Akascribe A personal blog covering all manner of subjects

September 1, 2009

The Truth about Cats and Dogs

Filed under: Domestic Tranquility,General — akascribe @ 10:38 am

To my utter surprise, I have become a cat lover.  Never thought it would happen.  I suppose it took a “perfect storm” of circumstances, but it also goes to show – you just never know.

Growing up, we had cats and a dog, but I was definitely in the canine camp.  The fact that several of the cats were run over by cars might have had something to do with the bias.  It’s hard to form an attachment with a species that keeps getting itself killed.  Plus, the dog in question was an amazing Golden Retriever, the quintessential family dog.  Rusty – I had the honor of naming her when we got her as a puppy – surfed with us in the ocean (we lived on Malibu Beach), allowed my sister to ride her like a horse with nary a whimper, and stoically endured 6 months of rabies quarantine when we moved to England for high school.  The sweetest of creatures, she would plant a big wet one on you if your face got anywhere near her soft mug.  It’s hard not become a dog lover with a pooch like that.  We had a variety of cats during this period but they were all, well, second class pets in my eyes.  Cute and sometimes interesting, but still cats.

Rusty

Rusty

We finally euthanized Rusty at age 14 when, already blind and deaf, the rest of her organs started to fail.  My parents and sister took her to the vet, but I couldn’t bring myself to go.  I was 19 and I bawled like a baby.

I went dog-less (and cat-less) for a decade as I finished college, went off to graduate school and began working life on my own.  But something was always missing.  Finally, when I was between jobs and part-timing from home, it occurred to me: this was an opportunity.  Before I knew it, I was driving back from the Sacramento Valley with a barely-weaned Border collie puppy in my car.

Those who met Scout know I’m not exaggerating when I say she was the smartest and liveliest dog in the world.  The breed is known for that – they are working dogs, herding sheep in all types of weather and terrain.  Since she was a city dog, she was reduced to herding other dogs in parks – or anything else that moved.  Then we discovered Frisbee tossing, and she was hooked.  To watch her run full speed towards some spot where she calculated the Frisbee would go, making split-second adjustments for wind gusts and terrain, then leap at just the precise moment and catch it in her mouth – it was both a wonder and a joy.  I’m not sure who took more pleasure, her or me, but we spent countless hours over the years playing like that.

Scout

Scout

Truth be told, she wasn’t the most affectionate dog in the world, in the slobbery sense.  Oh, she loved to curl up next to me or to have me scratch her lower back, yet she wasn’t a big kisser.  But she was brighter and more loyal than a lot of people, and her sense of fun and accomplishment at a “job” well-done was infectious.

I could of course go on and on but unfortunately, in real life, she couldn’t.  I included a quote on her memorial card to the effect that, the only fault with dogs is that they don’t live long enough.  It’s true.  I mourned her well and deeply and will remember her for the rest of my life.

My son, who was 4 when Scout died, had already been hankering for a cat.  This wasn’t possible while she was alive because – for some reason – cats drove her bonkers.  My wife said that I egged her on, but I swear – all I did was teach her the word “cat” (she had a ridiculously large vocabulary) – and then say it out loud if I saw one.  With that, she’d tear off after it like some demented beast.  Cats being cats, they always safely escaped.  The only time she ever cornered a cat, she soon returned, tail between her legs, with two claws neatly stuck in her snout.

As Scout approached 14 years old, she got a malignant tumor on her paw and we readied ourselves for the inevitable.  A round of chemo cleared up the paw but the cancer had spread to her liver. Then one day she couldn’t get up.  She looked straight at me and told me with her mournful eyes – it’s time.  I picked her up and my wife drove us to our vet to put her out of her suffering.  I’m so glad I was there when she died – I guess I wasn’t ready with Rusty – but I was able to stroke Scout’s head and remind her of all the good times and then say goodbye.  When we got home I was of course a sobbing mess.  My sweet son patted me on the back and said: “Dad, I’m really sorry about Scout. [pause] Can we get a cat now?”  If you’ve ever laughed and cried at the same time, you’ll know how I felt.

I certainly wasn’t ready for another dog.  As the months went by, my son didn’t let up about the cat, so I asked around and located a woman who rescues them.  Collin had somehow got it into his head that he wanted a female marmalade tabby cat.  Don’t ask me why – that’s just what he wanted.  I phoned Debbie Edge, the cat lady, and put in our request.  She immediately responded, saying she didn’t have one of those, but if we were flexible there was one very special kitten we might want to meet.  He’d been rescued from the Sacramento shelter, which euthanizes, and was a grey-and-white tabby with a remarkably affectionate personality.  There were no dander issues (I sneeze around some cats), so we arranged to meet.

Well, it was all over in a New York minute.  Cats are supposed to be aloof, right? Not Clive (he came with the name).  Debbie handed him to me and he immediately settled on my shoulder and startled nuzzling me with his face, purring loudly and “making biscuits” with his paws.  I had no chance – the little guy swept me off my feet.

Clive

Clive

Do I miss having a dog?  You bet.  We actually got another one a year or so after Clive settled in, but Duke the black lab didn’t quite work out chez nous.  Let’s just say it’s tough to go from Einstein to Forest Gump.  Luckily, my sister and her family already had several horses, dogs, cats and various other critters, so she didn’t hesitate in adopting Duke.  (Erin, for the time he ate an entire 50 pound sack of kibble and had to have his stomach pumped, all I can say is: I did warn you.)

The one time I really miss having a dog is when I take a walk.  I love walking and it always seems like something is missing without a dog along.  Otherwise, now that we’ve found the perfect feline, there isn’t too much downside and a lot of upside.  He never requires a bath, something I couldn’t say for a dog.  It’s way easier to travel, whether for the day or on longer trips (although we have to hide the suitcases or Clive does get bummed out).  And I never have to clean up anything – Clive thoughtfully eschews the litter box and uses some remote part of the garden for his toilet needs.  I suppose we could do without the occasional offerings of freshly killed rodents and birds, but he seems so proud of himself that it would be churlish to scold him.

So what’s the truth about dogs and cats?  That they’re both wonderful.  And we’re damned lucky to have them in our lives.

August 28, 2009

Amelia — Sight Unseen, the Perfect Date Flick

Filed under: At the Movies — akascribe @ 4:21 pm

I just saw the trailer for Amelia, the Mira Nair-directed biopic about the missing aviatrix, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere.  It’s due out in late October.  All I can say is: brilliant casting and superb marketing.  I mean, Hilary (in the trailer) bears an uncanny resemblance to Earhart, with the same determined set of her jaw and detached amusement.  (I can’t say Richard Gere looks much like George Putnam, her husband cum impresario, but I’m sure he acquits himself well in the role.)

But that’s all small potatoes compared to the marketing coup: a film with cool airplanes that swoop and crash, but flown by a beautiful feminist wearing period costumes.  Who’s going to rush to see it faster, the guys or the gals?  No matter – there will be something for both of them!

I just wonder what took so long for this story to get made into a major Hollywood movie.  Seems like a slam dunk.

Michael Jackson’s Doctor and the Law

Filed under: General,Health & Wellness — akascribe @ 3:27 pm

So now we learn that the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office has ruled Michael Jackson’s death a homicide.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s personal physician, admitted administering propofol to Jackson, in addition to other sedatives.  It sounds like the Medical Examiner concluded that this was a lethal dose.  If we are correct to understand that propofol is so strong that it is only used as an anesthetic under the constant supervision of a physician, not as a sleeping pill, then I don’t see how the District Attorney would have any alternative to bringing manslaughter charges against Dr. Murray.  If Dr. Murray had merely made a mistake in the dosage (e.g. misreading the numerals on his hypodermic), that would be enough for negligent homicide.  But the additional fact that he was using this particular drug in this manner, and then didn’t monitor his patient’s respiration and heart rate around the clock, would demonstrate a reckless disregard for the life of Jackson.

Why punish a doctor in this fashion, you might say?  After all, the damage has been done.  Why not just find him guilty of malpractice (i.e. negligent homicide)?  Because there’s a deterrence factor involved with a manslaughter conviction.  We want to do more than just punish the criminal or make sure he isn’t a further risk to society.  In the future, we want physicians to think twice before giving such inappropriate narcotics to otherwise healthy people in a non-hospital setting.  This whole “doctor to the stars” industry is a scandal that besmirches the reputations of thousands of legitimate, thoughtful physicians out there and these so-called “personal physicians” prey on the wealth and neuroses of celebrities.  Does Jackson bear some responsibility for his own death?  Absolutely.  But he undoubtedly had no idea this combination of drugs could kill him.

So, just to be clear:  Dr. Murray of course is innocent until proven guilty, even assuming charges are brought against him.  But if the facts fall the way they appear, the judge should throw the book at him.

August 25, 2009

À Votre Santé

Filed under: Health & Wellness,Politics — akascribe @ 5:32 pm

With all the weighty political issues swirling around the U.S. in recent years, it’s bizarre that the current health care reform debate has inflamed the most passion.  I mean, there have been, by my tally: (1) Two Ongoing Wars, one of which (Afghanistan) was started on valid principles but waged poorly, and which now threatens to bog us down in the kind of quagmire that dragged down two great empires, and the other (Iraq), which was started on false pretenses, often conducted in violation of international law, and has exacted an ungodly toll in lives, money and moral standing; (2) Domestic Fiscal Policy, i.e. the compiling of massive deficits from a combination of tax cuts and huge non-infrastructure spending (See Item 1); (3) Energy Policy, aka a failure to invest in new technology or otherwise regulate a dirty, non-renewable 19th Century power source (petroleum), thereby both enriching and putting ourselves at the mercy of foreign oil producers (See Items 1 and 2); (4) Environmental Policy, where we stuck our head in the sand about global warming, thereby both missing an enormous high-tech business opportunity and quite possibly rendering our planet unfit for habitation by our grandchildren; (5) Various “Family Values” Issues, such as abortion, same-sex marriage and affirmative action (each too complex to summarize here); and (6) Education, where we have made some noise about teaching better but don’t have the money or resolve to do much about it (See Items 2 and 5). And there were plenty of others.  But what really gets people onto the streets, screaming bloody murder at their members of Congress? Whether to provide a public option to private health insurance. Go figure.

Part of the reason, we are told, is the core culture of America.  We are still a young nation, founded on a frontier mentality where people don’t want to take orders from Washington and don’t want to be taxed more than absolutely necessary.  Personally, I don’t buy it.  That kind of Jeffersonian ideology went out with the New Deal.  People want and expect the government to provide them with all sorts of goodies, from the so-called basics (national defense, police and fire protection) to infrastructure (interstate highways,  safe water and sanitation) to cheap food (subsidized corn and dairy products) to psychic enrichment (NASA’s space program, National Parks).  Just not, apparently, health care – seemingly one of the most basic necessities of life.

So what gives? I hate to be cynical, but I have to believe it’s because the Democrats are finally in power and have an opportunity to do some real good, despite the laundry list of policy obstacles that I enumerated above.  And for some ideological Republicans, the idea that overall success would further diminish their political viability is so unpalatable that they are willing to drag the whole country down with them.  Now if that isn’t cynical, I don’t know what is.

As to the specifics of the health care debate itself, I must confess that the issues are so complex that I haven’t been willing to wade into the minutiae.  My elected representatives are in favor of reform and that’s good enough for me – I’m willing to let the policy wonks hash out the details.  The fact that the current system is broken is so obvious that a right-winger would be much more credible arguing that President Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii or that Darwin’s theory of natural selection is misguided.  But if anyone out there is still in doubt about how medical costs in the USA are untenable, let me provide one personal anecdote as Exhibit A.

We recently got a referral from our son’s pediatrician to see a surgeon for an elective procedure.  We made an appointment for a consultation, where we were asked to provide lots of personal information (health history, insurance coverage, etc.) but were not charged a consultation fee or co-payment (nor were expecting to).  Once in the consultation, the doctor confirmed that insurance would not cover the procedure at issue and he spent half an hour happily discussing the details, encouraging us to contact him again if we had any further questions.

So imagine my surprise when we received a statement from Blue Shield, stating that the doctor had billed them $652 for the informal consultation!  My wife shook her head in similar dismay, so I immediately called the doctor’s office.  After leaving multiple messages, his billing assistant finally called back and “explained” that this is the way their office handles consultations.  I “explained” that this was not acceptable – we had not been informed in advance that the consult would be other than free.  Oh no, she said – if we preferred, we could be billed a $100 consultation fee, otherwise we would be responsible for a $25 co-payment and Blue Shield would pay the difference (from $652).  At this point, I figured I had either uncovered the most blatant insurance scam in history or was losing my mind, so to handle either situation I called our pediatrician (who happens to also be a family friend).

Now it gets worse.  She was initially as troubled as my wife and I were by what had transpired, so she promised to talk to the surgeon personally.  But when she called back a couple of days later, she was singing a different tune – basically echoing the billing assistant’s statement that “this is the way it’s done” even though it seems odd.  I probed her a little – how can this make any sense? – but it was like she’d already drunk the moral Kool-Aid and wasn’t going to admit what was now painfully obvious: the system had corrupted two otherwise fine and decent physicians.  Things have apparently gotten so bad for doctors that they have no way to survive other than go along with these sorts of smoke and mirror accounting shenanigans.  With the result that few can afford medical insurance (we’re both self-employed and are barely hanging in there) while the insurance company CEOs bring in multi-million dollar salaries.

Then I read that Whole Foods is being boycotted because John Mackey, its CEO, has been so brazen as to write an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal suggesting eight issues the Obama Administration should consider in the health care reform debate without adding to the deficit.  Huh?  I quickly read the editorial and found myself, a card-carrying liberal, agreeing with most of it – read it for yourself.

Mackey proposes such zany notions as: Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts.  Or, Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. And, Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits.  Treason!  Revolution!  Citizens, man the barricades!

So it isn’t just the opponents of health care reform who have wigged out.   Some of the so-called proponents are losing it too.   If all these folks would invest as much energy in eating better and exercising more (another one of Mackey’s calls for action), they’d unclog the arteries in their brains and we’d probably save enough in health care costs to fund Medicare until 2012 – when we can re-elect President Obama to finish cleaning up the mess he inherited.

August 23, 2009

Doing the (Charlie) Hustle

Filed under: General,Sports — akascribe @ 7:01 pm

God help me, I still read the local newspaper, that soon-to-be-extinct S.F. Chronicle.  And I don’t mean online, but in actual newsprint form.  I don’t know what compels me at this point, probably force of habit.  It certainly isn’t the quality of the content.  I almost cancelled the subscription this summer when – I kid you not – they ran a week-long front-page exposé on:  Fog.  That’s right, fog.  To paraphrase the line from Casablanca:  “I’m shocked, shocked, to discover fog in the Bay Area!”  These days, since my son is such a rabid athlete, the sports section gets the most attention.  Today’s paper included an article about the 20th anniversary of Pete Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball. 

It was basically a plea for the ban to be lifted and for Pete to be allowed to take his (rightful) place in the pantheon of greats, and be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Now there is no doubt Pete Rose is otherwise deserving of election by virtue of his playing career.  Among other gaudy statistics, he still holds the record for most hits.  Conspicuously absent from the article however, was any mention that pugnacious Pete has steadfastly refused, in these subsequent twenty years, to apologize for betting on Reds baseball games while managing the team (an obvious and illegal no-no) or to unequivocally acknowledge having done so.  Unrepentant to the extreme, he nonetheless wishes the commissioner to show leniency and has plenty of former colleagues to serve as his apologists.  The article’s glaring omission moved me to write a letter to the editor.  (Friends of mine know this is a pathetically quixotic habit that is only abetted by the absurd frequency with which magazine and newspaper editors publish the damned letters.  Believe me, it’s not so much the quality of the missives, it’s the paucity of readers sending them in!) 

I had to point out the obvious, namely that the prerequisites for asking for forgiveness are:  acknowledging your behavior and apologizing for it.  Any 1st grader knows that.  But perhaps being a really good baseball player somehow obviates this requirement.  Not to belabor the point, but this same mentality pervades the (unrelenting) baseball steroids scandal.  My son, a big fan of the game, now just assumes a player cheated if his name is mentioned in the context of drug use.  Jeter?  Must be guilty.  Big Papi?  Same.  Folks, there’s a reason why we want people to take responsibility for their actions.  Because actions have consequences.  And our children are watching.

Laugh ’til it Hurts

Filed under: At the Movies,General — akascribe @ 6:23 pm

I recently saw the British movie In the Loop (with a good buddy – congratulations on fatherhood, Edwin!) and left the cinema with mixed feelings.  The film is very funny, an over-the-top send-up of politics and diplomacy that echoes the lead-up to the Iraq War.  We were literally in stitches for much of the film, especially in response to the fictional press secretary to the British Prime Minister, a foul-mouthed Glaswegian who is equal parts Nicolo Machiavelli and Lewis Black.  But every character behaves so badly, from all echelons of the British and American governments, and so hilariously, that I was left emotionally and morally drained.  One can only hope that the extreme cynicism of the satire was only remotely grounded in reality.

I suppose the humor is akin to that of Sasha Baron Cohen – it’s so painful to watch and so seemingly bereft of redemption that you feel disappointed in yourself for taking pleasure in it.  Part of an old screenwriting adage from Hollywood goes: “Comedy is hard.” That is, difficult to pull off.  But in this case, it’s hard in the other sense as well.

Akascribe

Filed under: General — akascribe @ 6:21 pm

This is the inaugural post for Akascribe. 

It seemed time.

Why “Akascribe”?  Aka, short for akamai, which is Hawaiian for excellent or brilliant.  And scribe, as in a writer.  Okay, perhaps not modest but hopefully a catchy domain name nonetheless.

So here goes…

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