Stacy Horn

I’m participating in a clinical trial at NYU. Their purpose is to identify biomarkers for the early detection of lung cancer. My purpose: the low dose ct scan you get on the 1st visit. Low dose ct scans are recommended for people with a long history of smoking, except they now say if you quit 15 years ago or more you don’t need to get it. I was this close to withdrawing from the study because I quit 25 years ago. But I talked to my doctor, and I was a heavy, heavy, heavy smoker. I’ve decided the radiation exposure is worth the risk. My appointment is this afternoon!

The picture below is of the ceiling inside Grand Central Station. I recently read Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale and the main character has a hide out there. Every time I pass through Grand Central Station I look up and search for a possible opening. Much of the history in Winter’s Tale is based in fact and so I’m sure there’s an entrance to that ceiling. (It must be from the catwalk, of course, but I suspect there is an opening in the ceiling.)

A must watch. You will thank me. I now want to re-do my last book proposal after watching this. I love these guys.

[Video removed because the link no longer works.]

Everything is freaking me out today. It didn’t help that I started reading this horrifying article in the Times about a woman trying to get her father out of hospitals and nursing homes so he could die at home. I’d recommend reading this just to know how the system works (and doesn’t work). Which reminds me …

Note to Douglas and Robin and Karen and Peter: That article made me appreciate even more how wonderfully you managed our mother’s (or mother-in-law’s) end of life.

I haven’t read this article yet, about the national panel that found we needed to overhaul our end-of-life care at every level. I will save that for another day.

Now I need to curl up with a pile of cats. I’m writing a new song for my cats by the way. So far it goes: I love you cats, I’d love even if you were bats, but not if you were tarantulas, so it’s really good you’re not.

People watching the People’s Climate March going by.

“Free” cookies on 11th Street. It’s nice, but would you eat cookies sitting out on a chair on the street? I think my problem is I was raised on “Don’t eat apples or unwrapped candy” and instructions like it on Halloween.

I am war weary. We never ever ever ever should have invaded Iraq. We completely destabilized the region and we’ve been “playing” wack-a-mole ever since. Yes, it’s more complicated than that and there is more history than that, but that is the step that sent us off the cliff.

My friend’s backyard, on Pancake Hollow Road. She lives in Poughkeepsie, surrounded by apple orchards. I have a basket of apples from them in my kitchen right now!