Happy New Year

Chris Botti

I started 2005 in Boston, seeing Chris Botti at Scullers Jazz Club. Today, he has ended my year, as I finished up my coffee watching the Saturday Early Show on CBS:

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Second Cup Cafe: Chris Botti

NEW YORK, Dec. 31, 2005

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(CBS) Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti and his band return to The Saturday Early Show's "Second Cup Cafe" to perform selections from his latest album, "To Love Again."

This year, Botti toured with Josh Groban. Botti is up for two Grammys in the categories of Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for "In Our Time," with Burt Bacharach) and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) (for "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?" with Sting). The awards ceremony will be broadcast Feb. 8 on CBS.

Of his musical style, Botti has said, "It's about the sound of my trumpet and the melody I play."

Botti started playing the trumpet early on, but is very outspoken against marching bands. "I graduated school a year early so I could get out of marching band," he says. "The marching band is there to support sporting events; it's rarely about the music."

But being part of the band paid off. The band director turned him on to Miles Davis when Botti was 12, and Botti has idolized Davis ever since.

Still, the thrill of his lifetime came when he played for Frank Sinatra during the 1985 tour. "It was his big comeback tour and he was singing beautifully at that time," recalls Botti, who was then 21.

In May 2004, Botti was named one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" and for that, the artist says, he gets teased relentlessly.

"It's so difficult in this day and age for instrumental artists to punch through into the mainstream," he says, turning serious, "so anything that helps is a good thing."

I love coffee but,.........

Palm Civet

I adore coffee. However, I don't believe I'll be buying these beans:

Pricey coffee good to the last dropping

Fri Dec 30, 9:09 AM ET Yahoo News

Would you pay $175 for a pound of coffee beans which had passed through the backside of a furry mammal in Indonesia?

Apparently, some coffee lovers wanting to treat themselves to something special are lapping it up.

Kopi Luwak beans from Indonesia are rare and expensive, thanks to a unique taste and aroma enhanced by the digestive system of palm civets, nocturnal tree-climbing creatures about the size of a large house cat.

"People like coffee. And when they want to treat themselves, they order the Kopi Luwak," said Isaac Jones, director of sales for Tastes of The World, an online supplier of gourmet coffee, tea and cocoa.

Despite being carnivorous, civets eat ripe coffee cherries for treats. The coffee beans, which are found inside of the cherries, remain intact after passing through the animal.

Civet droppings are found on the forest floor near coffee plantations. Once carefully cleaned and roasted, the beans are sold to specialty buyers.

Jones said sales for Kopi Luwak rose three-fold just before the Christmas holiday compared with the first half of the year. The company started selling the rare coffee in February 2005.

He expects to sell around 200 pounds of the coffee this year, with orders coming from North America and Europe. So far, most of the orders have been from California.

Indonesia produces only about 500 kilograms, or roughly 1,100 pounds, of the coffee each year, making it extremely expensive and difficult to find.

"It's the most expensive coffee that we know about in the world," said Jones.

By comparison Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee, considered to be an expensive type, sells for $35 to $40 per pound, while a pound of Colombia's Supremo arabicas can be bought for about $14.

Flickr

I’m posting pictures on Flickr. I like the ability to categorize, sort, label, and make my work available in a “gallery” style format. Some sets will have a decidedly erotic edge like “Bodyscapes” and other sets will be more G-rated. With the laptop, a camera, and some photo software, life has become much more creative.

The Importance of Vitamin D

This news on the importance of Vitamin D:


By Randy Dotinga


HealthDay Reporter Wed Dec 28,11:47 PM ET


WEDNESDAY, Dec. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Forget the fiber. You may be able to fend off colon, breast or ovarian cancer by simply getting enough vitamin D, a new analysis of previous research suggests.


But if you're overweight, black, older or live in the Northeast, there's a good chance you're not getting enough vitamin D in your diet, said study co-author Cedric F. Garland, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego.


The study authors found that several groups of people had low levels of vitamin D. Residents of the Northeast made up one group, perhaps because they miss out on vitamin D that's absorbed during exposure to the sun, Garland said. The obese had low levels, too, perhaps because they have trouble metabolizing vitamin D through their fatty tissues.


Other groups with low vitamin D levels include blacks -- they're five times more likely to be deficient than whites -- and the elderly, the researchers found.


"As we age, we lose the ability to convert vitamin D into its usable form, so elderly people are at greater risk," Sandon said.


And the increased skin pigmentation of blacks reduces their ability to synthesize vitamin D, the researchers said.


So what to do? The experts are divided on that answer.


Garland urges everyone to consume 1,000 International Units (IUs) a day of the active form of Vitamin D -- also known by its human form, Vitamin D3 -- which comes in yogurt, cheese, orange juice, fatty fish and milk.


By contrast, Sandon said adults aged 19 to 50 should get 200 IUs a day, equivalent to two glasses of fortified milk. People aged 50 to 70 should get 400 IUs, she said, while those 71 and older should get 700. But she acknowledged that "it is difficult to get this much vitamin D from food alone.


More information on Vitamin D:


Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in food and can also be made in your body after exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. Sunshine is a significant source of vitamin D because UV rays from sunlight trigger vitamin D synthesis in the skin.


So, a little tan is good for you!

Warm Shells

Winter Tulips

Christmas

Last night I listened to Mary McPartland’s Christmas “All About Jazz” broadcast that included her reading of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”.

“A Child's Christmas In Wales was published in 1955. It is an anecdotal sketch of the festive season which emerged from a piece originally written for radio. It is an exercise in storytelling and Thomas recreates the experience of Christmas as though it were a fairy tale.”

Hers was a wonderful rendition. I always enjoy her programs and try to catch them on Friday night – Jazz night - on our Public Broadcasting radio station.

I have a small hardcover reprint of an edition illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg. The original 1969 Eichenberg edition with prints signed by the master engraver can be found here:

Author: (EICHENBERG, FRITZ) THOMAS, Dylan.
Title: A Child's Christmas in Wales. Illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg.

Description: New York: New Directions, 1969, 4to, cloth with leather spine, with cloth portfolio for signed suite of Eichenberg prints. An account of a Christmas day in a welsh town from the author's childhood. Illustrated with full page drawings. This is one of 100 specially bound copies of the deluxe edition. Specially printed at the Thistle Press and bound in two volumes, signed by Fritz Eichenberg on the justification leaf. The separate portfolio consists of five signed wood engravings by Eichenberg. Very scarce thus. Item # 7998 $2,500.00

A really nice Christmas present!!!!

Snowflakes

Make a Snowflake.

It's not winter yet.

It’s not even winter and we have already had two major storms here on the coast. The solstice that marks the beginning of winter won’t be here until next week (12/21/05 – at 1335). Right now it looks and feels more like February outside than December.

I’ve been experimenting with enhancing / changing photos using tools on my laptop. The one that fascinates me right now is one that takes a color picture and turns it into a negative. There is color theory going on here but, for my creative purposes, I just like the surprise of experimenting.

Chile, Neruda, and Elections

Neruda is one of my favorite poets. His home country of Chile has always intrigued me; in particular the location, resulting natural environment, and its politics. I just read this morning that the elections tomorrow have a very good chance of resulting in the country’s first woman president. She is very vocal about her concerns, including championing the rights of women.

From the New York Times: Señora Presidente?

By RAFAEL GUMUCIO

Published: December 9, 2005

“CHILE is one of the more conservative countries on a continent that is not especially renowned as tolerant, forward thinking or democratically minded. Divorce was legalized here just last year, and abortion continues to be a taboo subject even for the most progressive of politicians. Our social codes and racial prejudices are deeply engrained. We are an overwhelmingly Catholic country with a history that has been marked - and continues to be marked - by the power of its military.

Given this context, it is nothing short of extraordinary - even revolutionary - that the clear front-runner in the presidential vote being held on Sunday is Michelle Bachelet, a divorced mother of three who is an atheist and a member of the Socialist Party.”

It will be interesting to follow this story.

And part of a poem from Neruda:

The Wide Ocean

From: ‘Canto General’

Ocean, if you were to give, a measure, a ferment, a fruit
of your gifts and destructions, into my hand,

I would choose your far-off repose, your contour of steel,

your vigilant spaces of air and darkness,

and the power of your white tongue,

that shatters and overthrows columns,

breaking them down to your proper purity.

Not the final breaker, heavy with brine,

that thunders onshore, and creates

the silence of sand, that encircles the world,

but the inner spaces of force,

the naked power of the waters,

the immoveable solitude, brimming with lives.

It is Time perhaps, or the vessel filled

with all motion, pure Oneness,

that death cannot touch, the visceral green

of consuming totality.

Snowflake Snowfall

We had some snow showers yesterday. When I went to take pictures to send to a friend in warmer climes, I saw that it was a snowflake snowfall. The crystals weren't melting but, holding their form long enough to be photographed.

A really great site to learn all about snowflakes is Snowflake .com . They have very cool photomicrographs of snow crystals. The site is full of everything you ever wanted to know about snow crystals!

Indigo Ikat

When I was quilting I fell in love with Japanese fabrics. One of my “finds” was a length of indigo ikat that now hangs in my living room. This particular piece was the design of the “second son”; an engineer who left and then returned to the family business. He found that his mathematical training was very important when it came to figuring out how and where to dye the threads.

"In making ikat (meaning 'tie-and-resist' in Indonesian and called 'kasuri' in Japanese), the threads are arranged in bundles and dyed before weaving. Designated spots in the individual bundles are made to resist the dyes by wrapping with various dye-resistant materials. These bundles may be dyed several times, with more wraps added at each stage, similar to the batik process. The bundles are then opened and hand-woven into the intended pattern. The results are a warp or weft that produces a veiled pattern. Due to a slight bleeding of the dyes, patterns created by this technique have a character of softness and an unusual effect which blends with the fabric texture."

Making it Through the Holidays Part 2

Hypothyroidism has been a part of my life since the birth of my youngest. Pregnancy induced, it took almost four years to be diagnosed; my metabolism was pretty much dead in the water with almost all of the classic symptoms. Even though the medication took care of the hormonal deficiencies, it has taken me years to figure out a life style that enhanced my health. I have found that I need vitamins, supplements, low carb food and at least 45 – 60 minutes of exercise a day to maintain the vitality I need to get through each day.

"Hypothyroidism is sometimes referred to as a "silent" disease because early symptoms may be so mild that no one realizes anything is wrong. Untreated symptoms become more noticeable and severe, and can lead to confusion and mental disorders, breathing difficulties, heart problems, fluctuations in body temperature, and death.

Someone who has hypothyroidism will probably have more than one of the following symptoms:

• fatigue
• decreased heart rate
• progressive hearing loss
• weight gain
• problems with memory and concentration
• depression
• goiter (enlarged thyroid gland)
• muscle pain or weakness
• loss of interest in sex
• numb, tingling hands
• dry skin
• swollen eyelids
• dryness, loss, or premature graying of hair
• extreme sensitivity to cold
• constipation
• irregular menstrual periods
• hoarse voice

Hypothyroidism usually develops gradually. When the disease results from surgery or other treatment for hyperthyroidism, symptoms may appear suddenly and include severe muscle cramps in the arms, legs, neck, shoulders, and back.

Natural or synthetic thyroid hormones are used to restore normal (euthyroid) thyroid hormone levels. Synthetic hormones are more effective than natural substances, but it may take several months to determine the correct dosage. Patients start to feel better within 48 hours, but symptoms will return if they stop taking the medication.

Most doctors prescribe levothyroxine sodium tablets, and most people with hypothyroidism will take the medication for the rest of their lives. Aging, other medications, and changes in weight and general health can affect how much replacement hormone a patient needs, and regular TSH tests are used to monitor hormone levels."

Mary Shamon is the best lay expert on thyroid issues. I have her book “The Thyroid Diet”. Her latest newsletter gives these tips for getting through the winter:

Winterize Your Thyroid

From Mary Shomon,Your Guide to Thyroid Disease.

10 Tips For Surviving the Winter Cold

It's that time of year when much of the country is up to its neck in freezing cold weather, and pockets of snow, ice, and cold have taken hold all around the nation. Surviving the cold weather season means it's time to pay attention to some tips that can help you "winterize" your thyroid, and enjoy better health during these colder months.

1. Get your TSH checked.

Cold weather can increase your body's need for thyroid hormone, make you more hypothyroid, and may cause your TSH to rise. If you notice hypothyroid symptoms worsening as the weather gets colder, it's worth having your blood levels evaluated. You may need a slight increase in your thyroid hormone replacement dosage. Some doctors even make it a standard practice to raise their patients' dosages slightly during colder months, in order to meet the body's requirements.

2. Tune up your TSH.

If you're still having significant hypothyroid symptoms, it's a good time to check in with your physician to discuss whether you are at the optimum TSH level for you. Some patients feel best when TSH levels are at low-normal range, so it's worth discussing with your doctor. Keep in mind, as of late 2005, the recommended "normal range" for TSH is .3 to 3.0, but most labs and doctors are still using the .5 to 5.0 range Some practitioners has stated that you can have hypothyroidism symptoms at levels of 2.0 and above.

3. Make sure you're on the optimal thyroid drug for you.

Some patients feel better on the natural Armour thyroid, others need the addition of a T3 drug like Cytomel, and some do best when switching from one brand of synthetic levothyroxine, i.e., Synthroid or Levoxyl, to another, i.e., Unithroid. Make sure you're on the right drug that relieves the majority of your hypothyroidism symptoms.

4. Start exercising.

Cold weather blues may make you less likely to work out, but there's no better time to begin a regular program of exercise. Whether you join a gym, start a walking program, take a yoga class, or do Pilates tapes, even a gentle exercise program can help banish the blues and relieve stress -- not to mention help avoid winter weight gain.

5. Get some sunlight every day.

There's evidence that exposure to sunlight affects hormones that have an impact on both brain chemistry and the endocrine system. Even if you don't suffer from a full-out case of "seasonal affective disorder," 20 to 30 minutes a day of outdoor light exposure can help ward off fatigue and depression. My doctor's own tip...if you don't want to be outside for prolonged periods when it's cold, go run errands in your car, but keep the window open, so you are exposed to the natural sunlight. (Keep in mind, wearing sunglasses will reduce the benefit of the sunlight.) If you have a more pronounced seasonal affective disorder, and find yourself gaining weight and feeling significantly depressed during the colder months, consider light therapy.

6. Eat less sugar.

While a cold day may say hot chocolate and cookies, that may be the worst thing you can do. Many people with thyroid conditions find that they are susceptible to processed sugar, in a number of different ways. They may have some underlying yeast overgrowth candidiasis, or they may have some level of insulin resistance, or they may have some autoimmune susceptibility or food allergies to processed sugars. But with the double whammy of winter weight gain and depression both being factors that can be affected by too much sugar in the diet, it makes sense to bypass sugary treats as much as possible, in favor of healthier alternatives

7. Get enough sleep.

The average American doesn't get enough sleep. Add a thyroid condition to the mix, and it's clear that many thyroid patients are walking around in a state of chronic sleep deprivation. Autoimmune conditions, hormonal imbalances and difficulty losing weight are all aggravated by insufficient sleep, so it's critical that you make sure you get your zzzz's. How much do you need? The typical adult without a thyroid problem need seven to eight hours -- thyroid patients probably need even more. And in the winter, our bodies seem to need even a bit more. So forego a bit of late night television in favor of a few extra winks, and your body will thank you for it.

8. Reduce your stress.

With work, families, activities and other stressors everpresent, there's no better time for your health to incorporate a form of stress reduction into your daily activities. Keep in mind that different types of stress reduction work best for different people. Some respond well to needlework, or crafts, such as beading or quilting. (For me, for example, crocheting is an excellent stress-buster.) Other people find mind-body exercise such as yoga or tai chi highly effective. Prayer or meditation can be the right stress reduction technique for some. Even remembering to taking frequent stretch breaks while working at your computer can go a long way toward reducing stress.

9. Avoid the flu.

Flu seems to be going around full steam these days, and if you haven't succumbed, you can still avoid it

10. Go with the flow...

Sometimes, you just need to recognize that cold, winter days are nature's way of telling us to slow down. Our new contributor for 2005, columnist C. Geraghty, has some profound insights on the emotional and mind-body aspects of "The Winter Blues" that are well worth reading.

Coffee as a Supplement

And this just in: news justifying that my morning "inhalation" of coffee is absolutely beneficial to my health…..

Study: Caffeine May Boost Memory

"Caffeine revs up brain areas tied to short-term memory, new research shows…

The caffeine dose used in the study was 100 milligrams. That's roughly the amount of caffeine in an 8-ounce cup of coffee, depending on how you brew it."

Coffee: The New Health Food?

"Coffee, the much maligned but undoubtedly beloved beverage, just made headlines for possibly cutting the risk of the latest disease epidemic, type 2 diabetes. And the real news seems to be that the more you drink, the better."

Coffee Is No. 1 Source of Antioxidants

A new study shows coffee is the No. 1 source of antioxidants in the American diet.

"Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source. Nothing else comes close," says researcher Joe Vinson, PhD, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in a news release.”

Be still my heart......

True cost of Christmas: $18,348.87

From MSN.com

“This year's headlines had an impact on the index. Avian flu? Those swans and geese are going to cost you more because of a spike in the price of large birds. And the French hens? You can't import them from France this year -- though there are domestic suppliers. Meanwhile, energy prices are driving up some delivery costs.”

It’s a good thing my kids don’t want anything off this list. My boys have graduated from Legos to: electronics, hard drives, graphics cards, sound systems, memory for MP3 players, and soccer goalie gloves - to list a few. For myself ? The laptop (purchased), tires and shocks for my car (soon), CDs, books, dark chocolate (preferably the very dark, black wrapped Lindt Truffle balls), and lotions / potions pretty much make up my wish list.

First, though, I have to take care of my youngest son’s birthday. He is 14 tomorrow and already taller than me. Although he has received his present early (snowboard), I still have to bake a cake to take to school and one for home.

Happy Birthday Baby!