Indians!

I grew up with Indians.
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A lot of the kids I went to school with at Pellston, Michigan were Indian kids. These were often from large Catholic familes. They were usually poor kids. I would go to their homes for meals sometimes, after school. You would see cans of Governmet Pork, or blocks of Government Cheese, or Government Peanut Butter. These kids were always very generous to a little white boy like me. I will always remember them.
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When I got older, I went to a couple of Pow-Wows with some of my Indian friends. I saw this as an opportunity to get really drunk, and to dance around some. Later in life I was to discover that all this singing, chanting, and  dancing around was actually Shamanism 101. The Indian elders were using this rhythmic chanting to enter the Spirit World, the home of their Ancestors. It was magical, it was mystical. Give me that old time religion!
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Over the course of my travels I had the opportunity to visit the Hopi tribe in Arizona. They use underground "kivas:, or "sweat lodges" where they go to induce a state of Mysticism. White people are not allowed to attend these ceremonies. So I hired a local Hopi guide, named Jake, to walk me around this place, and to learn something about the culture from him. Jake told me a lot about the Hopi people. They have lived in this one place, called Walpi, for over a thousand years. Walpi is high atop a mesa. At night, you can see the lights of Walpi from miles away.
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The Hopi are a maternal, not paternal tribe. Property tends to get passed down through the woman's bloodline. Having a maternal view of life may have done much to soften the Hopi outlook, which is sprinkled with kindness and spirituality.
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The Hopi are also credited for their Snake Dance Ritual. This amounts to chanting, rythmic drumming, and dancing around with a live rattle snake dangling from your mouth. The snakes are in a trance, and the Hopi rarely, if ever, get bitten. It is Magical.
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The Hopi elders are all predicting the end of the world, as we know it, in the year 2012. We had better get ready. There is not much time left.
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If you want to find out more about the Hopi people, and their neighbors the Navajo, I would recommend reading the popular detective novels written by Tony Hillerman. These books will captivate you with their memorable characters, like Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. You will learn about some of the places I have seen in Arizona and New Mexico. You will also discover that an important component in the lives of these Native American peoples is Magic, pure and simple. It will give you something to chew on. It will give you something to consider.

Mr. Charming

My Delightful Oncologist Tells a Funny Story

A couple of weeks ago I went in for another of those four hour sessions. I brought a book with me to read. My Delightful Oncologist asked me: "What are you reading, there?" I told her it was a pretty good book, called "Mediatations aand Relaxations." It is good because it puts me right to sleep. I told her it was a lot better than a book I had picked up a couple of years ago."What was that one?", she asks. I told her it was called "Stop Procrastinating Now!". I told her I did not think it was that good, because I never got around to finishing it. She laughed at this.
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My Delightful Oncologist has a blog of her own, which is a food blog. It is patewoem.wordpress.com she told me the funny story.
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For prom night, her Dad hired a limo for her and her friends to ride around in. Her Dad was something of a practical Joker, like I am. He provided the girls with home made pate treats he called patewoem. These were just some crackers with meat on them that you could nibble on while drinving around in the nice limo. Now the girls did not have any of this. They were too careful about staining their gowns. But a boy who was with them gobbled down every single one, they were that good! "Woem " spelled backwords is "Meow".
The pate was actually cat food. Yum!

Mr. Charming

For a Portland Newbie

Wendy's probably have the fastest drive through window in America, according to Columbus Business First.
If you are a Cancer patient, looking for a 1000 fast calories, try going to Wendy's and go through the drive through. For only $5, you can get a large Frosty-cino and a spicy chicken wrap. Plus they give you back change, that you can later give to a homeless person who will shake your hand and say: "God Bless you."
This is a hot July here in Portland. I try to get my frosty-chino fix in at least once a day.
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I saw my first Carl Jr.'s while visiting in California. For about $10 you can go to a Carl's Jr.here in Portland and buy close to 3000 calories! They have a variety of delicious offerings, including the Jalapeno Burger and the Guaconole Burger, among others. Yesterday I went to the Carl Jr.'s on S.E. 82d near Best Buy with Dan just to get a treat, and to enjoy their very fine banana chocolate chip malts. I got one in a large Combo meal of a very good Jalapeno Burger, along with a huge order of fries and a chicken sandwich wich cost me an extra Dollar.
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Fast food may not be the healthiest thing for you to eat, but sometimes you just have to when you are in pinch. Wendy's and Carl's offer up big heapings of cheap calories, and as Cancer patients, we should be aware of our caloric needs, which far exceed the 2000 or so caloric diet of a normal person.
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For all of $4 you can get one of the Best Hotdogs in Porland at Zach's Shack near the Mr. Tabor Theater on Hawthorne Boulevard. They offer the tradtional New York style hot dogs, as well as Chicago style hot dogs.They feature high quality wieners for all of their dogs, and they have a wide variety of "unusual" hot dogs as well. Try the Sgt. Pepper's. It comes with pepperoncinis and jalapenos.. One that I tried was the Dylan. This amount to a cross between a hot dog and what you might find on a bagel. It came with cream cheese, onion and sliced tomato. It was very good. Zach's opens around 3pm, and they stay open late. They have a mean Jukebox with intersting tunes on it, sometimes featuring local  talent liike Sharon Jones. They have a table tennis set up out back, and you can go to the bar for paddles and balls. Now how much fun is that!
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For some of the best French pastries you can get in Portland these days, try La Petite Provence. They have locations in Lake Oswego, N.E. and S..E. Portland. I live near the one at 48th and S.E. Division Street. For about $10 you can go there, order the French Onion Soup, a croissant, and get a cup of coffee. I take friends there for lunch somethimes, and they are very busy with the lunch crowd. Sometimes you have to wait for a table to open up .But it's worth it. The mouthwatering pastries always snag my attention on the way out. I will get a couple of brioches, or maybe some filled croissants, along with some good French bread to take home with me. I highly recommend going to a Le Petite Provence near you.

Mr.Charming

Portland's Homeless

Homeless people in America are a National Tragedy. Today entire families are living in cars, or in homeless shelters all over this great Land of ours. We have our share of them in Portland, Oregon too, which is where I live.
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There are homeless people living in parks near where I live in South East Portland. These are unfortunate souls, and in the mornings they go through our recycling looking for cans. Years ago when I was broke, I used to ride around on my bicycle, and would hit all the city parks nearby, going through garbage looking for cans and bottles that I could turn into cash.
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These days I always give my cans to the homeless people who could really use an extra dollar or two from recycling these items. I do what I can to help.
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For at least tthe past year or more, you have seen the homeless standing with signs out begging for something at busy intersections where people are forced to look at them while waiting for the light to change. The homeless will stand there in the pouring rain with their signs, hoping for at least a little something.
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If one of these homeless people is seen smoking a cigarette, I give them nothing. Cigarettes are killing me with Lung Cancer, and though I have been a Cancer Survivor for the past two years now, I cannot in good conscience help support a homeless person who smokes. The price of a pack of smokes is equal to the cost of five cans of  Pork and Beans. You can either make a choice to eat or smoke. Personally, I would rather eat.
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If they are not smoking, I always give them something. After all, homelessness is a National Tragedy. Most of the other drivers trapped by stop lights ignore the homeless completely, and refuse to make eye contact. I will reach out my hand and give the homeless person a dollar, or whatever I had. Yesterday I gave away forty two cents.
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These people are all suffering, I give them what I can. When they take the money, they will often shake my hand, and they will say: "God Bless you".It is a small thing I can do to help make Portland a better place to live. Even for the homeless.

Mr. Charming

Volunteerism

There are two things I need to get done before I leave Oregon for good. One of these is to drive down to Eugene and meet a remarkable woman named Jane Katra, who practices spiritual healing. You can find out more about her by reading her books.
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The other thing I need to do is learn all about Reiki. Reiki is a Japanese method of healing. It has been around for a couple of hundred years. In Reiki, the practitioner lays the hands on the patient, allowing the Chi force (or life force) to pass through into the patient. The whole experience is very relaxing. Often times someone who is suffering will become so relaxed that they will fall asleep. I want to learn how to do Reiki, and I want to get very good at it. Then I will be able to volunteer my time to help other people who are suffering from the horrors of Cancer.
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Listen: Fundamentally I am, and will always be a Christian. Through the parables of The Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, Christ was telling us about the tremendous benefits of trying to help others, which is what we all should be doing. It is the only way that I can think of that will allow Mankind to evolve into a better creature than the Cave Man we all are today. We can become better than mere brutes, and probably should start moving into the direction of Becoming. But more about all of this later.
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This morning I had to drive out to Beaverton to St. Vincent's hospital for another one of these four hour sessions of Chemo. Driving out there I was in agony. My hands had cramped up so badly with muscle spasms that I could hardly grip the wheel. I was going to see my Delightful Oncologist this morning, and I could not wait to get there so she could help me with these cramps, which has wrecked me for the past week or so.
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I got there on time. I signed in, and they had me wait before they called me back to do some Lab Work. In Lab Work, they take a blood sample to see how all the chemical balances are working in the body. By paying attention to what I buy to eat, and choose to cook, my balances are, and have always been in, the Super Normal Range. I may have Cancer, but my body itself is still in remarkably good shape. I am actually healthy.
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Following the Lab Work, they always weigh me, and they take my blood pressure too. Today I was disappointed to learn that I had actually lost a pound since last week, in spite of my efforts to load up on calories and to gain a bit. But I have been getting plenty of exercise lately. Maybe the fat is getting turned in muscle. I feel pretty good. I know that I am getting stronger. These are the things I need to be doing if I am going to continue to be a Cancer Survivor.
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Sophir, my Delightful Oncologist's assistant, escorted me to a small room. I sat there meditating, focusing on my breathing. I was allowing myself to relax the body, and to slow down the heart rate, which had been elevated due to all the pain I was experiencing.
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Soon my Delightful Oncologist entered the room. I always look forward to our little visits. She is very easy on the eyes. She is an attractive woman, and an athlete. I am lucky to have her. She has treated me for Cancer now for two years. I owe her everything for trying to keep me alive.
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The first thing we addressed was this awful cramping problem. For her, the answer was simple. Drink Gatorade to restore the electrolytes, which I had been losing due to all the physical activity lately. This was an easy thing to do.
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The second thing we discussed was to cut back on the medicines she had prescribed. One of these is Dexamethasone, which is a powerful steroid. We will be cutting that one back to once every other day, as it has a tendency to make people very hyper if they take it every day.
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The third thing we talked about was this blog which you are reading. I directed her to read "The Ground Rules" first, which explains what I am trying to do with all of this writing. And then to read "National Health Care", to see if I was painting an accurate picture. My Delightful Oncologist will become a valuable resource because of her extensive knowledge on these topics. She will be someone I can talk to in order to keep me on the right path with all of this. If she sees my body of work and likes it, she is in a position to promote what I have set out to do here to the very audience I hope to reach, which are fellow Cancer patients.
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I fell asleep during Chemo, and the four hours passed fairly quickly. On the way home, I bought some Gatorade.

Mr. Charming

Jonathan

I do not have any kids (at least that I know about!). I am at the age where those possibilities have been foreclosed upon. I do not want to become another Pablo Picasso, who kept on making babies even at an advanced age. You should have your children when you are in your twenties and thirties, while you still have the energy to keep up with them. Then when you turn fifty you can admire the kind of work you accomplished by being a good parent. You will no longer see your children as children, but rather as the next generation of adults. If you did a good job, they will take over the reigns and make wise decisions as to how we marshall the diminishing resources of a cold planet in deep space.
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If you did not do so well as a parent, your kids will probably also turn out to be good adults, eventually. Live and learn.
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Two weeks ago a group of us climbed Beacon Rock, which is in the Washington side of the Gorge. My friend from work, Hank, took his two sons, Dom, who is fourteen, and Jonathan, who is six. Hank is a very good father to these two, very polite boys. I wanted to give Hank a present, which is to be able to take him to these wonderful places that are nearby. Soon Hank, who is in terrific shape, will be able to do this sort of thing with his sons, without me. That was my gift to Hank. I had wanted to create another dimension in the relationship he is having with his offspring. I had also wanted to take a peek underneath all this politeness.
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After climbing Beacon Rock (Hank and the boys whizzed up there, and came down while us old timers were still slowly making our way to the top), I offered to buy everyone Ice Cream at the East Wind Drive In , which is in Cascade Locks, Oregon. It was my way of saying thanks to everyone that had been patient with me, and who were willing to put up with all my nonsense.
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After the Ice Cream, we all went over to the Cascade Locks Visitor's Center, in order to use their bathroom and to wash our hands. The Locks are a very restful place. You could just stand there and quietly watch the water, and watch all the boats.
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Inside the visitor's center, they have a small gift shop with the usual trinkets. In the gift shop, Jonathan and I spied this huge table of polished stones. These were all rocks someone had gathered and polished. The sold them for a dollar a piece. They were just rocks, after all.
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Some of them were all blue, or red. Some were all black, or a cloudy kind of yellow.
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I showed Jonathan a bright green one. This one had a jagged yellow line running across it.
Me: "Do you know what this is?"
Jonathan: "No."
Me: "It is a picture of a miniature forest with lightning in the sky."
He got the idea right away!
Then he picked one up.
It was a light blue one with a white triangle on it.
Jonathan: "You know what this one is?"
Me: "No."
Jonathan: "It's a tiny picture of a mountain, and it's snowing!"
I told them that he was absolutely right.
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We continued to play this game for a while. We got to become friends pretty fast because of this.
When we were done with it, I told him something.
The rocks were like people.
Some are going to be boring, like all red and angry, or all blue and sad.
The more interesting ones are going to be the ones with a story to tell. Those are the good ones.
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I had made a new friend in this little boy. He followed me around for the rest of the day and listened to all of my dumb stories. He shared his M&M's with me. He had a million questions about everything. He is a smart little boy.

Mr. Charming

The Ground Rules

This is where I set down some ground rules concerning this blog. Some of these stories have absolutely nothing to do with Cancer. But I have Cancer. I am like you, or someone you know, or someone you have lost. My story speaks to all of us. You will read these stories, and find out a little bit more about who I am. You will find out about growing up in Michigan, where there are many small towns and villages that are cold and hard, and where the people are poor. You will also find out something about this marvelous adopted city of mine, which is Portland, Oregon. I am telling you the story of my life.
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It is very important to me to use no last names in any of these stories. These are people who were kind enough to share very personal moments with me. They will all remain anonymous. I could just have easily made the whole thing up.
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I cannot, and will not betray confidences.
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This is all about helping other people who have Cancer, like I do. It has nothing to do with money. You can alway get more money. What I am doing here is important work, which is trying to reach out to people with this horrible disease of Cancer. To offer up a little hope, and a philosophy about enjoying life while we still can.
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I refuse to post pictures and photos up here of any kind. You know that they say that a picture paints a thousand words. The hard part is to come up with a thousand words to paint the picture. This blog is, and will always be about writing. Plain and simple.
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During the course of the telling of my story about who I am, you might learn something new, which is always a good thing. I know just a little bit about Art, Architecture, Botany, Literature, Film History, and Music, and Motorcycles, and a whole lot about things that are just plain Arcane. These are all my strong suits, as well as trying to be entertaining and funny. You will hear stories about my friends' lives, and how my story has inspired them to become better people. I also intend to publish posts that will make you cry. Cancer is, after all, a very Emotional Affair. I have no intention of offending anyone with these stories, though I may occaisionally take a Jab at the French, and anyone else who might be within reach. It is not my attention to hurt anyone's feelings. People always take themselves so seriously! And they shouldn't.
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I will always be on the lookout to improve the appearance of this blog. I write in green, which iis supposed to be a psychologically neutral color. Someone complained that this was hard to read, so I changed the background to make it easier to read. After all, I want as many people as possible to come up and read my work. I should do something that makes that task easy to do.
The print is on the large side, but I am also writing for old people, and they have a hard time with small print. One lady in Michigan, whom I hope to see, prays for me. Her name is Genevieve. She sent me a gift, which is a large print King James Bible. It is small enough to keep with you in your pocket. This was the perfect gift to me, since among all my books, I did not have one of these. I will visit Genevieve while I am back there. Today I added buttons at the bottom of the page, which will make it easier for someone to email a good story to their friends. I am always looking for ways to improve.
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Genevieve worked with my Mom for years at a nursing home, where they took care of old people. My Mom was especially good at this, and would talk with them when no one came to visit, and made little gifts for them at home, and would give them these trinkets. It is now my turn to take care of old people, and I will do that if I can. If I can survive Cancer. What else do I have to do? Nothing.
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Today somebody pointed out that I should maintain a high level of fact checking, which is not my strong suit. He was right to point this out. Jody gave me the idea about the debate over National Health Care when she came across these statistics in Investor's Business Daily. I went back to verify this story. It was published on June 7 of this year. Of course they had a different agenda wth their stuff than I do here. But I think I managed to write a better story. At least one that is funnier than theirs. I invite you to be the judge on that one.
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That's about it for the ground rules. Today will be another long day of Chemo. I will have a chance to see My Delightful Oncologst, who happens to also be one of the smartest women I have ever met in my life. Earlier this year she told me: "We are going to have to buff you up". I have never been the kind of guy you would find at a gym. I have always had long hair and a beard, until Cancer came along. I have always looked like some kind of crazy terrorist. Any one who knows me will testify to that. It was my way of testing people. If they could accept who I was in spite of how I appeared, I deemed them most Worthy in my book, and we became friends. If not, then they had a problem judging a book by its cover. Naturally, these are the sort of people you want to avoid cluttering up you life with. They are stuck with their small ideas, and as it turns out, these ideas are not very interesting. "And so it goes". - Vonnegut.
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But I am doing what I can to follow My Delightful Oncologist's advice. I have been busy monitoring my diet. I have been spending a lot of time in the kithchen, and I do not smoke in the kitchen. I have been busy eating about 5000 calories a day to put on the weight. I was at 168 a week ago. Maybe I will tip the scales today at 170. My goal is to eventually hit 175, which is about normal for me. It is within my reach. I just have to keep motivated to do this. I do not cook with either sugar or salt. Sugar is bad for my delicate teeth. Too much salt can ruin your life too. I have to avoid both of these things. I cook up lots of pasta because it is cheap. I then add some sauteed onions and green peas and canned olives and Salmon for protein. I top this off with good old Mozarella cheese, which I get at Safeway. I use Garlic Powder for seasoning. I get these at the Dollar Store for a Dollar. I steam fresh vegetables every day, and have been enjoying lots of asparagus lately, which is a cancer fighter too. I do not mind spending an extra Dollar to buy organic either. My Fred Meyer at Hawthorne has a most complete selection of organic vegetables. I also live fairly close to a Trader Joe's, and they offer a lot of organic products. I am trying to be smarter about what I choose to eat and what I choose to cook.
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The last thing I need to mention here is that I have been getting plentyof physical exercise. This is important for all of us. We are turning into a nation of Diabetics. We eat the wrong foods, and as a Nation, we are all way over weight. If we were all just a little smarter, we could avoid the horrors of Diabetes, which is another killer. You may never see me inside of a gym (although last year I did visit an LA Fitness while visiting Crazy Al in Los Angeles, which proves that I might even to be willing to give that a shot). I have been very busy riding my bike, playing a little tennis, and going for walks and hikes with everybody I know. In my own way, I am trying to get stronger.
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Finally, I want to say that I have been the William Burroughs poster child for smoking. I have been a complete a complete junkie for something as stupid as cigarettes. My friend MJ has inspired me to try to give them up. I am now writing down each one that I have, to become conscious of how many I go through in one day. MJ managed to quit for twelve whole days. Her nerves were wrecked, and she broke down and had a smoke. The longest I have gone without one has been two days, when I was broke. My friend Mark used to smoke like a fiend in college. Even he gave them up. I started smoking when I was nineteen. It is about time that I give them up too. All cigarettes have done for me is to give me lung Cancer, and to make me smell bad. They take your breath away from you, and breathing is the fundamental cornerstone of Meditation. Meditation is good for the soul, and will create in you a better person than you are today. Cigarettes have just the opposite effect.


Mr. Charming

Dentistry and Cancer

Today I went in to see my Dentist, Dr. Tim. He is a wonderful man, and he is an excellent Dentist. This man helped me to save my teeth, which I thought was a hopeless cause just a few years ago.
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Cancer patients must pay attention to their teeth. A smoker, such as myself, causes a lot of damage to the gum line (shrinkage) and forecloses on the possibility of implants (infections). Smoking is a very dumb habit. We all know that; still we smoke cigarettes in this country and succeed in killing ourselves at an alarming rate.
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I have lung Cancer, one of the deadliest Cancers out there. Radiation therapy has ruined my ability to produce saliva, which is the body's natural defense against cavities. I have to use a very expensive prescription toothe paste to compensate for this. I have thrown away the old $5 toothebrush and have gone through two of the more expensive electronic ones. These do an excellent job in promoting healthy gums. I would recommend this to anyone out there fighting Cancer. I would also recommend this idea to anyone else. Save your teeth.
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I grew up in a poor household. My parents did what they could for me, and they did their best by me, mark my words. People around us had less than we did. I was fortunate in that respect. We were never on welfare, since my parents always worked for just over minimum wage in the area where I grew up. A lot of my friends with big families were on welfare. I remember being around all these kids, and I had a lot of fun with them. We would eat Government Cheese, and go pick apples at the orchards back in Michigan. I owe these kids everything.
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My teeth are a problem for me now, because I was too lazy too brush them as a child. My parents did spring for trips to the dentist, to repair all the damage I had caused by my own neglect. They found some cheap dentist in Petoskey to do all the work, and he used no novacaine, because that was an extra charge that no one could afford. He would drill into nerves and you would just have to endure the agony of it. Sometimes these sessions would run a couple of hours. Two hours of the smell of burnt teeth, and horrible torture to a young boy. This experience traumatized me for the rest of my life. It ruined me.
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Afterwords, the dentist would reward me for being such a brave little boy. He would always give me a sucker.
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I got older. My teeth were a shambles. I came to terms with what I had to do. I was tired of eating soft foods all the time. I had plenty of money, and a lot of fear. I picked Dr. Tim out of the phone book (sychronicity at work, again). We were on a mission to save my teeth.
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My Mother grew up in an entirely different age. She thought that spending all of this money was a complete waste of time. She told me to just get them all pulled, and to get dentures. I am glad now that I did not follow this advice.
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Because of their delicate condition, I am required to see Dr. Tim every three months. Since I have become retired, I have to carefully watch the budget. I cannot afford to do everything at once. My main focus is to fight Cancer, and that expensive endeavor has used up a lot of my resources. This time I went for nine months without seeing Dr. Tim, and took a big risk in doing that. We begin the tedious process of repairing the damage in August.
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Dr. Tim and his staff have been very kind to me. Today Dr. Tim took time out of his day to read my previous blog comparing the health care systems of the United States versus Nationalized health care in England and in Canada. In that piece I was not very kind to the English.
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Dr. Tim is one of the few Englishmen that I know. He once worked for the Royal Postal Service before moving here to become a dentist. He read my little blog, and then he turned to me and he said that I had summed it up pretty well. I was absolutely thrilled to hear this from someone I so greatly respect and admire.

Mr. Charming

National Health Care

There was an article recently in "Investor's Business Daily". It provided some interesting comparisons of our system of health care, versus that of Canada and the U.K., which have Nationalized systems. The article pointed out that two thirds of the men and women in the United States had survived Cancer five years after the diagnosis! So that's got to be pretty good!
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In the U.K, that figure dropped all the way down to 46%. Canada fared even worse, at 42%. We are seeing a lot more Cancer Survivors here with our patch work system. We can probably improve on it, and we just might do that. Meanwhile, remember to tip the hat to what we have here in the United States. We are saving lives, and that's a good thing.
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First of all, it is very unfair to be comparing the health care systems of three very dissimilar countries as the U.S., Canada, and England. While it is true that we share a common heritage and language, along with a fondness for Monty Python, we do have our differences.
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The population of the United States is enormous compared to the other two countries. While a lot of our people live in the cities, like they do in Canada, there is still a big percentage of the public who are happy to just live in the Vastness.
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Canada's population is relatively tiny, with most Canadians living in the cities of Canada's Deep South. The rest of the country is an empty place.
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I really can't comment on Canada's health care system. I am sure that it works pretty good some of the time. Just like anything else.
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England has a much larger population than Canada does. Still, it only amounts to about a third of the people that we have here in the United States.
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England is an Island Nation. England is relatively tiny. They do have a lot of empty, too. These empty places are more commonly known as Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. There is a reason for this. Over the years people discovered that it was going to be hard to feed their families with nothing but wind and rocks. A lot of them moved away, creating even more empty. The rest of them had to settle for becoming Englishmen. To be fair, my grandfather was English. He jumped a steamer when he was twelve, and fled for opportunities here in America. He was a smart guy.
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England has no more room for the English. They are dying to get rid of some. This tends to explain why so many more people in England are dying from Cancer versus here in the good old USA. England is full up. They have to thin the herd.
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The National Health Service in England makes it possible for everyone to go see a doctor, only not at convenient times, like when you are sick, for example. In England, everything gets doled out to everybody else by the National Health Service, like spam. Then they have to make decisions about what types of drugs and treatments they can afford to offer. They are being very fair about the whole thing.
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If there is a Cancer medicine approved for widespread use in the United States, the chances are pretty good that it will be approved for in England, eventually. But that does not automatically mean that the drug will be provided by the National Health Service. They are on a strict budget.
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The drug Tarceva is one example of this. Tarceva has been shown to be very effective in extending the lives of a particular class of lung Cancer patients. Tarceva is not cheap. It can cost over $2000 per month for these little pills, which you must take once a day.
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The last time I checked, the National Health Service had made a decision that they simply could not afford to offer Tarceva as part of their national health care system. They figured it was much better to allow their English brothers and sisters to die a little sooner than they might have otherwise.
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The folks at the National Health Service are very busy people. They have an important job to do, and they are only allowed to spend so much. They have a lot of other English to take care of.

Mr. Charming

Sewikly's

For years I worked downtown at the Main Post Office. I always worked nights, and would be getting off work around seven in the morning, heading for home for some much needed sleep. These were all cookie-cutter days. One day just melted into the next one. And you could never get enough sleep.
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One morning I was driving home in my crappy old Pinto, and I saw this really nice looking girl on the Burnside Bridge. She was hitch-hiking. She was not wearing shoes, and it was starting to rain. I stopped to give her a lift.
*****
I asked her where she was going.
She told me she was going to a dart bar on Hawthorne named Sewikly's.
Since I lived near there, I offered to drop her off at this bar. Then I drove home and got some sleep.
*****
About a week ago, Dan and I were out late one night, just walking around. We stopped in front of this dart bar, Sewikly's. Through the window I could see a guy and his buddy and his girlfriend playing darts. I don't know anything about darts. I walked in there and talked to these people. Dan was too shy to do this. He spent the next five minutes or so by the curb, watching the cars drive by. I can be such an embarrassment!
*****
These nice people were happy to take a moment to talk to a perfect stranger. They explained to me that the game they were playing was called "Cricket". You show your ID at the bar, and they give you the darts to play with. You keep score on a chalk board. Pretty simple.
*****
I'm going to learn how to play this game. And since for the price of a soda (I do not drink) you can easily spend an hour in there playing darts with your friends, and not spend much.
*****
While I was there, I told these people the story about the hitch-hiking girl from so long ago. The girl with no shoes.
And then I had an "Aha!" moment.
At Sewikly's, I was actually finishing a story that this strange girl had begun some twenty years ago.

Mr. Charming

The Immune System

People with HIV and Cancer patients are saddled with a similar problem: the immune system is compromised. Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy get help, through medicine, to help prop up the immune system, while the chemotherapy itself is tearing it down. You tend to get sick from other things (I got shingles because of this) because your defenses are all shot. We should be looking at the foods we eat to give us a better chance at bouncing back.
*****
Right now cherries are in season, and cherries are a wonder food. They are delicious, and they are a low calorie snack. Cherries are one of those rare foods that contain melatonin, a chemical which allows you to sleep. Try eating some cherries about an hour before bed time. I will bet you will sleep better that night.
*****
The other thing about cherries is that they contain chemical compounds that studies have shown to actually reduce the size of tumors, and may actually be killing cancer cells. I don't think you can go wrong eating cherries.
****
I also worry about getting enough vitamins to avoid getting sick. I make home made Snapple, and go through a lot of it every day. Here's what I do:
I take a big pan of water, and boil four tea bags. Three of these are green tea, and usually the fourth is some kind of mint tea, for flavor. I boil these util they turn dark. I pour this mixture into a half gallon container. Then I add some lemon juice for more Vitamin C. I also will toss in an Airborne to cover my other vitamin needs. I add a packet of Lipton's Green Tea to Go to sweeten things up a bit. The Green Tea to go is full of flavinoids, and those are supposed to help fight Cancer. Finally I will take a capsule of Mushroom Extract (Reishi, Shiitake, and Maitake) and open it, pouring the contents into my tea. The Mushroom Extract is designed to help people like me to breathe easier. You can find the Mushroom Extract on Amazon and other places.
****
I will go through two of these half gallon containers a day. That's a whole gallon of liquids, which is pretty good for flushing the toxins out of the system. Meahwhile, I am constantly putting in Vitamins into the body, and anti-oxidants and flavinoids to help fight Cancer. It is not that much work to make, and it is pretty cheap too. Maybe you all will get some ideas from this.

Mr. Charming

Three Days of the Condor

My friend Mark offered me up a suggestion to watch "Three Days of the Condor" starring Robert Redford. This is an old movie, one by Dino DeLaurentis. It came out in 1975. Here we are 35 years later, and it speaks to us today. I would recommend you rent this movie and see it again, or see it for the first time if you have never seen it. It is really quite good.
*****
This movie is a spy movie. Joe (Robert Redford) stumbles upon a secret that the the CIA does not want to get out. There is an order put out to murder everyone in the office where Joe works.
By a sheer stroke of luck, Joe escapes, and returns to find out that all of his friends are dead.
*****
Joe is no field agent. Joe is a reader. Joe reads everything; comic books, novels, everything, looking for clues that might be hidden in the things he reads. The clues are then written down, and a computer takes the clues and analyzes them. Sometimes this leads to a theory about what is happening in the world.
*****
Joe also reads people and situatons. He is very good at it. He stumbles upon Cathy (Fay Dunaway) and overhears enough to figure that this attractive young woman might be living alone. He kidnaps her at gunpoint, and forces her to take her to her apartment. This was a smart move - he needed a place to go, chosen completely at random. where the people looking to find him and kill him would not know where to look.
*****
Joe overhears a phone conversation that Cathy has with her boyfriend. He again reads her from that, and decides that Cathy is involved with a man that she does not love. Cathy is a photographer, and her place has pictures she has taken on the walls. They are empty things, photos of New York taken probably in November. There are no leaves on any of the trees. He begins to read Cathy from her photos. He decides that she is actually a fragile thing, very private. A romance begins between Joe and Cathy. She begins to trust Joe, even though there is no reason for her to do so. She tries to help him survive his three days out in the Cold.
*****
This movie, which is about the CIA toppling foreign governments in order to secure the oilfields for America, must have been a movie that George W. must have watched with his Dad.
*****
The professional assassin, played my Max von Sydow, sees his job as uncomplicated, peaceful actually. For him, his job was all about precision. For him, there is no right side or wrong side. For him there is only the side that pays.
****
The Max von Sydow character. along with the "cleaning crew" became the standard for a couple of films which came later. The two best ones that come to mind are "Le Femme Nikita" and "The Professional".

Mr. Charming

The Hummingbird

Another dear friend of mine from college lives in Los Angeles. He is a professor there, and a mentor to future generations of engineers and technical people. For a poor kid from Michigan, he has done well for himself. And he has helped a lot of young people. He has done a lot of good in the world. I am very proud of him.
*****
Of course to me he will always be Crazy Al, the guy I knew from College. He was one of my good friends back then. He is still a good friend. When I first got sick, Crazy Al took a week off to fly up to Portland to stay with me. I was helpless and in a lot of pain. I can't think of anyone else in the world willing to do such a thing for me. I will always remember this. I am very grateful to have such a friend.
*****
Al is married to a very smart Vietnamese lady named Hoa. Her French is better than mine ever was. She is a good cook, and I think that being around her has taken a certain edge off Crazy Al's personality, which has always had a wild streak to it. I try to go down there and visit once a year.
*****
Al's wife heard this story which I called The Interview. Then she told me the story about the Hummingbird.
*****
It sounds like Al and Hoa have a little hummingbird in their backyard.
One day she noticed this little bird would fly around, and then fall asleep inside a flower.
She thought that that was the neatest thing! I think it's pretty neat, too.
She went to work and told people this story. She felt disappointed when they all said that that was nothing.
Actually, everyone here is perfectly correct.
It all depends how close you are to The Moment.

Mr. Charming

The Interview

It was the third week of June. Special Ed stopped by the house about 9.30 in the morning. He had wanted to walk around downtown by the waterfront to look at girls, since the day before had been such a fine day to do just that.
But the day in front of us was much cooler than it had been the day before. It was overcast, too, and it looked like a chance of rain. I suggested we just walk around my neighborhood instead, to keep it close to home in case it started raining. Ed agreed with me on this, and we set off.
*****
We only went the distance of a couple of houses when a young woman approached me.
She wanted to know more about the Brooklyn neighborhood. She was doing a report for a web site that featured stories about the different neighborhoods of Portland. The Website is Portlanders.com.
I told her she was in the wrong place.The Brooklyn district was about sixteen blocks away. She was actually in my neighborhood, which is Kennilworth. Then I immediately invited her to join us for coffee, where we might have have a chance to chat. That way I could answer some of her questions. She had questions about everything.
She agreed to join us.
*****
Her name was Brittany. Brittany was from Seattle, and was not all that familiar with Portland. She got this gig writing for Portlanders. com to become a better writer. She told me that she was going to have to learn a lot of stuff if she was going to keep this job writing about the different neighborhoods of Portland.
We all went to a local coffee shop, the Funky Door, and I treated everyone to coffee. Brittany got out her notebook, and her tape machine, and interviewed me and Special Ed.
*****
Over coffee, she interviewed me. She managed to fill up four pages of notes, and her tape machine ran out of tape.I managed to answer her questions, and I supplied her with a few of my own stories to add a bit of color. Special Ed told her about his experience of growing up in the Council Crest neighborhood, and what that was like.
*****
Brittany could not stop grinning. I think I had her charmed pretty good. She was a delight, and I could tell by her questions, she was on her way to becoming a writer, which is what she wanted to do. In my own small way, I wanted to help her to do what she wanted to do.
****
After our coffee, I offered up a short tour of my neighborhood, which is Kennilworth. I commented on all the various architectural styles, and I pointed out unusual trees and plants. I made everything seem as new, fresh, and interesting as possible. Our encounter spanned the course of three hours.
*****
I showed her a Monkey Puzzle tree. These trees look like Monkey tails. There are only a few of these around, and some of them get to be quite tall. Brittany was fascinated by these trees.I also showed her a planting of Paper Bark Maples just up the street from where I live. Thanks to my friend Carl, I found out about these about a year ago. These are unusual too. They are like birch bark, only they are mahogany colored maple trees. They are cool to look at.
****
We walked over to Kennilworth Park, which anchors this neighborhood of mine. It's an old park, and it is a friendly place. I go up there to play some tennis. A lot of the people in the neighborhood go up there to walk their dogs, maybe chat with their neighbors. They have a place for kids to play. It is a good place to come to.
*****
I told Brittany about this friend of mine who is depressed all the time. He is a good looking man in his forties. He works out all the time and is in good shape. He even has a girlfriend.
He always says to me this: "You are dying from Cancer. How come you are not depressed?"
I always tell him the same thing. I tell him to change his mind, which will then change his mood. I have been telling him this for two years now. This amounts to a summation of cognitive behavioral therapy, where in you examine your internal thought process for the lies we constantly tell ourselves ("I am such a failure. Nobody likes me. Life is not interesting.") And so on. You begin to identify these statements as lies, and then you focus on things that are actually true ("I am not that much of a loser. I have a girlfriend. I am in pretty good shape.") And so on.
*****
I always get up at 6am to get ready to do battle in the markets. The first thing I think about is getting something good to eat, which amounts to oatmeal with brown sugar. I chop up a banana and put this on the oatmeal. Then I get some good coffee in me. By 6.30 when the market opens, I am feeling pretty good, and I have a plan for what I want to do that day. A lot of times I am all done by 7.30, and can go back to bed for a little nap. This retirement thing is working out pretty good for me. The last thing that I am thinking about is dying from Cancer, although I acknowledge that fact. But mostly life is a lot of fun now, and there is too much to do to really dwell on it. Life is actually pretty interesting. I am always lining up the next thing to do. I have a lot of people to play with. We always try to discover new things.
*****
When we parted company, Brittany thanked me for all the conversation. I told her to stay interested in life, to ask questions, and to find out about all the little details, like plants and trees and architecture. After all, if life is not interesting, then what's the point?
*****
This was probably pretty good advice for someone just launching an interest in writing. This was also probably pretty good advice for just about anybody else, too.
*****
I will most likely never see her again, this perfect stranger. Yet I think the three of us had a most enjoyable outing. We had some fairly harmless fun, too, which I think is the best kind.

Mr. Charming

Being in the Moment

Towards the end of June I picked up a book that had just been lying around. I started to read it.
The book is called "Meditation and Relaxation" by an Australian psychologist named Bob Sharples. This is somebody that nobody has ever heard of. As it turns out, I think it's a pretty good book.
*****
In this book, Mr. Sharples asks us to focus on our breathing, which is the most natural process there is. Eveything leads back to the breath.
If you are relaxed, and breathing well, you are then allowed to do these inventories.
*****
You are allowed to do an inventory of your physical state. Am I hot, cold, hungry, and am I in pain? You address these things as they come up. You acknowledge the physical condition of your existence. But who you are is more than the sum of your physical ailments and suffering.
Who you are is somthing else entirely.
*****
You continue to focus on your breathing, nice and relaxed. You are very calm. You then begin to do an inventory of your emotional state. How do I feel right now? Am I feeling fear, or anger, or some kind of self-pity because I am sick? You begin to address these emotions, and you begin to understand yourself better.
Who we are is more than the sum of our physical condition and our emotions.
Who we are is something else entirely.
*****
Bob Sharples uses these methods to focus on the moment right in front of us. It is like watching the fireworks down town. You don't want to miss any of it.
The Annoying Wife is a story about the complete opposite of Being in the Moment. She is an example of what you want to avoid doing if you possibly can.
This whole thing is really about spiritual growth. And having Cancer for the last two years has been more a spiritual journey for me than anything else. It has made me grow as a person. I have become very grateful to all the people that have helped me the past two years. I am grateful for the fine doctors, and my wonderful friends, and my Mom and her friends who pray for me every day.
People that I really did not know that well have reached out to me and have tried to help me in the ways that they could. People have really been terrific, and I am thankful for all that has been given to me.
****
Being in the moment has helped me to be more calm, and to understand my self better. I have been getting some insights into who I really am. I have been getting some insights to my ongoing relationships with people, and to the world in general. I though it might be important to write about this, and that is what I have been doing here.
Maybe I can reach out to another person with Cancer and help them a little. It is worth a shot.
*****
"Meditation and Relaxation" by Bob Sharples. I would recommend reading this book.

Mr. Charming

The Annoying Wife

I'll talk to anybody.
I took Dan and Special Ed downtown this year to see the fireworks for the Fourth of July. We were on the east side of the Hawthorne Bridge. I have been doing this for three years now. I hope to be doing this next year too, but there are no guarantees.
While waiting for the fireworks, I talked to a couple of ladies my age who were sitting in lawn chairs. They were nice enough to chat up a stranger like me. I got to know their names, what they did for a living, and a little about them.
Delores was a nurse at Providence. I had just gotten some radiation there for Cancer. I told her that going there was like going to a little city all on its own. It just goes on and on. She agreed with me.
Her friend Harriet was from N.E. Portland. She trained horses. How often do I get to meet someone who trains horses for a living? We had quite a conversation. Harriet really loves these big animals, and has a way with them. My Mom's step dad trained horses in Austria.
We had something to talk about.
****
In a few minutes a couple showed up on bicycles. I talked to them too, since I ride a bike. They had nice blinky lights attached to their helmets, which I admired. Nobody wants to get hit by a car.
These people were both about my age. The poor guy had a haunted look to him. His wife was an embarrassment. She refused to engage with me on any level whatsoever, even though I was nice enough and standing right next to her talking my nonsense.
I sat next to these people on the curb.
The fireworks were spectacular. You didn't want to miss any of it. It was right in front of us.
*****
The Annoying Wife sat next to me the whole time, and while the sky was abloze with glorious pyrotechnics, she was on her cell phone, thinking about things going on that were miles away.
Who else on the entire planet does that?

Mr. Charming

The Ural Motorcycle

My friend Mark lives in Soo, Michigan. We both went to college up there when the place was called Lake Superior State College. He still lives there, and is an attorney. Mark is a smart guy.
I could have gone to the University of Michigan. But I didn't have any money, and neither did my folks. I could afford to go to LSSC, which we dubbed the Army Surplus College. They had turned an old Army Barracks into a cheap place where poor kids like me and Mark could earn a degree. It changed our lives.
*****
Recently Mark had to drive all the way down to Chicago to attend his nephew's wedding. Mark has a good eye for the unusual. He spotted a strange looking motorcycle with a side-car attached to it. It turned out to be a Ural, a motorcycle made in Russia.
That's how I found out about the Ural.
*****
I have been interested in and have owned motorcycles since I was a fourteen year old kid. This Ural really captured my attention. I wanted to find out what I could, and pass the information along to you all here. The Ural is really neat.
*****
The Ural is based on the tried and true old BMW design of a horizontally opposed flat twin cylinder four stroke motor that will probably go forever. The size of the motor is a 750 cc.
They offer several models, starting at $10,000 and going up to $15,000, which is about the cost of a nice little Japanese car. Each one of these models comes with a side-car.
They are not fast machines. They top out at a mere 65 mph, good enough for the freeway, and they will go about 30 mpg. They are guaranteed to make you an interesting person.
Every where you go people will ask you about your Ural.
Think of it! If you are a young guy, you can take your girlfriend wih you and go camping. And you can take your dog with you, too! How much fun is that!
If you are an old guy like me, you just might want a comfortable ride around the city. You might take it to the store and get some groceries, and then put them in the side car. It seems practical. Dealerships are springing up all over the country selling these machines.
*****
The other day I was driving down 39th (Cesar Chavez for those of you who insist) and I spotted one being ridden by an older guy all decked out in leathers. I had to pull up along side him to get a better look.
The bike was jet black with a lot of chrome. It was very pretty.
Before we hit the red light on Powell, I pulled in front of him.
I rolled down the window and gave him a big thumbs up.
He noddded to me. He knew that I had got it.

Mr. Charming

Lindsay and Lebron

About ten days ago I wrote a piece called "Lindsay and Lebron" The day before they had just tossed Lindsay Lohan in jail for ninety days. The day I wrote it, Lebron James was in the news. Everyone was speculating about his future plans. The next day something else would happen, and we would be interested in that, too. The news feeds us empty calories, and we are hungry for more of it. Collectively, we have become a nation of short attention spans. We constantly require that we be entertained. Few have time to really think anymore. We are all too busy to do that.
*****
On the day everyone was talking about LeBron James, another story came out in the news. Scientists had discovered an Aids Vaccine. The Aids Vaccine, once administered, would prevent up to 90% of all new aids cases from ever developing in the entire world. Think of it! All the needless loss of life, all of the suffering being avoided. And of course all of the cost savings for the entire planet. Our health system is under siege everywhere, and it is very expensive. If aids is taken out of the picture, we can then devote our resources for other things that are killing us. Like Cancer and Diabetes.
*****
Anyway, if you really think about it, this Aids Vaccine might even be the most important story of the year. Aids is a blight upon humanity. And even though we thought it impossible until recently to defeat this aids virus, scientists managed to pulled one out of the hat and astound the entire world. Collectively, we had won one. What could be better and more important than that?

Mr. Charming

The Tabor Hill Cafe

The end of June was on the cool side, and June was being a crappy month. One day I had finished my business on Wall Street, and had nothing to do the rest of the day.
So I called Dan and Special Ed, and took these guys out to lunch.
I took them to the Tabor Hill Cafe on Hawthorne Boulevard. In the window they have photos of all the food they serve. Just in case you have never seen a pancake before. Or a cheeseburger.
I really like this place. It is not the trendiest place on Hawthorne, but the food is good and reasonably priced. They also have big picture windows that look out on Hawthorne Boulevard. This is ideal for gawking at stranger passing by. And Hawthorne has a lot of strangers.
One time around Christmas I was on Hawthorne and I saw this kid on a unicycle dressed up like Santa going down the road playing the bagpipes. I am not making this up.
*****
I chose to order the Angry Fettuccine. You get a huge plate of fettuccine and spicy fish topped with Mozzarella and a couple of slices of garlic bread. This went well with the Earl Grey I had ordered. Their French Onion Soup is pretty good too.
*****
That day we saw the Yellow Girl. She is tall with dark skin, and dark hair, with streaks of Yellow in it (not blond). She was wearing a matching yellow dashiki.
She is the girl of your nightmares, not your dreams.
I also noted a very attractive twenty something woman who had ducked into the bank across the street. Tall, with long legs and well proportioned. I would describe her as a hot hippie chick. The guys agreed with me on this one.
I paid the bill and we left the restaurant.
While crossing the street, this hot hippie chick exits the bank and walks toward us.
I said hello to her.
She flashed a million dollar smile at me and said hello back.
We continued on our way.
The guys were jabbing their elbows into my ribs. They could not believe that I had gotten such a favorable reaction from this attractive young woman.
After all, I do look like a monster.
Mr. Charming

The Leach Botanical Gardens

Yesterday, Carl, who is a plant expert, and his wife Joanne, stopped by the house to show me the Leach Botanical Gardens. I had never been there, and I am always interested in learning new things about my adopted City of Portland. The Gardens are located at arouund 122d and Foster Road. Johnson Creek runs right through the place. It is a cool oasis in the middle of the city. It is vey restful. And it is free to go there.
My friend Dan, who retired last August, delivers Meals on Wheels every Friday with his mother, who is eighty eight years old. I think Dan views this as important work to be doing for the community. He happily volunteers his time to help make this a better place for everybody. We need more people like Dan.
After he finished his chores, Dan joined us at the Leach. Dan is another one of these plant experts, like Carl. So Carl and Dan already know all this stuff. I only know a little bit. But it was such a fine day to be outside in this beautful place, and I loved hanging out with these people.
Who knows? I might actually learn something.
*****
While Dan and Carl were busy studying all the different trees and plants, Joanne and I wandered off to the little gift shop to poke around some, to see what they had offer.
I met the lady running the store. Her name was Randy, and she was a volunteer.
Randy said: "This whole place is run by volunteers. I am eighty three years old, and three years ago they discovered I had cancer. It really set me back. Right now about all I can do is sit her and mind the store. I can't get around like I used to."
Randy showed me the huge scars on her legs that made it difficult to walk.
Randy has been a Cancer Survivor for three years. Good for her.
I am a Cancer Survivor for two years. I told Randy my story.
Two years ago in July I found out that I had lung cancer, which is a deadly killer. The odds for me to survive the next two were one in four. Statistically, I should not be here having this conversation. I told her I just couldn't be this lucky. I told her that I believed a Higher Power had a Hand in all of this, for some reason unknown to me. Randy agreed with me on this.
All the while, Joanne is very quiet, studying the little items they had for sale in the store.
Joanne has been a Cancer Survivor for twenty years.
*****
Visiting the Leach Botanical Gardens is free because of the efforts of people like Randy, and many others. These are all volunteers. Before we left the store to rejoin Carl and Dan, I put a little cash into the donation box.
I also told Randy that I would be back again sometime to visit. This seemed to please her.
Mr. Charming

Journey to the UFO Ranch

There is a place near Trout Lake, Washington, near Mt. Adams, known as the UFO Ranch. The TV show "Paranormal State" on A&E, did a piece on this over the winter. Also known as the Gilliland Ranch, named for the owner, James Gilliland, they offer up a spectacular nightly display of weird lights in the sky. The lights appear on a regular basis around ten o'clock at night.
You can go to "Paranormal State" and take a look for yourself. It is really quite a special place.
*****
Naturally this called out to me as a perfect road trip from Portland.
*****
About six weeks ago, Dan and my friend Special Ed decided to go check it out.
It had been one of those rare days we had in June, when it was hot and dry. Mostly June had been unseasonably cool and wet. We were all anxiously awaiting the arrival of Summer, which did not get here until after the Fourth of July. This was a Saturday night in June, a night with no moon.
It was the perfect night to drive out there and see some UFO's.
****
We left here about 5pm. We drove out to Hood River, and had some lunch at Taco Del Mar. The girls behind the counter had heard of the UFO Ranch, but had never been there.
We were getting excited about the prospects of what we might experience that night. We left Hood River and crossed the Mighty Columbia River into Washington, We were going to see some UFO's!
*****
It was getting dark by the time we arrived at the Gilliland Ranch. My contact, Nate, met us by the gate, and let us in. We drove down the long gravel road that leads to the main house. We passed by some families that had pitched tents and were enjoying a late meal. This place is open to anybody. The people there are very friendly. They are not out to make any money. You can donate a contribution if you want, or not. I put in ten bucks for the chance to sit on one of their lawn chairs and watch the show over Mt. Adams. I am just describing to you how very laid back this whole operation really is. They are just a bunch of fine people trying to share with the world this special place by Trout Lake.
****
There are about fifty or so lawn chairs arranged in a field that has a straight shot view of Mt. Adams. Eventually about thirty or so people showed up to enjoy the show. These were all ordinary people like me, who were interested in this stuff, and who had an open mind about it all.
****
Sure enough! At ten minutes to ten Dan and I spied this bright white light rise vertically from the Eastern flank of Mt. Adams. It rose slowly into the air, turned west, and then vanished. This sighting lasted all of about five seconds. It was the most dramatic thing I was going to see all night. But we had other, different experiences later. The UFO Ranch had delivered on its promise. That was the main thing.
****
There were three people there in our little crowd who had brought along powerful laser pointers. With these laser pointers they were able to triangulate the positions of tiny specks of light flying over the heads of our group, and were able to track them. That way, everybody there could see all of these many sightings, though they were much less dramatic than the first sighting of the night. These were showing up about once every ten seconds or so. There was virtually a superhighway of UFO activity right over our heads. It was amazing.
*****
Someone else had also brought along night vision goggles. They let me borrow them. Through the goggles you could light orbs all around you. It made you want to duck your head, they were that close! Most of these were either green or blue. Light orbs have been tradiionally associated with paranormal activity, and with hauntings. You could not see these with the naked eye. But you could see them through a digital camera. Special Ed took some pictures.
*****
We had decided to give the place a couple of hours, and then drive home. I am retired, but my friends had things they had to get back to on Sunday. Two hours was enough.
Had we seen spaceships, aliens, or what? I cannot answer that question. I am just reporting here what we collectively witnessed that evening back in June.
If you live anywhere near Portland, this is an easy thing to do, and a lot of fun too. Go see something interesting at the UFO Ranch, and help support James Gilliland and his crew. Then you can tell me what you make of all this.
Mr. Charming

Politics

I recently read an op-ed piece in the New York Times, entitled "The Grinds". These are the kind of Lunatics like me, who wind up not doing what eveyone else did. At some time, just being a kid, they discovered that there is indeed a caste system here in the United States, and they also managed to figure out early on that they ranked pretty low in the scheme of things.
And exactly as the article says, a lot of these guys went on to become successful hedge fund traders. These guys were always loners, and they had to be smart enough to develop their own opinions on things, and to take some kind of action based on these opinions, often running completely contrary to what eveyone else is thinking.
In other words, they would take steps contrary to the herd. The herd was being controlled by the Schmoozers, which is another thing entirely.
*****
In order to run contrary to the opinions of the herd, you are required to be absolutely fearless.
You see an opportunity, study it carefully, and if you perceive the risk to be far less than the potential reward, you act upon your belief. This takes some guts.
Naturally, everyone around you will consider you to be a Lunatic. You have to learn to ignore this.
Often everyone around you will have a shared opinion about something that is dead wrong. You showed up early with your contrary opinion, and found a way to make some money doing it. Meanwhile, everyone else is getting turned into woolly mittens.
*****
Being a successful trader also requires you to be humble. You must learn to quickly attend to your mistakes in order to mitigate damages to the Portfolio. Someone who never admits to making a mistake is a liar, because you will make mistakes as a trader. We all do. The name of the game is to stay in the game. This is how you build Wealth.
Developing your own opinions is fine; just don't get married to them.
*****
So we have a few of these "Grinds" bouncing around out there.
They are all Lunatics. Who cares about them, anyway? Nobody, really.
Most everyone else out there belongs to this huge herd of Sheep.
They're just doing and thinking what everyone else is doing and thinking.
Governments and Social Institutions absolutely love the Sheep.
The Sheep are easily controlled. For the most part, the Sheep just want things to stay just about the same. They start to complain when things actually begin to get worse.
Governments and Social Institutions pay attention to this. Governments and Social Instutions then try to figure out ways to keep the Sheep from becoming miserable.
Governments and Social Institutions don't want things to change all that much either, in spite of what the Schmoozers are telling you on TV. The thing that Governments and Social Institutions all want to do is to avoid losing their power. Power is the only thing that really matters to them.
It's the way of the World.
Mr. Charming.

The Steve Miller Band

I saw Steve Miller play at the Edgefield this week. He began his career way back in 1967. He has enjoyed a great deal of commercial success, which he no doubt deserves. He has worked hard at his craft of creating popular songs that people like to listen to.
He came onto the stage around 6.30 in the evening. He played some of his big hits, and then he played a couple of songs off his new album. In other words, he is still doing the work he has always done. He also played a couple of tunes by the Great Muddy Waters, and a Jimmy Vaughn song (the brother of Stevie Ray).
At 7.30 he played "The Joker", to raise the level of excitement of the crowd
It worked.
If anything, Steve Miller is a master entertainer.
*****
We have heard all these popular songs a zillion times on the radio. They have been played to death and are no longer interesting. The reason for going to this show was to hear these songs played live by the guy who wrote them all those many years ago, and to enjoy that experience at the Very Large Picnic with thousands of your neighbors.
*****
Steve Miller closed out the show with a lengthy version of "Fly Like an Eagle", one of his biggest hits of all time.
Dan and I were being smart about it when they launched into the intro to this song. We had already packed up our gear, and we left before most of the crowd. You could hear everything just fine walking back to the car.
Mr. Charming

The Edgefield

I live in Portland, Oregon. The Edgefield is a nice resort about twenty minutes east of Portland. They feature fine dining, and they offer more than a hundred guest rooms. They have a movie theatre, and you can get the spa treatment there if you want it. They have their own brewery, and a 3 par golf course to boot.
*****
This all started in 1911, when the county decided to build a poor farm in the middle of no where. A few years ago two brothers bought the place, and turned it into what it is today.
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I had never been there before. I went there with my friend Dan to see the Steve Miller Band. When we got there, we drove right by the massive stage that had been built for Steve Miller. We had tried to get there early; there were already hundreds of cars parked in cow pasture when we got there. They were just opening up even more cow pasture for even more cars to park.
*****
The "Concert" was being perfomed on the par 3 golf course. There was a sort of natural amphitheatre facing the stage. The golf course had been covered with green mats to protect the grass underneath. The "Concert" was actually a Very Large Picnic.
In order for this to work, eveyone had to sit down. That's what we were doing, and so was eveyone else around us. This way you could spend a splendid evening in July listening to some good live music, and be able to see these guys play the songs that had made them famous.
*****
About forty feet in front of us was this couple, along with their teenage son. They had brought with them perfectly good sand chairs to sit on, but they remained standing up, ruining the view of the stage for hundreds of people behind them, including me. They were ruining the Very Large Picnic.
I pondered this for a while. Then I decided to get up and talk to these people.
*****
I walked up to the wife and husband. In the nicest way I could think of, I told them that there were hundreds of people behind them that could not see the stage. All we could see were the backsides of three people standing up.
The husband said to me:"We are not going to sit down until the three guys in front of us sit down."
I told him this: "I am absolutely fearless. I am going to do for you what you are too afraid to do for yourself. I will tell the three guys in front of you to sit down too."
So I went over to the three guys. They got it right away. They were polite about it, and they sat down. And then so did the husband and wife and the teenage son.
I finally made it back to my little group. I got a lot of "thumbs up" from perfect strangers. Some people even applauded.
This meant a lot to me.
In my own small way, I had made the Very Large Picnic into a better experience for all the folks who, after all, had just wanted to see the Steve Miller Band.
Mr. Charming