7/23/24

 Tuesday, July 23, 2024

1599 Caravaggio gets his first public commission, the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

1973 US President Richard Nixon refuses to release Watergate tapes of conversations in the White House relevant to the Watergate investigation

2020 US President Trump says he could send 75,000 federal agents to deal with violence in American cities like Portland, drawing backlash

In bed around 9:15 p.m., awake around 2 a.m. with bad hip/thigh pain, and up and on the TV room recliner by 2:25 after sitting on the side of the mattress waiting for the pain to subside.  No sign of Lilly.  At 4:15, I put some steel-cut oatmeal on the stove, but only with difficulty from standing with pain.  I set my timer for 10 minutes so I could sit down between checking on the simmer.  I let Lilly out at 4:45 and sat down to eat the oatmeal & berries at 4:50.

Prednisone, day 72, 15+5, day 8. I took 500 mg. of Tylenol at 9 last night and took another 1,000 mg. at 4:30  this morning.  I took the 15 mg. of prednisone at 5:00 with my oatmeal.  I took another 1,000 mg. of Tylenol at 12:20, with hip aching even while seated.  I received a t/c from Nurse Mary in Dr. Chatt's office advising that she will put in a consult to PM&R for a cortisone shot in the hip.*  As of 4 p.m., no response from Dr. Ryzka in Rheumatology.

The Hours.   I saw this 2002 film many years ago, but all I remembered of it was the suicides of Virginia Woolf and the Ed Harris character.  The film features a superb cast of Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in 1923 Britain, Julianne Moore as Laura Brown in 1951 Los Angeles, and Meryl Streep as Clarissa Vaughn in 2001 New York City.  Ed Harris stars as Clarissa's former lover, the poet and novelist Richard, who is dying of AIDs, and Claire Danes as her daughter Sophia.  The film is one of the strangest I've seen, all about suicides, the will and impetuses to die at one's own hand.  Virginia Woolf did it by drowning herself, Richard Vaughn by falling out of a high window, and Laura Brown came close by contemplating overdosing on medications.  All three characters are bi-sexual and depressed, though Woolf is in a period of mental clarity between bouts of whatever schizophrenic madness beset her.  The main characters are all connected by Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway, about a well-to-do, privileged British woman preparing for a party she is hosting while realizing that despite her wealth and privileges, she is all alone in her world.

"The Hours" title is a reference to Virginia Woolf's original title for Mrs. Dalloway, and Richard refers to it while sitting on the window ledge talking to Clarissa Vaughn about life "It's the hours, the hours after the party, and the hours after that."  He also quotes the line from Mrs. Dalloway, "Mrs Dalloway is always giving parties to cover the silence.”  

 Nicole Kidman's performance as Virginia Woolfe earned an Oscar but I was most impressed by Julianne Moore's portrayal of the depressed, pregnant Laura Brown hating her life in suburban Los Angeles with her self-satisfied, loving husband and son (who turned out to be Clarissa Vaughn's Richard).  We learn that Laura abandoned her family and fled to Canada when her second child was born.  Virginia, Laura, and Clarissa all share a sense of desperation, meaning, belonging,  and purposefulness but it is portrayed most persuasively by Julianne Moore.  They also share a bisexuality, suggested by Laura's kiss of her friend Kitty, who has just disclosed her uterine cancer but fully developed by Clarissa's relationship with Richard who is also bisexual and her lesbian relationship with her lover Sally Lester, played by Allison Janney.

It is a depressing movie, reminding me in that respect of Paris, Texas, Midnight Cowboy, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange,  and Calvinist Paul Schrader films like Taxi Driver (screenwriter) and First Reformed and Master Gardener.  From Mrs. Dalloway:

“Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely? All this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?”

“One cannot bring children into a world like this. One cannot perpetuate suffering, or increase the breed of these lustful animals, who have no lasting emotions, but only whims and vanities, eddying them now this way, now that.”

I've had similar thoughts.

In the Dark podcast, season 3; the Marines and Haditha.  I have started to follow this New Yorker podcast about the murder of 24 Iraqi civilians by U. S. Marines in the western Iraqi city of Haditha in November 2005.  Only the first two of nine total episodes are available now.  From what I have listened to so far, the investigative series paints an ugly picture of a coverup of the mass murder of civilians by Marines.  It also illustrates the extraordinary difficulty of obtaining access to governmental "public" records under the Freedom of Information Act, providing more evidence of why we should always be deeply skeptical about what any government, including our own, tells us, about itself and the actions of its functionaries.

Anniversaries thoughts.  First, I mention the Caravaggio anniversary not because of the work in San Luigi dei Francesi but because it reminds me of my week in Rome with Mike Hogan and Mike leading me to the church of Santa Maria del Populo on the Piazza del Populo.  Mike wanted to see again Caravaggio's Conversion of St. Paul on the Way to Damascus.  He had seen it when he visited Rome as a kid with his parents, his father being an Army officer stationed in Europe at the time.  The church is also home to Caravaggio's stunning Crucifixion of St. Peter.  The painting of St. Paul is (in)famous for the space and attention devoted to Paul's horse, especially the horse's rump, compared to that afforded to Saint Pual lying on the ground, at the bottom of the painting,.

Second, it's the 49th anniversary of Richard Nixon's refusal to produce his Oval Office tapes to the Watergate prosecutor.  If the issue had been before the current Roberts; court, there is every reason to believe Nixon would have gotten away with it and would have received a sweeping immunity in terms of his Watergate crimes, maybe even a pat on the back.

Third, from the BBC, hints of things to come if Trump wins in November:

President Donald Trump is to send "a surge" of federal security forces to US cities in a crackdown on crime.  Chicago and two other Democratic-run cities are being targeted in the Republican president's move, amid a spike in violence.  But federal deployments in Portland, Oregon, amid ongoing unrest have been controversial. The city's mayor was among those tear-gassed at a protest.

Law and order has become a key plank of Mr Trump's re-election bid in November. 

 

Since the death on 25 May of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, there have been protests - sometimes descending into civil disorder - in scores of US cities.  In Portland, which has seen more than 50 days of demonstrations, Mayor Ted Wheeler was tear-gassed by federal agents while attending the city's protest on Wednesday night.  Speaking to a New York Times reporter, the Democrat said the tear-gassing was "an egregious overreaction" by federal officers, and that he had seen "nothing that provoked this response".  "This is not a de-escalation strategy, this is flat-out urban warfare," Mr Wheeler said. Other local officials have similarly criticised the president's tactics, saying he has escalated tensions in the city.

Meanwhile, gun violence has spiked in metropolitan areas including New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and Milwaukee. 

Land of the free, home of the brave, sea to shining sea and all that. 

* Response from Dr. Chatt:

Hello Mr. Clausen,

Dr. Chatt responded to the information you provided about your ongoing hip pain. This is her response:

"Initially, when the pt went to the ER, he was having pain in multiple joints

including his R hip, which could definitely be due to his PMR and increasing his

Prednisone dose as recommended by Rheumatology would help.

However, if he is now having more localized right hip pain, which continues even

after increasing his Prednisone dose, then this is more suggestive of worsening

pain due to OA of the Right hip. I reviewed his R hip x-ray that was done in the

ER on 7/14/2024, which indicated the following:

No acute fracture, dislocation, or significant bony abnormality.

Moderate degenerative changes of the right hip including space

narrowing and osteophytosis. Right-sided neurostimulator.

At this point, I would recommend getting a Right hip injection either from

Rheumatology or if they don't provide this service, then I can place a consult

for him to see PM&R for this. "

So your next step would be to discuss with Rhuematology if they can provide the injection for your right hip. If they cannot, let us know and Dr. Chatt can place the consult for PM&R.

Sincerely,

Mary Beth RN

Primary Care, Gold Clinic