Mad Me!

The second season of Mad Men arrived on DVD a few weeks ago, and we were lucky enough to get the first disc from netflix the day it released. If you've ever seen the show, it's awesome. A period ensemble drama set in the 1960's, it follows the antics of one ad executive, Don Draper and his wife, Betty, and the people they associate with from day to day. The show is dark but occasionally funny, riveting, shocking, and oh the clothes and the sets! Don Draper is a classic American anti-hero, kind of a Gatsby or Bernard Malamud's Roy Hobbs from the Natural(not the Roy Hobbs in the 1984 film,). Draper is an alcoholic womanizer who came from a shady past that was revealed to a certain degree in the first season. However, he's got qualities that make men jealous and women swoon. He's a brilliant ad-man, he's loyal and it doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes. The rest of the cast is spot on-(incredible acting) and the result is that every episode so far has been a gem.

The show has already influenced fashion. Last year's retro throwbacks that could be seen anywhere from Michael Kor's line to Target? Blame this show. However, if you don't have 200.00 dollars to spend on a dress, Mad Men has a new feature called Mad Men Yourself, where you can take 10 minutes and create a character version of yourself as a character of the show! Here's me with my appropo cig dangling from my lips (The amount of smoking in this show makes my allergic lungs nervous)

Create your own character here

Recipe: Blueberry CheeseCake Bars

Last weekend, I had a couple of pints of Blueberries that needed to be used up. The only thing that appealed to me after eating blueberries for a week was cheesecake and pie. The recipe below for Blueberry Cheesecake Pie fitted my tastes perfectly.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Blueberry-Cheesecake-Pie/Detail.aspx
However, after starting the recipe, I realized that it lied. This recipe wasn't a pie, there was no way that this pie would fit in even a deep-dish pie tin. No, this recipe was a bar recipe. So, I made a few changes and clarifications as the recipe was fairly vague and came up with the recipe below. Enjoy!

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

INGREDIENTS
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
8 tablespoons butter, melted (1 stick)
1/2 cup white sugar

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
2/3 cups white sugar
3 eggs

1 quart fresh blueberries
1/2 cup water
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and 1/2 cup sugar. Press into the bottom of an 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, eggs and 2/3 cups sugar. Beat until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture over crust.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 20-25 minutes. Don’t take it out of the oven until the middle has set. Cool for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile For the blueberry filling: In a large sauce pan, combine blueberries, water, corn starch and 1 cup sugar. Cook and stir until thick. Cook for about 10 minutes at medium-low heat until you can draw a line in the back of the spoon coated with the mixture.
Spread blueberry filling over baked cream cheese mixture. Let cool. Once cool, refrigerate overnight before cutting into squares and serving.

(Not so) Wordless

I love President Clinton. I don't think he was a horrible president, I think that the Lewinsky deal was stupid, and hamstringed his presidency for the second term.
Some of his policies worked well, some--not so well. He isn't a liberal commie pig, as someone I know would call him, in fact some of his administration's policies that would be considered conservative are those I really don't like. Getting rid of the OPM Personnel Handbook? Reduction in paper, yes but it totally stripped that agency and the Federal HR community is still affected adversely by that knuckleheaded move.
However, I still think he's a brilliant politician, and he's working on a post-presidency legacy that's to be admired.
But there's something about President Clinton, a Joe Biden quality perhaps, that makes me giddy when I see a picture or hear about him. Although he's known to be the most charismatic politician of his generation, there's something about him that is just so human. The brilliant Darrell Hammond's lampoon of President Clinton, the womanizing, slightly redneck southerner? Doesn't seem so far-fetched when you listen to him, or see a picture of him like the one above. That quality? That's what I find appealing-even if it may have cost his wife the Presidency.

Picture originally found at the site below:
http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2009/07/white-house-food-messaging-weight-of.html


(Feel free to agree, disagree, yell at me, whatever. Just be respectful.)

Xolair

Note: This post is mostly for my family, but I decided to put it on here as there are others out there dealing with severe persistent allergic asthma. Knowledge is power!

When I first heard about Xolair and Omalizumab, I thought they sounded like characters out of a bad sci-fi novel, not asthma therapy. My Doctor first mentioned them about four or five months ago in passing (and butchered the word omalizumab) as treatment possibilities. When it was clear by the first of June, that inhaled corticosteroids were maintaining me at a sub-par level but not helping me get better, my doctor mentioned Xolair again. I took some blood tests, submitted my allergy “scratch” test results from last year, and the results of those tests qualified me for Xolair.

Xolair is the brand name for Omalizumab treatment. Omalizumab treatment attacks the IgE levels in the blood. The body produces antibodies in response to substances it perceives as threats. One of these antibodies is IgE which releases a variety of chemicals including histamines and lukotrienes which asct as messengers in stimulating acute bronchospasms in the airways. IgE doesn’t just play a part in intital attacks, but also the cascade attacks. 4-8 hours after the initial attack and exposure to the allergen, asthmatics may have a second attack which is called the allergic cascade. IgE plays a similar role in that too.

Xolair targets and attacks the IgE, which lessens the number of attacks, and allows many on it to live more normal lives. Xolair isn’t a cure, and it isn’t without its risks. The drug is new (approved in 2006 by the FDA), but there seems to be an association between Xolair and lymphoma which makes sense because these IgE receptors also do double duty by attacking cells that can lead to lymphoma. Xolair may also lead to heart problems, but the results of that study won’t be released until next year.

Xolair is incredibly expensive. The treatment runs 10k to 30k a year, and because of that there’s certain criteria that has to be met in order to go on the shot. Xolair treatment is only considered when cortisteroids aren’t helping to make a patient better. Although we haven’t received health insurance approval yet, my blood work and allergy test results show that I qualify for the drug.

After talking to my allergist and the pulmonologist, doing research on the treatment, talking to my family and close friends about it, I came to the decision that this is what needs to be done next so I can go back to leading a more normal life. I’ll continue to be on the cortisteroids, but hopefully we’ll be able to start cutting back on those after being on xolair for a period of time. Xolair isn’t a cure, but being healthier? That sounds great.

How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual

How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual
by Pamela Spiro Wagner

First, forget everything you have learned,
that poetry is difficult,
that it cannot be appreciated by the likes of you,
with your high school equivalency diploma,
your steel-tipped boots,
or your white-collar misunderstandings.

Do not assume meanings hidden from you:
the best poems mean what they say and say it.
To read poetry requires only courage
enough to leap from the edge
and trust.

Treat a poem like dirt,
humus rich and heavy from the garden.
Later it will become the fat tomatoes
and golden squash piled high upon your kitchen table.
Poetry demands surrender,
language saying what is true,
doing holy things to the ordinary.

Read just one poem a day.

Someday a book of poems may open in your hands
like a daffodil offering its cup
to the sun.

When you can name five poets
without including Bob Dylan,
when you exceed your quota
and don't even notice,
close this manual.

Congratulations.
You can now read poetry.

Wordless

Link

Images that brought a smile to my face this morning.

Today's CNN's Beat 360 Caption Contest Image
(The Blueprints they seem to be poring over? Genealogy Charts)

Last night, Matsui hit a walk-off homer to beat the O's 2-1 and moving into a tie for first place in the AL East!. Here's the team congratulating "Godzilla."

Love Jeff Tweedy and love that he's wearing his nudie suit (There's a sushi cat on this suit, I kid you not). Want to see more of the suit? Buy the new album. The insert has several pictures of the band's suits.