Some Stuff to Read

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. Just got a call from my brother, who wanted to know where the day's entry was, apparently looking for a reason to slack off on a Friday afternoon (missing those "happy hour Friday afternoons" from before the Internet bubble burst so long ago?). I don't want to appear ungrateful to my readers, so I'll give you a few things to look at. Truth is, it's been a busy day; Spring Break is next week, so I'm trying to clear off my desk before I leave.

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My brother-in-law Joe mentioned in the comments to my last post that National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" ran an interview with the comedian Robert Schimmel, an NHL survivor who wrote a book recently called Cancer on $5 a Day: How Humor Got Me Through the Toughest Journey of My Life. The interview is about 40 minutes long. Interesting stuff -- funny at times, very sad at times. Make sure you're in a happy place when you listen. He talks, for example, about the pain of chemo being so bad that he contemplated suicide. So, it's not all laughs. He's had a pretty painful life in many ways: his parents were both Holocaust survivors; he lost a son to leukemia; he married and divorced the same woman three times....Jeez, I hope the book's funnier than the interview.

If you want funny, you can look at some of his material on YouTube. He's R-rated at best (maybe even X-rated), so be warned. Apparently, he had a pilot for a sitcom ready to go when he was diagnosed with NHL, so it never happened. The opening scene of the pilot, even before the opening credits roll, is a graphic depiction of him getting a colonoscopy. But in a sit-com kind of way. So here it is, if you dare. Don't watch it at work, or if your kids are around.

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Something else for you, also slightly depressing, but with a great ending: an essay called "My Year Running Through Cancer" by Jennifer Goellnitz. She writes about being diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease when she was in her 20's. She's a runner, and the essay focuses on her attempts to run even as she was going through some nasty chemo. She's in remission now.

She gives her e-mail address at the end of the essay, so I e-mailed her a couple of weeks ago to tell her how much I liked the essay, and we've been e-mailing back and forth a little. Her dad is an NHL survivor, 2.5 years in remission, and she writes a column for Running Times online. She's very nice, very encouraging. The NHL support group messge board recently had a posting about her -- to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, she recently ran 214 miles in a week -- more than a marathon a day. You go, girl.

And remember, with both Schimmel and Jenny, their chemo is different from what mine will be/would be, so don't panic about what you read.

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One last link: A funny video called The 10 Funniest Treadmill Falls Ever. I like to think of it as a compilation of some of the themes of the blog so far: treadmills and running (no dogs involved, thank goodness), and a few people who are obviously smoking pot. If you don't like America's Funniest Home Videos, you won't like this.

Nicole M, pay careful attention to #4: DO NOT GET ON A TREADMILL IN UGGS.

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I've heard I have some fairly new readers who aren't familiar with the "blogosphere," as the kids say. (Or Larry King says -- I forget which.)

Blogs aren't just online diaries; they're interactive web experiences. If you newbies keep reading about "comments" and don't know how to access them, it's very easy: right below the end of the post, on the right, it will say "0 comments," or "2 comments" or whatever, in small print. Click on that and read what others have to say. Add your own by typing in the box to the right of the comments. Don't forget to sign your name.

Thanks for reading. Next week: Strudel is begging me for another chance at blogging.

Have a good weekend.