It wasn’t until the mid 1900s that people could even bring themselves to actually utter the word “cancer” instead of merely whispering “the C word” when speaking about cancer. It’s as if they were trying to distance themselves from mere mention of the word “cancer ..read more

People who know me often comment about how much I see parallels among things that most people never associate with one another. They say I’m odd because most people don’t think the way I do. Of course, since I’ve had only my one brain in my head all my life and apparently made such connections between dissimilar things all along, I don’t understand what’s so odd about the way I think. But I have a feeling that this observation is in keeping with one of those parallels ..read more

Suddenly, every gram of weight you gain seems to end up around your waist. It’s as if everything you eat becomes a “waist product ..read more

Have you ever thought about just how preoccupied humans are when it comes to their hair? It can be a critical part of our identity. How often do you describe someone without saying word about his or her hair (or lack thereof)? “The redhead.” “The bald guy.” “You know, that girl with the long blond hair.” We even ascribe the overall tone of our day by it when we say we’re having “a bad hair day ..read more

While you weren’t sleeping, you were lying in bed wishing you sleeping, but to no avail. Then you started searching for the reasons you weren’t sleeping ..read more

You’ve Got a Long Way to Go, Baby ..read more

A couple of weeks ago, I was riding in a South African taxi cab. The driver was a middle-aged fellow, with dark chocolate skin and pinkish lips. He’d been born and raised in Cape Town.   It’s my habit to talk to cab or Uber drivers. I like to show genuine interest in and kindness toward others. So, I strike up conversations about various issues — political, cultural, meteorological, familial, and the like.   On that particular day, we were talking about Eskom, the electric company.   I said, “I just can’t figure out what’s going on with the Eskom load shedding schedule for when ..read more

We humans are such odd creatures! We all want to Alzheimer’s Disease; yet we live our lives doing everything in ways that Alzheimer’s Disease.   This is mostly due to the fact that your brain has a default mode of “lazy.” That’s right. Your brain will always seek the easiest possible way to do every task so that it doesn’t have to do any work. And, if that sounds logical to you, it’s a perfect example of your own brain’s default mode of “lazy ..read more

We humans are such odd creatures! We all want to Alzheimer’s Disease; yet we live our lives doing everything in ways that Alzheimer’s Disease.   This is mostly due to the fact that your brain has a default mode of “lazy.” That’s right. Your brain will always seek the easiest possible way to do every task so that it doesn’t have to do any work. And, if that sounds logical to you, it’s a perfect example of your own brain’s default mode of “lazy ..read more

As you approach or progress through your menopausal transition, are you noticing that your mind just isn’t as sharp as it used to be? Do you find yourself fishing for words? You know, that “tip-of-the-tongue” phenomenon when you know you know the word, but, for some odd reason you just can’t spit it out at the moment you need it. Do you substitute “what’s his name,” or “whatchamacallit” for the missing word a lot? Or maybe your go-to substitute word is “jiggamabob ..read more