Photo(s) of the week: Cousins in Sevastopol

A few more photos of the Romanovs in Crimea, this time featuring Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and their cousin Princess Irina.

I'm also posting photos of Alexei with a mystery girl I originally thought was either Olga or Tatiana but now I'm thinking may be Irina though I'm not sure.

Photo(s) of the Week: On the rocks

 Photos of the three youngest Romanov children playing on the beach at I think Sevastopol.

Kind of surprised that Alexei was allowed to play on slippery boulders, especially when his sister Anastasia later shows up with a bandage on her leg.

Photo(s) of the Week: At long last, joy.

    I mentioned a week-and-a-half ago that the Iowa State Cyclones women's basketball team had ended a 5 year losing streak to their hated rivals the Iowa Hawkeyes. What I did not mention is that a former Cyclone would be playing against the Hawkeyes today. Madison Wise played 4 years at Iowa State before taking advantage of the COVID bonus year to transfer closer to home in Indiana. That brought her to the IUPUI Jaguars out of the Horizon League. During her time in Ames, Maddie would go 0-4 against the Hawkeyes so it's a bit funny that, in the same year the Cyclones would get the black and gold monkey off their back, Maddie would do the same. Perhaps even more ironic is the manner in which it happened. During her senior year at Iowa State, the Cyclones would blow a 17-point lead in the final ten minutes of the game and lose to the Hawkeyes 82-80.

    This year?

    It was the Hawkeyes blowing a 15-point 4th quarter lead, losing 74-73. I'm truly happy for Maddie (and the IUPUI Jaguars).

    Here are some pics of the immediate postgame celebration:

Source: Michael Jones on Twitter

Source: IUPUI Jaguars

Photo of the Week: Times change but people stay the same

    This week's photo sees Grand Duchesses Maria & Anastasia Nikolaevna leaning in to plant a kiss on each cheek of Countess Anastasia 'Nastenka' Hendrikova's face. Hereditary titles aside, it's a scene that wouldn't be out of place in 2021. Hendrikova was a lady-in-waiting for their mother, Empress Alexandra, and acted as an unofficial governess for the grand duchesses. Like the Romanovs she was murdered by the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1918.

God is great

    I've had a pretty good week. First, on Wednesday, the Iowa State women's basketball team took on the Iowa Hawkeyes in Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. The game was fast, the crowd was loud, and the Cyclones won by a score of 77-70, ending a 5-game losing streak in the series.

    Next, on Thursday, it was the Iowa State men's basketball team's turn at Iowa. And they blew the doors off the Hawkeyes, winning 73-53 and breaking a 3-game skid to Iowa. Apparently this was the largest margin of victory over the Hawks in series history. The Cyclones are now 9-0 after finishing last year 2-22, a remarkable turnaround.

    Lastly, and on a more personal note, my employer 'paused' it's vaccine mandate Friday. This comes after a federal judge issued a halt to Biden's federal contractor mandate on Tuesday, December 7th. I'll leave it at that.

    Keep faith in God and He will pull through for you.

Photo of the Week: Anastasia Nikolaevna

I'm not sure where this photo was taken or under what context as my Google-fu is failing me but using my best guess I'm estimating it was taken sometime around 1916.

Source: Romanov daughters

FDA adds strict safety warnings on arthritis drugs from Pfizer, AbbVie and Lilly (9 years after approval)

FDA adds strict safety warnings on arthritis drugs from Pfizer, AbbVie and Lilly

"The U.S. health regulator has added its strictest warning to the labels of drugs from Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and AbbVie belonging to a class of anti-inflammatory treatments called JAK inhibitors, citing risk of serious health issues and death in patients 50 and over, the drugmakers said on Friday.

The addition of the warning on the labels follows the agency's review of Pfizer's Xeljanz after initial results from a February trial showed an increased risk of serious heart-related problems and cancer in some patients being treated with the drug.

Xeljanz, which brought in worldwide sales of $2.44 billion for Pfizer in 2020, is approved in the United States for the treatment of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ulcerative colitis - an inflammatory bowel disease.

AbbVie's rheumatoid arthritis drug Rinvoq and Pfizer's Xeljanz are now recommended for use only in patients, who have had inadequate response or intolerance to one or more TNF blockers, which are another class of drugs used against inflammatory conditions.

The Food and Drug Administration's boxed warnings on the labels of Rinvoq , Xeljanz and Lilly's Olumiant flags the risk of cardiovascular death and stroke in high-risk patients who are aged 50 and above, and are current or past smokers.

Additional information about the risk of some types of cancer and death was also added to their labels.

The marketing applications for Rinvoq's expanded use in atopic dermatitis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and ulcerative colitis remain under review by the FDA, AbbVie said."

Xeljanz received FDA approval in November 2012.

Photo of the week: The Failing of Society

    Stepping away from the Romanovs for this week to get back at what this blog was originally about: prohibition of drug use. While on my usual late night perusing of the internet I came across the following photo from Facebook:

    To me this photo and caption represent the failings of society. The very idea that a smorgasbord of drugs is the normal state of being is repugnant to me and the reason is twofold. One, every drug has side effects that are then 'treated' with other drugs causing more side effects with the overarching side effect being a windfall profit for pharma companies. Two, it's the lazy way out. Many conditions are treatable without pharma use. The two happiest days of my life are when my dad went cold turkey with alcohol and when my (former) dermatologist finally agreed to end my acne meds.

    As I passed the age of 25 and approached 30 I grew tired of fighting regular outbreaks of acne so I changed my diet, cut off processed foods, and lost weight. And my acne began to clear. So much that, after years of relentless shilling for Accutane, my dermatologist let my prescriptions lapse. (Not to mention the reduced grocery and medical bills.)

    And I've never been happier and never felt more free. I think it would do the world a great amount of justice to rein in the drug dealers known as pharma companies.

A brief gardening update

It's late fall here in Iowa meaning there won't be much to do in the way of gardening until April but I do have a few things to share:

• I cut the end off of a plastic downspout and placed it over Lazarus to try and protect it from rabbits during winter.
• The potted maple is indoors and still green although some of the leaves have brown spots.
• I potted two cedars hoping I could get some growth out of them over winter.
• I found an American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) seed ball in the parking lot of Hilton Coliseum and have potted about five of the seeds from it. If I can get one seedling out of it I'll transplant it outside when spring comes.

Photo(s) of the week: Olga Nikolaevna and the Little Pair