for every crisis there’s opportunity, and for every group of downtrodden people there are those who use ingenuity, generosity and a some competitive fire to make life better for those in desperate need. In L.A., we’re talking about the hundreds of thousands who go hungry and a terrific charity that deserves forests (whoops) err PC-worths of bytes. We’re talking CANSTRUCTION. Watch the video or hit their website and give what you can or conjure up what up you should. No human should EVER go hungry. Nope, not a single one.
Because of the holidays and my crazy schedule, I’m just now posting this. PR extraordinaire Julie Taylor told me in December about this event, which she is deeply involved in, and is worthy of some praise herself for her benevolence.
Here’s a link to the group’s website. One can CAN make a difference. Read up and you’ll see.
Gordon, had he been injured today instead of 1940, would’ve had these extreme sorts burying their eyes. Even so, the things he survived as a quadriplegic still astonish. He just wasn’t getting as much air as these pros. Happy Holidays everyone, and if you get a chance, please check out Wheeling the Deal: the Outrageous Legend of Gordon Zahler, Hollywood’s Flashiest Quadriplegic.
ROME – A group of European scientists say they have successfully connected a robotic hand to a man who had lost an arm, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial hand and control it with his thoughts.
I can only imagine how fast my uncle, Gordon Zahler, would’ve signed up for this marvelous new step toward helping people regain movement and motion they assumed was gone forever in this earthly phase. I’m thinking about 15 seconds. As I lay out in my biography of him, Wheeling the Deal: the Outrageous Legend of Gordon Zahler, Hollywood’s Flashiest Quadriplegic, Gordon during the late- 1960’s investigated whether he might have his twisted, paralyzed hands amputated and replaced by metal hooks that’d allow him a fractional degree of control. Despite his horrific gym accident, he still had some muscle movement in one arm and that movement might’ve enabled him to control steel pincers so he could grip a straw, cigarette or other objects that didn’t require finger dexterity. This idea, forty years downstream of that conundrum, has real legs, excuse the pun. May it first go to veterans and children.
From a fascinating MSBNC column that most of us can relate to as we gorge and celebrate each other.
” … Suppose, thanks to the presence of a new love’s fresh eyes, you are struck by how often your mom criticizes your dad’s disintegrating hearing, and how he nitpicks at the way she loads the dishwasher. The white noise of bickering you grew up with may suddenly seem nightmarish.
So you say to yourself. “No! I will learn from this. I vow that my relationship will not be like my parents’.”
That might be a big mistake, psychologist, relationship therapist, and New York University professor Judith P. Siegel believes.
From the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation @ the Paralysis Resource Center comes this grouping of autobiographies and biographies it deems worthwhile and available through its services.
There are 2 different versions of my book here, so just ignore the first one.
Just for kicks, here’s NetFlix’s 20 top inspirational movies. Link. Discuss!
Count me as disgusted. Maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger can beam himself to the future in some upcoming, crappy Terminator remake and see in 100 years (or 1,000) how the freeway extension that never will be built remains unbuilt because it didn’t make any sense today or then, and that he’d had his chance in 2009 to welcome back sanity but apparently didn’t know history, didn’t care about the blighted communities living under Caltrans’ occupying, slumlord-acting force, has nursey school math skills saying this veto saved $ when the 710 extension will cost billions we don’t have and would’ve handed the state a $500 + windfall with the sale of hundreds of homes the state purchased when the 710 extension actually had a whisper of an existence, and is a false crusader. Yeah, a screenwriter could make that case. I can. Now I just need to exhale.
What a ginormous manifestation of political decay, gutless leadership, union avarice, bureaucratic hubris and may we somehow, as voters, not give up on our Republic when the Republic seems to have given up on us. Progress: yeah, right. You wanna buy some Middle East oil fields? Or a subprime mortgage?
L.A. Times story, though pretty general and thin, that presents the basic facts of this tragicomic public works monstrosity.
Confirmation, with this under-reported little nugget, that Arnold, the Westsider and supposed Outsider, had used his red pain to knock down a building block of compromise and potential resolution like a sick anti-aircraft gun. The 710 might as well stand for 666.
California is “failing,” or so says the British. Excuse us if I’ve heard this one before from supposed sharp-eyed observers convinced we’re past the tipping point to social doom. We dip into outsiders fancy for seeing ruin before the ruin is really there in our book Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles. Imagine that: California actually made it out of the 1970s1
“California has a special place in the American psyche. It is the Golden State: a playground of the rich and famous with perfect weather. It symbolises a lifestyle of sunshine, swimming pools and the Hollywood dream factory.
But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kevin Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: “California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America …”
Scoff as you may at predictions of California’s tragic early demise, don’t dismiss what some “green roofs” can do as one salvo in the battle against global warming. MSNBC story.
Feeling itchy and green all over? You’re not alone. We’re in era of environmental anguish, and unfortunately Tylenol and a margarita aren’t much relief. New York Times post.
We like this move as insurance if Obama-backed legislation focused on dramatically slowing U.S.-generated greenhouse gases while improving our energy efficiency and use of renewables goes down in flames to partisan politics. L.A. Times story.
Here’s a description and other details about this sweet honor, which was presented to us and other writers on Saturday, Oct. 5 by the city of Santa Monica:
The Green Prize is intended to “encourage and commend authors, illustrators, and publishers who produce quality books for adults and young people that make significant contributions to, support the ideas of, and broaden public awareness of sustainability. The City of Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Plan defines sustainability as “meeting current needs – environmental, economic, and social – without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.”
Did I mention how tickled we are to be receiving this, particularly on top of the other awards we’ve fortunate enough to collect? If not, thank you SANTA MONICA!
