The crazy lady strikes again

I think Garfield will be going over heat-related symptoms today in her Field Notes. That's because I just found a WebMD article on the symptoms of the various heat-related illnesses (most notably heat stroke and heat exhaustion). At this point, I'd better chime in and share some personal experiences. One of my husband's uncles (he was married to my mother-in-law's sister, my husband's aunt) died of the complications of a stroke. Like my husband and father-in-law - and, as it turns out, his wife... Sign in to see full entry.

In an obvious "can you top this?" maneuver, someone has been charged with animal cruelty for putting kittens in a frying pan. Fortunately, the kittens involved in this incident - approximately six or seven weeks old, according to the AOL story I just read - are essentially fine, although they did suffer some slight burns. Because I do not want to upset those of you who read this blog faithfully, I will avoid giving all the dirty details of the incident. I'm glad the kittens turned out fine,... Sign in to see full entry.

In Germany, some poor soul was the victim of an unusual form of pickpocketing. Thieves flung what the victim surmised was human feces at him. Then, two women came up to him, "helpfully" cleaning up the malodorous mess. These women were joined by a man, "helpfully" and conveniently carrying paper towels with him. It was only later that the victim discovered that he was missing the European equivalent of several thousand US dollars. Apparently, the human feces was the distraction the bad guys used... Sign in to see full entry.

It seems as if the tapes of man's first landing on the moon are missing. The powers that be at NASA have been looking for them for over a year. Sure, NASA has backups of all this information, but the backup tapes are of a much lower quality than the originals. Besides, there is also the possibility that if they ever find the originals, the magnetic tapes containing the original information may have degraded badly over the years, making the magnetic tapes containing the original information... Sign in to see full entry.

The Legal Services Corporation, the federally-funded outfit responsible, in its turn, for funding legal-aid clinics across the country, is seemingly guilty of having its hand in the till. The LSC is claiming that it and its member legal clinics are turning away clients for lack of funding. Yet LSC officials get an upscale office, where the LSC pays a much higher rent than the rental fees paid by its neighbors. While LSC member clinics are forced to practice the legal profession in threadbare... Sign in to see full entry.

It turns out that Al Gore - former Senator and Vice President, and movie producer ( An Inconvenient Truth ) - may be a hypocrite. In An Inconvenient Truth, Gore advises viewers on ways to help reduce their negative impact on the environment, in what he claims is an attempt to forestall terminal global warming. The problem is that, according to some news feed I read this morning, Gore may not be taking his own advice. According to this news article, Gore actually lives in two homes - a huge one... Sign in to see full entry.

I read a wire story on AOL this morning about a US Marine who rescued two police officers from the collapsed twin towers on 9/11/2001. It turns out that this Marine had essentially gone missing for years after he rescued those two officers. Even the producers of the new Oliver Stone movie on the World Trade Center could not find him, although they certainly wanted to. It turns out that this Marine's name is Jason Thomas. He was recently interviewed by AP, and he provided them with a photograph... Sign in to see full entry.

Garfield mentioned this morning that I'd awakened feeling very ill, very early this morning. I was able to sit upright in bed, but it took several minutes for me to feel well enough to walk to the bathroom. Fortunately, my family took very good care of me, even the furry family members. I have to admit that I thought I was going to have to call 911 again - this time in the middle of the night. I didn't want to go into the hospital again; I was feeling just well enough to remember how boring... Sign in to see full entry.

I used to be a big fan of WCFC-TV, back when their studios (such as they were) were on the 20th floor of Chicago's Civic Opera House. To the credit of WCFC leadership, they were the first - or one of the first - to invite Constance Cumbey on the air during her promotional tour for The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow (which came out in 1982). Jerry Rose - who had taken over leadership of the station by then - made no secret of his occasional disagreements with Cumbey, but at least he gave her a... Sign in to see full entry.

As I've said in other blogs, and perhaps even in this one, I make no secret of my diagnosis of bipolar disorder. I feel it's important for me to be honest about this diagnosis, because there are so many misconceptions floating around out there about mental illness in general. This entry is designed in part to help dispel some of those misconceptions. When bipolar disorder is mentioned in a public setting, people tend to think of type 1 bipolar. This disorder has more florid, obvious manic... Sign in to see full entry.