Placebo magic

The placebo effect seems so strange to me, but it's so valid and pervasive that it can't be ignored.

Here's just another reminder that those amazing, expensive little pills aren't actually a grand solution after all. It turns out the depression medications (SSRIs - selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors which do extreme magic in some people's brains) are often just as effective as sugar pills, except in people with severe depression.

Interesting.

This is just another situation when I want to just shout, "Go science, go!" though. Depression is incredibly complicated and mysterious. This development is at least something significant.

Go science, go!

Best Song!?! Best Song Indeed!

Yay! I'm so happy that "Falling Slowly" from Once won the Best Song Oscar.

Plus, the amazing Marketa Irglova came back up at Jon Stewart's invitation to finish her speech. Love it!

I'm a stickler for good dresses and I'm thrilled to say that the Best Song winners I support also looked gorgeous in her black dress.

I'll leave the fashion atrocities to others, but I will say that I think when you're attending the Academy Awards you ought to wear some makeup.

Costa Rica Here I Come! But first...

On Leap Day Friday, Feb. 29, I'm departing for beautiful Costa Rica where I'm visiting the awesome and amazing Cindy. So between now and my flight early-early Friday I've got so much important stuff to attend to:

• I must watch tonight's Academy Awards. I've seen but one nominated film (Juno, which I loved). I refuse to see long, violent films these days. There Will Be Blood might be the best movie ever, but I cannot possibly watch a movie that lengthy or that bloody without falling into a popcorn-induced coma.
• I've already packed two bottles of sunblock, but I'm a dab worried that's not enough. I'm not used to equatorial sunshine and this February in Chicago has been very cloudy and very cold leaving me unprepared for tropical temps. So, I'm on a mission to obtain the perfect amount of sunblock.
  
• I'm dining at One Sixty Blue tomorrow as part of Chicago's First Restaurant Week! Restaurant Week is a fun way to try places you'd never go (since they're expensive) and try three courses. I'll report back on One Sixty Blue and if it lives up to its weird name.
  
• Buy fruit snacks for me and for Cindy.
• Buy flip-flops! I love Teva flip-flops and I'm buying yet another pair. I wear Tevas no-stop in flip-flop season and walk in them until they're worn thin.
  

There's other stuff, which of course I can't even think of, but I'll remember eventually. Right now I'm trying to see straight with all these Oscar gowns...

Go science go! Pow diabetes, you're nearly finished!

Hip-hip-hooray! Scientists have figured how to make embryonic stem cells act like insulin-secreting cells! Amazing!

I love science. And I strongly dislike republicans for stopping such research, both personally and morally.

8 degrees outside? 8 random thoughts to keep you warm!

It's 8 degrees in my new city so I'm here to tell you 8 interesting (hopefully) facts (possibly not-so-factual).

1. Today at work the kids and I blew bubbles because we are so stir crazy. We had a little bubble party popping, chasing and attempting to blow bubbles. Two-year-olds totally don't know how to blow bubbles though, which is slightly hilarious.
2. I don't wear winter cleats, as this article suggests, but I finally believe in the power of serious boots for winter. My boots are amazing and I credit them with keeping my ankles sturdy in the ice-snow-rain crapola that's been pouring on and off since November.
3. I hereby nominate Janet Evanovich and her Stephanie Plum books (I just finished High Five and I'm about to start Hot Six) as the best train reading ever! Living in Chicago means I don't get to read the Washington Post Express, the best commuter daily ever, so I rely on many periodicals (the Chicago Tribune or the Red Eye) to get me to work each morning. Stephanie Plum, her absurd antics, her hamster Rex, her hilarious grandmother and crime-solving rock my commute home. Steamy!
4. After being at my work for six months (yay, dental insurance!) I finally posted some personal stuff near my desk. My massive computer monitor, which runs Windows 98, takes up so much space I'd be surprised if anyone notices, but I'm pleased just the same.
5. I'm traveling to Costa Rica in just 11 days! Beware monkeys, beware.
6. The new Indiana Jones movie sounds awesome! The Last Crusade is still my favorite, but I'm re-watching the whole series before the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premieres.
7. My endocrinologist and I communicate via email which - The New York Times agrees - is awesome. It's quick, convenient for both of us, and "very effective." Hooray technology, and hooray to doctors for stepping up. Just don't send your M.D. any stupid forwards.
8. If reading this fierce blog isn't enough please give Urbanagora a go, or even America vs. The World, which now has a post written in 2008. Wowee.

Bundle up, friends!

Freedom, and reasonable limitations

I currently have a driver's license from the District of Columbia. To obtain this, because I'm diabetic, I visited an eye doctor and my regular doctor. Both doctors signed a D.C. form saying that I was safe to drive and for how long (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years - I'm good for 5).

This safeguard keeps people without decent vision (poor control of diabetes can cause vision problems) and, I assume, sensation in all their limbs (poor control of diabetes can also cause nerve damage) from driving. After all, it's pretty scary for someone who can't see or feel their feet to operate even a Honda Civic.

As I was jumping through these hoops I was a little annoyed. It was an extra doctor visit, two extra co-pays, and my eyes were dilated, which totally cramped my bike ride to work. But I figured it was reasonable for me to do all that work. I considered how much damage a person could do if they drove with terrible vision changed by a week or so without insulin. Certainly, I decided, this was a limitation that made sense.

When I heard about Stephen Kazmierczak buying several guns quickly, after he reportedly stopped taking medication for anxiety, after ending a (possibly abusive) long-term relationship, and after spending time in a mental health institution (too long ago for it to show up on a background check) - I wonder.

Owning a gun is a right that can be limited. It's a right that should be limited, perhaps in the same way that driver's licenses are limited to people with diabetes. That's reasonable.

I don't know what else to say, and I think I'm trying to sound reasonable when I'm feeling emotional. I cannot imagine what this is like for NIU students, their families and the community of DeKalb.

"I have seen expressions of love and togetherness. We will get through this together."
- NIU President John G. Peters

Why? How?

Six people died at Northern Illinois University today.

We know that the gunman was a former student. We know that he entered a classroom and fired several rounds from two guns. We know that the gunamn killed five undergraduates - four women and a man. We know the gunman killed himself. We know that Northern's security system worked properly - lessons from recent threats and tragedies that Northern administrators took to heart.

As a Northern Illinois fan - my brother graduated from NIU, still lives in DeKalb and hosts the best tailgates around - questions are flooding my mind.

How did the gunman obtained enough ammunition to injure 17 people and kill six? Did he act like someone who might shoot up a classroom before he did so? Did anyone say anything? Did anyone try to help? Could anyone?

Were the guns were his? Were the guns were purchased legally? Should just anyone be allowed to buy guns and ammunition? Are the rules we have in place enough? Are they too much?

I often hear, "Don't read those stories!" from friends when I mention that I read the horrifying news stories about child abuse. Those stories give me the same shivers and evoke the same sighs as the tragedy at Northern Illinois. Why? How?

Did anyone see anything? Did anyone say anything? Did someone see it coming? What happened?

What now?

We don't know anything yet.

We only have questions.

Reason No. 437* Why I Love Our Nation's Capital

Did anyone else notice that just 8 percent of the 371,199 voters in D.C.** are registered Republicans? It's true!

*Other reasons on my list include Ben's Chili Bowl, Ventnor's Sports Cafe, the National Kite Festival, Results The Gym, my best friend, and the easy-to-use grid of D.C., all things made happier by a lack of Republicans.

** That doesn't include the thousands of Republicans and Democrats who drive on D.C.'s streets, use D.C.'s parks, eat at D.C.'s restaurants (crowding them at lunchtime). Those people live in Maryland and Virginia. They don't pay a Commuter Tax to D.C. because Congress won't authorize one D.C. has no power to levy one itself. Argh!

Losing, like a winner

I volunteered for Mark Pera for Congress, a heated democratic primary race on the south side of Chicago and suburbs.

Mark Pera did not win. His rival, the incumbent - a joke of a Democrat supported by the Chicago powers-that-be - won handily. I won't go on about why Pera lost - or about how little his opponent did to earn his win. I just want to say this: Mark Pera is a great man.

I stood in a bustling banquet room when he came in with his staff to concede the loss and thank everyone. He shook hands, expressed genuine appreciation and dismay at losing the election.

Today I got a voicemail on my cell phone. It was Mark Pera:

Hey Amanda it's Mark Pera calling... I'm sorry it's taken me a while to get to you to thank you for everything you did for us and the campaign and let you know I really appreciate it. I know the outcome wasn't really what we expected but sometimes that happens. In any event I did want to call you and thank you for all your help. Take care.

That really makes me proud to have been part of Pera's team, win or lose.

Peeps! The delightful contest following me from D.C. to Chicago

Last year I submitted a thoughtful diorama to the Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest, the silliest contest ever. I worked really on "The U.S. Supeep Court hears case of Bush V. Gore" (pictured). I bought dozens of Peeps. I considered how to represent the Supreme Court with Peeps: Is it fair for female justices to be pink? Can I just draw a chief justice robe on a Peep with a Sharpie? Is it offensive to represent Clarence Thomas with a cocoa Peep? I toiled and toiled and proudly submitted my diorama.

I lost. Times a billion. To artists and interior designers and the like who created professional dioramas with artsy perfection. I was astonished.

Now, the Chicago Tribune - my new hometown paper - is holding the same contest. (Newspapers are copycats, admittedly. The St. Paul Pioneer Press started the contest, actually.)

Now what? Should I get back in the game? Can I recover from last year's disappointment?

What do you think? Let me know. In the meantime I'll be dreaming of little chicks and bunnies, maybe in a shoe box.

Is bad good? What's up with this study?

I live with Type 1 diabetes. It's not the diabetes you often hear about because Type 1 only accounts for 10 percent of people with diabetes. In Type 1 diabetes patients inject insulin so that their bodies can use food for energy.

People, like me, living with Type 1 diabetes require insulin injections on a daily basis to live. People with Type 2 diabetes develop diabetes slowly, take pills to correct problems and can often control diabetes with excersise and diet. Type 2 diabetes get much more attention. It is associated with lifestyle choices and is quite an epidemic nationwide.

Doctors studied how successful patients with very tight control of blood sugar were compared to people with pretty tight control. All research before this study supports the idea that the tighter control you have the better. The closer a diabetic person is to a person without the healthier. Makes sense.

This study tosses all that logic. In fact, it tosses it aside so much that the study was stopped. That's big.

I certainly do not know if this applies to me. Doctors and tons of other smart people are still making sense of it. But there is something to it.

Our best sensibilities were wrong. How can that be? I'm not sure, but I'm hoping the science of rethinking what we think brings us someplace sweet.

Baby says let me move!

I work with babies (actually just kids 2 and up, but I think 2 is still in baby-range) so this was massively interesting to me.

To sum this article up: babies need to play on their tummies.

When babies don't get time to play on their tummies they don't get a chance to develop their muscles properly. They also get funny-shaped heads.

Tummy time is really, really easy. You put the baby on the floor tummy-side down. Baby looks around, plays with stuff, drools on the rug, uses many great muscles, maybe scoots or coos or other baby things. You might wonder why this is tough and I'll tell you two reasons:

1. Babies cry. They actually need tummy time from the time they're incredibly tiny - 5 days old even! Yes, you can put a fresh, new baby on the floor! Weird. But if babies are not used to working their bods on the floor they'll totally wail.
   
2. "Baby containers" (car seats, exersaucers, other tummy-side up contraptions) are so easy. While the floor (or bed, or whatever) doesn't have bright, shiny, noisy toys built-in, it's actually the best baby container around.

Babies, being smart creatures, are telling us something, and I'm quite sure that they're right: Enough! Keep it simple!

Think about that when you're fretting about the Nintendo Wii, cable, a cozy recliner... maybe some tummy time is just the ticket.

News You Can Use: Newseum Opens April 11

In happy news for all news-lovers - the Freedom Forum's Newseum will open on my best friend's birthday: April 11, 2008.

The Newseum used to reside in Rosslyn, VA, until the Freedom Forum bought this cushy piece of property on Pennsylvania Avenue in amazing Washington, DC. I've passed the Museum, which was under construction three blocks from my work for the two years I lived in DC, about a thousand times. It's beautiful.

Inscribed on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the Newseum are some of the most beautiful words ever: The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Inside you can pretend to be a newscaster, learn about journalists during war and see hundreds of current front pages from newspapers around the world (they change daily!).

I can't wait to visit the Newseum, for what I'll see and what I'll be supporting: Those amazing, powerful words right above the front door.