Oliver Sacks

       More Letters From Paradise
         Oliver Sacks and Me

Oliver Sacks is dead! The name Oliver Sacks may not be a household word. He was born July 9, 1933, and died of terminal cancer in his Greenwich Village New York home, August 30, 2015. He was the world renowned neurologist, author, and professor of neurology at New York University of Medicine.

His name may not be familiar, but the motion picture "Awakenings," filmed in 1990, starring Robin Williams, Robert DeNiro, Julie Kavner, and Ruth Nelson was based upon a famous neurological clinical study made by Dr. Sacks.

Shortly following World War I, there was a great epidemic of sleeping sickness, and some few survivors became frozen in sleep for decades! Dr. Sacks gave them a new drug LDOPA, and they were brought back from the past into a strange new world.

All the details can be found in his book "Awakenings," available from Amazon. Another famous book has the very odd title "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For His Hat." Also purchased from Amazon.

Oliver Sacks was more than a neurologist and author. He rode a BMW motorcycle, lifted weights (600 lbs.a record ) and swam every day.

Why am I so interested in Dr. Sacks, the neurologist? It is because I am being treated by Dr. Eliza Hagen, another neurologist. There is nothing like having a brain seizure to cause one to become interested in neurology. Following a ten hour brain operation, Dr. Lee, a South Korean near surgeon planted 68 platinum coils in my brain. Dr. Hagen has me on what we  call a "Five Year Plan," and Teena  and I agree that "If it's not broken, don't fix it ".   I have been seizure-free for two and a half years, but still on medication twice a day. The early days following my seizure were pure hell. One of the side-effects of one medicine was thoughts of suicide! I had never even thought of suicide. And we live on the 30th floor! But things got righted out, and it's all good. Scared the hell out of us! All good now so far.

      Aloha
      Grant

All You White People

      More Letters From Paradise
        All You White People

Some time ago my friend Paul returned to the mainland for a visit. He said that he wanted to have some Indiana home-grown sweetcorn and tomatoes. He was surprised to see all those white people.

I told the story to my Chinese, American-born dentist. He had a similar experience while visiting China. "They all looked the same," he said.

The point I am trying to make is that here in Hawaii, there is such an ethnic mix it is sometime called chop suey, and we all take it for granted. One such example is that the driver license tests are written in eight different languages! Our Governor is Korean, while the State Superintendent of Schools is Japanese. Our dentist mentioned above is assisted by a Samoan woman. The hygienist is Vietnamese. Our family doctor who recently retired, is Japanese. His replacement is an Indian woman.

Our condo security guards are Hawaiian, Chinese, Samoan, and Haole. The word "haole" (how-lee) is a Hawaiian term meaning white or foreigner.

If you call Sears for the repair of your dishwasher, your repairmen could be a Chinese and a Filipino. And it doesn't matter what your ethnicity is. We have come to accept it for what it is. The ethnic diversity adds much richness to our lives.

Recently, Teena received a call from a woman on the mainland, wanting to ask about a particular hotel. Teena told her that the hotel is excellent and managed and staffed by Japanese. Hearing that, she chose another hotel and found to her dismay, the same situation she was trying so hard to avoid.

There are a lot of problems here in paradise, but race and ethnicity is not one of them. In fact, there is a very funny Hawaiian song in which several ethnic groups are made fun of. Nobody gets mad. As they say here "Ain't no big 'ting."

           Aloha
           Grant

From the Back of the Plane

      More Letters From Paradise
      From the Back of the Plane

I am sure that many of you remember when commercial flying was fun. Wide seats with wide armrests, free food served in coach class, and free movies.

In the good old days, Pan American, T.W.A. and other airlines carried passengers who were all well dressed, and were treated accordingly. Remember? Smoking was viewed as alright too. (cough cough)

Teena and I just returned home from a visit to the mainland. We flew both ways aboard Alaska airlines. The plane was the new Boeing 737 800 and 900 series. They are real happy with their new aircraft, but we are not! I would just like to get my hands on those designers and have them squeeze into their new slim, little padding, tiny armrests, and take a long ride and see how they would feel later. They have stretched the plane so more more passengers can be carried. Do I sense a profit motive here? Also the center aisle must be only fourteen inches wide, because the cart traveling  up and down it must be all of twelve inches wide. And if you are seated in an aisle seat, you are bumped repeatedly.

Some sort of I Pad is available to rent for $10.00. Restrooms up front and three in the rear of the plane for the rest of the herd.

In all fairness, I should mention that the prices for both food and drink are reasonable.  

In closing this rant I feel I should mention that you can avoid $25. per bag fee until boarding boarding when they will check it for you with no charge. But  I will have to admit that the plane carried us safely both ways, and isn't that what it is supposed to do?

      Aloha
      Grant

The Wright Brothers

      More Letters From Paradise
        The Wright Brothers

For centuries men have looked at the birds flying in the sky, with envy. One ancient Greek myth tells of a man named Icarus, who fashioned wings of feathers and wax. But when he flew too close to the sun,the wax melted and he plunged into the sea.

It was Leonardo DaVinci, who made the first intensive study of flying. His famous notebooks show drawings of bird's wings, and a man recalling in a machine for flying.

The dream of flying became real through the efforts of two brothers Wilber and Orville Wright. Working alone in their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop they read all the information about gliders, and even constructed a wind tunnel in order to study wing shapes.

But their story is best told in the new biography "The Wright Brothers," by David McCullough, the two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I feel that this book is one of the best biographies I have ever read.

I fear that if I write too many details of the book it will ruin it for any reader. Charlie Taylor, a brilliant mechanic built  a four cylinder motor  which delivered 8 horsepower to the two hand-carved spruce propellers, eight and a half feet long , via a chain link drive.

The story of those test flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and all the rest of the story I will leave to the book. But I will mention that the Wright Brothers home and bicycle shop can be visited at Henry Ford's Greenfield Village Museum, Dearborn, Michigan. If you are ever in the Detroit area, be sure to visit it.

The only other event which can compare to the Wright brothers, is when Neal Armstrong carrying a patch from their 1903 airplane, stepped out onto the moon.

       Aloha
       Grant