Thursday, June 11, 2009

[1572 - Ben Jonson, actor, poet, born in
Westminster, London]

[1742 - Benjamin Franklin invents his Franklin stove]

  
[1864 - Richard Strauss, composer, born in Munich, Bavaria]

[1880 - Jeannette Rankin, first woman elected
to Congress, born near Missoula, Montana]

[1900 - Lawrence (Edmund) Spivak, producer,
moderator, publisher, born in Brooklyn]

[1910 - Jacques-Yves Cousteau, marine explorer,
born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, France]

  
[1913 - Vince Lombardi, Pro Football Hall of Fame Packers coach, born in Brooklyn]

[1919 - Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, and is the first horse to capture racing's Triple Crown]

[1920 - Shelly (Sheldon) Manne, composer, drummer, born in New York City]

[1925 - William Styron, novelist,
born in Newport News, Virginia]

[1963 - Quang Duc, Buddhist monk, immolates self in protest against repressive
South Vietnamese regime supported by USA]

[1963 - University of Alabama is desegregated by President Kennedy]

Chemo is Cold

C is for Cancer, and Chemo, and Cold.
You got it; you need it, or so you are told.
Fearful of dying, hope grows from a Zero.
Millions survived; now it's your turn for Hero.

H is for Health, and Help-me, and my Hair.
You lost them, need them; fight off the despair.
You show up alone, or come with your lover.
The staff is so caring; they pray you'll recover.

E is for Easy, and for Empty, and for Evil.
It isn't, you feel it, and "What a Big Needle."
You get chilled to the bone when you are old.
Chilled to the Heart; now that's Chemo Cold.

M is for Massive, and Miserable, and Must.
You can keep going back or return to the Dust.
It is Red, or it's White; it can never be Black.
A Lay-Z-Boy awaits you, and so you go back.

O is for Open, and Oh-God, and it's Over.
It's finished; you're not pushing up clover.
You poison another; they mark you as Evil.
You poison yourself, and you're Evel Kneivel.

William's Whimsical Words:

By the end of this century doctors will look back at chemotherapy with the same fondness now accorded the former medical practices of bleeding and lobotomy.

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