Welcome, Brenda!

My popular, energetic former co-worker at FNMA, Marilyn Olson, is affectionately known to one and all as "Mo." She and her late husband, Lyle, had one child, Brenda, and during my 10 years at Magids, I enjoyed hearing about Brenda's exploits as she got through elementary and high school and went off to college (Iowa State at Ames, I think). Then Mo and I lost touch until Mo, retired now, popped up on Facebook this spring, some 20+ years later. It's been great getting brought up to date on Mo's amazing schedule. Mo always arrived on Monday exhausted, then picked up steam as the week progressed. I was the opposite. I was fresh as a daisy on Monday and wiped out by Friday.

Mo just introduced her Facebook friends to Brenda's wonderful blog on life in small-town Iowa. How coincidental is this that her oldest (and youngest) daughter blogs about life in rural (well, that's most of the state) Iowa, and my oldest daughter, Peggy, blogs about life in rural Scotland?! Brenda and Peggy both have self-deprecating humor when it coms to naming their blogs. Brenda is no more boring than Peggy is lazy.

Gentle readers, please enjoy Brenda's Boring Blog!

Thank God, It's SENATOR AL FRANKEN, D-MN!!!!

I googled "Al Franken's best quotes," and here's a remarkable collection from "Al Franken Sense, the Al Franken Forum." Al is the kind of Democrat I can relate to. He's also funny.

A sample of the wit & wisdom of Chairman Al:

In many ways I'm still a Hubert Humphrey Democrat -- someone who believes in afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. A society is judged by how it treats the elderly, the sick, the impoverished. To me it's a matter of ethics and compassion.
- Al Franken, Playboy interview

No Child Left Behind is the most ironically named act, piece of legislation since the 1942 Japanese Family Leave Act.
- Al Franken, in response to the 2004 SOTU address

Oh, What Doesn't Kill You Can Have Lingering Aftereffects!
- Al Franken, Oh, the Things I Know, chapter title

Read the rest, too....

Yeah, them too....

The "Money" section of the NYTimes today has a great headline: "Et tu, AARP? Good Guys Cut 401(k)s, Too". The article, by Ron Lieber, may be good, but the headline stopped me in my tracks. It's clever, but the headline writer was too charitable.

AARP sold us out to Big Pharma with the Medicare Drug Act. My prescription prices DOUBLED way back when that little piece of legislative jiujitsu passed, and I quit AARP on the spot. "Good guys"? I don't think so. I haven't been able to bring myself to forgive them, either, despite their wonderful magazine.

But that's ok. Clarissa Pinkola Estes has a great section on forgiveness in her intriguing book, Women Who Run with the Wolves. Without trying to find the book in this place so I can look it up (a three-day job), this is the main thing I remember her saying about forgiveness: It happens in stages. You can't just "forgive" someone and feel all better all at once. Estes says the first stage of forgiving an injury is to quit obsessing over it. Just quit thinking about it endlessly. Makes sense to me. I guess I was getting past stage one with AARP, too. I'd pretty much forgotten all about them.

Except, since retiring, I've started to notice all the goodies you can get now with an AARP membership. About all an AARP card used used to get you was senior rates on movies and a 10% discount at certain hotel chains. Nowadays the senior rate on movies is the same as the matinee rate for everyone else. You have go to go a movie after 6 p.m. if you want the old folks' discount. That's too LATE!! I rarely go out after supper.

Still, there's lots more now for anyone with an AARP membership: you can get special prices or discounts on everything from cruises to cell phones to tow trucks.

Well, too bad. They still sound like their main goal is watching out for #1, never mind their constituents OR their workers. Fooey.

Chicken ala Carte

Thanks to Darlene for sending this today....TGIF!

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Same old same old

Nobody wants to pay for a transit system in DC, especially the pols who love to meddle in our business--like the gun nuts making sure DC can't ban handguns. Meanwhile, nine people, including the young mother driving the train who fought valiantly to stop it with its worthless brakes, are dead because the Metro put off not just replacing the cars but fixing the brakes.

And the bullets are flying where I live, but that doesn't bother them. They don't live here, and neither do their constituents (who nevertheless flock to DC with their chidren whenever school is out--and ride our metro).

Robert McCartney, reporting in the WashPost, has a great column this morning. Salient sentences (love the sound of that....ha):

There's no good alternative to renovating Metro, given the need to reduce traffic and greenhouse gases, and to move around the 2 million new residents that the region is expected to attract by 2030.

...

Last year, Congress authorized $150 million a year for Metro after the District, Virginia and Maryland promised to match it: $50 million from each jurisdiction each year.

Maddeningly, however, the Obama administration's budget for the fiscal year starting in October did not include the money. One factor was federal unhappiness with squabbling among the three jurisdictions over an issue regarding the Metro board. Getting that money this year should be a top priority for the region's congressional delegation.

Hey, Mr. President....You live here, too. We can't all send our kids to school in cars driven by the Secret Service. The rich bankers got theirs, and the Pentagon gets billions to kill people, other countries' and our own. What about the rest of us? Please get with it on public transportattion.

Deadly Metro collision at Ft Totten on DC's Red Line--UPDATE

[UPDATE: Three more bodies were found inside the trains last night. Death total now stands at 9. Blogger Red Nose's husband, Joe, was on one of the trains yesterday. Most likely causes now are seen as failure of automatic warning and braking system or operator error or both.]


About 5 pm, two Metro trains on the Red Line collided at Ft. Totten. Many have been injured, and so far, 6 people are confirmed to have died.




I rode the Red Line from Dupont Circle to Ft. Totten this morning. After I transfer to the Green Line at Ft. Totten, my stop is the first one down.

This is only the third major accident in Metro's history and by far the worst. I love the Metro. For all its minor faults, it's a splendid system. Our hearts go out to all concerned.

Stand with Dr. Dean

Let me quote from the email he sent this afternoon:

Even while Republicans fight tooth and nail against allowing Americans the choice of a universally available public healthcare option; the American people continue to show overwhelming support -- 8 out of 10 Americans in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

But for-profit insurance companies and HMO's are working hard to strip it from any upcoming healthcare bill. They don't want Americans to have a choice because they know they'll have to lower costs and provide better care. They will stop at nothing to kill real reform and there are a lot of Senators in Congress looking for ways to help them.

Republicans have insurance companies on their side. We have the American people on ours. Now that we have the momentum for real reform, we need to make it clear we won't accept anything less than a strong public option.

Pleaee add your name to the petition.

Happy Birthday, Lu--and congratulations, Ben! - UPDATE

UPDATE: Here's Ben with his masters thesis. Thanks to Lu, there's an update on his age when he wrote his essay on Benjamin Franklin. I guessed 7 or 8, but he was younger--a testament to his Montessori school.

[First posted on June 15, 2009] This past week--or if you want to get picky, tomorrow--is my niece Lu's birthday. It's a major demographic crossover, too! A number of years ago, she gave me a copy of this essay by her son, Ben, who was maybe 5 years old.* Ben, who is now grown, just got his masters degree in environmental engineering this spring. So here's Ben's essay about his namesake, showing all the promise in two very bright young men. To see the document in life size, just double click each page.

* [Quote from Lu: "I'm not sure - with the spelling I would say he was about five. That's how they taught them to write at the Montessori school - it was more important to get the thoughts down, sounding out the words...."]

Benjamin Franklin Was
born january17, 1705
in Boston Massachusetts.
When Ben Was Born the
american Colonies
Were Owned by England.
When he was older he
helped the colonies
become free, this was the
Start of the United States
Of america. he was
one of our countries
Founding Fathers.

Ben Had Many jobs
During his life. he was
a printer, publisher, statesman,
Diplomat & an inventor.

When Ben Was 12 he went
to Work for his his brother
as a printer. Ben wrote
Many books and papers
and he printed them
him self.

in 1751 Ben Started
a school in Philadelphia.
This school later
became the University
of pensilvanea.

Ben pubishd americas
first Magazine and [?]
in 1751, Ben
was the first
publisher of poor
richerds Almamac.
this almanac is
published eveary year
even today.
franklin was a statsemen
and diplomat he spent
a lot of time in
England and france.
FRanklin was a great
inventor here
is a list of some
of his Inventions.

Ben's Inventson's
1 franklin stove
2 lightning rod
3 Eletric Batery
4 smoke less chimney
5 byFocal glasses
6 copy Machine
7 a musical instument

Ben did Icsperaments that
proved lightning Was Electrisity
The most important
thing Ben did was to help
write the constitution
and help make our
country free.
he died april 17 1791.

Single Payer Health Care!!

Darlene sent this today. Marcy Winograd is co-founder of the L.A. chapter of Progressive Democrats of America.

Pass this along!

Glad Midsommar!!!

Midsummer Eve has long been my favorite day of the whole year. It's the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, but most people know it simply as the first day of summer. This day enjoys the most sunlight (not necessarily sunshine...it's cloudy and overcast here in DC); the sun will not set until after 8:30 tonight. Actually, here in DC, today and the next two days--June 20-22--will be exactly the same length: sunrise at 5:43am and sunset at 8:37pm. On June 23, DC will lose a minute of precious sunlight in the morning: sunrise at 5:44am...and thus darkness will increase bit by bit until after December 21, when the hours of daylight again begin stretching a minute or two at a time each day.

When we visited Door County in the summer years ago, we learned about the Swedish Midsummer Festival and Door County's famous fish boil and cherry pie. If I can find some whitefish in these parts, I intend to make this. The stove top recipe is basically 8 quarts of water boiling in a big pot, 2 CUPS of salt (one cup goes in first when the water boils and you put in the potatoes, and the other cup goes in about 25 mins later when you add the fish), 12 pieces of whitefish fillet, and 12 potatoes. Not fancy. Note: most Door County recipes caution you not to do the OUTDOOR fish-in-a-big-pot-over-the-bonfire trick of burning off the fish oil with kerosene!! You just skim it off with a big spoon as needed. You serve the fish and potatoes with melted butter for dipping and, if you wish, slices of lemon for people to squeeze on the fish. Proper Door County cherry pie requires cherries from Door County, but we make do....

ANYWAY...

On this day of greatest light, Xtreme English has included a link to Esther Garvi aka Ishtar News. Esther Garvi is a young woman born in Sweden who has lived in Niger for more than 20 years as an unpaid volunteer for the Eden Foundation.

The Eden Foundation in Niger, West Africa, was established in 1985 by Garvi's parents, Arne and Bettan Garvi. The Eden Foundation's philosophy is explained in this foundation newsletter published in 2008:

There are 250,000 known plant species in the world, but only 20 of them provide 90% of our food. Eden believes that the key to prosperity for the poor lie in underexploited, edible trees and bushes - the lost treasures of Eden.

The young couple and their three children moved to Niger and started to work. I encourage you to read this blog and enjoy their story.

Esther Garvi's work, joy in life, and writing skill make her a worthy role model, and her blog is a real find. So...while we celebrate the glorious sunlight and admire the beauty of Sweden, whose residents cherish the sunlight and throw a festival to welcome summer, XE would like to mark the occasion by including a link to Ms. Garvi's blog.

Snob Syntax

XtremeEnglish does not pretend to be an expert on anything. But she has lots of experience not only as an editor and writer, but also (especially) as a reader. XE learned to read at the age of three, so that's almost 70 years spent often in libraries, bookstores, and elsewhere with her nose in a book. That's a long time to develop radar for pretentious language.

Here are a couple of recent arrivals that make her grit her teeth:


-Hydrate. As in "La-de-dah...I have a personal trainer who tells me I need to drink lots of water."

-My tax dollars. As in "If I deign to live in your silly town/state/country, I get to say exactly what you do with the money you collect to provide me with the services I need." When did this odious expression start, anyway? 1980 or so? It's not so much your or my tax dollars as it is OUR tax dollars. It's a fact of life in, like, a community.....

Bye, WaPo

The Washington Post appears to be going the way of its Moonie counterpart across town. Word has it they've fired Dan Froomkin, easily one of their top writers and most quoted bloggers. Glenn Greenwald in today's Salon has the story

As Greenwald notes, Froomkin stands apart from the Post's darlings of the rightwing, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol, as a real journalist.

It's no secret that I have disliked the Post. But now I refuse to even READ it, even if it's lying on the table at Starbucks, left behind by a previous coffee drinker. Or on the dining table at my best friend's house!!!! (yes, you, dear...)

Wotever is in the DC water these days? Even George W. Bush has come out of his self-impossed silence on his predecessor to criticize President Obama's handling of the cleanup of Bush's mess. Memo to former president: STFU, Dubya. Stuff the WashPost in your mouth if you get another urge to say anything.

God is great!

I am proud of the Iranian people. After it seems they have had an election stolen from them, they are rioting in the streets, marching, shouting, braving gunfire and death so that their votes may be counted.

In 2000, our elected president was taken from us, and a miserable puppet installed in his place by none other than the U.S. Supreme Court.

And what did we do? MANY of us marched in protest in subsequent days, but at the time, everyone was very polite. Even our elected president, Al Gore, demurred when the imposter told him "you don't have to be snippy about it."

History would be very different if, in that far off yesterday, we had shown the passion and courage the Iranian people are showing today. One news commentator earlier today said that the students and elderly and women were not alone in their protest. That several of the most influential Ayatollahs were backing them. This is why Ayatollah Khomeini has asked for an investigation of the election. This is why they have not been herded into prisons.

There is hope. And until they have satisfactory answers, the residents of Tehran have spilled out into the streets and told the world what they think.

God is great! And God bless the Iranian people.

don't be so FORWARD....

this just arrived from sally as a forward, and i couldn't open it. so i googled the title "mom arriving with cake video" and got it!

My Bad....

Shammy's comment on my post "A Few Rules for American English," made an excellent point. I said "its" was a possessive adjective. Not so. Possessive pronoun was the term I wanted. Other possessive pronouns like his and hers (and yours, mine, ours, theirs) don't have an apostrophe, either.

Tsk. The motto on my office door used to read "Often Wrong, Never in Doubt."

Thanks, Shammy. At least one of us is a lert. (joke!)

A few rules for American English

XtremeEnglish started out as an outlet for the blogger (with nearly 30 years of experience as an editor, most of them in management) to express her love for the English language. After several YEARS of diversions and distractions, she's going to return briefly to her original intent and list a few constructions she sees many bloggers mangle.

ITS....is the possessive pronoun.
Example: The dog licked its paw.

IT'S....is always a contraction of IT IS.
Example: It's true, whether you like it or not. If you see an apostrophe in its, it's a verb form.

COMPRISES means "includes."
Example: The zoo COMPRISES striped and spotted animals. "Comprised of" doesn't make you sound smart, no matter how many overeager graduate students or befuddled academics use it.

TOWARD....is correct.
Example: "She ran toward the door." "Towards" is very Harry Potter. Move to the UK if you can't get it right.

Here are two great books you can add to your library:
Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences: A Guide to Avoiding the Most Common Errors in Grammar and Punctuation
and
Words into Type, Third Edition

XE writes letters....

Here's one I sent this morning to HealthReform.gov, which is collecting our stories on health care reform:

Dear Mr. President: You don't have to be paranoid to be a senior citizen in this country, but it helps. I'm recently retired, and a week ago I had cataract surgery. The co-pay was $200! This is 4 times what it was when I had the other eye done a couple of years ago. And the co-pays for my prescriptions have gone up, too. Could it be that the insurance companies, fearing they'll be put out of business if the US passes single-payer health insurance, are doing their best to grab all the money they can? This is on top of the news that those of us on Social Security will get NO COLA this year or next year! We need some kind of reform, that's for sure. Health care is a great place to start. Please be assured that I'm committed to backing you in everything. Please don't let the bankers get big bonuses and high salaries while you turn off the faucet on the only source of income for retirees. Sincerely yours, M.E. Carew, registered Democrat

If you've got your own horror story on health care, click the link in my opening sentence and tell the president all about it.

Socked by the Hamster...again

Here I am the day after my second cataract surgery. The nifty little shiner is the work of Plavix, which I take to keep my stents clean. Peggy said I look like I've been socked in the eye. I agree...socked in the eye by a hamster.

Old age for me has meant I am increasingly dependent on spare parts: the two plastic lenses, the three stents, the cochlear implant, the partial plates (false teeth to you...or, as Whoopee's 2.5 year old might say, the false "tits").

As they say, "after 60, it's patch, patch, patch....."

Dangerous, Ugly Rightwing Extremism among Us - Updated

In April, 2009, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report warning against anti-Semitic violence. Even the title is chilling:
"Rightwing Extremism:
Current Economic and Political
Climate Fueling Resurgence in
Radicalization and Recruitment"**

Huffpost today carries the story of the Republican reaction to the DHS report two months ago--before the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas and today's shooting of a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Huffport quotes what RNC chair Michael Steele said about the report on Fox News:

"This is the height of insult here," Steele told Fox News. "I mean to segment out Americans who dissent from this administration, to segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration, and labeling them as terrorists and then to call into question the service of the men and women who are right now standing on that wall defending our freedom and linking them to terrorism while you refuse to call the terrorists -- the real terrorists -- terrorists, to me it's the height of insult."

Whatever got into the Republican party that has made their leaders and spokespersons so ignorant, so lacking in self-knowledge, so hateful, and so downright creepy that they are incensed when anyone points out the possible dangers and consequences of rightwing thinking?

**The Huffpost story has a link to the 10-page report, which is available as a .pdf download.

UPDATE: Salon Editor, Joan Walsh, says all of this much better in her Salon post. She calls out the whole ugly crew, including Mr. Bouncy.

the perception of the truth is often more important than the truth itself

From 1978 to 1988, I worked for a company that did survey research for TV, radio, and print (newspapers & magazines). We conducted audience surveys for some very major players in the mainstream media. A couple of mottos formed the bedrock of our work:

1) "The perception of the truth is often more important than the truth itself" and

2) "Perception becomes reality in its consequences."

Related to this is the old old saw, "a picture is worth 1,000 words."

So why do I get so upset when I see pictures of Limbaugh, Gingrich, and Palin plastered all over everything? Including the Huffington Post? Because just seeing their faces on the evening news or the front page of the newspaper or website by itself gives viewers and readers the perception that they are newsworthy.

And it's not just the MSM.

The hotair industry of cable news has HOURS of programming devoted largely to a) rebroadcasting over and over again the outrageous comments of people like Limbaugh, Gingrich, and Palin and then b) rebutting them usually by chatting with guest "experts." 24/7, it's Limbaugh, Gingrich, Palin, Limbaugh, Gingrich, Palin, McCain (Cindy and Meghan now), Cheney (Liz and Lynne, too)...on and on...blah blah blah. And in case Countdown focuses on something ELSE, Keith Olbermann has "Mr. Bouncy" ready to insert into the corner of the screen lest we forget about him. (If you've watched KO, you'll know who Mr. Bouncy is.)

As if these people had any faint idea of how (or any inclination at all) to solve the world's problems.

And as if there were nothing else we citizens in the world's largest democracy need to be concerned about.

Mercifully, the only Bush we're likely to see or hear about these days is Laura, who says mostly sensible things. It makes me wonder which focus group told broadcasters and publishers that quoting Laura Bush saying something sensible can help make folks outside of the tight little Republican base relax their hatred of the Republican party and the gormless Republicans in Congress. (You don't have to be paranoid to live in Washington DC, but it helps!)

My solution to most of this is to NOT WATCH (TV) and NOT BUY (newspapers). I'm thinking of cancelling my cable-phone-high speed internet service and maybe *gasp* even my blackberry.

The only way to fight these people is to boycott their products and their sponsors' products. And to let them know why. Tell em you want real, solid news. Send em a tweet, for pete's sake!

5 word speech

Arianna Huffington has been asking for entries to her "5 word speech" contest that ended tonight.

I can think of one:

NO MORE SARAH PALIN, PLEASE!

let her go back to slaughtering defenseless animals from airplanes and setting back rational sex education for young people and gazing at russia from her kitchen window.

can't we just forget this woman, please? she's not news. she's a disaster.

Back to the Future.....

Is it just me, or are you finding yourself completely fed up today with the media's incessant and unwavering harping on the possible Republican candidates for president in 2012!!!????

Can we come back to 2009? We've got four years of hard slogging to do to repair the damage of the Republican malfeasance over the past eight years.

So, please, Media Masterminds...Let Governors Sanford and Palin play out their acts on the local level. Stop forcing them down our throats! We don't CARE about these people or their precious far-right conservative base. Were you awake during the last election? As President Obama reminded you earlier this year, "YOU LOST!"

I lasted approximately four minutes into "Countdown" tonight. If I want to hear what a Washington Post reporter has to say about anything, especially about who's going to run for president in 2012, I'll buy the paper....NOT!

Happy Birthday, Bill Moyers!

Moyers turned 75 today, and he can still mop the floor with punks from Fox. Way to go, Bill! I found this gem on "Cheers and Jeers" by Bill in Portland ME in today's Daily Kos.

Genug, already!

Glenn Greenwald's column in today's Salon make the cogent point that if Israel wants to continue to receive tens of billions of US dollars in aid, plus military equipment and unwavering diplomatic support, it can just quit building those freaking settlements in the West Bank!

As Greenwald notes, the whole world sees this as Israel taking away Palestinian land--the whole world, that is, except Israel, which blunders on.

Greenwald also notes that US presidents, including Bush 1 (who, the more you hear about him, seems FAR superior to his gormless elder son), have gotten themselves in all kinds of trouble when they tried to get Israel to quit with the settlements. Their biggest opponent has been the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. He quotes Andrew Sullivan regarding Obama here: “What Obama faces in the Middle East, if he is to move the peace process forward, is a very powerful force against him. It's called AIPAC."

Meanwhile, we struggle on here in the US, trying to find $$ for universal health care, education, rebuilding US industry and manufacturing, on and on...you name it, we need it badly.

So why should we be lavishing money on Israel, which seems to be very happy to tell us to go jump in a lake when we tell them to stop the settlements now??? The settlements are NOT in U.S. interest.

Happy Birthday, Mom

Today is the 112th anniversary of my mother's birth. She was born the youngest of eight children in Altengeseke, Westphalen, Germany, on June 2, 1897. Her mother, my grandmother Maria Anna Michel-Schrewe, died two and a half years later in February, 1900. In 1903, my grandpa, Heinrich, and his surviving children* Anna, Josef, Anton, Franziska, Heinrich, Adam, and Maria emigrated to Cherokee, Iowa. After they arrived in America, their names became Anna, Joe, Tony, Frances, Henry, Adam, and Mary.

That's about all I know about her early life. She absolutely did not talk about her childhood, although she did tell me she planted lilies of the valley on the north side of our house because they were a common wildflower in Germany, and she "loved the smell in the woods." Rarely, also, did she mention any of the years before she married my dad. Her older sisters Anna and Frances cared for her as a child, but Mom said only that they considered her "a pest." Barely teenagers themselves, they wound up doing all the housework, laundry, and cooking while Grandpa and the boys worked on the farm. Watching little Mary was just another burden.

She also said her father was "very mild." She said he never raised his voice to her or the others, though he occasionally called the boys "dummkopf" when they failed to follow his directions to his satisfaction.

She told my brother Paul one time that she loved butter as a child and wished she could have it on her bread like other families' kids. Paul considers this evidence of their "genteel poverty." I think it was because they saved every pfennig so they could move to the U.S.

And that's it. It's not that I didn't ask, but she often said, "I don't remember." And she did not remember any German language, especially. The one sentence she taught me is "Ich bin sehr kalt!" That means, appropriately enough for my childhood in Fargo, "I am very cold!!"









*Another child, Terezia, several years older than my mother, died in infancy.

My CI* Is Good Enough!!

*Cochlear Implant

At a recent Johns Hopkins picnic for persons with CIs, somebody asked me,
"What's your audiogram?" They meant that score showing hearing loss in decibels (dBs).

"Can't remember," I said. "It's been a while since I've been tested, but I THINK it's around 35-40dB." That means mild hearing loss.

My deaf friend who doesn't have a CI said, "That's what they told me I could get with a CI, and that's not good enough for me!" She's been thinking about being implanted, but her score with hearing aids is like 55 or 60dB. Going up just 20 points doesn't seem to her to be worth the trouble.

Before I started thinking about getting a CI, I felt pretty wistful when I looked at my first audiogram. My score right after I lost my hearing was about 50 or 55dB, and I remember wishing, three years ago, that I still had that much hearing. I could skate along pretty well with 50-55dB, even without hearing aids.

BTW, three years ago, my score with hearing aids was way lower than that--in the 70s, which is lousy. Without hearing aids, I was below 95 in both ears--pretty much a flat-liner, no useful hearing at all.

Anyway, my two processors--one to wear and one for a spare--and I went to the Johns Hopkins Hearing Center today for a tuneup.

And guess what? My score is 20-25dB! That's at the very beginning of mild hearing loss--the kind grandpa's cousin Tom had when he complained he was "a little deef." He could hear on the telephone OK, but he kept the TV up LOUD.

The other thing I learned at the picnic is that I'm not the only person with a CI who has to ask people to repeat something they've said. You know, "What's that?" or "Pardon me?" or "Speak up, for chrissake...." (Just kidding on that last.)

CIs don't make us HEARING. All the CI users at the picnic are, to greater or lesser degrees, still a bit deaf--and when we take the processor off at night or before we go in the shower or the swimming pool, we can't hear a dang thing.

But when the little processor is working, I can hear almost as much as a person with normal natural hearing--and that's fabulous to me.

It's taken a while to be able to interpret what I'm hearing, but even that is improving bit by bit. That's the mystery brain part. CIs are not like hearing aids at all. They don't provide any kind of amplified sound. What they do is stimulate your brain to grow new neurons.

Too cool!