Does exercise hurt or help the immune system?

An important question (and certainly very important to me!). This is a not-very-long but comprehensive posting on the NY Times Health blog, looking at both experimental animal studies and human studies. The tentative conclusion is that intensive exercise can indeed suppress the body's immune response. On the other hand, experiments with mice indicate that mild … Read more

Some Tim football

We didn't expect Tim to be playing football this year – he played in the Ossining Football Little League from the 2nd through 6th grades – because there was no 7th-8t grade team. Ossining has a junior high school team. Then this year they started a 7th – 8th grade little league team, so Tim is in … Read more

Latest Read: Tears in the Darkness

"The Story of the Bataan Death March and it's Aftermath" I read a review of this book a several months ago in the NY Times and it was a very positive and intriguing review. I knew very little about the Bataan Death March, an infamous chapter in the war in the Pacific in WW II. After … Read more

Mountain climbing is dangerous

New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney's Husband Died on Mountain Climbing Expedition Clifton Maloney, a millionaire investment banker and avid climber, was resting in a high-altitude camp after a successful ascent to the summit of the world's sixth-highest mountain when he died.   He was 71, a late age for such a grueling endeavor, but had … Read more

A nice Catskill hike, suggested to me

My friend Damian, whose wife Jeanne Marie sometimes joins Brigid and I and a few others for day hikes, sent me this, with the suggestion we do it. There’s a nice 11 picture slide show with the article, if you hit the link. 2 Days, 3 Nights, on a Path Named for a Devil – NYTimes.com “From … Read more

My friend Jeanne Marie has a birthday

This was actually almost three weeks ago, and I started the post but haven’t had time to upload the pictures. Jeanne Marie Gagnon had a little (actually not so little – sorry to those whose picture I didn’t include) birthday gathering – organized by husband Damian. This was not a landmark birthday, just one of the in-betweener’s. … Read more

An essay by my friend Theresa

Theresa Bonopartis is the Director of Lumina, a service for post-abortive women. Besides counseling women, she conducts workshops for clergy and counselors who are serving women who've had abortions. Here she addresses an interesting issue; how pro-choice/pro-abortion advocates often blame religion for instilling guilt over having an abortion. It's a short essay; hit the link … Read more