Quince becomes new fall favorite

October 22, 2019

I love traditional autumn flavors. I’m all about the apple butter and pumpkin spice. Now a new fall favorite has entered my life: Quince. It’s all thanks to an old ornamental growing near my house since before my family moved here. Many folks are more familiar with quince trees, which can also thrive in this part of North America. But quince bushes, while they share similarities to quince trees, are usually grown for decoration. This bush has never let me down. It is lovely in the spring — covered in bright pinkish red blooms; its early color always fills me with spring ...

It’s not safe to go in the water

October 22, 2019

The moment I drove over the causeway — my favorite Florida beaches on the islands of Sanibel and Captiva beckoning — the stench in the air foreshadowed bad news. Before me, the normally glittering blue Gulf waters were an infuriating thick shade of brown. At the Sanibel Lighthouse beach, the heaps of toxic-smelling red algae were so large and smelled so overwhelmingly bad, that all I could manage was a quick sprint over a walkway for a look — and I had to flee. I almost vomited. My eyes were instantly on fire. I felt I couldn’t breathe. And I knew. Once again, Florida’s ...

We must be free within ourselves first

October 21, 2019

I was about to give a speech — I can’t remember when or even where — when this teacher brought a student up, hoping I could help her. The teacher was white, and her student was a black girl, perhaps 13 or so, of painfully shy demeanor and very dark skin. The woman told me the child thought she was ugly because of her sable complexion. Could I say something to encourage her? I was stunned. Is this true? I asked the girl. Eyes down, she nodded and whispered that it was. I have no memory of what I told her. I do remember feeling it wasn’t enough. Then the event began and I had to ...

A doctor’s view: Betraying ideals boosts suffering

October 21, 2019

Every time we think the humanitarian situation in Syria has bottomed out, it gets worse. More than 160,000 Syrians have been displaced so far in the new chapter of this crisis, and many more are expected to suffer. President Donald Trump’s abrupt and capricious decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria is not the first betrayal of Syrians by our policymakers. Nor is it the first strategic blunder. As a physician and humanitarian who has spent nine years providing health care in Syria and other disaster zones, I witnessed firsthand the impact of our policies, or lack of ...

We need to improve flu vaccine

October 18, 2019

Influenza — the flu — is more than a bad cold. Seasonal outbreaks mean not only misery but increased hospital admissions and deaths. The last flu season, from October 2018 until May 2019, caused up to 42.9 million illnesses, up to 647,000 hospitalizations and up to 61,200 deaths, according to preliminary numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What can we expect this year? Australia’s flu season, which runs ahead of ours (May to October), is often a good predictor. Its onset this year was early and there was a higher than average number of cases. The U.S. ...

How small cities and towns can right their ship

October 17, 2019

Several large pieces of cobalt-blue glass panels bearing “Don’t Give Up the Ship” and a bold likeness of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry lay broken at the top of the third-floor stairs of the old Park Place building in the city’s main square. If ever there were a motto that exemplified a place and her people, it would be those five words Perry had stitched on a flag — words that inspired him over 200 years ago when he bore the flag in his unlikely defeat of the British at the Battle of Lake Erie. Given everything Erie, Pa., has gone through — from her heyday as the ...