I’ve been thinking - a lot, for quite awhile - about the trauma my daughters have been undergoing since June, 2021, when their mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The emotions have been of very high intensity, various in type, and with little-to-no possibility of resolution in any way other than calamitous. Astonishment, bewildering astonishment was first, and with it the return of all the fear, stress and sadness of their mother’s previous serious illness (1999-2001), a truly awful disease called Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Our daughters were children then, and they were terrified. The treatment was long, difficult, many-faceted and ultimately successful; when we went to see the bone marrow transplant expert he told us that her condition was so good - after the early, terrible diagnosis and the long treatment - that she was the first patient he had ever had to whom he recommended *not* having the bone marrow transplant procedure.
We were extremely lucky - great health insurance, phenomenal medical oncologist, surgical oncologist, radiation oncologist, and staff members, and the remarkable work of a chemist at Florida State University who - the year before - had completed synthesizing a material that mirrored a substance found in the bark of yew trees, which had been the only chemo drug that had been effective against Inflammatory BC; but obtaining that material from yew trees was too time consuming to be practicable (or commercially viable) for other than experimental use. Getting the disease one year earlier would have made complete remission impossible. Finally, she received great nutritional and Chinese medical advice & supplements, by a physician licensed in both China and the US. Relief from this agonizing ordeal of about 20 months was great, but at least one of our two daughters could never feel secure that their mother would not have the recurrence of that cancer or the creation of a new one. After living with that nightmarish fear for twenty years - which she often recited to me - our children were confronted in June, 2021, with the reality, the real-life nightmare.
I cannot relate directly to the present terror, fear of the uncertain but likely bad end or sadness that our kids experienced for the 20 months of 1999-2001 or to the 20 months leading to today - their relationship with their mother has been very close and very positive whereas mine was/is not. But relating to terror, fear and sadness resulting from other types of assaults on people’s being and bodies I can do; so I get it that our girls have suffered - are suffering - terribly.
I wish I could fix this, as E & E wish they could fix their mother’s illness. None of us can, and we all know it. So, futility and frustration are added to fear, sadness and terror. This has been a very hard time for them, as it has been for their mother. None of us doubts the outcome, but none of us knows when the outcome will happen, or what the months preceding it will entail - the treatment, pain, pain-relief, bewilderment, grief, the continuing & residual feelings of sadness, regret, rage and helplessness that they have lived with serially and for so long.
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This giant meatball above was made from flesh cultivated using the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth. It was created by Australian cultured meat company Vow, which said it wanted to get people talking about cultured meat, calling it a more sustainable alternative to real meat. [Reuters]
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Louisiana is one of 11 states that elects its insurance commissioner. The first one voters chose was Rufus Hayes, who was appointed in 1957 and then won the first election two years later. He served just one term.
Since 1964, three of the six people who've been elected Louisiana insurance commissioner — Sherman Bernard, Doug Green and Jim Brown — have been convicted of federal crimes and sentenced to prison. [Louisiana Illuminator]
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And the result of last week’s Beast poll is shared here by the Beastmaster:
@benjaminwittes
All of which brings me to yesterday’s deep betrayal by the #DogShirtDaily readership, which voted in response to Jonathan Rauch’s horrid letter to the editor to allow non-beasts to be eligible for the #BeastOfTheDay:
Vox populi being vox dei and all, I will respect the results of this vote—however much it may break my heart that 58 percent of you all so fundamentally misunderstand (despite all my efforts) the concept of a “beast.”
That said, being the Beastmaster, I still have a measure of control.
While vegetation of fungi and slime molds are now eligible to be the #BeastOfTheDay, I note that the Beastmaster exercises sole discretion concerning who—on any given day—gets selected as the actual #BeastOfTheDay.
The rules of the #BeastOfTheDay have actually been codified—fully a year ago, in fact:
...important. Remember the rules for submissions, please:
(2) The beast of the day is an honorific status, not a criticism.
(3) No domestic dogs or cats ...
without a demonstrated act of valor on the part of the nominee.
(4) Mythical beasts are not considered for BOTD status.
(5) Extinct beasts are considered for BOTD status.
(6) Nominees can either be individual beasts or species.
(7) The #beastmaster reviews beasts according to
(9) Nominations that have been accepted are placed in the #BeastlyQueue for future use.
And while Rule (1) appears to have been changed by this vote, I note that Rule (7) remains intact. Which is to say that at the end of the day, I choose the #BeastOfTheDay, and there is nothing Jonathan Rauch—or 58 percent of you—can do about it if I always choose a real live slavering beast of Kingdom animalia.
So go ahead: Nominate your slime molds, your seaweed globs, your Trump lawyers, your mushrooms. Give it your best shot. As long as I remain the Beastmaster, I promise you this: None of them will ever darken this page as the #BeastOfTheDay.
Not today.
Not tomorrow.
Not soon.
Not for the rest of your life.
Not ever.
So there.
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And here is yesterday’s Beast of the Day, a Sino-Korean owl moth:
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This took me by surprise - a small eastern European country that was Part of the Warsaw Pact opposes Russia even though getting its oil from Russia. What will the Russian response, I wonder.
Bulgaria closes ports for all Russian ships
The Bulgarian authorities close their ports to all Russian ships, regardless of the flag under which they sail, according to PortSEurope.
The decision comes into force on April 8 and is linked to the EU directive on the implementation of sanctions.
Vessels flying Russian flags can no longer enter Bulgarian ports. The country’s maritime administration imposed a ban on April 17 as part of the fifth EU sanctions package, making an exception only for the supply of critical products from Russia.
Now, the ban is being expanded: ships registered in the Russian Maritim [Olga Lautman]
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