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

 

Photo(s) of the week: The Big Pair

 

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was born on this day in 1895

 

Olga with Pierre Gilliard

Olga and Anastasia in Tobolsk

Olga and Tatiana sitting on the same chair?

Olga with Rita Khitrovo

Olga with Rita Khitrovo

Sticking her tongue out at the camera?