Friday's Odds and Ends

When my sister told me she had to pay $4,000 for a pill to help her body deal with the effects of chemo she was receiving for breast cancer, I thought we had a bad phone connection. Surely it didn't cost $4,000 for one little pill. To my dismay, I found out it really does. Not only that, a lot of cancer treatments are costing much more than they were even a few years ago.

According to a recent article by Donald W. Light, a network fellow at Harvard University's E. J. Safra Center for Ethics and a professor at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, and Hagop Kantarjian, chair of the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center, drug companies believe the higher prices are necessary. Pharmaceutical companies say that the new drugs are improved, but oncologists disagree. The doctors say there are few clinical advantages of the new medicine over existing drugs.

The other justification for higher prices of all kinds of medicine is the cost of research and development. In the article Light and Kantarjian wrote for the AARP Bulletin, they dispelled this justification as well.

Overall, investment in basic research by pharmaceutical companies to discover new drugs is quite small - about one-sixth of overall company research costs and about 1.3 percent of revenues after deducting for taxpayer subsidies.

Research for cancer drugs specifically is paid for by the National Cancer Institute and various foundations, yet the price of cancer drugs has doubled in the past decade. 

The authors conclude the article with a call to congress to hold hearings on the rising costs of specialty drugs and allow Medicare to negotiate discount drug prices. They believe bringing down the cost of drugs and treatments could cut health care costs.

Now for some funny papers fun from Mallard Fillmore. A news news anchor says, "Good evening… The F.C.C. will be observing, but in no way interfering with tonights newscast….

An officious guy with a huge smile next to him says, "He actually meant to say, "The friendly, helpful F.C.C., didn't you, Roger?"

This next one is from One Big Happy. Grandma and grandpa are out for a walk and meet a neighbor who says, "I'm looking to lower my taxes. Do you all give money to charities?"

Grandma says, "Yes, Roy. We donate to our church."

"Aw, I can't do that, I'm an atheist."

Grandpa says, "No problem, Roy. Atheism is a non-prophet group."

Roy scratches his chin. "It is?"

As grandma and grandma walk off she says to him "You're so bad."

Closing With a Literary Lesson: This is from Laura Lippman's novel, Life Sentences when a character is reflecting on how a white friend thought about the weekend that Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, "She hadn't known, couldn't know what had gone on in the living rooms and kitchens of black folks' homes that horrible weekend, the fear and grief and terror of it all. As Donna said, she meant no harm. But Tisha knew that people who meant no harm were often the most dangerous people of all, the real tar babies from which one might never disentangle."

Friday's Odds and Ends - Short and Sweet

For the sweet part, why don't we all have a cup of coffee and a piece of this yummy coffee cake?

The cake is really easy to prepare, and I used to make a lot when the kids were young, and it was a family favorite, especially on Christmas and Easter mornings. The recipe used to be on the back of the Bisquick box, but it is no longer there. I found a recipe on Food.com if you want to try it.

We need the comfort food as we think about yet another mass shooting that occurred last Friday in California.  Elliot O. Rodger killed six college students and himself near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Apparently there had been warnings from his family and mental health professionals that he was unstable and had the potential for violence, yet he was able to purchase three guns and carry out this terrible act. 

Now California lawmakers are proposing legislation that would allow for restraining orders from a judge to keep people like Elliot from buying or owning a gun. According to the news report in The New York Times, "The process would be similar to the one currently used for restraining orders in cases of domestic violence."

That might be a good step. What do you think?

Totally switching gears now because we need something positive to focus on, I want to mention the Children's Miracle Network in Tyler, TX, just one of many hospitals across the country that serve children with special needs and their families. Today a local radio station, KMOO, hosted a radiothon, and I went over to the live broadcast booth to make a donation. At first that was all I was going to do, but then I got the idea to pledge 50% of my royalties from book sales on Amazon this month to that worthy cause. I will include sales that have already occurred this month, as well as any over the next two days. So if you have been considering one of my books, this is a good time to grab one and help a good cause. This offer is for any of my books in paper or as e-books. I will track sales and make the donation on Monday. On behalf of all the families this might help in East Texas, I thank you. 100 percent of the money raised goes to the kids here in East Texas, so I am thrilled to support the effort. Here is a link to my Author Page on Amazon for easy shopping.- 
 
You don't have to be a horse lover to appreciate this next offering. A friend sent me a link to this video of the amazing Friesian horses and I just had to share it here. These are such beautiful, majestic horses and would love to ride one some day.




It's been a while since I've posted a Literary Lesson here on the blog, and I just read this in Bone by Bone by Carol O'Connell. It's an interesting commentary by an older man to his grown son, and does make one stop and think:

"The way I see it--it doesn't matter if God invented man or man invented GOd. It's a done deal, and you might as well try to uninvent the isosceles triangel. But a bona fide miracle defires logic in both camps. A man-made god precludes miraculous acts. And a true god wouldn't allow them. Why shake man's faith is sweet reason?"

And now a joke to end our week. This one may not make you laugh out loud, but I thought it was cute.

A young boy is pulling his wagon up a hill when one of the back wheels falls off and rolls down the hill. The young boy says, "I'll be darned." A local pastor heard him and said, "You should not say that. Next time your wheel falls off say, 'Praise the Lord.'" So the next day the young boy is pulling his wagon up the hill and the wheel falls off and rolls down the hill. The young boy says, "Praise the Lord." The wheel stops rolling, turns around, rolls back up the hill and puts itself back on the wagon. The young boy being very surprised by this exclaims, "I'll be darned!" 

Friday's Odds and Ends

This has been a very busy, hectic week getting ready for the opening of the play I am in at a local community theatre, The Main Street Theatre in Sulphur Springs, Texas. We are doing "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and I play the role of Big Mama. We opened last night and will perform again tonight, tomorrow night, and next week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I am working with an amazing cast and the players doing the two lead roles, Maggie and Brick, are terrific. So is Big Daddy. When he goes on his tirade against me, I can feel all his anger and his frustration.

This picture is from one of our rehearsals where Big Daddy is yelling at me to leave him and Brick alone. The scene is from act two where Brick and Big Daddy are having their "come to Jesus" talk. Very intense scene, and it upsets me to hear them shouting at each other.

On opening night, Thursday, the audience could feel all that emotion, too, and it is that connection we always want to make with an audience or with readers.  I love being reminded of that while playing on stage.

 

Maggie "The Cat" played by Leah Conner. Image Courtesy of The Front Porch News where you can read a review and see more cast pictures.You can also get information on tickets, etc, if you happen to be in the East Texas area and would like to see this classic show.

Today I am the Friday's Featured Author at J.M. Kelley's blog and we had fun talking about high school days, favorite books, and the ultimate hamburger. Come on by if you have a chance. Like so many other authors who are generous with their time and their little corner of cyberspace to support other writers, J.M is helping me spread the word about the recent release of Stalking Season as an e-book. 

I just love the cover that artist, Dany Russell did, so I have to share it again. For those of you who may have ever been in Reunion Arena in Dallas, you may recognize the view, minus the police badge of course.

Now just a couple of groaner jokes, thanks to Jokes4Us.com

Q: What did the baby corn say to the mama corn? A: "Where’s Popcorn?"

Q: What do you call sad coffee?" A: Despresso.

Today's Literary Lesson comes from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." In act one Maggie says, "When something is festering your your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work. It's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant."

The play is filled with such wonderful insights, which is part of the reason it has been such a joy to experience. Every rehearsal we found a new nuance of human behavior and philosophy to ponder.

What have you learned from plays or books that made you stop and really think about how it applies to your life?

Friday's Odds and Ends

It's a cold, rainy day here in East Texas, so I thought I would start the day with a cup of tea and a biscuit. Care to join me? I can share.

 It used to be that we had political mudslinging and candidates acting like two-year-olds for about six months before a major election. Then we might have some political peace for a year or so. Now we just go from one verbal mess to another. The latest being insults lobbed at Texas state senator, Wendy Davis by a Greg Abbott supporter. Both Davis and Abbott are running for governor of Texas, and some time ago, Jeff Rutledge posted a Tweet calling Davis "retard Barbie." Instead of calling Rutledge on using such bad taste, Abbott simply thanked the man for his support.

Such nice guys.

A Texas resident recently noted a Medicare overpayment that was double what the actual bill was. When she called to report the error, a Medicare representative told her that it is now standard payment for some services, and the system automatically pays that amount, no matter what the billing amount is. The woman then asked why each bill is not paid according to the billing amount, and she was told that this the system that is in place and it all balances out in the long run. The reasoning is that some submitted bills are higher than the standard payment amount, so that cancels the overpayments.  

Oh, really?

I read a news report about a charter school in Houston that had a serious financial problem. It seems that administrators misused $5.3 million in federal funds for trips to Las Vegas and New York, as well as some cruises. The two top administrators also received salaries of $440,000 while enjoying all those trips and the perks that came with the trips.

It's been a while since I've done Literary Lessons, so here's one from Family Circus, a quote from Grandma:    "Making mistakes is okay if they're new ones each time."

These next two are from Harlan Coben's novel,  StayClose.

"Ken considered himself a disciplined man, but the truth was, human beings were not built for self- denial. It was why diets rarely worked in the long run."

"The measure of a man isn't how many times he gets knocked down. It is how many times he gets back up again." 

Now, for no reason other than I think the goat is cute, here is my Lucy, enjoying some treats I threw over the fence. The green stuff growing behind her is called goat weed, and she doesn't eat that. I've never known if it is called goat weed because goats don't eat it, or if Lucy is just too picky and all the other goats do eat it. 

Friday's Odds and Ends

Another week has flown by, and I keep wondering where the time went. I remember when my grandmother told me how the days and weeks and months seem to shrink as you get older, I didn't believe her. But then, I was just a 12-year-old girl. Days were endless to me then, and I was sure they would always be.

Now I have to often remind myself to stop. Enjoy this moment. Make this moment count. This morning there was another spectacular sunrise. As I was walking with my dog, I stopped and admired the cloud formations, some looking like wisps of cotton pulled so thin the color of the sky could be seen through the threads. Colors that ranged from a deep orange to a light yellow, blending into a pale blue.

Beautiful.

Of course, I did not have my camera. But I do have a picture I took last year that I can share. We do have beautiful sunrises and sunsets here in Texas.

How many of you cheered when news of the settlement between Congress and President Obama was announced? I didn't cheer. I just said, "It's about damn time." Throughout this prolonged mess, all I could think of was two junkyard dogs facing off to protect their part of the domain.

Sad, and enough said.

On Monday I said I would report today on how the book promotion went, offering Boxes For Beds free for a few days. I'm going to put that off until next Friday so I can include some information from a couple of other authors on how their promotional events have worked. I found out that Stacy Juba had a special this past week also, and she has agreed to share some of her results with us.  I first met Stacy when she invited me to write an essay for her book, 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror, a collection of stories from a number of authors looking back to 1985. Stacy is a terrific writer and a great supporter of other authors, and I am looking forward to hearing how her promotional efforts went. She is so good at marketing, too.

 It's been a while since I shared a Literary Lesson, and I thought this one appropriate considering the mess our government is in. This is the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town" speaking. The play was written in 1938, but not much has changed.

"Whenever you come near the human race, there's layers and layers of nonsense."

And lets finish with a joke. Can't end on a downer:

What did the math book say to the other math book? 
Boy do I have problems.

Friday's Odds and Ends

Yesterday's blog hop was so much fun. I hope you had a chance to go visit some of the blogs and see where people went via the wormhole.

The big news for Roman Catholics this week is the election of a new Pope, Francis the First.   Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was chosen on Wednesday, and reactions from most Catholics has been positive. There was some advance speculation that Cardinal Bergoglio was high on the list of favorite candidates, so there is not a lot of surprise with the choice. It will be interesting to see if he will take the church in a new direction, or it will be more of the same'ol same'ol.

In other news, the U.S. government is still grappling with setting a new budget. It is politics as usual with both parties looking after party interests instead of the interests of the people. And of course the items being cut, or under consideration for cuts, are programs that directly help the people. Nobody has talked about cutting some of the totally unnecessary items like portraits of cabinet secretaries and administrators. Big bucks are spent on those portraits. The Environmental Protection Agency spent nearly $40,000 on a portrait of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, while a painting of Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley will cost $41,200, according to federal purchasing records.

Didn't we just elect a president? Now there is already talk of who is running next. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush recently said, "I'm not saying yes. I'm just not saying no."

The city of Austin, Texas has banned the use of plastic shopping bags for some time now, and Rep. Drew Springer of Muenster, has introduced a bill to overturn the ordinance. He calls the bill "Shopping Bag Freedom Act." Okay, of all the freedoms being threatened in our country, is this one really that crucial?

Now for some fun from Garfield.  Jon is holding a door open for Liz, saying, "Allow me to get the door for you, Liz. I'm always the gentleman."

To which Liz responds, "That's the closet."

Garfield has one of his inimitable comments, "He said he was polite, lady. Not smart."

Literary Lesson: "Dreams never die. Sometimes you think they are dead, but they are just hibernating like some big old bear. And if that dream has been hibernating for a long time, that bear is going to wake up hungry and grumpy." A character from Harlan Coben's Fade Away

Friday Odds and Ends

Today I am also blogging over at the Venture Galleries blog. Interested in what makes a criminal's mind different from ours?


Heard on the news the other day that Saturday mail deliveries will be discontinued starting in August. The media is all over this in a big way already, from national news shows to local. Some people sure are hot about the topic, with some predicting dire consequences, like senior citizens dying because they can't get medications delivered that day. 

Granted, timely medication deliveries could be an issue, but instead of ranting about it, why not just step back a moment, take a deep breath, and figure out a way for medications to be delivered Monday through Friday. It could happen.

Concern over business mail that would be delayed was also voiced. Bills might be paid late. Hmmm, maybe we could plan to handle that differently, too.

Just think, years ago, we didn't have Saturday deliveries, and we all did just fine. Even more years ago mail deliveries were on a weekly, or monthly basis, and everyone did just fine.

We will survive this latest deprivation. Trust me.

Raise your hand if you can relate to this from Sherman's Lagoon: Megan is tending to a potted plant and Sherman asks, "So Megan, you're also entering this tropical plant contest?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

"When did this come about?"

She gives him one of those looks. You know the one I mean. "I've entered it every year since you've known me!"

"And yet this is the first time I'm hearing about it?"

"I discuss it every year."

"While I'm paying attention? You know, during comercials?"

"Arrrrgh!"

This Literary Lesson is from The Weeping Chamber by Sigmund Brouwer   "… the distance between us makes my heart ache with sentiment, and it is easier to be weak for you when you cannot see how I tremble."

Sometimes emotions are easier to handle with some distance between us.