A Michigan Fall
When I am home alone, which is most of the time, I have an
evening routine. I ride my stationary
bike for 30 minutes, thus pretending to stay in shape. Then I watch the BBC news, while imbibing a
vodka and tonic. Next I fix dinner, then
sit down to eat it. While eating I like
to watch a TV program from On Demand, which – as most of you probably know –
records certain popular shows for watching later. Until recently this has worked out well, because
it takes me about 44 minutes to eat dinner and that happens to be the length of
an hour-long TV show – divested of commercials.
Lately, however, they have been fixing the shows I like to watch so that
you HAVE to watch the ads – Fast Forward disabled. Thus the show lasts a full hour, and I rarely
stick around for the conclusion. It
follows that, since I usually watch cop dramas, I never find out who done
it. A small thing, but irritating.
The worst of the ads I am forced to walk features a well-known
black movie star, whose name escapes me at the moment, urging me to use the
Capital One credit card. So why is this
important? Because, when I tried to
watch the video that accompanies the link I am about to describe to you, I first
had to watch that same damned commercial!
So, click on the link given below, but skip the video.
The article concerns a boy who entered a clinical trial studying
an immunotherapy response to a type of leukemia that was killing him. The trial, conducted at the University of
Pennsylvania, studies the effects of removing T cells from the patient’s body
and somehow “re-programing” them to attack cancer cells. So far it seems to be successful. T-cells are a part of the immune arsenal, and
I have written about this kind of therapy before. It holds excellent promise for the future. Let’s all hope the poor kid doesn’t
relapse.
I was alerted to this article by faithful reader
Parkfriend. Parkfriend lives in Canada,
and has done so for many years. She is an
American by birth and education, but has taken on a Canadian persona to the
extent that she now wastes vowels in such words as honorable, and (no doubt)
pronounces “strength” as if it rhymes with “tenth”. Strong medicine, that Canadian culture – don’t
visit too often!
Sorry, Parkfriend – just kidding.
Always cool to see a treatment that works. Hopeful and inspiring.
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