The Lounge

Its Spreading!

It has recently come to my attention that our very own Paige is soon to be wed!

In classic form, I shall repeat:

Let this serve as a brief note that Daniel Moreland and Paige Garner will soon cease to exist as separate entities and become one.
Our joy for their union is great. Our support of their journey must be also.

Many congratulations to you both!

The Great Address Hunt

Its been some time since we fanned out across the country, and as Sharon and I approach our wedding we are faced with a harder task then those of you who "hitched" in proximity to LeTU. Sharon and I are gathering addresses for a certain mass-mailing, so if you haven't already, if you could take the chance to shoot me an AIM message with the address we can reach you at within the month (and a current email address), it would be appreciated. If you don't... we'll start hunting you down. One by one.

Thanks, and hope to see you in July.

College student fights his own cancer

I came across this AP article today. I find it both terrifying and inspiring. By "inspiring," I mean it gave me an idea for making the world a slightly better place.

Chordoma - the cancer Josh learns he has - is a one-in-a million disease. Just 300 people get the terrible news each year, not even one per day. It strikes all ages, at different spots along the spinal column. The tumors can be removed, but the cancer is relentless. Chemotherapy doesn't work. Life expectancy is around seven years.

The MRI shows Josh's tumor is in a tough spot, in a bone inside his skull. It extends onto his brain stem and wraps around several arteries. There are two surgeries, then weeks of recovery in the hospital. He and [his mother] pass the time reading whatever they can about the disease.

[...]

It's an odd experience, trying to nurture cells to help others figure out how to kill them. As he learns more and more about chordoma, Josh tells his mom the science fascinates him. He just wishes it wasn't life and death.

Josh isn't the first person to work in a lab to find a cure or treatment for his own disease. A cystic fibrosis victim named Jeff Pinard has done work on the genetics of his affliction. A Tulane medical student named Andy Martin studied a cancer called sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma, which is even rarer than chordoma.

They're uplifting stories. But Josh sometimes worries they distract people from the urgent reality. Andy died in 2004. Josh has become friends with a local 12-year-old with advancing chordoma. He knows what the disease does.

"I guess the way I look at it is that there will be a time for every disease when one can in essence outrun their disease," Josh writes in a late-night e-mail to a reporter who had been spending time with him.

"For Andy his disease was too fast and the science too slow." For Jeff, "science has just barely outpaced his disease. I hope to be in Jeff's category rather than Andy's."

It seems to me that if we of the SC were to pull together to support any particular good cause, aiding a college student in studying his own disease would be a prime pick. The Chordoma Foundation (founded by the student in question) makes it easy to donate online or by mail. You can read about the research here, and you can make a donation here. I think this would be an excellent use of any spare resources we may have.

Additional notices of Josh Sommer's situation may be found here and here. Facebook users may be interested in the page here.

If you choose to donate to this cause, please consider posting (anonymously) the amount of your contribution in the comments section here, so that we can keep a combined total to cheer ourselves on. And please spread the word.

Dropping Like Flies

Again, we in the Shadow Council have the honor of announcing an engagement of the membership.

We congratulate Sharon and Moore, wishing them all the best. Surely, someone needs to be taking care of Moore.

We of the Council would prefer to receive some details sooner than later. Apparently Sharon tried to tell Rachel on Saturday and was simply too excited to explain fully. In either event, we wish them both well as they plan their wedding and hope that they receive several clocks so as to refrain from calling their friends before 9 am on Saturday mornings.

May you both grow to love each other only more deeply as time goes by.

Many pomps and cirumstances

Word has filtered up to Syracuse that Longview had a graduation on Saturday ... and now we have photographic evidence, thanks to Anna. I particularly recommend this rather frightening picture. (If you ask me, the gentleman in the Hawaiian shirt looks photoshopped. He's not supposed to be in Texas anymore!)

Three cheers for all of our friends upon their magnificent accomplishment. Godspeed as you open a new chapter in your lives.

Update: Martinez has posted pictures too.

The last word in cookie fortunes

Presently Engaged:

Many congratulations to my sister-in-law, Rebecca Gullman, and my old roommate, Daniel Gallagher, on their engagement begun this Friday evening last on the LeTourneau campus. They are to be married in or around the summer of '08.

I must, of course, note Gallagher's outrageously bad timing in proposing so close to April Fool's Day. More than one person has expressed disbelief upon hearing the news, forcing me to wait until today to post and assure legitimacy. I still say that, as April Fool's jokes go, that sounds like an awfully expensive way to piss off your girlfriend.

Tchaikovsky anyone?

The Nutcracker
Friday, December 8, 2006
7:30 p.m.

Shreveport Riverview Theater
400 Clyde Fant Parkway
Shreveport, Louisiana

Tickets will probably run between $10 and $20, depending on how good we want our seats to be. Leave a comment sometime in the next week or so if you're interested.

This Week's Happenings

There have been a large number of unusually interesting posts with a correspondingly large number of comments among various members of the Shadow Council this week, so I felt compelled to gather them up and make a nice pile, much as one would do with raked leaves. Except that these are much better kept around rather than sucked up by the Large Leaf-Gathering Machine, of course.

Wheeler started it off this week with his posts on Christian non-violence. Of course, this quickly branched out into discussions of pacifism, the justification of war, the justification of violent force in general, the justifications for specific wars, and the uniqueness of World War II.

Good Company I: A Brief History Of Christian Non-Violence
Good Company II: The Family Tree Of Modern Non-Violence
On The Subject Of American Warfare And Other Sundries

Then, over at Sharpton's (who I should really link as, after all, he posts more than Gallagher does) place, we have a couple of posts which lead to discussion on economics, taxes, and CEO salaries.

Interactive Controversy, Take 1
Interactive Controversy, Take Two

And finally, Wilson has decided to discontinue updating his blog, which I really consider a great loss for the entire Internet, whether or not the entire Internet realizes it. Good luck with your graduate studies, Wilson.

Cross-posted at My Blog With A Really Long Name.

"S" is for "September" and "Silver Screen"

The Kilgore Film Festival begins this month, on September 13th, and runs until October 5th. They will be showing 6 films that we out here in the sticks probably didn't have a chance to catch when they were released in the cultural centers of the world. In addition to the festival, 2 other releases of some note are premiering this month. I hope to see all eight . . . Is anyone else up to the challenge (in whole or in part)?

The first, Hollywoodland, is this Friday (not part of the film festival). It is about the an investigation into the mysterious circumstances surrounding Superman actor George Reeves' suicide in 1959. It stars Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, and Ben Affleck.

The other non-festival film is All the King's Men, premiering Sept. 22nd. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren (considered by some to be the best book ever written about American politics) the film chronicles the rise and fall of Louisiana politician Willie Stark (a fictional character based on real-life Louisiana governor Huey "the Kingfish" Long). It stars Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Anthony Hopkins.

The film festival will cost $6 per movie or $30 for the whole series. In other words, if you're only interested in five of them, the sixth won't cost any more. Their schedule is as follows:

Weekdays - 4:00 & 7:30
Saturday & Sunday - 2:00, 4:00 & 7:30

The Lost City - a movie about Havana during the Cuban Revolution, stars Andy Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, and Bill Murray. Sept. 13-16

Water - foreign film from India, highly controversial in that country, set in 1938 and concerning the plight of widows (some as young as eight) under Indian culture and religion against the backdrop of Ghandi's struggle against British rule. Sept. 17-19

Thank You For Smoking - biting and irreverent satirical comedy that follows the spin-doctoring efforts of a spokesman for Big Tobacco. Sept. 20-23

Wordplay - light-hearted documentary about crossword lovers, the New York Times crossword puzzle, and the annual crossword tournament. Features the likes of Jon Stewart, Bob Dole, and Bill Clinton. Sept. 24-26

Scoop - Woody Allen's latest farce, also starring Scarlet Johansson and Hugh Jackman. A student reporter (Johansson) steps into the disappearing closet of a vaudeville magician (Allen) and is confronted by the ghost of a dead journalist who informs her that a dashing young member of the British aristocracy (Jackman) is in fact the notorious Tarot Card Murderer. Sept. 27-30

Kinky Boots - British comedy about the inheritor of a failing shoe factory who enlists the help of a drag queen to help him redesign his product. Oct. 1-5

Please to leave a comment indicating the level of your enthusiasm, and we shall plan.