Friday Fish Wrap: November 19, 2010

Ah, jeeze. The diagnosis: Shingles. Crap. Needless to say, perhaps, Mr. Maven didn’t ‘present’ in the usual manner. For normal people it’s severe pain for 24 hours or so, then the tell-tale rash. With him, it’s been five days, with two trips to the ER trying to figure out what the hell was going on. We went back to the family doctor this afternoon and when he took his shirt off … whoa, Nelly!

So it’s anti-viral meds and pain pills. Oh, and staying away from potentially pregnant ladies and those with weakened immune systems. Uh, that could mean anybody? So, he’s housebound for a while. At least now we know what it is, and it isn’t a pinched nerve in his neck.  It could end up causing a pain in my neck, however.

I hate to say this, but it’s a closely held truth among married women, that sick husbands are the biggest pain in the …. Oh, I’m joking. They’re so sweet. We just want to sit around and soothe them, bring tea and toast, and listen to how much agony they’re in - nodding with June Cleaver type understanding.

Ha. Right. Well, up to a point.

Thank gawd I’m signed up to get the Shingles vaccine as soon as it gets in - around end of December, early January. Believe me, if you’ve had the chicken pox, you don’t want Shingles. The pain is excruciating. He’ll be getting the vaccine too, since it can come back, and at least with the vaccine, it will be less severe and with less risk of lingering and painful postherpetic neuralgia.

Remember that I said I was going to Mt Rose and ski on opening day? Uh, not with winds gusting to about 90 kts over the ridge tops. The snow was blowing sideways. Some people - former ski patrollers - should know how to dress for the conditions. A tee shirt and denim jacket?

And some of us, the Utah types, do actually expect it be uh, fucking cold.

But the good news is that we both know how to take the chill off. It’s called Irish Coffee.

Here’s to an awesome ski season! The storm coming in over the weekend promises a ‘dump’ of about four or more feet in the mountains.

Yippee.

Hey, did you hear that ‘The Donald’ thinks he might want to run for president against Sarah Palin? Does this man’s ego know any bounds at all? He must not or he wouldn’t be sporting that regrettable hair.

Does this look ‘presidential’ to you?

And Joe ‘The Norm Coleman Wannabe’ Miller from Alaska is proving that TeaNuts are just simply poor losers, and can’t take a hint. YOU LOSE, ASSHOLE! Yup, the write-in candidate, Lisa Murkowski, proved that anything looked better than Miller. Would that a few other states had seen that. Boy, did we ever dodge that bullet here in Nevada.

My post about the big flap over nekkid folks in the TSA full-body scanncers at airports proved amusing to more of my readers than I woulda guessed. The consensus: Who gives a rat’s ass. WTF? And BFD. But you’ll be hearing more about it. My guess - being a cynical type - is that some GOP/TeaNut stalwarts think this is just another place they can stir up phony outrage among the electorate, and then attempt to privatize one more government agency. We need to be looking at the security companies that have been contributing to their campaigns.

Follow the money, boys and girls. Instead of simply insisting that government agencies do their jobs correctly, TeaNuts being the cowards they are, simply throw in the towel, and give the contract to a buddy.

Somebody hand me a sick-sack if I hear much more about the Royal Wedding. And to complicate matters - if dear old Charles hasn’t rather done a lot of that already - he’s floated the idea of making Camilla Parker-Bowles ( the other woman ) Queen-for-a-Day. These in-bred people are lucky to have those two islands over there where fawning people still give a shit about stuff like this.

“I am proud that House and Senate Republicans have united to end the earmark favor factory,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a leader in the drive to stop the practice. Will somebody please tell Jim DeMint that earmarks comprise about 1% of the budget. Get rid of them all, and it wouldn’t amount to a pee hole in the snow of the deficit, but gee, it’s gives TeaNuts such grand bonafides for being fiscally obtuse.

I’d be a lot more behind this most recent attempt at deficit reduction - with the Deficit Commission - if they were less right-leaning, and would even mention the huge portion of our budget that is going to the military portion of the discretionary budget - some 43%. Have you heard anybody talk about that? Nope. All you hear about is ‘entitlements’ or the non-discretionary, mandatory part of the budget. When I saw that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson were on it, I knew it was bullshit.

And, here’s something else. This latest Deficit Commission, what’s that about when there is a perfectly good one - with really knowledgeable people, actual experts -  already studying the problem? The Petersen-Pew Commission began it’s work back in January 2009, and we should be highlighting what they are discovering rather than re-inventing the wheel to make soundbites on the nightly tee-vee news.

All week long, I’ve been looking forward to my ‘Sauces’ class at Nothing To It cooking school, which took place this evening. These classes are just the best way to unwind from a stressful week. Really. Chef Lara Ritchie is warm and funny, you meet other foodies that share your passion, you learn both the art and science of food, the wine is good, and we eat very well indeed. And, when you watch an accomplished professional chef actually make the hollandaise work - on the third try (LOL) - you know you can do it, too. I told Lara that the real value of the classes are the ‘flops and fixes’ that happen enroute to success. I know how to fix a hollandaise, now. I shall never be intimidated by a sauce again.

My companions and team mates for the evening.

We made a rustic spinach, pancetta and goat cheese sauce for pasta, a pepper sauce for the steaks (yum), and a bearnaise for the asparagus.

The crowning touch was the caramel sauce for the chocolate bundt cake.

They expect a bunch of snow down here in Reno this weekend, so I rather think I’ll hunker down and do some cooking. Maybe I’ll have something to blog about, so check in just in case. If not, there’s always housework to be done.

Stay warm. Make soup.

Cheers.

-maven

Full body scan? Isn't it time to lose the 'naughty parts' anxiety?

As a somewhat frequent flyer - in a family of frequent flyers, AKA airline types - I’m rather torn about this brou-haha over the full body scans. I first encountered going through full body scanners a couple years ago, and never gave it a second, or third, thought. Get through and move on. I’ve got a flight to catch.

I figured at the time, if TSA wants to leer at my scar and skin graft laced, mastectomy ravaged body, then have at it. I think it’s a learning opportunity of what breast cancer can do to a person - permanently. Have a really good look - put it on the internet - and think about donating to cancer research.

So with the current hysteria/fear of the day - and I think it’s largely that - I’ve decided to take another look at the whole thing.

Mr. Capt. Maven has made several comments - not printable here -  about this issue from the perspective of a retired airline pilot. This security thing has gotten out of hand when it comes to flight crews. It’s like this - either they have a good solid security clearance or they don’t. If they have the credentials to be in command of an airliner, inside that locked cockpit, then holding them up repeatedly for the scan or grope is absolutely ludicrous. It may also become a safety issue, when you consider how many times over the course of a career, they can be exposed to the radiation. Pilots are already concerned, and rightfully so, about the amount of radiation they are exposed to for hours on end while cruising at 40,000 plus feet in the new generation aircraft.

When it comes to the occasional passenger, then we’re talking about an entirely different matter. The safety concerns regarding radiation become rather silly. Mr. Capt. Maven got an x-ray the other day in the ER, and the tech and I talked about the radiation dosage. He told us that with today’s equipment, you get a higher dose of radiation outdoors at high altitude - think skiing up in the mountains - than from a  modern x-ray machine.

Now let’s talk about the voyeuristic aspects. I’ve heard people remark that they would never want to be seen nekkid in one of the body scanners, and even worse, can’t bear the idea of their children being viewed similarly.

Let me ask you this - take a look at the photo above. Then take a look around at your ‘average’ overweight, or even obese, American today. How would you like to sit there for hours on end staring at that? If you find that image titillating rather than mildly pathetic, then you should seek professional help. On the same theme, imagine having to run your hand up and around the crotches and around the bulging breasts of hundreds of people who are fat, unattractive and perhaps none too clean. Aroused yet?

Have we got to the point where every stranger is presumed to be a child porn collector? When talking about rights pertaining to the Constitution, isn’t it fair to presume innocence from being presupposed a peeping tom just as we would also like to invoke the Fourth Amendment regarding unreasonable search and seizure?

Do I think the TSA should be ‘collecting’ the scanned images? No. Not unless they have damn good reason - reasonable cause.

Now, from what I’m hearing about the ‘pat-downs’ is a different matter. Mr. Capt. Maven has a pacemaker, and can’t go through the scanners. He always has to go through the ‘special’ line. Never has he received a ‘pat down’ that is offensive or intrusive. Silly? Yes. Annoying? Yes. Maybe things have changed. From my own perspective, given the option of scanner vs pat down, I’ll take the scanner every time. If I had a child, I’d have the child use the scanner. It would give us an opportunity to discuss nudity, and when it’s healthy and good vs bad or unsafe. Scanner vs. strip search or cavity search? I’ll opt for the scanner.

I think people concerned about this issue, should consider how quickly they will become nekkid during an explosive decompression of an aircraft - like during an explosion. Human remains, or the scattered parts thereof, when recovered by the search teams are almost always unclothed. The velocity of the fall to earth does the job. I’ll gladly opt for the scanner reveal instead of the morgue reveal every time.

Sorry to be so graphic, but that’s what happens when you’ve actually seen photos and read crash reports.

I think we ought to be profiling. Big time. I support everybody’s right to dress like a certain outlaw Saudi, but they shouldn’t be surprised or offended when they get pulled aside at the airport.

At the end of the day, the only really proven anti-hijacking technique is improved cockpit security, assisted by vigilent passengers. To worry about the individual little old ladies and families on a flight, while letting tons of cargo go into the hold without adaquate screening is also ridiculous.

What this entire discussion fails to even take into consideration is the the political world we’ve willing created - where a large share of the globe doesn’t like us. A very large portion of the muslim world wishes we would go away and mind our own business. And were it not for our unholy love affair with oil, we probably would. That may not completely solve the problem, but it would sure reduce it to a more minor role.

That’s just one woman’s opinion. Mind you, it’s a woman who - back in the day, when I had two really great looking, perky, healthy boobs - went through airport security in nothing but high heels and a fur coat.

Oh, and my car keys.

-maven

Update on Friday, November 19, 2010 at 09:55 by mavenandmeddler

The following information regarding prosthetics and pacemakers is on the Homeland Security NewsWire:

TSA: Full-body scanner safe for prostheses

Published 22 March 2010

Full-body scanners are safe for passenger with artificial body parts — from replaced hips to augmented breasts; TSA says the scaners uses low-energy X-rays that do not penetrate the skin: prosthetic devices, artificial limbs, and surgically replaced body parts will not show up on the body scan image

One passenger worried that her breast prosthesis might set off an alarm if she went through the new full-body scanner at O’Hare International Airport. Another wondered whether his “fake hip” meant he would automatically be hand-wanded at the security checkpoint instead of receiving the touch-free body scan. A third was concerned about two medical issues: She has a heart pacemaker and she uses a wheelchair much of the time. “I didn’t see any handrails in the photo of the scanner I saw in the Chicago Tribune,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to stand very long without support.”

Jon Hilkevitch writes that these and other passengers with artificial body parts should not fear full-body scanner because these scanners are safe for all passengers, according to Jim Fotenos, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Travelers with pacemakers, who have long been advised to stay away from the traditional metal-detector doorways, can undergo a body scan, or a pat-down and wanding instead.

The imaging technology in the body scan uses low-energy X-rays that do not penetrate the skin, Fotenos said.

This is bad for the TSA in terms of being able to detect weapons or explosives hidden inside the body cavity of a criminal or terrorist, but it means that prosthetic devices, artificial limbs, and surgically replaced body parts will not show up on the body scan image, and are therefore unlikely to cause the passengers to be flagged, he said.

The body scanners are being rolled out at airports across the United States in the next four years — 450 scanners will be deployed at U.S. airports by the end of 2010, 950 by the end of 2011; and 1,800 by the end of 2014. Passengers may decline a body scan and receive alternative screening designed to provide the same level of security, including those who feel they may not be able to stand for the scan, Fotenos said.

###

Maven has also put in a call to cardiac surgeon, Frank Carrea, M.D. at Sierra Nevada Cardiology, for some insights into this issue. I’ll post about it when I hear more. Dr. Carrea placed Mr. Capt. Maven’s pacer.

You might want to read an article/blog post on Travel Babel which is also pretty informative.

Of course there will still be idiots out there, and if they don’t want to fly because of this terrible risk to their fragile body image, then fine. That will leave an open seat for this non-revenue passenger here at Rancho Maven.

Read this from today’s RGJ:

The TSA has loaded the final straw upon the back of the ultimate demise of the U.S. airline industry.

The pretentious and overtly voyeuristic “security screening” at airports has got to stop! Parents with children, grandparents and non-deeply-colored people are not among the suicide bombers who they portend to stop from boarding. Only through racial profiling will these buffoons ever eliminate would-be terrorists.

Political correctness be damned!

The latest “security upgrades” from Janet Napolitano are not only unnecessary, but border on pornographic in nature.

I’ll not submit myself nor my family (mixed race, lest the reader believe this author and his family to be lily white) to the intrusive groping, under-the-clothes viewing, or X-rays that these perverts have reverted to - period.

To assume that these “new technolgies” are anything other than overtly intrusive is a smack to civil liberties of peace-loving travelers.

I’ll not fly anymore aboard a U.S. based airline.

Kim Kollman, Reno

Well, there you are. Somebody who knows sorta kinda something about airlines and security - AKA what they’ve heard on Fox News. Have you ever noticed that folks who use a lot of big words and 19th century writing styles often don’t know what they’re talking about? I’ve used the underline to show where the writers’ words were italicized in the original.

Well, huff, puff and bluster! I’ll not quit LOL!

-maven!

Follow up thoughts on the Flight 253 bomb scare

On the news tonight, there were a couple of stories related to the bomb scare on NWA Flight 253, in which a Nigerian man with apparent ties to Al Qaeda wore explosive laced underpants and attempted to ingnite them on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

At the top of most discussions, is what we can do in the way of security in the airport to deter such attempts in the future.

My husband is a retired airline captain, and together we’ve flown a lot over the years - pre and post 9-11. Having gone through the complete body scan technology this year in Salt Lake City, I can say with confidence that I did not feel that it was ‘intrusive’ or an invasion of my privacy. But then I’m perhaps a little less concerned with ‘who sees what’ than some folks. The fact that I’m nearly 60 with a sagging tush and a missing breast due to cancer leave me completely unconcerned that I’m being used for ‘peep show’ purposes. I’m also not trying to hide contraband or explosives.

If after all of that, ‘they’ really want to look, have at it. I think it’s preferable to standing in the secondary security -“look at the geek!”- zone waiting for a female TSA agent to be available for a ‘pat down’.

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TSA ,airline food, alligators and old people

Leaving Reno is always a surprise. Just how tight is TSA going to lock down those machines and how big of a pain in the ass are they going to be this time.

As a somewhat experienced world traveler and airline type, I’m prepared for the gauntlet - I enter the maw of the beast with a confident, purposeful stride. I have the lanyard with all the ID, the ziplok baggie with the suspicious 3 oz bottles of shampoo, hair product and makeup, the easy off shoes and jewelry safely stowed in a baggie in my messenger bag/purse. It doesn’t matter. I may as well be an 86-year-old grandma from Lower Cornhole, Iowa on her first airplane ride. They hand searched both bags and then ran them through the xray machine twice in search of the bottles of liquid they were absolutely sure were hiding somewhere.

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