An ode to old movies...the best part of being sick!

Ok...so I've had this horrible summer flu (at least I hope its just the flu!), but one of the best parts about convalescing is allowing myself the guilty pleasure of catching up on my old movies. I am a big fan of the black and whites, as well as most Westerns from the 1940s and 50s. In my humble opinion, they do not make movies like they did back then. It is amazing to watch films like Casablanca, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Broken Lance, The Heiress, anything John Wayne, and on and on and on, of course, ending with perhaps the greatest movie of all time, Citizen Kane. To watch how these films are crafted, written, how the plots play out....is just breathtaking to watch! And as a testament to how great these movies were, just look at how many are remade or copied today!!!

Of course, one of the best sources for these movies, besides going out and buying them, is the Turner Classic Movie cable channel . They show nonstop classic movies, with theme nights (last night they showed all Billy Wilder movies!). They also boast a terrific website that gives great insight and information into these classics! Getting to watch these movies almost made me forget how sick I felt, as I tend to get so involved in the storylines, even in movies I have seen many times before!!

So...if you are in the mood to spend some quality time watching a good movie, sick or not, either turn on TCM, go to the video store or your local library, and pick up one of these classics to take home and watch...you won't regret it!

What next?????

Ok...I think I am going to continue with the theme of outrageous medical therapies. Now, once again, I need to give a big thanks to great friend of mine (Thanks T!!) for pointing out this website to me: Lasik@Home , where the opthalmologist who started the business, sells you the equipment to do your own lasik surgery at home!!! Lasik stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK), where the opthalmologist makes radial cuts in the eye to correct your vision so that you no longer have to wear glasses. When the procedure first came out many years ago, doctors used to charge many thousands of dollars for the procedure, but, as the pool of patients needing the procedure has dissipated, the cost has continued to drop. However, even as the technology has improved, it continues to require the precise, accurate use of a laser in the hands of a well-trained physician.

Now, here comes this opthalmologist who wants to sell you a kit to do your own laser surgery at home!! The key to the kit is the Scal-Pal™ Scanning Adjusting Laparascopic Personal Laser (see the photo above!). This is a hand held laser so you can perform your own laser correction surgery!!! Included with the kit is not only the laser, but also a sedative, no blink eyedrops and instruction manual!!!! This can all be done in four easy steps !!!
Basically, you look for a quiet place, use your drops, point the laser to your eye, and pull the trigger. Of course, the most important thing is NOT TO BLINK!!!! And what does all this little miracle cost? A MERE $99.95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now for that price, isn't it worth a shot????

Now I can just see this scenario...you finally decide to take the plunge and try doing your own home LASIK surgery. You find a nice quiet place...you set up the laser...you hold it to your eye...you pull the trigger...and BAM!!..the dog starts barking...you slip...and end up in the ER with seared eyeball.....

Of course, the website has a heart: "LASIK@Home is committed to bringing clear vision to those less fortunate. We encourage you to donate your old eyeglasses to your local school, Lions Club, or other charity." If they were so concerned, maybe they should throw a few kits to their way???

Home laser eye surgery....its not for the faint of heart or hand....so I ask again....what's next???

Urine Therapy....wtf?

A Russian colleague of mine (ok...yes...he is a newly American citizen....so must give him his props) introduced me to a website. He prefaced this introduction by telling me...only in Russia....it is a website from the Moscow Institute for Urine Therapy, a medical clinic in promoting the use of urine for medicinal purposes. Now my Russian is pretty crappy these days, so my friend translated it for me, and I use babelfish for a rough, and mind you, rough translation of the webpages (which actually makes it that much more "interesting", since a lot of the translation is a bit shaky!)The institute is actual called the Urine Institute, with the subtitle "to avoid the doctor's scalpel". But this website claims that they can use urine therapy to cure various ailments that conventional medicine fails at helping. They claim that their urine therapy can be used for upper respiratory ailments, libido, Alzheimer's, fitness, back ailments,etc! You name it, urine therapy can cure it!

They make the following statement about their urine:

"The urine, which we sell - truly Russian urine. Under the thorough control passes the selection of candidates for the blood donation - it is carried out genetic examination, checking by the genealogical through the Public Archives, the numerous interviews and the consultations of psychologist - we everything do for this reason the buyers of our urine would be being absolutely assured in the fact that precisely our product rightfully was worthy to be called Russian urine."

This, of course, makes me feel a lot better about using their products!

Click here to see their product page. As an example, they have a product called "sea breeze":



"sea breeze"

It possesses unique taste and aroma; the unique formula of cleaning; over steadfast therapeutic effect; it is rekomendovan for the preventive maintenance of the diseases of the upper respiratory tract; to 80% more effective than traditional medicinal analogs. (see the bottle on the right!)

The amazing thing to me is, after researching it further, apparently urine therapy is a lot more widespread than I ever imagined! For a nice overview, see the Wikipedia entry on the subject of urine therapy! Of the links on this website, the most comprehensive, if you want to truly learn more about urine therapy, is a neat compendium done by Vanderbilt University. It seems that there are actually quite a few proponents of urine therapy as part of the alternative medicine world.

So...if you ain't feeling quite right...give urine therapy a try! And if you like it, remember, there are franchise opportunities out there for you if you so choose!!!!