The Freedom Of A Fresh Netflix Queue

Over time the Eckel family Netflix queue grew to some 75 or more titles. Of course, we got busy, returned movies we watched (taking our attention off the queue) and then discovered some wacky movies arriving in the mailbox.

So we reviewed the queue. There we found numerous movies neither one of us recalled adding to the list. Certainly one of us did, it's just neither one of us recognized the title or remembered why we even wanted to watch the movie in the first place.

Was I on an Amy Smart kick? Did I really have the patience to sit through another Jackson Pollock flick? Would another French film prove that enthralling (you can only take so much of a single director's works, even if it's Eric Rohmer)?

What we found was a collection of some 75 movies neither one of us, really, wanted to watch! So we did the unthinkable.

I removed everything from the Netflix queue. What a liberating feeling! We could start fresh and anew. Which is just what we did.

There are now five titles in our Netflix queue, and we eagerly await the arrival of each.

Back On The Juice

Polymyositis is a tricky illness. Just when I hoped it was contained the disease displays new life.

It all started last spring. The diagnosis was based on a highly elevated phosphocreatine kinase (CPK) enzyme level and a handful of other severe arthritis- and fatigue-like symptoms. The CPK is basically an objective measure of an enzyme the muscles leak (the higher the level the greater the inflammation, pain, discomfort and fatigue). When I saw my family practice physician, my CPK level was 900. Two weeks later when I visited a rheumatologist the CPK had climbed to 1,700. Your CPK level is likely 50-100.

The first line of defense was heavy doses (40mg/day) of prednisone (a steroid). That brought my CPK down to 1,200. Soon after I added 15mg/week of methotrexate (disease-altering drug).

A summer of taking the two drugs together lowered the CPK to 98. So, I tapered off the prednisone, ending the steroid maintenance entirely in late August or early September.

Fast forward to late November, when I felt the tell-tale neck and shoulder pain return. Soon my wrists and fingers were feeling tight, too, so I visited the rheumatologist in December. CPK was 198, just two points within the "normal" high limit of 200. So we made no changes to the meds (staying on 15mg/week of methotrexate).

Well, the neck and shoulder pain increased. So, too, are my hands, wrists, knees and other joints in discomfort. So back I went to the rheumatologist. Today's results from last week's lab tests: CPK=440.

As a result, the doctor is increasing the methotrexate to 18mg/week. Further, I've got the green light to experiment with daily prednisone doses ranging from 5mg/day to 10mg/day for one week or five; it's up to me. I'm going to try 5mg at first and see what happens. So, it's back on the juice (albeit much lower doses than before).

The one good side benefit of the resurgence? My latest research indicates polymyositis is often a self-limiting disease, meaning it runs its course and can go away after two, three, four or even five years. So, I'm hopeful this will all soon be a thing of the past. But until then I'll begin paying closer attention. The hope-it-will-go-away approach certainly doesn't work.

More NYT Embarrassment

Even the New York Times' own ombudsman is embarrassed, apparently, for the newspaper's attempted smeer campaign on McCain. Interesting but not surprising.

Where There's Smoke There's Fire

New and detailed allegations of improper (and illicit) signals taping continue to plague the New England Patriots. With numerous such allegations from so many parties, now (and some clearly documented by the NFL, which has already levied record fines), could the New England Patriots just surrender all trophies won in the Belichick era, forfeit all games won, and allow the NFL to move on, now? This is getting old.

The only hope for the Patriots with the latest allegations is the New York Times broke the story. But, the newspaper whose revenues and quality have slipped mightily, quotes a former player (who claims the illicit practice began in Belichick's first year in 2000). That wouldn't appear to be good news.

Meanwhile, the NFL attempted to bury the issue, but the United States Congress didn't get the memo.

All I can say is at least the Cincinnati Bengals isn't the subject of this sporting black eye. Maybe things are looking up, after all?

When Did The NYT Go Tabloid?

I'm embarrassed for the Old Gray Lady. It's apparent the long-revered liberal-leaning newspaper slipped up on its much-debated John McCain story. The piece recounts his friendship with a female lobbyist and alleges favoritism resulted from the relationship. Even an informal poll on CNN shows a vast majority - 70% the last time I saw it - don't believe the story will have any impact on his run for the presidency.

That was obviously the goal of the piece, though. There's no evidence in the story to support any of the allegations. It appears the item was run mostly as a smear attempt, which is usually the territory of tabloids, not newspapers that used to pride themselves on publishing objective truths.

For the record I'm not a big McCain fan. But I have tremendous respect for his contributions. It's clear he's dedicated his life to serving this country. That cannot be logically debated. Sending the FTC a letter requesting that the agency accelerate a long-stalled review is no crime; let's be clear, McCain did not seek preferential treatment for anyone. Still, that's all the NYT could find, I suspect, and I guess they felt they had to do something to discredit the obvious Republican nominee.

And old economy news outlets wonder why their revenues are tanking... I suspect the news space could have much better invested reviewing the potential impact on history Democratic superdelegates may have should they override the popular citizenry's actual voting and side with Ms. Clinton due to long-standing political ties.

OK, Chad Can Go

Enough.

Let him go. I'm OK with that, now.