Parkinson's Disease and the Midwest

I've felt strongly enough about this that when I went to write a novel about Iowa, it ended up being partly about this, if not the main takeaway. I cannot die silent about an issue that affects the region I love.

I read a very good article recently, but then unfortunately lost it and can't pass it along. It was entitled something like "Parkinson's Disease is not an Accident," and it was about increasing evidence that pesticide use is correlated with neurological disorders. Yes! Some scientist had gathered all the data and said that, basically, we can see the correlation, we know what the problem is, but the system is not geared to responding quickly to obvious problems. It's kind of like smoking: they had to have nasty lawsuits for years before the system was able to admit that an obvious killer had been wreaking havoc on American health.

In this case, briefly, pesticides are nerve gas. If we were to outlaw them, or limit them severely, people would accept that, because the proof is there that they are dangerous, and are disrupting our nerves and those of our children. It is the one thing that is doing probably the most damage to American children today - those same children are popping up with increasing autism, adhd, and various other problems too. The article dealt only with Parkinson's, but it was thorough, and the scientist who was interviewed really knew his stuff.

I find that, here in Illinois, I am one of few who get bottled water for home consumption. Presumably a lot of people, including children, are simply living off the tap. And I would guess there is some cleansing of the water that is in the tap. But I would also guess that so much pesticide is seeping down into the water table that we are beginning to see some pretty steep effects. Sometimes it's not just the pesticide itself but some of the metals that are used in their construction, and the chemicals used to bind things together to make them what they are. They are powerful, and they are dangerous, and we need to control them better. We have a lot of land under production.

I'll keep looking for the article. I read it and said, I wish I could show this to everyone. But a few days later it was still an open window on my computer, and life somehow moved on without me writing this. Things are busy here. They're busy everywhere - who has time to save America's children?

recent trip

UI Hosps

I maintain that the University of Iowa hospitals is one of the best art museums in the state, if not the best. It's full of wonderful art. This time, while walking through it, I stopped and grabbed a few pictures. I don't think it's representative, though; I'd like to take a complete tour and get everything that's good, and in fact, get better pictures of everything.

The problem is that, when you're in the hospital, you're distressed. In my case, because it was a lower-stress day, when my cochlear implants would be activated, I was in a fairly good mood and I could stop at things that struck me, and actually look at them. But that's rare. Most days I'm like the other people in there: worried; facing the fact that I'm declining fast; thinking about death around the horizon, etc. Not a good frame of mind for perusing art.

From Galesburg however I have learned two things. I learned them mostly by being stopped by trains, which interrupt us regularly. First, there is some fanatastic art out there in the world, which can really add to your life. Second, you may not always understand it, but you can usually identify how it makes you feel or what about it contrasts with its environment to give you a certain boost. All art happens in an environment, and UI Hosps' art is in some of these pictures very much in the Iowa place we all well know: Kinnick Stadium, the Children's Hospital, etc.

I am getting to know the place better. It is very intimidating to one or even three-or-four time visitors; it takes a while. Now that I'm a little more comfortable I can actually look at the art. I don't always understand it (what is going on behind the Old Cap, below?) but I can tell you what I like.

My apologies to the artists, whose names I tried to remember, but failed. These are poor pictures/representations anyway, and if you want the real thing just go to UI Hosps and you'll find them pretty quickly. I'm still looking to see if they have any Mario Lasansky (I'm sure they do somewhere) and ultimately I'd like to make a full tour and give you a much wider, more complete report. I like art now, and I at least want to identify the things that make me an impressionism fan.

The art was so fine, it popped my out of my gloom. And now, with my new cochlear implant, I hear tinny sounds and have lots of noise to make my life a little more full.

Review page

A wonderful review page for Tall Corn State...

https://www.bestbookeditors.com/uncategorized/tall-corn-state-by-thomas-leverett

Caitlin Clark

I would be remiss not to put some kind of tribute to Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes here. They gave us a wonderful season and changed women's basketball forever.

As a Hawkeye fan, I got drawn in early and got special notice that Hannah Stuelke is a relative of mine (second step-cousins, twice removed, to be exact). I wasn't able to actually watch any games so didn't get drawn in so much by the live-action angle of it; I just read about them afterward and occasionally posted using home-made pop art.

There are many reasons Caitlin got a wide range of fans, intense national interest, and status as a huge star. Yes, this was in spite of the fact that the South Carolina team was actually way better than the Hawkeyes. Caitlin kind of just drew in her audience with her way of being. She's a kind of combination of very competitive and super-polite, self-effacing Iowa farm girl, and people just responded to that, or maybe they were just ready for that new kind of hero. Girls especially, and I mean young white ones mostly here, especially respondsed to it, in Iowa in particular.

Some say that Iowa's theocratic backward state politics have led Iowans into despair and self-loathing, which made the state itself ripe for a hero who is strong, competent, and still clearly Iowan to the core. The fact that Caitlin is from West Des Moines and Hannah is from Cedar Rapids made me at least feel that the team was home-state Iowan, unlike many basketball teams today that are a product of super-effective national recruiting machines. Iowa had to pay a premium probably to ensure they stuck with the team and didn't wander off to some lucrative transfer option. But they wanted to play for Iowa. And they made the season for everyone.

She said all the right things when she was interviewed and she gave proper credit to her teammates who have indeed carried a lot of the weight. I like how she's humble when she needs to be, and she's pretty in a natural, confident, strong kind of way. It's hard to define exactly what about her attracted fans' adulation. On the court, it appeared that it was that she could always make threes, and often did, and this made her a threat every minute that she had the ball. That also put her in the class of male athletes like Stephen Curry who can make baskets from anywhere on the court.

I still have an old feud with the ugly Hawkeye logo, of course, but I'm finding it a lot more fun to be a loyal fan of my alma mater (one of them anyway - I went to Iowa twice) - and proud to be associated with this team. I'm a huge Caitlin fan.

What a year

I had to laugh when I saw Caitlin in my local HyVee (Galesburg, Illinois); I laughed, then I took this picture. As a role-model, hero, and record-setting athlete, she's interesting and is having a fabulous year.

But then there's Hannah Stuelke, my second step-cousin twice removed, and she's having quite a year too. Hannah is only a sophomore, but she has good chemistry with Caitlin - they each know what each other is doing, so that when Caitlin passes to Hannah Hannah can score. And this she did to the tune of 47 points the other night, setting a Hawkeye-Carver Arena record for both men's and women's. When Caitlin won the record for assists, she was passing it to Hannah. Caitlin, it seems, is much more focused on winning than on setting the scoring record herself, which she will undoubtedly do. Hannah is getting a lifetime opportunity to play beside one of basketball's best.

Sometimes I wonder if it's just a very insular state making a big fuss out of something that really isn't that big a deal. To me, it is a big deal inasmuch as we don't often see women basketball players get such press, and Caitlin at least is worth the press coverage. She's worth it because she's so good. And I like the fact that both women are Iowans, grew up Hawkeyes and now giving them some good press.

I'm still mad about the ugly logo though. Forty or fifty years of being an Iowa fan, and it just doesn't go away.