Ask any pundit and he'll tell you that Rudolph W. Giuliani did poorly in Florida because he opted out of the first four contests, banking on a strong showing in the Sunshine state to propel him to victory. Well, it seems that Rudy rolled the dice and lost. And the momentum passed to John McCain. But the real reason for Giuliani's loss is that prostate [...]
"THE LITTLE OLD LADY IN LAVENDER SILK" By Dorothy Parker I was seventy-seven, come August, I shall shortly be losing my bloom . . . When you come to this time of abatement, To this passing from Summer to Fall, It is manners to issue a statement As to what you got out of it [...]
I recently took a cruise down the Mississippi River on an old-fashioned steamboat, and it made me want to revisit the great African-American poet Langston Hughes' best-known poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (that's what inspired this title.) But my personal favorite Hughes poem is "Mother to Son", which I think of whenever I feel [...]
I read a message yesterday posted by a woman who is not in good health herself but is caring for her husband, who is 83 and has end-stage PC. Her devotion reminded me of a beautiful poem, "When You Are Old", by the Irish poet, W.B. Yeats. You might say this poem celebrates "mature love". [...]
I don't read much highbrow lit, but DH does. Sunday, he showed me a review of a new novel by Philip Roth that was in the NYT, because he said it had to do with PC. So I had a look, because rarely do I see prostate cancer take center stage in art. I was [...]
Still mourning my big, precious lug, Hughie. Asked Ted, "What is it exactly we saw in him?" Not in the sense of "What could we possibly have seen in the guy," but "What was was it exactly that so endeared this man to us?" If we knew, maybe we could have bottled it. Like a [...]
Word for the Day: "Embarrassment." Do you still remember what that means? I don't. And you can throw out "Privacy," too. Does anyone have a dictionary? That's because everybody here has had someone, most likely wearing a white coat, trespass on their "private property." Or been close to someone who has. Since DH's (Dear Husband's) [...]
Joke or Fable? I read a joke to my husband the other day, and he said, "This is not just funny, it's philosophical." So I rolled my eyes and said, "You're such an egghead. What are you talking about?" He replied, "It's making the point that you should never rush into anything. You have to [...]
My Dearest Hugh: The world feels shrunken without you. When I go out, I feel like a massive presence is missing. I'm talking about you, Hughie. Am happy for you, but sad for me. For your eulogy, I chose to talk about my favorite poem, and specifically, my favorite verse. "On My First Son" is [...]
These are from Curtis Palmer, originally posted in alt.support.cancer.prostate. Enjoy, and send me your own. Curtis wrote: "Biopsies are no joke, but a physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his male patients while he was performing their biopsies. I must say I was excited to see this, because there is a [...]
