The Royals?

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

The complex plans of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan and Harry, have further mystified me as to: Why the Royals?

An elected Prime Minister is the key executive and yet they have a queen. The queen and her family follow somewhat rigid royal protocol. They are paid a large annual sum by the populace. What for?

With nearly three quarters of a century on what Pearl Buck called “The Good Earth” I am at a loss. I understand reading good history and even walking the old cobblestone streets. It’s fun. But, overpaid nobles to which people bow? That seems a relic.

Maybe if I reach 100 I will have an inkling of what this is about. But why Brexit to eliminate powerful Common Market bureaucrats would pass and the Royals continue unabated is a mystery within a mystery.

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Why I Love California

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

From the age of ten I was an avid Rose Bowl watcher. That included the parade and the game.

As a seven year old from Dayton Ohio, my dad took me to Columbus to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes play football. He had actually been a boy scout usher in that stadium on opening day, October 7, 1922. It was the biggest thrill of my early childhood. The color. The game. The cheering crowd.

The Rose Bowl contract was between the Pac 10 and Big 10 ( Ohio State’s conference). So, I watched.

But I became engaged with the magnificent skyline and climate in Southern California. I had never lived anywhere with mountains. They painted the horizon in the Rose Festival. To this day I can see the mountains and a few minutes away the Pacific from our home in SoCal.

I suppose the attachment goes deeper than that. My…

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Two Medical Mysteries

A portion of a liver can be severed surgically and then regrow. “We don’t know how a liver knows to grow back to just the right size and then stop growing, but it is lucky for some of us that it does.” (Bill Bryson, The Body).

In addition the trophoblastic cells that implant the placenta in the uterus are the only cells we know of that stop invading human tissue unlike cancer cells. If only we knew what made them cease and desist.

I leave these fascinating questions to eager young medical scientists who have it all ahead of them. May God bless them with the same kind of skill that has characterized the heroes, who, in record time, produced safe, effective COVID 19 vaccines.