cases, though is Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. In these cases the patient actually makes themselves ill, or makes their loved ones ill (usually children or older relatives), mostly for the attention. I've seen incidents where adults would inflict injuries on helpless kids or aging parents, just to get the medical system--generally emergent care facilities--in an uproar. Sadly, it is one of the worst forms of abuse, both to the unsuspecting medical community and to the patient. Many resources are wasted in trying to fix the injured patient, while completely missing the cause of the incident.
Shandonista how sad for you; it would have changed a lot to know and again, sadly, many of us have those terrible stories involving doctors and their "care". When my father died, listed on the death certificate was "senile dementia" -- no one ever said those words to us while we were living through bizarre behavior -- we thought it was the meds. Living with regret over that one -- fortunately for us, we have tow medical people in the family to translate "doctor-speak" and push us in the right direction.
ANDY:
It's coming down here. This winter has had the most snow I've ever seem here since I moved to the shore in 1986.
I'm just staying in and doing some work that has to be delivered in a day or so.
CUUKOO:
The flowers were a nice touch and go "hand IN hand" with the hope for the arrival of spring.
More dark roast.
andy and korthal.....my pleasure....!
Korthal - we've been trying to get there for weeks now -- the weather this year has kept us away.....miss it.....love it there, I keep thinking about moving to the shore permanently.
I have a client that is bi-polar and schizophrentic who walks around with a Merk's manual in her pocket....Arggggh To make matters worse she does have terrible health problems (some of her own making....none stop eating).
back to work
From our morning paper:
"Oshkosh teacher cuts would affect language, technology and business courses."
Good, we were worried that they might interfere with piling students into a yellow bus and heading for the bowling alley.
This from The Times:
"This may soon change, however. The American Psychiatric Association, with its release this week of proposed revisions to its authoritative Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is recommending that Asperger’s be dropped."
Batten down the hatches boys, there's gonna be hell to pay.
Meanwhile, it is another eye surgery day and time is short. It would be one of my gym days but I will settle instead for a pilates session while my wife has her post-op nap.
The pilates machine is a nice thing provided you have enough room in your house for something the size of a freight car.
It would be impossible to agree more with Jalopkin and my little ballon is hitched, as always, to his giant high riser.
Doc, the thing that is most noticeable about the endurance athletes trying to recover from mostly over-use injuries is their impatience and almost complete unwillingness to employ the cheapest most effective technique of all... rest.
My wife, gone to fix her mother's breakfast, spent the last few days baking cookies and dipping vegan chocolates to send to the grandchildren instead of being nervous about her surgery. What a woman!
Kristina~
I'm with you. The one-needle acupuncture low back cure probably worked because I believed that it would but there are people to whom I wouldn't bother recommending it... if you know what I mean.
My grandmother was not quite a hypochondriac. She would often complain of some sort of pain or illness, which would require a ride to the hospital in an ambulance, but which would mysteriously disappear as soon as she saw a doctor. It took us awhile, but we finally figured out what was going on.
She was a doctor's daughter. In her youth, she ran with the country club set. She liked to socialize with doctors. But, in her 70s, her social circle no longer contained any doctors. And, since neither of her disloyal grandchildren (me and my sister) fulfilled her dream of having a doctor in the family, she would fake a heart attack so she could spend time "socializing" with a doctor.
When is it my turn to crack?
Wondering if there's a study of hoiw many Hypochondriacs have had Parents that are/were Dr's or RN's?
My mom is an RN ~ we had better been on our death beds before we even claimed to be sick. If we claimed it & had no fever the next question always was which test didn't you study for/ which assignment isn't done?
Heck I have hard time calling in sick when I am sick let alone on Mnday when I wanted to go skiing & should have gone, but knowing I wasn't on my deathbed & that this would be the last skiing trip of my lifetime, I went to work instead...( I REALLY should have gone skiing though)...
Have a wonderful day I'm off to sit with an old friend then to sell the lastest diet scam books to unsuspecting costumers.... :)
All little kids,at one time or another,play doctor...how many play accountant?insurance salesman?senator? how many jelly beans doesit take to make it all better "I don't know, how many do you have?"
My grandmother had not been feeling well for several months, and after almost weekly visits to her HMO office, was finally diagnosed by the doc du jour as a "disagreeable hypochondriac," (yes, he did say that to her) and sent home. Four hours later she was taken by ambulance to the emergency room because she was in extreme pain. While in hospital they discovered she had aggressively invasive cancer in most of her internal organs and on her spine. Had the cancer been diagnosed when she first visited the doctor, there would have been a good chance that it could have been removed with a combination of surgery and chemotherapy.
That is an extreme story, but unfortunately not the only story I have of a Doctor dismissing an actual medical problem as non-existant, "all in your head". I have as many stories of Doctors prescribing poorly interacting meds that cause alarming side effects...
But I also have friend who after loading the symptoms from his latest cold/flu into WebMD was convinced that he had syphilis.
And on further consideration, after viewing Swine Flu epidemic headlines for months, and commercials for drugs to combat everything, and the cumpulsive use of anti-bacterial everything because germs are everywhere, is it any wonder people think they are sick?
I guess what I am trying to say is (shaking my head, shruging my shoulders).: I just don't know...
..................Michael, my father hat "chest pains" when he knew I would be going on vacation or even something simple, a child's birthday party....anytime he wouldn't be the focus of all the attention.
and of course the hypochondriac's tombstone: "I told you I was sick"
Andy: We finally figured it out when, for my parents' anniversary, my grandmother (dad's side) would only talk to the two of my mother's brothers who are doctors. When the one who is a farmer tried to talk to her, she pretended not to be able to hear him.
I have always felt very sorry for those people that are terminally healthy
Funny how idiots and mental defectives can always rationalize away that which they are incapable of understanding, and then put the icing on with deliberate obtuseness by adding sanctimony and faux superiority ... And always, The Emperor Has No Clothes ... Just like a Lightning Bug he is, when he tries to show how bright he is, he ends up showing his ass .......
STONEY: You are too kind, And All Shall Be Be Well For You and All Your House .......
Cuukoo, Andy: Thanks so much for your kind words. Today's topic has been debated back and forth, without mathematically precise conclusions. The mind and the body either can work together, or at cross purposes. Having a common game plan is critical to defeating viral opponents, among others. Generation of immune system cells in response to the invasion of disease goes either well or poorly, and the patient's willingness to live is critical to the ultimate result. I'm beyond asking if it's true, now I merely accept it without explanation.
Jalopkin~seems to work for those lil bugs...there are some every summer... ... and in the words of a wise man(guy?) . "If it hurts when you touch it- - don't touch it" ;-)
If anyone is catching it on the news about a hostage situation in Nebraska, yes that is my hometown. The bank in question is about 4 blocks from my house. There is very little news at the moment. Everyone is hoping and holding their breath here.
Please pray for the people still inside.
What I've noticed, since ours and our friends children are now adults and many are professionals: some parents -- especially those who belong to that hypochondriacal 8%, definitely tend to favor the child-turned into physician over the kid-turned teacher--forest ranger.
What good is a forest ranger to an aging Mother who demands round the clock attention to whatever she thinks ails her on any particular day?
It's not a pretty dynamic: in my extended family group, there is one mother whose favoritism for her physician son far outweighs that son's worth as a human being. No matter: she's written her teacher-daughter out of her will, and is threatening to disown the son who's a broke but brilliant photographer out in Eugene.
And while she tells him regularly that he's not as good as his doctor-brother and never was, she allows her lawyer-son a place at her table for the time being because she needs him to update her often-modified will.
But the physician son, he sits at the head of her table, down the length of it, across from her. She thinks often how smart she was to have a doctor-son, who prescribes pills for her ills, and sends his wife over to cook dinners for her when she is under the weather, which is frequently.
And he never, ever tells her "it's all in your head, mother" (as the others did) even though both of them know she'll outlive them all.
She needs him, he's the Lunt to her Fontanne in this dramatic farce, and she will need him no less as time goes by. And he will be there, they both know it.
Meanwhile, he and his wife are keeping meticulous count of the silver in the locked butler's pantry and more than once his Mrs. has been spotted running a proprietary finger on the frame of the the Matisse in the library.
Michael: what's your news station there? they might have a video feed...
He turned himself in.
Let hostages go.
KHGI news.....
Park4: The station address is http://nebraska.tv/
And the situation is over, without deaths. The suspect has been arrested, and police are now investigating the scene.
One last link
http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/article_9a536ab6-1668-11df-8142-001cc4c03286.html
And now back to our regularly scheduled programme.
Michael: I'm thinking this is another good reason to save put your money under your mattress.
to put your money under...
Park4: Your candid honest family tale is scary, and it is how kids never emotionally heal, damaged for life. My former partner's father and grandfather continually argued, the grandfather telling father he was never good enough for his daughter. Then the next generation picked up the neurotic insanity. Grandpa took grandchildren in and out of his will on a monthly basis, financial thuggery. 2 of the 3 kids protested, joining a commune in one of the Western states, and they and their children wear turbans. Most disfunctional family I ever experienced, and not due to lack of education or money.
And about the same interest rate....
The last time I threatened to put my money under the mattress, the guy at the bank where we were renewing a cd clutched his chest and said oh no, no no no no -- that's a terrible idea. Perhaps more people are seriously thinking of it while I was just being snippy about the non-existent interest rates.
The latest from Ocean City:
27 degrees
Winds to 50 mph
Wind chill 14 degrees
Th snow is falling sideways.
And last the record high of 60 degrees was in 1960
Park, we have a daughter-doctor and yes, I've noticed that she seems to get a lot more respect and attention from just about everyone (except us :) ) for no other reason than that she's a doctor. When I mention my kids to someone, inevitably they will respond with "is that the one that's a doctor?" Now, while I'm very proud of her accomplishments, we're just as proud of the other three and their accomplishments and I'm not in the habit of mentioning their professions unless asked......most likely, I'm talking about my grandchildren. We have children that I like to hang out with and one daughter and her husband, especially, that we often go out with as friends. I really thought the day of the "doctor as God" were over......but evidently not.........then there are those who just like the idea of a "freebie", my husband runs into that a lot as well.
off subject but relative to the weather today: It was just announced that we in Maryland have never had, in our history, a time where every county has had blizzard conditions. The governor just announced that there were over 700 weather-related accidents today.
Reading these postings.... One needs to be knowledgable and aware of real risks to one's health, BUT idle worry is unproductive. In my 20s I ran a band saw cutting asbestos and fibreglass insulation (summer job) so (objectively) I'm at risk and always will be for mesothelioma. My doctor knows my history, mostly because he was initially puzzled at the extensive scarring on the tops of my lungs. I asked him if I should worry and he reassured me with a common sense comment: "I wouldn't worry about it. If you don't have it there's nothing to worry about, and if you do you're a 'goner' anyway." I had to smile. He nailed it! I look at it this way: I'm in great cardiovascular health right now. My lungs do what they're supposed to do (oxygenate my hemoglobin). I'm going to eventually die of something or other no matter what I do. The main thing is to live each day as if it were the last day of my life and never waste a minute! The strange thing is that this way of looking at life is exactly what I hope to make my four- and one-year old grandsons both understand. When we are young, we tend to be way too scared, to cautious, and 'beaten down' by things that we should NOT fear. And we take far too many risks that are simply stupid from a cost/benefit viewpoint......
Addendum: Fear is a useful tool when part of a fully functioning brain; it's a hindrance when it takes over.
This will be the winter storm your grandkids will tell their grandkids about.
Probably.
I mean, I don't wish a bigger one on you than this, ever.
My favorite winter storm: 1967
Oh what fun, because I was a teenager, that's why.
Adults struggled with the weather, just like they're struggling now.
But we kids, we got the skis out and it was fun fun fun till our daddys took our toys away and made us go back to school.
Stay warm and safe.
There's no reason to go out there, really.
Nothing that won't wait a day or two.
i think god has a sense of humor on global warming......
Andy,
Our mattress pays 3.25% compound.
I was so proud of my wife: coming out of eye surgery with a perforated metal shield taped over one eye, hair covered, sedated and no doubt dying to put the episode behind her, she was cranked into an upright position and told to smile for a photo with the doctor already grinning at her side.
"Wait," said the patient, "what're we doing here?"
"Smile," said the camera wielding nurse with a camera, "for your picture with the doctor."
"No," she said.
"No-ho-ho, really?" the staff said as a chorus.
"Really, no," she repeated and though it took a moment to sink in, they gave up.
Park4,
Years ago, on the Saturday morning that we were scheduled to go to the home of my wife's late grandmother to join the rest of the heirs in dividing up her stuff, she asked: "Do we have to go?"
"Hell, no!" I was quick to assure her and we went out for breakfast.
A long time later, her mom asked if it would be possible to salvage one of the two damaged legal bookcases that nobody had wanted, for her use.
It was and when that was taken care of, she offered the more damaged one to us to fix.
We did that and at the next family function held here, we were obliged to explain how we had wound up with it. "By default," we explained, laughing.
Stoney -- I think we'll put it in your mattress then :)
My mother started giving me her jewelry and things that were of value to me and no one else many years before she died......when she was gone, the things that were important to us were odd things: one daughter has her bathrobe and said, I know you think I'm crazy, but it still has her scent.....another a rocking chair, and so on.
Cuukoo - I think God has a sense of humor..........period :)
Andy: God needs a sense of humor, watching quietly as we bungle our way through our trials & tribulations.
Be well! Be very well indeed!
Somehow this has gotten a very little morbid but my dad died in 1984 and my Mother still has some of his things.
His bathrobe, which she wears and i'm not sure she has ever washed it.
But it makes her happy.
cuukoo: it's time to put that flower link up again for bert.
bert, every cloud has a silver plated lining, never forget that. ;)
dryfly.....
korthal -- that's not morbid; that's actually rather nice -- my daughter felt that way about my mother..........and if it makes her happy to have that small part of him still, there's no harm in it.
Bert -- I do agree and have often said of whatever episode I'm speaking, that this shows that God has a sense of humor.
Stoney: you've got a good gig going here, with people putting their money under your mattress.
Some guys have a real knack for creating opportunities for themselves.
If I recall correctly, there was a recession in the early 1970's and at that time, it was a big one, and my father in law decided that this was The Great Depression II and this time he was going to be ready. So he went out one Saturday morning, into Milwaukee, and came back with tar buckets filled to the brim with silver coins. There were more than I want to tell here of these buckets of coins, he'd emptied one of their bank accounts, turned it into silver.
Later that day, he came back from town followed by a delivery truck, from the local liquor store. He'd bought out all the whiskey the owner had on his shelves and in the back room. It was a whole lot of whiskey.
He explained that during economic hard times, there are three things that every man wants: cash money, whiskey, and women.
Well.
The money and the booze, okay, but no women.
So, there were no women.
None that I knew about anyhow.
Anyhow, over time we drank the whiskey. It was easy to get rid of.
But we hauled that silver around wherever they moved, and they moved a lot -- they couldn't trust it with moving companies, we had to move it ourselves, it became an albatross. These were very heavy buckets and there were a lot of them, and we never spent the money or put it back in the bank, the most fun we had was digging our hands in it every once and a while to get the feel of real greed -- other than that, they were heavy buckets of money that were of no earthly good to anyone but nobody knew what to do with them.
They wound up in his will, of course, and sooner rather than later he died, after which his wife had the family converge on her Domain and one last time load those buckets into SUVs and vans and cars and drive to the Big Bank in the City, where finally we got rid of it, in a manner of speaking. It was a relief.
And I don't know the point of this ramble, other than it came to mind when I thought of people putting their money under stoney's mattress and what a hard time he would have sleeping at night if I'd decided to put all those silver coins under his mattress, too.
So there's no moral to this story, it just is what it is. Or isn't.
;)
cuukoo you're the devil's own...
excellent!
good story Park -- and hey, I hit 300+, probably just with today's posts.
Thanks, all, for such great tales, such sad examples, and such inspiration. I will not say who is which, only ask that you consider the most flattering category your own. WT
Tonight's menu: Comfort food.
Epic Mac-n-Cheese:
1 bag o' pasta, your choice of shape
1/2 can milk
1 chicken breast, chopped up and browned in olive oil
4-5 large mushrooms, chopped and thrown in with the chicken
1/2 a block of Velveeta, cubed (terrible, I know, but sooooo tasty in this context)
Cook the pasta, chicken, and mushrooms. Drain the pasta, throw in everything else, put on a low heat, stir occasionally until everything is melted.
DO NOT EAT MUCH OF THIS DISH!!! Share with friends.
CUUKOO1: Yes indeed, God has a sense of humor ... If you don't believe that, look around you next time you're on the Freeway ....... (Or the Expressway, as yankees call it)
Although it hasn't been scientifically measured or verified as true, it is my belief.... based on nothing more nor anything less than my set of circumstances, that the mind does indeed exert influence over the matter of the body.
A genuinely positive attitude when paired up with a healthy lifestyle is a force to be reckoned with; one that can beat the odds.
PL-- Your post MADE me respond. I have had lupus for about 22 years & I used to get very ill, sometimes call the family to the hospital ill. About 7 years ago I decided that when I got sick I would say F**k you to my illness & be very bold about it not controlling me. I stopped taking the steroids & the other drugs. I do vitamins, exercise & don't let my disease control me. I also don't bore people w/ my disease- BORING. I do believe strongly in mind over matter. BE VERY CLEAR--- I am NOT saying that people who get sick aren't mentally strong- I'm saying THIS is what has worked for me. It has given me a power. I get sick sometimes, but it has been a manageable sick.
I am very respectful about what course people choose to follow--- what works for one person does not work for another. The mind is powerful & it is easy to let a disease rule you. I look at the mind as another tool. I have found that panic spreads weakness in all parts of your life. There has to be a better way than the people in doctors' offices w/ gallon freezer bags filled w/ their drugs.
Right on PL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bebe - That's exactly what I had in mind. Good for you.
Assuming that kind of ownership over your own well being isn't easy, doesn't work for everyone, nor is it a measure of one's fortitude as you said so eloquently.
In my case, I was just too young and naïve to know that I couldn't overcome the obstacles that the doctors had forecast for me and so very fortunate to be blessed with parents that believed in me, and not the disease.
Thanks for sharing your story. Be well.
GOOD ON YOU, BEBE !!! Resounding Applause for your Attitude !!! 60% of any Healing is attitude, and you have Mastered it rather than letting it control you, and I do know how hard that is to do, especially at first .......
PARK4: Its all about Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whisky and More Money ... Thats what REAL Men Think about, when it all gets boiled down ... Of course there are interstitial alterations of Priority and Preferrence, owing to a number of factors, most of which we really don't mind ... but eventually it gets back to the Four Really Important Things ... Not to the exclusion of others, rather to be shared with those who are so disposed .......
but you all have forgotten the thing that started it all....the brightly colored bandaid with the stars
Bebe,
It was clear that there was something special about you. Thanks.
S
Road Yacht,
At our house, the brand was Handy Tapes and no matter what had happened to you, it wasn't as bad as when they ripped one of those off of you.
Our mom's test of sincerity regarding claims of illness was to fill the big red rubber bag with warn soapy water. It had a hose at its bottom and that hose had a nozzle on the other end, your end.
When she started to lube up that nozzle and asked you to: "assume the position," often spontaneous healing occurred.
The Doctor will order lots of test to protect them from a mapractice lawsuit!