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Piracy

Sometimes I enjoy reading a movie review, even if I'm not inspired to go see the film. On this instance, though, both appeal. See note at bottom about German political policy.

Pirate Radio: hopefully I'll get to see it around Thanksgiving, although The Author & I have a date to see The Road, which I'd do before this.

from the movie review:
The [English] government vows to sink the pirates and finally forces through the required legislation. This is highly unpopular. Just imagine an American administration turning off your rock and forcing you to listen only to NPR. Wow, I'm sorry I wrote that. There are probably fringers who think Obama is plotting to do just that.

I would be tempted to drop MPR a little not, although I'm sure they've already seen it.

Radio Caroline, upon which the movie is loosely based, is still broadcasting through iTunes. Right now they have a 1966 playback-year.


now, about the German politics:

There was a quiz on Der Spiegel to help you figure out which political party platform most closely matches your own. Since they have 100 parties - well, actually on a dozen or so - this is far more complicated than here, where the choice is usually 50:50 shot in the dark. After answering the questions as honestly as I think, for a personal platform, not necessarily what I would encourage the whole country to do, and considering an occasionally misunderstanding of the question in the context of how Germany works,... the result was the closest party was the Pirate Party. The focal point of which is civil rights, esp. regarding what we consider the 1st amendment's points on publication and access to information.

29% plus

The top 100 beach blanket books, according to NPR. I've read 29 of them (in bold) - and several (in blue) are on my "next time I'm lounging on the beach/Bavarian Alps/Minnesotan Lakeshore/... ..."


1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
4. Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding
5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg
10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

11. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
12. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
13. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
14. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
16. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
17. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
18. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
20. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
22. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
24. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
25. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
26. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
27. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
28. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
29. The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler
30. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

31. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
32. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
33. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
34. Beach Music, by Pat Conroy
35. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
36. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
37. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
38. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
39. The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon

41. Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
42. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
43. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice
44. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
45. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
46. Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes
47. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins
49. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
50. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

51. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
52. The Stand, by Stephen King
53. She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
54. Dune, by Frank Herbert
55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
56. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
58. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
59. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

61. Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver
62. Jaws, by Peter Benchley
63. Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner
64. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
65. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
66. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
67. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
68. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
69. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

71. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
72. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy
73. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns
74. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
74. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe [tie]
76. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
77. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
78. The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
80. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett

81. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
81. The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve [tie]
83. All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
85. The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
86. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
87. One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich
88. Shogun, by James Clavell
89. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera

91. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
93. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
94. Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
95. Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
96. The Shining, by Stephen King
97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan
98. Lamb, by Christopher Moore
99. Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen
100. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson


Healthy Gopher's recommendations not already mentioned above, in no particular order: Mind, this is for "beach blanket" reading. Infections and Inequalities and The Great Influenza aren't here, no matter how good they are.

A. Gorky Park (and Polar Star), Martin Cruz Smith
B. Cerebus the Aardvark (definitely the first 2 volumes), Dave Sim
C. The Queen's Man, Sharon Kay Pennman
D. 1984, George Orwell
E. Animal Farm, George Orwell
F. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
G. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
H. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
. The Autobiography of Malcom X, Malcom X
. Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold
. Face of a Stranger, Anne Perry
. Playing for the Ashes, Elizabeth George
. Some Danger Involved, Will Thomas
. Industrial Hygiene Control of Airborne Hazards ... just kidding
. The Manga Guide to Statistics, Shin Takahashi ... not kidding

Epilepsy

NPR's Talk of the Nation broadcast recently Living with the Uncertainty of Epilepsy. A classmate of mine called me in the middle of the afternoon to tell me it was on. It's a great discussion.

More people die every year from epilepsy than breast cancer., according to the guest speaker. Hmmm... According to the American Cancer Society, 40,930 people are expected to die from breast cancer this year. How many people die from epilepsy? Well, drowning because you have a seizure is likely to be reported on the death certificate, since the person drowned, regardless of the cause. There is a small number of people who do die directly from seizures. It is quite certainly not over 40k. Who among the listeners questions that statement, if they have a loved one with epilepsy?

Well, I did, simply becuase I wanted to know how many people do die. I've seen the figure 812/yr, but it was from a semi-reliable source (which means it might be right). It wasn't from MMWR or some other über-reliable source.

There isn't even a single definition of what constitutes epilepsy. It's usually like Stewart & pornography: I won't try to define it, "but I know it when I see it."(1)

Take one guess about who gets more money? Dispersal of money for medical research is a boutique solution. It's like pets: the cute animals get picked first. The obsession with modern feminism has made breast cancer chic. Women with it look just like women without it. Unless she's going through chemo, it isn't going to be noticeable. Breast cancer shows up later in life; she's likely live most of her life without it. Epilepsy shows up with little children and often lasts the rest of your life. Breasts are more attractive than brains.

A description of the drug I take: The exact way lamotrigine works is unknown. You tell me whether people have anti-cancer drugs that are used without understanding how they work?

In the past two years I've had more problems with managing my epilepsy. ("more" being a pretty relative term, compared to others' "1 per day" or "4 or 5 per day".) I switched medications. I've had wierdo events that I'm not even sure if they're seizures, I'm assuming they are simply because I have epilepsy. But my neurologist opines that one simply doesn't remain aware during seizures, therefore this couldn't be a seizure. I had a seizure when I was 8 months pregnant with Jr.Gopher#2. The idea of going swimming with Mr.Gopher in lake Michigan was nice ... but so far away from the rest of the world with relatively trecherous water ...? No. One of the editors at the Lansing State Journal had a daughter who drowned at the age of 25, from a seizure. I was at her funeral. While I cry at funerals anyway, this seemed to be the end of such a full life. I was 37 or so at the time.

Yet I am left with a large minority who have well-controlled seizures for whom the only major inconvenience is remembering to take my medicine twice each day. Well, actually pacifying the Minnesota DMV is really annoying, but only an annual intrusion. I'm horrified at the stories of the majority of people with epilepsy, especially parents/kids coping with the idiots inhabiting our society. I told my classmates I have epilepsy, and their response was either "oh?" or "are you doing okay with school?" I didn't have anyone run away from me. I'm sure their response would have been the same if it was one of my kids. Jr.Gopher has epilepsy? Sure, we can get together on Sunday for the kids to play together. As opposed to people who get freaked out about it.

If you have the chance to convince some millionare to spend her money on something worthwhile, try the Epilepsy Foundation.


(1) Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964)