The crazy lady strikes again

I was watching a Sunday morning program featuring Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, on the 9/24/2006 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous. In the interview with Frist, the journalist doing the interview focused exclusively on the topic of terrorism. Yes, this has been a significant concern in America, at least since 9/11/2001. However, I've noticed something about all the interviews I've ever heard with Frist as the interviewee. Despite the fact that he's the only Senator... Sign in to see full entry.

Recently, I was watching a CNN interview with Ingrid Mattson, the new president of the Islamic Society of North America. She was being interviewed about the Pope's recent remarks about Islam, and the fallout in the Muslim world about those remarks. I was struck less by her public statements than by her garb - the traditional Muslim hijab, or head scarf. It reminded me so much of a Catholic nun's habit that I was amazed. In my area, because I live relatively close to an area with a high... Sign in to see full entry.

A total of three people left comments on my last entry in this blog. For me, that's something of a record. Seriously, though, I do get my regular commentators, and two of the comments provoked some thought. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to agree to disagree with one of the commentators. Yes, we women do have a lot in common with each other - having to cope with a system which favors masculine initiative and risk-taking over relatedness and connectedness, for example. We also share hormonal... Sign in to see full entry.

Recently, Rosie O'Donnell commented on something she'd seen on Oprah Winfrey's season opener. Apparently, this Oprah show contained a clip showing her at a gas station, pumping gas, while on a cross-country trip with close personal friend Gayle King. (For those who aren't "in the know," O'Donnell is the new moderator of the TV show The View.) When commenting on this clip in particular, O'Donnell made it know that something she calls her "gaydar" ("gay radar," or a "sixth sense" as to whether or... Sign in to see full entry.

You can tell I'm a bit upset about a specific issue. Just this morning, I heard that a third baby died at Indianapolis' Methodist Hospital as the direct result of a heparin overdose. A total of six babies at their neonatal ICU were given adult-level doses of heparin, which would be an overdose even in healthy infants, but was an especially large overdose due to their status as premature and/or low birth weight babies. Some doofus - apparently working in the pharmacy - put the adult-level doses... Sign in to see full entry.

The space shuttle Atlantis got back to Florida this morning (9/21/2006), at just after 5 AM Central Daylight Time. NASA was concerned because pictures of the area immediately surrounding the shuttle showed a great deal of what I call "space junk" which might have damaged Atlantis. None of us space geeks want to see another six astronauts literally go up in smoke after the Columbia disaster three years ago, and neither did NASA, so the powers that be delayed Atlantis' landing until this morning. Sign in to see full entry.

Those of you who read my blogs regularly - the five of you know who you are (also insert big grin here) - may have noticed that I haven't been posting as frequently, nor have I been commenting much on anyone's posts. There's a good reason for that. I've been spending entirely too much time on Usenet, surfing newsgroups I haven't had access to in ages. I subscribe to both AOL and Comcast's Internet service. Not that long ago, AOL decided to stop allowing subscribers direct access to Usenet... Sign in to see full entry.

I spent most of yesterday doing something I haven't done in a while: I visited Usenet, using my cable-provided Broadband account. I had special fun visiting alt.conspiracy, but I'd subscribed myself to alt.make.money.fast (just to keep up on the latest fashion in scams). I used to enjoy Usenet. I have to admit, however, that the AOL Usenet interface stank. One could never ascertain - much less follow - just which thread was which. Oh, well. Back to fun. Sign in to see full entry.

My recent post on the book The Flock caused me to remember Sybil, perhaps the second popular factual book on the subject of dissociative identity disorder. (The first was The Three Faces of Eve, about Eve White, a pseudonym for a woman named Chris Costner Sizemore. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a work of fiction.) One of my observations in my discussion of The Flock was that this book bore one important similarity to Sybil - the patient (or in the case of The Flock, the client)... Sign in to see full entry.

The Flock is my favorite of all the books written by patients with dissociative identity disorder, or DID (formerly known as multiple-personality disorder). It is essentially a memoir jointly written by Joan Frances Casey (who had DID) and her therapist, Lynn Wilson. These are, of course, pseudonyms. However, I assume that this story is true, unless I am told otherwise. The Flock tells the story of Casey's experiences with DID, starting with her decision to seek therapy at her student health... Sign in to see full entry.