Tag: elizabeth holmes

Holmes is Where the Heart Is

Holmes old and new.

After hearing that I had enjoyed watching Benedict Cumberbatch in The Year of the Dog my brother-in-law recommended that I watch Mr. Cumberbatch in the Sherlock TV series. I haven’t checked off that box yet, but the mention did set off memories of Sherlock Holmes, and of one heavyweight book that I used to own.

The book was almost as thick (over 1100 pages) as the title was long —The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All Four Novels/All Fifty-Six Adventures. It was a Bar Mitzvah gift from a good friend who was also a lover of mysteries and the written word. Much of my 13th year was spent devouring every word of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 60 pieces of the Holmesian mythos. And unlike Elizabeth, the current Holmes in the news who claimed to solve blood chemistries from a tiny drop of blood, Sherlock really did make much out of little, solving crimes from the smallest piece of evidence.

A Study in Scarlet, The Red-Headed League, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Famous stories, and names I remember so well. Yet I couldn’t tell you the plot or the denouement of any of them. In fact, the part of the volume I remember the best is the forward — a few pages that were written by an American Holmes aficionado, Christopher Morley.

While I read each story once, I must have read that forward fifty times. It is odd, but my mental picture of Holmes was penned more by Mr. Morley than by Sir Conan Doyle. And just to be sure my memories were accurate I tracked down the four-page forward online. As I read it this morning I was quite impressed with my own recall. There were paragraphs that I could recite almost word for word. I wish I could say the same for my Torah portion from that long ago Bar Mitzvah!

As for my friend who gave me the book, we are still in touch, although he lives across the country. A movie critic and college lecturer, he still acts as the post hoc unpaid editor for this blog, taking up the slack when Grammarly fails me. One day I will have to ask him which one of the dozens of actors who have portrayed Sherlock Holmes have been the best. And thank him for that gift from so long ago.

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10 Things That Have Changed In A Year, and One That Hasn’t

compIt seems like yesterday, but it has been about a year since I started writing “Down-Size Maybe,” first as an independent blog on Word-Press, and for the last eight months as part of ChicagoNow. It was meant to be a blog about our home building experience, but like the whole failed concept of “Down-sizing,” the blog has just grown and grown. There have been approximately 125 posts, with poems, songs, raps, some satire, and some smiles along the way. Writing has been a great way to keep in touch with old friends and make some new ones.  I have even learned a little punctuation and speling spelling. So let’s take a look at what else has changed in year.

  1. Castles in the Air: That’s all we had a year ago. A piece of land next to a pond, nothing on it but a forlorn looking For Sale sign. It is now a beehive of activity, about 2/3’s of the way toward becoming our home. The neighbors can’t wait to have all the construction finished with, we can’t wait to move in.
  2. Isn’t She Lovely: We were grandparents of one lovely lady, now we are grandparents of two. Double our pleasure, double our fun, double our number of bedrooms in the loft space of the “Big.”
  3. Tumbling Dice: A year ago Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos were the darlings of Forbes and Silicon Valley while portraying themselves as the future of laboratory medicine. Since then Forbes has delisted Ms Holmes, and Medicare has delisted Theranos. Sometimes when you fly too high to the sun your wings melt.
  4. We are the Champions: We went from losers to winners.  We topped a Halloween Costume Party Contest, one of my blogs made the ChicagoNow “Best Ten Posts of the Month List.” and I sneaked in a win on “3 for Free.” Our total cash compensation? $25, or about 0.00000001% of a decent PowerBall win. But recognition from Jimmy Greenberg and Lin Brehmer? Priceless.
  5. Tears of a Clown:  Early in the primary season: Donald Trump was a loud mouthed, bad-haired buffoon. Oh wait, that hasn’t changed, but now he is a Presidential Candidate (presumptive) of a Major Political Party (also presumptive.)
  6. Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown): Yes, a year ago I did have Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. I had sent exactly zero tweets, and posted about as many times on LinkedIn. Now I have posts and followers. Some of my links have wound up on Houzz and the New York Times. I have become a citizen of the 21st Century!
  7. The Games People Play: Bulls a mess, Blackhawks trying to fit under salary cap, Cubs on play-off pace, White Sox languishing, Bears have wide receiver issues. Wait, did I write that last sentence this year or last?
  8. King of the World:  July 2015 – Jon Snow is dead, Cersei is humbled; July 2016 – Jon Snow is King of the North, Cersei is Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Is it time for a Ned Stark resurrection?
  9. (I Want to Be) Elected: A year ago no one had heard of Bernie Sanders and he was opposing Hillary. Now everyone know who he is and he is supporting her. Sort of.
  10. Greenback Dollar: Last year he was just a face on the $10 bill. Now it will take you about 50 of those to get a seat when Hamilton comes to Chicago

And one thing that never changes:

  1. Forever and Ever Amen:  Barb’s hard work and vision. Thanks, Babe!

Music Trivia as always: Who were the original artists for the 11 songs listed above? Let me know at les.raff@post.com

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Walgreens and Mental Health–Better Luck This Time?

Chicago locals take pride in Walgreens, the big ole pharmacy chain that got started way back in 1901. There actually was a Mr. Walgreen back then, and the chain slowly expanded through the Chicago area. Walgreens’ international headquarters are still close by–I drive past them in Deerfield just about every day. But Walgreens is a lot more than the corner pharmacy these days.

You may remember the Theranos nightmare; I have written about it a few times. Theranos was the clinical laboratory started by Elizabeth Holmes, the clone formed by a pseudo mating of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Her concept, to perform a wide range of blood testing from a finger prick, was going to revolutionize the laboratory world, and Walgreens was going to be her partner! Somehow Walgreens, a multi-billion dollar firm, fell for the hype of an unproven, untested methodology. I imagine the embarrassment that must have been felt by the Walgreen’s Board and CEO when Theranos started failing quality and accreditation inspections left and right. Neither Walgreens nor Silicon Valley did a very good vetting job before turning Theranos into a unicorn.

But Walgreens is marching on. In a press release yesterday the company announced its commitment to mental health. Through a series of new links in a section on its website,

“Walgreens can help connect people to free, scientifically based online screenings for a number of conditions, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD and others.”

Thank heavens this time Walgreens is going for “scientifically based” processes! I admit I don’t know as much about mental health issues as I do about laboratory science. But I have seen family members and friends stricken with crippling depression and bipolar disorder. I also have friends and relatives who are mental health professionals. I hope that those professionals, and the mental health community as a whole, will examine the Walgreens’ web site and determine if the tools that are presented really do help in self-identification of patients with mental health disorders, and that the site is also useful in getting those people the help they need. I’m crossing my fingers that this time the results are positive. Walgreens doesn’t need another failure (Laury has a few shares of their stock) and neither do the people they are trying to help.

In another health related matter, I have tabulated the results to my non-scientific (there, I admit it) insurance poll from a few weeks ago. Most of my readers pay significantly more for health care coverage than they did previously and have also seen cut backs in their coverage. That mirrors our own family. I still believe in many facets of the Affordable Care Act, but I know that “affordable” may not have been the most appropriate moniker.
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