1 Great Day

Roger McNamee's talk regarding tech investing

2011-12-30T17:02:00.001-05:00

Elevation Partners Director and Co-Founder Roger McNamee from The Paley Center For Media on FORA.tv

Gender differences in cancer risks

2011-12-09T19:36:00.001-05:00

In this bbc report on cancer risks, women and men are put in different category:

I consider this a progress. Next level of differences are in different ethnic groups. And once we have all our genomes sequences, we shall know our risks by genome types.

However, everything is a leap of faith. So take the report as true if you are willing to believe in today's statistical method. Otherwise, disregard it and go on living your way of life, whatever it might be.

Idler's Quotes

2011-12-06T20:08:00.001-05:00

There are two days in the week about which and upon which I never worry ... Yesterday and Tomorrow. - Robert Jones Burdette

Once awhile I become motivated and energetic. I usually just sit down and watch them pass by. - Author Unknown

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. - Mark Twain

Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it's all small stuff. - Robert Eliot

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. - Hans Christian Anderson

Truth vs. Usefulness

2011-12-02T19:24:00.001-05:00

I love this essay "The Truth Wears Off" by Jonah Lehrer published by New Yorker.

People often equate truth with usefulness, perhaps because we are in America. If we take the view of William James' Pragmatic theory of truth, then perhaps usefulness is the truth.

We often apply ideas we commonly agree as useful, but we do not know for certain what the reason is. For example, "we feel better and are more energized when we spend time outdoors." Is this truth or merely usefulness?

"The truth of an idea is not a permanent property and it does not lie in it. The truth happens to an idea" (William James).

We are in an era of ideas (truths) overload. Some ideas are very true to some people (such as Seth Roberts "Effect of One-Legged Standing on Sleep"), but may seem ridiculous to others. I do not doubt that Seth Roberts one legged standing works for him to achieve better sleep, but many other methods may work just as well.

Focus was important for productivity in the past. It is perhaps essential today, otherwise we will all get lost in the piles of "truths" google search provide us.

Quotes from Lin Yutang

2011-12-02T16:38:00.001-05:00

Lin Yutang was a Chinese writer and philosopher (here is his wiki page), who wrote mostly in English. A few of Lin Yutang quotes:

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.

Good life consists of a Chinese cook, a Japanese wife and a French lover.

A speech is like a woman’s skirt, the shorter the better.

cross published on instead-of-wishing.

Garden Dwellers

2011-12-01T17:13:00.001-05:00

I am a garden dweller. We have a very small city garden, which is good enough to do some gardening. The river front city park is 5 minutes walk from my home. We consider that a big garden to walk in.

It is known that we feel better and are more energized when we spend time outdoors.

Recent Science Daily News reports:

In recent years, numerous experimental psychology studies have linked exposure to nature with increased energy and heightened sense of well-being. For example, research has shown that people on wilderness excursions report feeling more alive and that just recalling outdoor experiences increases feelings of happiness and health. Other studies suggest that the very presence of nature helps to ward off feelings of exhaustion and that 90 percent of people report increased energy when placed in outdoor activities.

To read the article, click the link here.

I myself experience that gardening is by far the best way to lower blood pressure naturally. Whenever I have reading of bp 135/85, after spending one hour in the garden weeding or dead heading, the reading is almost guaranteed to go below 120/80. Hot and sunny days are the best.

Why do we feel better spending time outdoors? I think the sun, green plants and physical activity are the reasons.

Most people equate the sun to Vitamin D level in our body, but I think it is more than that. On a grey day, regardless how much Vitamin D we take, my mood always goes down.

Germaine Greer in her book "The Change" writes that a garden is the best alternative therapy for women going through change. "Though low back pain and gardening go together, gardeners feel much better for gardening, back pain and all. The effect is so like the "mental tonic" effect of HRT that we may be justified in suspecting that there are volatile estrogens in living plants that do not survive in treated plant material."

To improve the mood, walking outdoors is just as good.

Unfortunately, Montreal gets cold fast. By November I feel too cold to go out walking. Creating an indoor garden with grow lights is to experiment whether we can experience some of the aliveness we feel outdoors.

House plants that clean indoor air

2011-11-30T14:53:00.001-05:00

Last year we had the goal to place more houseplants for the purpose of cleaning the indoor air. We had 13 in total and they are:

3 mother in law's tongue

1 English ivy (Hedera helix)
6 Money Plants (Epipremnum aureum)
1 peace lily
1 Christmas cactus
1 Madagascar jasmine

Unfortunately, after three months staying in a transparent plastic bag (the idea is to put the plants in a micro bio-dome so they recycle water, oxygen and carbon dioxide), only the following plants survived:

1 mother in law's tongue

1 English ivy
5 Money Plants
1 peace lily
1 Christmas cactus

70% survival rate is not all that bad. However, the ones doing good are only English ivy and money plants.

So we added 2 more English ivy (one with broader leaves) and Money plants respectively. We are trying new plants such as Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum), Wandering Jew (Zebrina pendula), Money Tree plant (Pachira aquatica), Arabian Wax Cissus (Cissus rotundifolia), Angel Wing begonia and Silver spotted philodendron (Scindapsus picta 'Argyraeus')

3 English ivy

3 Wandering Jew

1 Spider plants
8 Money Plants
1 Money Tree plant

1 Arabian Wax Cissus

1 Angel Wing begonia

1 Silver spotted philodendron

1 mother in law's tongue

1 peace lily
1 Christmas cactus

All in all, we have 22 house plants in total, plus a few cuttings growing in water in jars. English Ivy, wandering Jew, angel wing begonia and money plant can all grow in the water.

This year we are not using humidifier. With more house plants and hang-drying the laundry, the air humidity seems to be quite balanced.

I breathe much better this fall/winter. Usually starting end of August until May, I have hard time breathing. This year, I gave in and started using Nasonex occasionally. So I am not sure whether the effect comes from Nasonex or from more house plants or both. One thing that is sure is that having green inside the house helps brighten up mood on a grey day.

What's for lunch?

2011-11-28T13:55:00.001-05:00

What we ate for lunch this year has changed as compared to last year (here). We are now eating soup for lunch.

What typically in our soup is as follows:

Mung bean (pre-cooked)
Tofu

Potatoes (one medium or two small ones)

Carrots

Sweet potatoes (half of large or one small)

Green vegetables (variables among broccoli, zucchini, Chinese mustard green, sweet pepper).

Soup is cooked without any salt. Miso is added for flavour and to populate gut flora.

Soup is eaten with half of avocado each.

Think twice before you accept your doctor's advice

2011-10-24T12:34:00.000-04:00

Canadians are often proud of their public Medicare system as compared to the U.S. by citing that the average longevity is higher here than down south. However, I often hold the view that we live longer because we do not get the Medicare our neighbours get due to rationing. So it is like a forced clinical inertia. I had not gone to a clinic for 8 years until last year. The clinical experience of last year was so bad, I will probably forgo another 8 years.

It is good to see that I was not alone. The NYtimes has published an article titled when doing nothing is best medicine. In this article, Doctor Danielle Ofri quoted an essay published in The Journal of the American Medical Association called “Clinical Inertia as a Clinical Safeguard”. The authors postulated that doctors who tend toward inertia might actually benefit their patients by protecting them from overzealous medical intervention.

They focused on three common medical conditions — diabetes, elevated cholesterol and hypertension — for which there are established clinical guidelines for doctors to follow and “quality measures” that evaluate medical care. For all three illnesses, “lower is better” is the dominant mantra.

But while “lower is better” is probably true for large populations, that is not always the case for individual patients. In fact, there are some clinical trials in which aggressively lowered blood sugar or blood pressure has been associated with higher rates of dying.

One of my brothers is a doctor. He says that medicine today is still only 20% science and 80% art. However, most doctors come off as if they think medicine is 100% science. If you have symptom, we must find it and treat it. Of course, every “thing” a doctor does also has side effects.

Unfortunately, every action we do towards health, such as changing diet, choosing exercise programs or deciding whether to take supplements or not, we are all advised to consult our physicians before hand. I guess we should just forgo this advice?

What we ate as compared to what average Americans ate

2011-09-11T13:14:00.000-04:00

In January, I wrote down what we ate in 2010 as compared to average Canadian (here):

Here is some data as compared to average American (Source):

Revisiting Midlife Crisis

2011-07-24T12:07:00.000-04:00

Almost two years after declaring that my midlife crisis was almost over (On Midlife Crisis), I realized that it is far from over. I am perhaps in the midst of it.

Yesterday, the massacre in Norway, the passing of Amy Winehouse, the continuation of extreme heat and something MrD said that I perceived to be mean, all of a sudden, I felt this extreme sadness that I could not shake off and I started to cry.

The sensation and feeling of your body's decline is reminding us everyday that we are marching towards death. The realization that death is not a single event, but is the accumulation of all small deteriorations only intensifies the sadness. We are dying bit by bit. The integrity of your system is falling apart slowly. Some people do not want to participate in this type of death. Some one I know said "I am not afraid of death, but of suffering." She died within a month at the age of 43. Amy Winehouse and those of 27 Club probably belong to this group of not wanting to participate in suffering.

On the other hand, nothing else has changed. Food still tastes delicious. Flowers are beautiful. Midnight walk along the river is enormously enjoyable. Human goodness are seen everywhere.

It is normal to question one's existence once in a blue moon. I am sure Rachel Haywire was questioning her existence when she compiled "10 Reasons to Live".

Get over the sadness and Get on with life.

Memory crash in your brain?

2011-07-02T12:29:00.001-04:00

A woman cannot remember where she parked her car at a Costco parking lot. That part of her memory has just crashed. She is now getting quite angry at herself. She has a cart full of stuff she bought. She knew that she came by car and she knew the look of her car. She is a middle aged woman.

My husband said that young people are not smarter. But they know that they are not smart enough to remember where they park so they use smart phones and their apps to find their parked cars.

I still do not have a smart phone. Actually I do not have a cell phone here in Canada. I have one whenever I am in China. I live 9 months in Canada and 3 months in China. The reason I have a cell phone in China is probably because I feel less secure there. Eventually, I may need a smart phone not for the need of phone conversations, but for the need of their apps.

But for now, I am using whatever knowledge that is available today to keep my mind alert, my neurons least damaged. There are not a lot of different things one can do. But the ones we know we should do are difficult to follow everyday.

1. Cardio Exercise. Any thing that is good for the cardiovascular system is good for the brain. Your brain needs to be supplied with blood all the time. Cardio exercise cuts down the risk of having a stroke.

2. Neurobic Exercise. Mental exercises designed to keep brains more alert. Get out of your auto-pilot mode and get into the mindful mode.

3. Eat less. Constantly keep your stomach full is definitely not good for your brain. When we eat too much, we get sleepy.

Cruciferous Vegetables and Cancer

2011-06-09T22:49:00.004-04:00

Cruciferous vegetables are considered to be healthy foods. There are numerous cultivars including broccoli, cauliflowers, bok choy, Chinese broccoli, kale, napa, brussels sprouts, radish, mustard, cress, rutabaga, cabbage etc. Basically all the vegetables a kid does not like. We have been told to eat them by our grandmothers, parents, scientists, pretty much everybody. I did not like any vegetables as a child and remember being forced to drink the juice of bok choy as a punishment because I refused to eat vegetables.

Eventually I started to like vegetables. Now I love them, or at least some of them. I still do not like rutabaga and cabbage, but I tolerate them.

These vegetables are high in Vitamin C, fiber and phytochemicals that are potentially anticancer. One of the phytochemicals is sulforaphane, which was shown by this recent study to specifically targeting cancer cells and kill them while leaving healthy prostate cells unaffected. It kills bacterial caused of ulcers and stomach cancer. Sulforaphane has even been shown to inhibit the occurrence of hereditary colon cancer (here). Need more reasons to eat vegetables? Eating cruciferous vegetables might even guard against arthritis (here).

The American Cancer Society estimates that more than two-thirds of cancer may be prevented through lifestyle modification, and nearly one-third of these cancer occurrences can be attributed to diet alone.

However, lifestyle modification needs to be radical in order for us to achieve our goal.

I have lowered my blood pressure through radical lifestyle change from stage 1 hypertension/ prehypertension to now prehypertention/ desirable within one week (i.e. my blood pressure went hovering around 140-150/90-100 to now hovering around 115-129/75-89 (not from eating cruciferous vegetables). This is another subject.

Green Tea

2011-06-03T14:00:00.001-04:00

Where I come from long long time ago (China), everyone has a tea cup in their hand with green tea leaves in it. The hot water is in thermal bottles not far way from them. Everywhere you go, the bus station, the train station, the gas station all provide hot water.

I have a cousin, who told me that he spends about 600 us dollars a year in tea for a country that a lot of people's yearly income is only that. He values tea a lot, for a good reason.

The recent study shows that one of the beneficial compounds found in green tea has a powerful ability to increase the number of “regulatory T cells” that play a key role in immune function and suppression of autoimmune disease. The compound is a polyphenol called EGCG, which is believed to be responsible for much of its health benefits and has both anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer characteristics.

There are many types of cells that have different roles in the immune system, which is a delicate balancing act of attacking unwanted invaders without damaging normal cells. In autoimmune diseases, which can range from simple allergies to juvenile diabetes or even terminal conditions such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, this process goes awry and the body mistakenly attacks itself.

Regulatory T cells suppress activation of the immune system and thereby maintain immune system homeostasis and tolerance to self-antigens.

Unfortunately, on this side of the world, tea drinking was a fad that has waned down drastically. If you have to boil water every time to make one cup of tea, you are not going to drink tea all day long. You walk into any regular Chinese family, usually they have 2-3 thermal bottles containing 3 liters of boiled hot water each ready to serve you tea. Drinking tea all day long has double benefits. One is from polyphenol and another one from water. Drinking 8 cups of tea a day, your intake of water is about 2 liters, in addition to the water contained in food, you shall have adequate water to function properly.

Is it you or is it your dwellers in your gut?

2011-05-17T13:08:00.003-04:00

Some days you are happy; some days you are sad. You think it is all in your head. You read positive thinking books in order to influence your mind. Now they say, those little buggers you cannot see in your gut also influence your mood, according to this article "That anxiety may be in your gut, not in your head"

Each human body consists of about 100 trillium cells, but we carry about 1000 trillium bacteria (300 to 1000 different species) in our gut. We are walking cosmos to those creatures, sometimes harmonious and sometimes chaotic. . "These bacteria perform a number of functions vital to health: They harvest energy from the diet, protect against infections and provide nutrition to cells in the gut." Every time we take antibiotic to cure one disease, we disrupt the balance of their life in the cosmos.

"Working with healthy adult mice, the researchers showed that disrupting the normal bacterial content of the gut with antibiotics produced changes in behaviour; the mice became less cautious or anxious. This change was accompanied by an increase in brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has been linked, to depression and anxiety.
When oral antibiotics were discontinued, bacteria in the gut returned to normal. This was accompanied by restoration of normal behaviour and brain chemistry."

"To confirm that bacteria can influence behaviour, the researchers colonized germ-free mice with bacteria taken from mice with a different behavioural pattern. They found that when germ-free mice with a genetic background associated with passive behaviour were colonized with bacteria from mice with higher exploratory behaviour, they became more active and daring. Similarly, normally active mice became more passive after receiving bacteria from mice whose genetic background is associated with passive behaviour."

How to cultivate a healthy gut flora?

Make sure the food you eat is fresh (as opposed to rotten), cook your meat well, so you do not ingest unwanted bacteria into your gut.

If you are in a third world country, make sure you do not order uncooked food (such as salad, sushi) in restaurants. Peel your fruits. Never drink tap water. Do not eat shell fish as they are usually quickly cooked in order to preserve the tenderness, so the bacteria in them are not killed through cooking.

Eat food with probiotic bacteria in them, such as yogurt, miso and other fermented food. However, when eating a new type of fermented food, make sure you eat a very small amount at the beginning and slowly increase the quantity. Kimchi is a Korean fermented food and is claimed to have many nutritional and therapeutic aspects. However, if I eat too much after a long period of not eating them, I always get diarrhea.

The Western diet is way too clean, void of both good and bad bacteria. The first 5 years in the Western world, my gut flora were still very Chinese. The first time we went to China, my husband and I ate the same fermented vegetables. I was perfectly fine, he almost died with violent vomiting and diarrhea. Coca-Cola saved the day. However, afterwards, my gut flora became as Canadian as the Canada-born ones. We would eat exactly the same food as the rest of my family, every one else is fine except my husband and I. However, after 8 years of living in China for three months each year, we seem to have acquired more Chinese bacteria in our gut. We got sick less and less eating the local food. Have we become more Chinese?

related:
Researchers find link between common dietary fat, gut flora and heart disease
Do you really know who you are?
Gut Feeling, Brain in the Gut
The importance of gut flora
Protein

Just Came Back

2011-04-24T11:53:00.002-04:00

Just came back from inside the great firewall (China). Will resume writing shortly. I am more convinced that the Chinese firewall is more for economical purpose than for a political one.

Posts written during these three months, can be found on http://instead-of-wishing.com/.

Why coffee protects against diabetes

2011-01-13T14:12:00.001-05:00

Coffee has shown to be protective against type 2 diabetes.

Now scientists may know how it works.

"researchers at UCLA have discovered a possible molecular mechanism behind coffee's protective effect. A protein called sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG) regulates the biological activity of the body's sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen, which have long been thought to play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes. And coffee consumption, it turns out, increases plasma levels of SHBG.

.... women who drink at least four cups of coffee a day are less than half as likely to develop diabetes as non-coffee drinkers.

When the findings were adjusted for levels of SHBG, the researchers said, that protective effect disappeared.

....

And there's bad news for decaf lovers. "Consumption of decaffeinated coffee was not significantly associated with SHBG levels, nor diabetes risk," Goto said. "So you probably have to go for the octane!"

There you go. Drink your coffee, preferably in black.

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resveratrol increases beneficial hormone adipopectin

2011-01-08T11:55:00.004-05:00

The hopeful longevity supplement resveratrol is in the news again. This time it was found to stimulate the expression of adiponectin, a hormone that modulates a number of metabolic processes, including glucose regulation and fatty acid catabolism.

Resveratrol can be found naturally in grapes and other plants and sold as supplement in various purities. It became widely known after Dr. David Sinclair, biologist who studies resveratrol, was interviewed by Barbara Walters.

In the most recent study, resveratrol stimulates the expression of adiponectin, a hormone derived from cells that manufacture and store fat, the team found. Adiponectin has a wide range of beneficial effects on obesity-related medical complications, said senior author Feng Liu, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and member of the Barshop Institute of Longevity and Aging Studies at the Health Science Center.

Both adiponectin and resveratrol display anti-obesity, anti-insulin resistance and anti-aging properties.

“Results from these studies should be of interest to those who are obese, diabetic and growing older,” Dr. Liu said. “The findings should also provide important information on the development of novel therapeutic drugs for the treatment of these diseases.”

The researchers confirmed the finding in cells and animal models.

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What we consumed in 2010

2011-01-06T19:23:00.019-05:00

An unexamined life is not worth living.
--Socrates

Below is a list of some of the foods we consumed in 2010 as compared to average Canadian in 2008 (source):

Average Canadian in 2008 -- our consumption in 2010

------------------------ kg --------------------- kg
fruits ----------------- 47.5 ------------------- 130.7
vegetables --------- 44.5 ------------------- 145.5
(not incl. potatoes)
potatoes ------------ 35.0 ------------------- 11.0
fish ------------------- 6.6 -------------------- 36.0
poultry --------------- 13.6 ------------------- negligible
pork ------------------ 9.7 -------------------- 9.0
beef & veal --------- 12.8 ------------------- negligible
egg ------------------- 144.0 pcs. ------------------ 288.0 pcs.
wheat ----------------- 43.7 ------------------- negligible
rice -------------------- 7.0 ------------------- 4.0
rye bread ------------- ? --------------------- 14.5
plantain ---------------- ? --------------------- 24.5
refined sugar -------- 23.1 ------------------ negligible

-------------------------- Litre ------------------- Litre
wine -------------------- 15.0 ------------------ 26.0
beer -------------------- 77.2 ------------------ negligible

daily calories ---------- 2382 ---------------- 1900

When it comes to energy consumption, we consumed 78 gigajoules for our 3500 sq. ft. home in 2010 as compared to 106 gigajoules per average Canadian household in 2007 (source). Even though this number seems low, it is even lower if you convert it to consumption per sq. meter. We only consumed 0.24 GJ/m2 as compared to 0.68/m2 for a single person household.

We strive to be conscious in all our consumptions.

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It's that time already

2010-12-25T13:31:00.003-05:00

Happy holidays to all!

Time flies. It's that time of year already to do a yearly review.

We continued to walk daily when weather permits, and we added a few kilometers a day from 8 to 12.

Richard continued to play pool every day and started rope skipping. He continued to lose weight. Now he weighs around 160 lbs. This is the weight he will maintain. We measured his height and turned out that he was 6'. At the above weight his BMI would be 21.7.

I added some stretching exercise, and 15 to 20 minutes meditation in the last three months of the year when walking became difficult due to the weather. I continued not smoking.

We continued to eat healthy, which to me is home prepared meal with plenty of vegetables and fruits. Our protein source is mostly from fish. Towards the end of the year, we added some tofu and a little bit of pork. Our carb. comes from pumpernickle bread, plantain and rice. Fat source is from cheese, avocado and walnut for Richard, and avocado and walnut for me. Of course, all nutrients overlap somewhat. there is fat in tofu and protein in cheese and walnut.

We cut off refined sugar in every format, except one chocolate cake (1kg) every two months on average.

We stopped drinking fruit juices all together after reading how fruit juices are processed (Orange juice: basic beverage isn't that simple).

Are we caloric restricted? Not by very much, anywhere between 0 to 20%. However, I have achieved my goal when BMI is concerned, which is at 18.8.

At the beginning of the year, we wanted to put in some house plants into the apartment. We started with 3 Mother in law's tongue (which survived three months without any care). Now we have 13. The ones we added include:

1 English ivy
6 Money Plants
1 peace lily
1 Christmas cactus
1 Madagascar jasmine

Out of all these, the Madagascar Jasmine was the most expensive and probably hardest to care for.

Richard continued his bible study.

I read and studied health and longevity related articles and becoming increasingly convinced that living till or beyond 100 is very achievable.

We started to host our own blog, which you can find at www.instead-of-wishing.com.

On the living space, we started the year by finishing Sanya home and just continued on. We started purely to beautify our living environment. However, this year seemed to have more weather related disasters on buildings than ever. We were one of its victims. So we fixed whatever damages done to us and tried our best to stay one step ahead; do what we could in order to prevent future disasters.

Existing cancer drug lenalidomide could restore aging immune system

2010-12-13T18:23:00.001-05:00

UCSF “fountain of youth” pill could restore aging immune system

The cancer drug lenalidomide, a a derivative of thalidomide introduced in 2004, is marketed as Revlimid by Celgene.

Lenalidomide has been used to successfully treat both inflammatory disorders and cancers in the past 10 years.

However, as with any scientific research, one should not interpret the result as ready remedy.

Abscisic Acid

2010-12-13T17:17:00.000-05:00

Researchers discover how natural drug fights inflammation

The natural drug described here is abscisic acid, which is a plant hormone. It exists in all parts of plants, but high in leaves, seeds and fruits.

Food high in abscisic acid includes carrots, sweet potatoes, green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and cereals. However, high temperature cooking can destroy the acid in the plants. Therefore, eating raw or slightly cooked vegetables might be more beneficial to health.

Another interesting article to read is this:

Cancer: conquered or conqueror?

Anger Kills

2010-12-10T20:46:00.001-05:00

On our kitchen wall, Richard posted a saying (do not remember from whom) to remind himself how to act in negative situations:

Between stimulus and response there is a space.

In that space lie our freedom and power to choose our response.

In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.

I say that in that space, one should time travel to the future, something like 10 years. If you can laugh at the stimulus of this moment 10 years from now, you will choose your response more wisely.

One of today’s CBC news (Montreal road rage victim dies) is a great example of some people who did not apply the above wisdom and it cost one human life.

It is no small feat to dig a 3.5' hole in the basement

2010-12-09T16:12:00.006-05:00

We had to put a sump pump in the basement, so we started digging. It's no small feat to dig a hole 3 and half feet deep in the basement, especially if you did it in two days. We got rid of 1/5 of the dirt and do not know what to do with the rest. In between, tempers flared up and we almost got ourselves in a serious fight.

But it ended something similar to a part in "Sylvie and Bruno" by Lewis Carroll

"What are you doing there, Bruno?" I said.
"Spoiling Sylvie's garden," was all the answer Bruno would give at first. But, as he went on tearing up the flowers, he muttered to himself "The nasty cross thing wouldn't let me go and play this morning,--said I must finish my lessons first--lessons, indeed! I'll vex her finely, though!"
"Oh, Bruno, you shouldn't do that!" I cried.
"Don't you know that's revenge? And revenge is a wicked, cruel, dangerous thing!"
"River-edge?" said Bruno. "What a funny word! I suppose oo call it cruel and dangerous 'cause, if oo wented too far and tumbleded in, oo'd get drownded."
"No, not river-edge," I explained: "revenge" (saying the word very slowly). But I couldn't help thinking that Bruno's explanation did very well for either word.
"Oh!" said Bruno, opening his eyes very wide, but without trying to repeat the word.
"Come! Try and pronounce it, Bruno!" I said, cheerfully. "Re-venge, re-venge."
But Bruno only tossed his little head, and said he couldn't; that his mouth wasn't the right shape for words of that kind. And the more I laughed, the more sulky the little fellow got about it.
"Well, never mind, my little man!" I said.
"Shall I help you with that job?"
"Yes, please," Bruno said, quite pacified.
"Only I wiss I could think of somefin to vex her more than this. Oo don't know how hard it is to make her angry!"
"Now listen to me, Bruno, and I'll teach you quite a splendid kind of revenge!"
"Somefin that'll vex her finely?" he asked with gleaming eyes.
"Something that will vex her finely. First, we'll get up all the weeds in her garden. See, there are a good many at this end quite hiding the flowers."
"But that won't vex her!" said Bruno.
"After that," I said, without noticing the remark, "we'll water this highest bed--up here. You see it's getting quite dry and dusty."
Bruno looked at me inquisitively, but he said nothing this time.
"Then after that," I went on, "the walks want sweeping a bit; and I think you might cut down that tall nettle--it's so close to the garden that it's quite in the way--"
"What is oo talking about?" Bruno impatiently interrupted me. "All that won't vex her a bit!"
"Won't it?" I said, innocently. "Then, after that, suppose we put in some of these coloured pebbles--just to mark the divisions between the different kinds of flowers, you know. That'll have a very pretty effect."
Bruno turned round and had another good stare at me. At last there came an odd little twinkle into his eyes, and he said, with quite a new meaning in his voice, "That'll do nicely. Let's put 'em in rows-- all the red together, and all the blue together. "
"That'll do capitally," I said; "and then--what kind of flowers does Sylvie like best?"
Bruno had to put his thumb in his mouth and consider a little before he could answer. "Violets," he said, at last.
"There's a beautiful bed of violets down by the brook--"
"Oh, let's fetch 'em!" cried Bruno, giving a little skip into the air. "Here! Catch hold of my hand, and I'll help oo along. The grass is rather thick down that way."
I couldn't help laughing at his having so entirely forgotten what a big creature he was talking to. "No, not yet, Bruno," I said: "we must consider what's the right thing to do first. You see we've got quite a business before us."
"Yes, let's consider," said Bruno, putting his thumb into his mouth again, and sitting down upon a dead mouse.
"What do you keep that mouse for?" I said. "You should either bury it, or else throw it into the brook."
"Why, it's to measure with!" cried Bruno.
"How ever would oo do a garden without one? We make each bed three mouses and a half long, and two mouses wide."
I stopped him, as he was dragging it off by the tail to show me how it was used, for I was half afraid the 'eerie' feeling might go off before we had finished the garden, and in that case I should see no more of him or Sylvie. "I think the best way will be for you to weed the beds, while I sort out these pebbles, ready to mark the walks with."
"That's it!" cried Bruno. "And I'll tell oo about the caterpillars while we work."
"Ah, let's hear about the caterpillars," I said, as I drew the pebbles together into a heap and began dividing them into colours.
And Bruno went on in a low, rapid tone, more as if he were talking to himself.

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"Hush, Bruno!" I interrupted in a warning whisper. "She's coming!"
Bruno checked his song, and, as she slowly made her way through the long grass, he suddenly rushed out headlong at her like a little bull, shouting "Look the other way! Look the other way!"
"Which way?" Sylvie asked, in rather a frightened tone, as she looked round in all directions to see where the danger could be.
"That way!" said Bruno, carefully turning her round with her face to the wood. "Now, walk backwards walk gently--don't be frightened: oo sha'n't trip!"
But Sylvie did trip notwithstanding: in fact he led her, in his hurry, across so many little sticks and stones, that it was really a wonder the poor child could keep on her feet at all. But he was far too much excited to think of what he was doing.
I silently pointed out to Bruno the best place to lead her to, so as to get a view of the whole garden at once: it was a little rising ground, about the height of a potato; and, when they had mounted it, I drew back into the shade, that Sylvie mightn't see me.
I heard Bruno cry out triumphantly "Now oo may look!" and then followed a clapping of hands, but it was all done by Bruno himself. Sylvie: was silent--she only stood and gazed with her hands clasped together, and I was half afraid she didn't like it after all.
Bruno too was watching her anxiously, and when she jumped down off the mound, and began wandering up and down the little walks, he cautiously followed her about, evidently anxious that she should form her own opinion of it all, without any hint from him. And when at last she drew a long breath, and gave her verdict--in a hurried whisper, and without the slightest regard to grammar-- "It's the loveliest thing as I never saw in all my life before!" the little fellow looked as well pleased as if it had been given by all the judges and juries in England put together.
"And did you really do it all by yourself, Bruno?" said Sylvie. "And all for me?"
"I was helped a bit," Bruno began, with a merry little laugh at her surprise. "We've been at it all the afternoon--I thought oo'd like--" and here the poor little fellow's lip began to quiver, and all in a moment he burst out crying, and running up to Sylvie he flung his arms passionately round her neck, and hid his face on her shoulder.
There was a little quiver in Sylvie's voice too, as she whispered "Why, what's the matter, darling?" and tried to lift up his head and kiss him.
But Bruno only clung to her, sobbing, and wouldn't be comforted till he had confessed. "I tried--to spoil oor garden--first--but I'll never-- never--" and then came another burst of tears, which drowned the rest of the sentence. At last he got out the words "I liked--putting in the flowers--for oo, Sylvie --and I never was so happy before." And the rosy little face came up at last to be kissed, all wet with tears as it was.
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The Complete Stories and Poems of Lewis Carroll

Health News

2010-12-07T15:34:00.001-05:00

Three interesting news from EurekAlert today:

Study reveals 'secret ingredient' in religion that makes people happier

Mindfulness meditation found to be as effective as antidepressants to prevent depression relapse

Low-dose aspirin reduces death rates from range of cancers by between 20 and 30 percent