The Lobotomist

Last Monday I felt fine. Had a few doctors appointments during the day and later that night settled in with my local PBS station.

They aired a program titled The Lobotomist. The program was an account of neurologist Walter Freeman who devised a procedure which came to be known as "ice-pick" lobotomy. It was performed by lifting the eye lid, inserting an ice-pick, using a hammer to tap the ice-pick through the bone in the orbital socket then moving the ice-pick from side to side to detach the frontal lobe from the thalamus. Sounds like something straight out of the Inquisition eh? Well this little operation was done, ostensibly to help patients suffering from various mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.

I was horrified and the images in the documentary disturbed me but I simply couldn't change the channel. The next morning I woke up with one of the worst head colds I think I've ever had. I was so sick I couldn't move my head from side to side without feeling the most excruciating pain and dizziness.

While I was truly sick with high fever, chills, ear aches and horribly stuffed nose, after reading blog buddy, Dr. Deb's post on the Nocebo Effect, I can't help but wonder how much our subconscious mind plays a role in our physical health.

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Favourite cartoons

Whirl, whirl twist and twirl. Jump around like a flying squirrel. It's Saturday morning and time for a cartoon. This cross-dressing rabbit was one of my favourites growing up. Bugs is my hero! (grin) Enjoy.

Hillbilly Hare

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Feeling rather nostalgic these days. It's a beautiful Saturday morning here and I'm sitting on the patio enjoying the sound of the doves and drinking my coffee. This is a weekend morning ritual for me but many years ago my Saturday morning ritual was a bowl of Sugar Pops and cartoons.

We only got three or four TV stations then and we couldn't afford a color TV until 1969 but as soon as our chores were done, we'd plop ourselves in front of the box until noon. We'd skedaddle out of the house as soon as the cartoons were done because we knew that if we stuck around, mom would find more chores for us to do. So if the weather was nice, for the rest of the day we ran like terrors throughout the neighbourhood with my brother's Daisy air rifle. If it rained we'd spend the day in the garage playing school or Mass. Yeah, we took turns being the priest and used soda crackers for the host.

Anyway, here's a few cartoons I watched as a child:

Magilla Gorilla


Roger Ramjet


Yogi Bear

Shhhh, don't tell anyone...

I like to think that I'm not the only person who has guilty indulgences. I'm not talking about something like chocolate or new shoes. I'm talking about liking things that your friends may think you wouldn't like.

For example, Lise teases me because I like old school country music - I'm talking Loretta Lynn, Don Williams and George Jones. Don't know much about contemporary country music but I just love me some old time pickers and grinners. She also teases me because I like to rock out to The Eagles and Steve Miller Band. You see, she assumed that growing up I would have listened more to R&B or disco. Well, I did listen to R&B and disco as well as Strauss, Chopin, Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire and Pink Floyd.

Lise and I were having dinner the other night with some friends (another lesbian couple) and we began to discuss movies and TV shows that we had seen and enjoyed. I wish I had a camera to capture the look of distaste on their faces when I told them that I was a fan of HBO's series, Big Love. Come to think of it, Lise's brother and his husband had that same look on their faces when I told them about the show's premise.

Big Love is about a family of polygamists - a man with three wives and the intricacies of their lives. My friends could not understand how, as a lesbian and a recovering christian, I would really dig this show. I tried to explain that coming from a Catholic/Baptist/Salvationist background I find their interpretation of Christianity fascinating in light of the deception in their lives. There are so many levels of intrigue, manipulation and deception in this series it's almost like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Big Love has been picked up by HBO for a third season and with season two just about wrapping up I can't wait to see what's going to happen. Here's the trailer for the second season:




My other shameful indulgence is the Showtime series, Dexter. Here's a guy who looks like Opie Taylor, works as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police and just so happens to also be a serial killer. How on earth could a middle-aged lesbo relate to such a character? I sure as hell don't know but I find myself actually feeling sympathy for the guy. Here's the trailer:



Yeah, I'm also a fan of The L Word and Rome but for the next few weeks on Sunday nights I'm watching polygamists and a serial killer. Shhh, don't tell my Birkenstocked friends...