A summary of Part I re Cleft Palate Care At Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah, pediatric surgeons are taking controversial risks with how they care for kids with cleft lip and palate. This is the conclusion of a ProPublica article of which the below is the second of three parts. I’m reprinting it in my blog because the article is disturbing. (I’ve added several new subheads in brackets below.) It is interesting that the recent article was penned by Megan Rose a crime reporter who … [Read more...]
Controversial Utah Cleft Palate Surgeries -I
As the beneficiary of an innovative cleft-palate team at Seattle's Children's Hospital, I'm always interested in the progress being made regarding cleft palate surgeries. The innovation in my day was approaching the birth defect as a team effort from the minute a baby is born. Heretofore, most doctors did cleft palate surgeries without the input of dentists, orthodontists, speech therapists, and others involved in the decade-long treatment of the defect. [Contested Cleft … [Read more...]
Adorable cleft-lipped boy adopts a cleft puppy—instant love.
Amid the 4 Ps confronting us Californians —pandemic, poverty, protests, and pyrotechnics* — comes a heartwarming story from Sydney Page at The Washington Post. Just what I needed, as a fellow cleft-affected person, to forget about the "plagues" which are depressing us in the San Francisco Bay Area. We've had to keep indoors (no outdoor masked activity) for twenty-something straight "unhealthy" Spare the Air days due to wildfires. Then a man who has a 2-year-old with a cleft … [Read more...]
Rory Gilmore and Janie Junebug love books and share ’em.
Many of you remember The Gilmore Girls popular show which aired 2000- 2007. It created a book club for people to read all of the 339 books referenced on the show, esp by Rory Gilmore who loved reading books. She also loved the smell of books. Rory Gilmore loves books. Rory taught us important things that are now a part of many people's everyday life. First - always take a book with you. This tip has saved countless of us from complete boredom. Whether we're meeting up with a friend … [Read more...]
Cleft Joaquin Phoenix strikes again – Joker.
Evil teaches us to livE: — this anadrome** comes to mind when I think of cleft Joaquin Phoenix — the fictional miserable life of Batman's Joker generates evil — the real "miserable life" of Phoenix generates great art about evil and good. What comes to mind re the movie Joker is less relevant: another star vehicle for Phoenix the biggest-grossing October launch ever, $90 million in first 2 days a "scary movie" with tons of violence that's forced many theaters to hire cops … [Read more...]
How to boost the CLEFT HEART book and reap rewards.
Thought some of you Cleft Heart book fans might get a kick out of seeing a photo (top right of the collage below) of politicians Pelosi and Schumer under an umbrella in D.C, back in the day. Actually, it's my sister Barbara and me in front of the U.S. Capitol after my dad mustered out of the military as a journalist in Washington, D.C. for the Navy's All Hands magazine. My loving sis wrote last year about growing up with a brother with clefts here and here. She wanted to add to the book I'd … [Read more...]
Male privilege, sex, and the fall of a cleft icon.
An op ed piece in Friday's Washington Post helped make up my mind re former congressman Trent Franks (R-Ariz.). The op ed author described a classic case of male privilege in action. The writer Melissa Richmond* is currently vice president of Running Start, an organization that encourages women to run for political office. Richmond wrote that she thought she'd lost out on a career in politics after an encounter with Rep. Franks eight years ago. In her own words: I’ve always been proud … [Read more...]