As anyone knows, really, when you're trying to help a grownup, much less your mother.

Too true. My sisters and I are having interesting conversations with my mother recently (mostly initiated by her), because my mother's sisters are both not doing well, and their families are trying to deal with it, and just... not fun. Fortunately, my mother is dong just peachy herself these days. Pleasetocontinue.

avoiding nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers) will help with inflamation.

Yeah. When I eat potatoes, you can watch my face turn pink and my nose swell up. It doesn't happen as badly anymore, because of the aforementioned quercetin. Tomatoes and peppers don't bother me at all, though, and eggplant? Won't eat it; smells funny. Probably just as well.

mmm. potatoes

My eldest aunt is in her mid-seventies. One uncle is 80-something. (I find this hard to believe.) So far, we've been lucky in that they are still managing quite fine on their own. It's remarkable if you consider that none of their parents were at this same age.

The one I worry about lately is my Uncle F. Not so much for health reasons, just he's still motorcycling in the Colorado mountains, and has had one serious accident recently (not his fault, the shop's. Tire came off due to a bad part. Shop paid his bills.) I worry for the same reasons about my dad- not health, hobbies. OTOH, F & S have basically invented careers for themselves in small town CO. S is writing copy for the local papers and F is doing most of the photography that accompanies her articles. Actually, F's photos inspire the articles. It's really nice.

Jesse, Miss Non-Profit Lady, what's your read on this article about the Gates Foundation's investments? Are they an easy target because they're so big, or are they actually worse than the average? Also, is the seemingly obvious way around the issue (monitoring which investments are made to bulk up the endowment) too simplistic to work?

While I'm on the LA Times site, meteorite hits house! Kinda eek. A little.

Wow, that's fascinating. It sounds like they are worse than average, at least among the big players the article names. I'm sure the theory is, more money to give is better, but it does seem like they could use their muscle to do more good across the board. I guess I'm still of the old-school liberal foundation school.

It looks like not only are they investing in "bad" companies, they're investing right against their grants, in companies that sicken the people they're trying to heal.

Yeah, and they're hiding behind the firewall to do it -- the same people making the philanthropic decisions are not making the investing decisions, theoretically, although I don't quite get how separating out a Trust would work.

I do think the framing of that article was a little overwrought.

I'm watching Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe is funny. And hot.

He's on my tv right now, cleaning out a hurricane barrier. Unfortunately, he's decked out in full coveralls, but when he's in the middle of changing clothes or in swim gear? Mmmmm, me likey that hairy, muscle-y chest!

Also, he has the best voiceover voice since Morgan Freeman.

ION, has anyone else seen some ad with the old Star Trek cast members? First of all, what's wrong with Shatner's face? Second of all, isn't the it TNG theme they play at the end?