HAIR CUT

The barber was chatting me up while doing my crew cut, which is usually a waste of her time. Since we were celebrating the Norman Langlois Veterans’ award for his donations of the Empire Beauty Schools’ services to Veterans, however, I was…

PASS THE BUCK, PLEASE

Or “the buck doesn’t stop here…” For the first time recently, a new family pointed out some negative comments by former staff about Bellamy and Watson on social media. The buck does stop with me, so I don’t brush off the comments…

INFLUENZA

I was telling a Bellamy family about Pest Island, near New Castle, where ships from Europe used to be stopped and checked for infectious diseases, then quarantined if the sailors were sick, so the diseases would not move inland on the tide and…

#Butwhy?

While reviewing a pile of referrals recently, a few stood out as remarkably futile, at first glance and I was reminded of a recent NY Times article about sending old people, seemingly at the end of their lives, out for skilled rehabilitation…

Truth-Telling and Dementia

A New York Times article (among other sources) made reference to telling the truth to someone with dementia (Alzheimer’s)... ...or more to the point, lying to the person if the question would evoke a painful response or memory…”Looking…

The qualities of care

A quote from Robert Persig in some e-magazine recently sent me back to “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” a 1974 novel that college pseudo-intellectuals like me carried around Villanova as a badge of coolness. It didn’t work. Today,…

Another one bites the dust

Actually, two more bit the dust. A collaboration between two of the world’s largest drug companies fell apart after years of Alzheimer’s research. Eli Lily, the lead company in the repeated trials to find someone, anyone, for whom their…