“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so”—John Donne On a Sunday in January, 2014, I opened the New York Times Opinion section and stumbled upon one of the most unusual essays I had ever read. It was written by Dr. Paul Kalanithi, who at the… Continue reading An Extraordinary Life
You Know You’re at a Plastic Surgery Meeting When…
My friend Dawn and I recently attended an evening meeting of the Houston Society of Plastic Surgeons. Since we were invited guests, and not plastic surgeons, we didn’t stop on the way into the lovely formal dining room to pick up our name badges because the organizers had not made them for us. On the… Continue reading You Know You’re at a Plastic Surgery Meeting When…
Eddie, A Horse Story
In the horse rescue business, there is a euphemism for when a horse at auction is sold to a kill buyer, who gets dollars for pounds for transporting horses to Mexico or Canada for slaughter. We call it “getting on the wrong trailer.” In the United States last year alone, over 100,000 horses climbed on… Continue reading Eddie, A Horse Story
My Night At the Opera
“Was that a high C or vitamin D?” Groucho Marx as Otis P. Driftwood Okay, I admit it. I am a Philistine when it comes to opera. I can’t help it. I grew up in Houston, Texas when the acquisition of central air conditioning was a cultural zenith. Houston, back then anyway, didn’t have opera. … Continue reading My Night At the Opera
Past Lives
It’s been a tough year for me and my animals–we lost Magic, the elderly deerhound in January, and just last week, our thirty year old Quarter Horse Dash, the last of the red horses at our old place in California, Rancho del Caballo Rojo. I am no poet, but tonight I came upon something I… Continue reading Past Lives
Father’s Day
My father finds it hard to believe that he has a sixty one year old daughter. I find it hard to believe I have a nearly ninety year old father. I almost didn’t, which is story behind the scarcity of Crab Diaries blogs in the last two months. If cats have nine lives, Dad must… Continue reading Father’s Day
In Praise of Angelina
I have always been one of Angelina Jolie’s biggest fans. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences saw fit to reward her 1999 performance in “Girl Interrupted” with an Oscar, but I wasn’t well and truly smitten until the second Lara Croft Tombraider movie was released in 2003. In that film, Jolie, who performs… Continue reading In Praise of Angelina
Live Long and Prosper
I was sitting at lunch with a friend today when she leaned over to check her phone messages and discovered the sad news that Mr. Spock, sometimes also known as Leonard Nimoy, had passed away due to complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She looked up at me and said wistfully, “He was my first… Continue reading Live Long and Prosper
This Rough Magic
Have I given fire and rifted Jove’s stout oak With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck’d up The pine and cedar: graves at my command Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ’em forth By my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure… Continue reading This Rough Magic
Medicine at the Crossroads
“When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.” Pollyanna I try not to spend too much time on Facebook, but it’s always been a good way to keep up with “friends” in the Scottish Deerhound world. The deerhound, being a rare breed, tends to link… Continue reading Medicine at the Crossroads