Oct 29, 2015

After “Life, Interrupted,” New York Times columnist hits the road--Columbus Alive

After “Life, Interrupted,” New York Times columnist hits the road

By 
From the October 29, 2015 edition
     
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Suleika Jaouad stopped in Columbus last week to visit a retired Ohio State University art history professor, an avid reader.
Nearly four years ago, Howard Crane, an avid reader of The New York Times, happened upon a column by a young writer, Suleika Jaouad, that piqued his interest. The column, “Life, Interrupted,” chronicled Jaouad’s journey after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia at age 22.
Throughout three years of treatment, the Princeton University graduate wrote regularly and honestly about life as a young adult whose dreams of becoming a war correspondent were derailed as she fought her own personal war – against cancer.
Jaouad’s column evoked memories for Crane, a retired Ohio State University art history professor and an expert in the field of Islamic art and architecture. So one day in 2012, from his home in northwest Columbus, he sat down and wrote her a long email.
“I was moved by what she wrote,” Crane said of Jaouad. “Although I never had cancer, her experience mirrored my own illness 40 years or so earlier. The expectation was that I wasn’t going to live, but [I was given] another half century of life. I just wanted to let her know that remarkable things can happen.”
Crane wrote to Jaouad about his years as graduate student at Harvard University in the early 1970s. He spent time in Afghanistan researching Islamic archaeology, and while there, developed a mysterious, life-threatening illness that was never definitively diagnosed. After an array of terrifying symptoms (including temporary blindness and lingering problems with his bone marrow and his hearing), and a near-death experience, he miraculously recovered.
He wasn’t certain that Jaouad ever received his email, and he had no expectation of a response if she did. Then, six weeks ago, Crane opened up his email to find a note waiting for him from Jaouad. He was floored and excited to learn that not only had she read and held onto his original email, but that she was preparing to embark on a 100-day road trip across the U.S. – including a brief stop in Columbus – and wanted to meet him while she was in town. Immediately, he invited Jaouad to stay with him and his wife, Meral, in their home for as long as she wanted. And she did, last week, for two nights.
“One of the first letters I received was from [Crane]. It’s one of the letters that have stuck with me all these years,” Jaouad said by phone from Detroit – her destination after Columbus. “His was just beautifully written … and it was just so moving. He told me, ‘If you believe in prayer, you will be in mine.’ ... I never responded to that letter, because I wasn't well enough to do so – I was undergoing a bone marrow transplant at the time. But I thought about it and I wondered how he was doing.”
This past year, Jaouad finished her cancer treatment and is now in remission. Though ecstatic for a second chance at life, she said she found the experience of survivorship to be unexpectedly challenging.
“When you're sick, there are protocols to follow and things to do, and you have a medical team and family rallying around you. And I think when the emergency passes, you're kind of released back out into the world and told to go back to your normal life,” she explained. “But figuring out what that life is and figuring out who you are in the wake of something so devastating and transformative as a life-threatening illness is easier said than done.”         
She decided that in order to move forward with her life, she needed to literally move forward, by car. So, the New York resident took driver’s ed lessons, got her license and decided to embark on the first road trip of her life, in the form of a “100 Day Project,” which she described recently in a Times article.
“The goal of this road trip has been traveling and getting back into the driver's seat of my own life. And it is also to visit and learn from unexpected strangers who wrote to me in response to my column when I was sick,” she said. “I was just really excited by the idea of breaking the fourth wall of the Web and just having a genuine, human interaction with them and simply thanking them for the support they gave me. And maybe also writing more about their stories in the hope of learning from them as I find my way forward.”
She arrived at the Crane residence last Wednesday evening (day 20 of her adventure) with her service dog, Oscar, in tow.
“We had never met before, but they were just incredibly gracious,” Jaouad said of the Cranes. “I had a really powerful and moving experience with them, and also got to visit Columbus.”
The three of them talked for many hours and shared their experiences over Turkish food and a tour of Ohio State’s campus. Jaouad also explored German Village and snapped a photo at the Book Loft for her popular Instagram feed, which she has used to document her travels, as well as to solicit recommendations for restaurants and places to visit in different cities.
“The whole visit was a highlight,” Crane said of his time with Jaouad, with a smile. “She’s a wonderful, vital and aware person.”
Illness, he added, “brings to your life all sorts of strange and wonderful things – if you survive.” And when survivors from different generations come together to share their stories, the results can be transformative for all. 
Follow Suleika Jaouad’s “100 Day Project” on Instagram and Twitter (@itssuleika) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SuleikaJaouad) #susuontheroad


copied from columbusalive.com

Oct 23, 2015

Rove on Trump: Dunking the donald

The Donald’s Missing Details

Who would be eligible for TrumpCare? What will the border wall cost? He doesn’t say.

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump campaigning Oct. 19 in Anderson, S.C.ENLARGE
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump campaigning Oct. 19 in Anderson, S.C. PHOTO: KEN RUINARD/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Having led the polls for three months, Donald Trump has shown he’s no flash in the pan. Voters and the media should therefore treat him as a traditional front-runner, examine his temperament and require him to go beyond sound bites.
A governing agenda is essential to win the White House. Candidates must demonstrate mastery of the issues and cannot wing it. Platitudes don’t cut it for swing voters. Inquiring minds might like to hear Mr. Trump explain what specifically he would do as president.
He has said that he would deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., and in two years or less, thanks to “really good management.” But what exactly is Mr. Trump’s plan to arrest, detain and deport—with all the litigation that entails—15,000 people a day? That’s roughly 10 times the number of daily arrests in the U.S. for violent crime. How will Mr. Trump round up these people in a way that is, as he promises, “very humane” and “very nice”? And how many tens of billions will this cost?
Mr. Trump says he will then “expedite” the return of “the good ones” and proclaims that he doesn’t mind “having a big beautiful door” in his border wall to hasten their return. Question: Wouldn’t it be more practical to identify the “good” illegal immigrants first, to thereby avoid the cost of deporting them merely to expedite their return? Wouldn’t it be easier to determine who qualifies as “good” before deportation?
Then there’s the billionaire hotelier’s pledge to build that wall on the southern border. Mr. Trump has neither said how much it would cost nor dealt with practical considerations. For example, would Mr. Trump build a wall along the 1,254 miles where the Rio Grande separates Texas and Mexico? Would he wall off Lake Amistad and Falcon Lake, two reservoirs straddling the border where Americans go fishing and boating? What would he say to Texas officials who, instead of a wall along most of the Rio Grande border, would prefer to spend money on more Border Patrol agents, air assets and technology?
He is similarly vague on health care. In a Sept. 27 interview on “60 Minutes,” he said health care should be a universal, government-provided right. “Everybody’s got to be covered,” he said. “I don’t care if it costs me votes or not.” When the interviewer asked how, and who would pay for it, Mr. Trump answered, “I would make a deal with existing hospitals to take care of people,” and pledged that “the government’s gonna pay for it.” During the Aug. 6 GOP debate Mr. Trump praised socialized medical systems elsewhere. “As far as single payer, it works in Canada,” he said. “It works incredibly well in Scotland.”
So how would TrumpCare operate? How many Americans would be eligible? What would it cost? It isn’t enough for Mr. Trump to go on “60 Minutes” and claim, “They can have their doctors, they can have plans, they can have everything.” Americans have heard empty promises before. They want an actual proposal that works.
There are already huge gaps between what Mr. Trump says and reality. For instance, he has complained about “hedge fund guys that are making a lot of money that aren’t paying anything” in taxes. Yet when he released his tax plan, he proposed dropping the top rate on hedge fund fees to 25% from 39.6%. True, the plan would raise taxes on their performance bonuses to 25% from 23.8%. But the result would be a generous tax cut provided to people Mr. Trump claims pay no taxes despite “making a hell of a lot of money.”
What about entitlements? “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican,” Mr. Trump says. “And I’m not going to cut Medicare.” But the Social Security Trust Fund will go bankrupt by 2034, and the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2030. The only way the next president can save these entitlements is to reform them and help America avoid a debt crisis.
Mr. Trump has proven he can do outrageous. But soon Mr. Trump must demonstrate that which he has so far avoided: substance.
Republicans, too, face a test: Will the party choose a nominee with a conservative agenda or one reflecting populist anger? The two are hardly the same. Conservative principles provide a winning path to the White House. Populist outrage alone will end in defeat. In three months, Republican primary voters will begin deciding which they want. A good start would be to demand more from The Donald.
Mr. Rove helped organize the political-action committee American Crossroads and is the author of “The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the 1896 Election Still Matters,” out in November from Simon & Schuster.


copied from wsj.com

Kingfisher






Kingfisher

Oct 20, 2015

John Kasich: The GOP Meets Normal



Editorial: 

John Kasich, the anti-Trump

When the Trump fever breaks, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio could be a top GOP contender.
Thirteen weeks ago, Donald Trump shared with the Tribune Editorial Board an hour of his bombast, sarcasm and ... good-natured charm. Trump was a delight. And if that verdict surprises you, come sit here, because it surprised us too.
On Tuesday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich took a turn in the same chair. Kasich hadn't even announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination when we, like much of America, first engaged Trump. To the essay question that begins Compare-and-contrast:
If you want a rocking-good time on Saturday night, hop aboard Trump's helicopter or yacht or limo or jet. Bring your own quick wit or you'll soon fall behind. But if you're shopping for, say, a new president for your divided nation, a grown-up who has spent decades proving how capable he is at working the levers of government to deliver solutions, then skip Trump's entertaining show and pay serious attention to Kasich. If enough Americans do, you might see his name atop your election ballot on Nov. 8, 2016.
Even if he had a weak record in office, Kasich would wake up every day as a serious potential nominee. No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio — something Kasich has done twice, most recently with 64 percent of the vote. GOP strategists get giddy at the prospect of pairing Kasich on a ticket with Marco Rubio (ascendant) or Jeb Bush (not really) of Florida, another gotta-have swing state.
But Kasich, even with his Ohio State diploma, is more than a dutiful Buckeye. His nine terms in the U.S. House gave him 18 years on the Armed Services Committee and six years as chair of the Budget Committee. An Associated Press synopsis of his career notes that in the latter capacity he was "the chief architect of a deal that balanced the federal budget for the first time since 1969."
As governor Kasich eliminated an Illinois-scale budget deficit and grew Ohio's rainy-day fund from 89 cents (true) to more than $2 billion. Ohio's economy is in growth mode and his state government is less bureaucratic than when he took office in 2011.
All of that said, there's something in Kasich's past for almost every voter to like or loathe. He's a conservative Republican who embraced Obamacare by expanding Medicaid. He boasts of cutting taxes more than any sitting governor in the U.S. yet believes in government "helping people get on their feet to live out their God-given purpose — that, to me, is America." He would put U.S. boots on the ground to defeat Islamic State in the Middle East. But he says that if battles are won with bullets and guns, wars are won with ideas — a liberal goal he thinks the U.S. hasn't tried hard enough to achieve. He supports a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution while admitting that he might tolerate deficit spending on tax cuts to spur growth and to build up America's military, adding briskly, "with reform of the Pentagon."
What struck us wasn't an urge to agree with everything Kasich says — we don't — but his willingness to speak straight and let listeners think what they will of him. This isn't a mesmerizing guy. He's a Midwesterner whose dad carried the mail. Some find him preachy: At a conference last year he scolded a woman who challenged his moral argument for expanding Medicaid. "I don't know about you, lady," Kasich said, pointing at her. "But when I get to the Pearly Gates, I'm going to have an answer for what I've done for the poor."
Maybe Kasich won't rise in this election cycle beyond the role Jon Huntsman Jr. played in 2012: the favorite Republican of liberal Democrats. But we also can see Kasich taking the mantle of the late Jack Kemp — smart on economics, conservative in outlook, with a moderate streak that creates crossover appeal.
We aren't sure whether the Trump bump has reflected the feelings of rank-and-file Republicans or of people from several ideological tents who share a revolutionary anger. When tempers cool, though, a strong array of GOP candidates awaits. We won't be surprised if Kasich works his way into the top tier.
One last observation on the two men who sat in the same leather chair:
Trump had an absolutely splendid necktie.
Kasich didn't bother to wear one.
Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune



copied from the chicagotribune.com

Oct 19, 2015

Fields of Lavender in Provence, France.....okay--we're going there........





Fields of Lavender in Provence, France


Now let's visit these Lavender fields in Provence, France........It's beautiful--how can we get there--what is it like to actually stand in the middle of those purple blue rows--is it an overwhelming aroma of lavender wafting through our being.

I'm suggesting we take British Airways from San Diego and stop for a visit in London on the way.

We will see some shows and do a little shopping--we will stop for a Ramos Fizz at the Ritz.

The important question--where to have our tea.Afternoon-tea-at-The-Goring

Shall we do a little shopping--window shop on Savile Row and then look for shirting fabric at Liberty of London..........



Seriously, I know where there are plenty of really nice fabric shops, also buttons, at great prices--one cannot find these fabrics in San Diego.


Plenty of apps to help us find things......dinner, discounts, transportation.


We will be sure and stay at a hotel with a brilliant English Breakfast to get our day of sightseeing off to a good start.

We will get a package with hotel, breakfast and airline and then we will only spend on shopping, shows and transportation and dinner.

We could take an inexpensive flight to France but I am suggesting the Channel Tunnel for convenience and more fun.......it's just easier to end up at the train station and take a taxi to our destination......right, I love the Paris train stations, too.

It would be fun to stay a few days in Paris and try to find the roasted chicken and some of the food that Phil Rosenberg had in that PBS show.....I'll Have What Phil's Having.

Paris is so fun just walking around.....I love walking......I have always wanted to walk in the park that is made from an unused elevated metro track.

Let's also be sure and try the hot chocolate Phil was talking about......
Chocolat Chaud.the ronnie republic
This is where Phil had his Choc.......we will take our picture sitting here, too.


Well, the trip is starting to shape up, but what about actually seeing those Lavender Fields.........shall we jump on the TGV and head down to Provence and check it out?




Story in progress.....to be continued.........suggestions accepted










picture.....jigsaw jam.......story......cl