Dec 21

Lockerbie Anniversary

 

The Lockerbie Cairn, through its 270 blocks of red Scottish sandstone, memorializes the 270 lives lost in the terrorist attack on the United States when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. It is a gift of the people of Scotland to the people of the United States, financed entirely through private donations. The ill-fated flight was enroute from Frankfurt, Germany, to New York via London’s Heathrow Airport. Twenty-seven minutes after leaving London, at 7:02 p.m. the plane exploded, raining fragments on the city of Lockerbie, including an entire wing and engines. Eleven of the 270 dead were on the ground. The passengers and crew included people from 22 countries. Among them were 189 Americans, including 15 active duty military and 10 veterans.

Senate Joint Resolution 129 designating Arlington National Cemetery as the site of the Cairn was unanimously passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in November 1993. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Dec. 21, 1993, the fifth anniversary of the disaster, and the cairn was dedicated on Nov. 3, 1995.

A cairn, the traditional Scottish monument honoring the dead, can be an informal heap of stones or may take a more orderly construction. In this instance, the 270 stones fit together to form a circular tower eight feet wide at the base and tapering to a height of eleven feet.

The blocks of standstone come from Corsehill Quarry of Annan, Scotland, about eight miles southeast of Lockerbie and in the flight path of Flight 103. Corsehill Quarry, operating since 1820, has acquired a world-wide reputation for producing sandstone of superb quality. Stones from this quarry are used in many buildings in the United States, most notably, the base of the Statue of Liberty.

The following words are engraved on the base:

On 21 December 1988, a terrorist bomb destroyed 
Pan American Airlines Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, 
killing all on board and 11 on the ground. 
The 270 Scottish stones which compose this memorial cairn 
commemorate those who lost their lives in 
this attack against America.

A bronze plaque on the side of the cairn reads:

In Remembrance Of
The Two Hundred Seventy People Killed In The Terrorist Bombing Of Pan
American Airways
Flight 103 Over Lockerbie, Scotland 21 December 1988
Presented By The Lockerbie Air Disaster Trust
To The United States Of America

In more recent history, today was the 25th anniversary of Pan Am Flight 103, the plane that was destroyed by a terrorist bomb in its flight over Lockerbie Scotland. The clip shows many of the people who assemble each year to mark this event, including the Director of the FBI who took office at the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. He retired last month. Although Pan Am is gone, the plane was painstakingly reassembled and based on forensic analysis and other diligent work the bomber was apprehended, tried and convicted. Each year a wide ranging group including relatives of those who died, high ranking officials, law enforcement, military personnel and choirs from Pender Methodist Church assembles at Arlington National Cemetery to mark the event and toll the bell.

From https://tomoconnorgroupblog.com/2013/12/22/some-positive-ideas-and-some-history/

 

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Pan Am/Lockerbie bombing and I’m so sad that my church choir will not be singing due to new regulations at the cemetery.

 
 

The FBI is still investigating: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/remembering-pan-am-flight-103-30-years-later-121418?fbclid=IwAR0Kg0_DuPNE5eiDtmXpxKHmmrKmqLB-81ZCx6hO0WIlIa7vhcyNJzIipqo

Our choir is singing in this snippet from the 25 year anniversary. I’m the last woman on the right front at 48 seconds,

Dec 18

The Nicholas Brothers

I know that I promised in Major Excitement to post about the Nicholas Brothers and this is it!

 

nicholas

 

I can’t remember the first time I saw the Nicholas Brothers in a movie but I’ve sought them out ever since.  I even bought their biography in 2010, Brotherhood In Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers.

Tap dancing legends Fayard (b. 1914) and Harold (1918-2000) Nicholas amazed crowds with their performances in musicals and films from the 30s to the 80s. They performed with Gene Kelly in The Pirate, with Cab Calloway in Stormy Weather, with Dorothy Dandridge (Harold’s wife) in Sun Valley Serenade, and with a number of other stars on the stage and on the screen. Author Hill not only guides readers through the brothers’ showstopping successes and the repressive times in which their dancing won them universal acclaim, she also offers extensive insight into the history and choreography of tap dancing, bringing readers up to speed on the art form in which the Nicholas Brothers excelled.

 

From Wikipedia:

Fayard Antonio Nicholas was born October 20, 1914, in Mobile, Alabama. Harold Lloyd Nicholas was born March 17, 1921, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The Nicholas Brothers grew up in Philadelphia, the sons of college-educated musicians who played in their own band at the old Standard Theater—their mother at the piano and father on drums. At the age of three, Fayard would always sit in the front row while his parents worked, and by the time he was ten, he had seen most of the great African-American vaudeville acts—particularly the dancers, including such notables of the time as Alice Whitman, Willie Bryant, and Bill Robinson. The brothers were fascinated by the combination of tap dancing and acrobatics. Fayard often imitated their acrobatics and clowning for the kids in his neighborhood.

Neither Fayard nor Harold had any formal dance training. Fayard taught himself how to dance, sing, and perform by watching and imitating the professional entertainers on stage. He then taught his younger siblings, first performing with his sister Dorothy as the Nicholas Kids, later joined by Harold. Harold idolized his older brother and learned by copying his moves and distinct style. Dorothy later opted out of the act, and the Nicholas Kids became known as the Nicholas Brothers.

 

From 1935.  They were already on their way:

 

 

In 1936, Fayard was 22 and Harold was 15.  They performed Lucky Number:

 

 

From 1940, Down Argentine Way, The Nicholas Brothers serve up a characteristically joyous, effervescent routine.

 

 

This video, from the film “Sun Valley Serenade” (1941), depicts the complete Glenn Miller Orchestra’s and Nicholas Brothers’ performances for “Chattanooga Choo Choo”

 

 

One of the greatest dance routines ever in movies by the Nicholas Brothers. From the 1942 movie “Orchestra Wives” – I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo.

 

 

One of their signature moves was to leapfrog down a long, broad flight of stairs, while completing each step with a split. Its most famous performance formed the finale of the movie Stormy Weather. In that routine, the Nicholas Brothers leapt exuberantly across the orchestra’s music stands and danced on the top of a grand piano in a call and response act with the pianist, to the tune of Jumpin’ Jive.

Fred Astaire thought their “Jumpin’ Jive” production number in Stormy Weather (1943) the greatest musical sequence of all time.

I love how Cab Calloway fades away and lets the Nicholas Brothers take over!

Children: don’t try this at home – never, ever dance on a piano!

 

 

The Nicholas Brothers dance with Gene Kelly in the 1948 film “The Pirate”.  It’s not their best work because Kelly couldn’t do what they could do.  But Kelly could copy them, and The Pirate features some of his most virile and stunt-laden work.

 

 

 

We Sing, We Dance. A 1992 Arts and Entertainment documentary about the life of the Nicholas Brothers. Lots of great clips included!

 

 

 

The Nicholas Brothers’ influence can still be felt throughout our culture. Bob Fosse modeled his first dance act on them and Joseph Jackson hired Fayard to help train his children, The Jackson 5. Both Michael and Janet Jackson were later students of the brothers.

Fayard and Howard also taught at Harvard and Radcliffe.

The Nicholas Brothers got several awards and honors:

  • Harold received the DEA Award from the Dance Educators of America
  • Harold received the Bay Area Critics Circle Award (Best Principal Performance, Stompin’ at the Savoy)
  • Harold received the Harbor Performing Arts Center Lifetime Achievement Award
  • honorary doctorate from Harvard University for both brothers
  • Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame (1978)
  • Ellie Award (1984), National Film Society for both brothers
  • Apollo Theater’s Hall of Fame (1986), First Class Inductees for both brothers
  • Ebony Lifetime Achievement Award (1987) for both brothers
  • Fayard received Broadway’s 1989 Tony Award as Best Choreographer for Black and Blue along with his collaborators Cholly Atkins, Henry LeTang and Frankie Manning.
  • Scripps American Dance Festival Award
  • Kennedy Center Honors in 1991 for both brothers who were in attendance
  • The National Black Media Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award (1992)
  • Flo-Bert Award (1992)
  • New York’s Tap Dance Committee, Gypsy Award (1994)
  • A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7083 Hollywood Blvd (1994)
  • Professional Dancer’s Society, Dance Magazine Award of (1995)
  • The 1998 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Modern Dance
  • National Museum of Dance Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame Inductees (2001)

 

I hope you enjoy watching these as much as I do.

 

 

 

Dec 18

December 18

I was always very proud of my paternal grandmother.  In the early part of the last century she had been living in Scotland with her husband and they had a young son – my father.  My grandfather was in the Black Watch during World War I, and he was killed in Peshawar, India.

My grandmother left her life and family in Scotland and sailed to the United States with my dad when he was only 5.  We have pictures of him disembarking in his little kilt! I cannot imagine having her courage, leaving home with a small child, and starting life anew in a completely foreign country.

Many years later, when I was a freshman in college, my grandmother died the week before Christmas.  I remember sitting in Waterman’s Funeral Home in Kenmore Square, Boston watching the Citgo sign cycle through its neon pattern.

No one but our very small family attended her calling hours.  The funeral was a bit better.  A few folks took the time to honor this brave woman.

A week later, we celebrated Christmas “because that’s what Nana would have wanted”.  Even then, I thought that she probably would have liked to see more caring people around her, while she was alive.

Every year on the 18th of December I remember my grandmother and try to take a moment to be kinder to folks.

In recent years, December 18 has become a joyful occasion with our son and daughter-in-laws first wedding.

 

We weren’t able to be there, so they got married again in October 🙂

 

December 18 is now my favorite day ever 🙂

Nov 30

Happy Saint Andrew’s Day!

standrews-day

 

In Scotland, and many countries with Scottish connections, St Andrew’s Day is marked with a celebration of Scottish culture with traditional Scottish food, music and dance. Schools across Scotland hold special St Andrew’s Day events and activities including art shows, Scottish country dancing, lunchtime Ceilidhs, dance festivals, storytelling, reciting and writing poems, writing tall tales, cooking traditional Scottish meals, and bagpipe-playing.

 

The day is also seen as the start of a season of Scottish winter festivals encompassing St Andrew’s Day, Hogmanay and Burns Night.

In Edinburgh, there is a week of celebrations, concentrating on musical entertainment and traditional ceilidh dancing. A ceilidh is a social event with couples dancing in circles or sets (groups of eight people).

In Glasgow city centre, a large shindig, or party, with traditional music and a ceilidh are held. In Dumfries, songs are performed in the Burn’s night tradition.

 

In Barbados Saint Andrew’s Day is celebrated as the national day of Independence in Barbados. As the patron saint of Barbados, Saint Andrew is celebrated in a number of Barbadian symbols including the cross formation of the Barbadian Coat of Arms, and the country’s national honours system which styles persons as Knights or Dames of St. Andrew.

 

st-andrews-day-google

Nov 23

Happy Fibonacci Day

 

November 23 is Fibonacci Day, an annual holiday that honors one of the most influential mathematicians of the Middle Ages – Leonardo Bonacci.

Date Sequence

November 23 is celebrated as Fibonacci day because when the date is written in the mm/dd format (11/23), the digits in the date form a Fibonacci sequence: 1,1,2,3. A Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers where a number is the sum of the two numbers before it. For example: 1, 1, 2, 3…is a Fibonacci sequence. Here, 2 is the sum of the two numbers before it (1+1). Similarly, 3 is the sum of the two numbers before it (1+2).

The Rabbit Question

The Fibonacci sequence, one of the biggest accomplishments of Leonardo of Pisa came from a simple puzzle about rabbit population. In his book Liber acaci, Fibonacci posed this puzzle: if there are a pair of newly born rabbit – male and female – in the field and if they are able to produce another pair of rabbits in their second month of life, how many pairs of rabbits will be there after a year?

Born in 1170 in Pisa, Italy, Fibonacci was also responsible for making the Hindu-Arabic numerals popular in Europe. In Liber acaci he advocated the use of these numerals, explained the use of zero, provided ways to convert between currencies and different measurements, and described how to calculate interest.

Fibonacci in Nature

One of the beauties of the Fibonacci sequence is that the series is evident all over the natural world. Petal arrangements in flowers, the ordering of leaves in plants, the shell of the nautilus, the DNA molecule and even hurricanes show patterns that correspond to the sequence.

Nov 23

Happy Thanksgiving!

happy-thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada and the United States as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States.

Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations. Thanksgiving has its historical roots in religious and cultural traditions and has long been celebrated in a secular manner as well.

Nov 22

Giving Thanks, Day 22

 

I am so thankful for all my doctors but today I am thankful for Dr. Amir Al-Juburi who saved my life by removing my kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma).

 

In 2006 I picked up my husband for a biopsy and took him to an outpatient surgical center. While I was there waiting for the biopsy to be completed, I started noticing blood in my urine and major abdominal cramps. I left messages for several of my doctors on what I should do. I finally decided to see my PCP after I got my husband home.

 

When Tom was done with his testing, his doctor took one look at me and asked if I wanted an ambulance. I said no, that I thought I could make it to the emergency room ok – Tom couldn’t drive because of the anaesthetic they had given him. I barely made it to the ER and left the car with Tom to park. Tom’s doctor followed us to the ER and became my new doctor.

 

When I was diagnosed in the ER with kidney cancer, Tom’s doctor said that he could do the surgery but that he would recommend someone even more experienced, Dr. Amir Al-Juburi.

 

Dr. Amir Al-Juburi has been so kind to me, almost like a kindly grandfather might be, and he got rid of all 10 pounds of my kidney and cancer.

 

I owe him, the original doctor, and my Cushing’s doctors (who will be featured later!), my life.

 

Nov 21

Giving Thanks, Day 21

 

Today, and every day, I am thankful for coffee. Without it, I would have a daily headache and I’d have even less energy than I have now.

 

I first started drinking coffee when I had my first job as a waitress at a Hayes-Bickford in Boston, MA. This was a summer job. A bunch of my college friends had gotten an apartment near Fenway Park in Boston and most of us were waitresses in various places.

Hayes-Bickford was marginally better than a dive.

I was fortunate that I was the youngest waitress at that Hayes-Bickford, so I got the best tips.

This was a l-o-n-g time ago – I’d get out of work sometime after midnight, take the Boston subway alone to our apartment, with an apron full of my tips, mostly in jangly change. That could never happen any more!

Even without the money, I still wouldn’t wander around the Boston Common area of Boston alone after midnight.

We were right around the corner from the “Combat Zone”.

According to Wikipedia “The Combat Zone was the name given in the 1960s to the adult entertainment district in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Centered on Washington Street between Boylston Street and Kneeland Street, the area was once the site of many strip clubs, peep shows, X-rated movie theaters, and adult bookstores. It also had a reputation for crime, including prostitution.

I’m sure my parents would have had a fit if they’d known where I was working!

The food at HB wasn’t so great. Sometimes, a patron would order some type of meat and the chef would say we were out of it, to put gravy on whatever-we-had and tell the diner that it was what he had ordered. We were usually out of a lot of things.

But the coffee was good and I learned to drink it, lots of it, and black, something I still do today. If I could do the IV thing, I would!

 

 

Nov 20

Giving Thanks, Day 20

 

November 3  was the 36th anniversary of my pituitary surgery at NIH.

As one can imagine, it hasn’t been all happiness and light.  Most of my journey has been documented here and on the message boards – and elsewhere around the web.

My Cushing’s has been in remission for most of these 36 years.  Due to scarring from my pituitary surgery, I developed adrenal insufficiency.

I took growth hormone for a while.

When I got kidney cancer, I had to stop the GH, even though no doctor would admit to any connection between the two.  Until I was 10 years NED (no evidence of disease) from cancer, I still couldn’t go back on the GH but I’m back now.

During that surgery, doctors removed my left kidney, my adrenal gland, and some lymph nodes.  Thankfully, the cancer was contained – but my adrenal insufficiency is even more severe than it was.

In the last year, I’ve developed ongoing knee issues.  Because of my cortisol use to keep the AI at bay, my endocrinologist doesn’t want me to get a cortisone injection in my knee.

My mom has moved in with us, bring some challenges…

But, this is a post about Giving Thanks.  The series will be continued on this blog unless I give thanks about something else Cushing’s related 🙂

I am so thankful that in 1987 the NIH existed and that my endo knew enough to send me there.

I am thankful for Dr. Ed Oldfield, my pituitary neurosurgeon at NIH.

I’m thankful for Dr. Harvey Cushing and all the work he did.  Otherwise, I might be the fat lady in Ringling Brothers now.

To be continued in the following days here at http://www.maryo.co/

Nov 19

Giving Thanks, Day 19

I am thankful, believe it or not, that I had Cushing’s. Mind you, I wouldn’t want to have it now, although diagnoses and surgeries seem “easier” now.

 

Having Cushing’s taught me a lot, including how to stick up for myself, how to read medical books to learn more about my disease, how to do web design, how to navigate NIH. It taught me patience, how to make phone calls. It brought me a lot of new friends.

 

I am also thankful that people are becoming more empowered and participating in their own diagnoses, testing and treatment. Things have changed a lot since my surgery November 3, 1987!

 

 

When I had my Cushing’s over 30 years ago, I never thought that I would meet another Cushing’s patient in real life or online. Back then, I’d never even been aware that there was anything like an “online”. I’m so glad that people struggling with Cushing’s today don’t have to suffer anymore thinking that they’re the only one who deals with this.

 

Because of my work on the websites – and, believe me it is a ton of work! – I have had the honor of meeting hundreds of other Cushies personally at local meetings, conferences, at NIH (the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD where I had my final diagnosis and surgery). It occurred to me once that this is probably more Cushies than most endocrinologists will ever see in their entire career. I’ve also talked to countless others on the phone. Amazing for a “rare” disease!

 

I don’t know what pushed me in 1983 when I first noticed I was sick, how I got the confidence and self-empowerment to challenge these doctors and their non-diagnoses over the years. I’m thankful that I didn’t suffer any longer than I did and I’m glad that I have a role in helping others to find the medical help that they need.

 

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