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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (13152)	5/5/2001 9:40:08 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

If you saw our "lawn" you would laugh your socks off. We live basically on a rock with about an inch of soil on some of it. I haven't fertilized in 20 years. Haven't watered in 20 years. When it goes brown in the summer I smile because I'm done mowing for a while. The "lawn" actually is a mixture of grass, clover, dandelions, daisies, wildflowers, and on and on. It's very undulating, just following the natural contours of our point with rocks sticking up in lots of places; there is a lot of it I can't mow but have to weedeat. Every few years I get ambitious and cut back into the woods to open out a bit more area to keep cut, but then I tend to let other bits go back to nature, so it all sort of evens out. The area in the woods where I built the "big toy" for the kids (an open structure with two floors to play on, a ladder, monkey bars, ramp, slide, etc.) which hasn't been used in about 10 years since the kid grew older has pretty much gone back to salal, ferns, and wild roses. When we get closer to grandchildren I'll reclaim it, but for now nature has it. So when you talk about the beautifully manicured bright green fertilized and watered pocket handkerchief of a lawn, I just look outside and chuckle. Oops -- gotta run. Time to leave for family night at my in-laws.

To: Lane3 who wrote (13152)	5/7/2001 9:40:54 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

This is an interesting article on Alzheimers. The reason I'm posting it is because it's also about nuns. It portrays nuns matter-of-factly, not as heroes or demons. Thought that might be a nice change of pace. May 7, 2001 Nuns Offer Clues to Alzheimer's and Aging By PAM BELLUCK ANKATO, Minn., May 2 — A spiraling road slopes gently up to Good Counsel Hill, where the convent of the School Sisters of Notre Dame perches peacefully. Within its thick red brick walls are bright paintings of nuns and children. Organ hymns waft from a circular chapel, and nuns attend Mass and murmur rosaries under a white vaulted dome. But this crucible of faith is also the site of an extraordinary scientific experiment. For 15 years, elderly Catholic nuns here have had their genes analyzed and balance and strength measured. They have been tested on how many words they can remember minutes after reading them on flashcards, how many animals they can name in a minute and whether they can count coins correctly. The autobiographical essays they wrote for their order in their 20's, when they took their vows, have been scrutinized, their words plumbed for meaning. And as they have died, their brains have been removed and shipped in plastic tubs to a laboratory where they are analyzed and stored in jars. The experiment, called the Nun Study, is considered by experts on aging to be one of the most innovative efforts to answer questions about who gets Alzheimer's disease and why. And now in a new report it is offering insight on a different subject — whether a positive emotional outlook early in life can help people live longer. <snip> nytimes.com