"THE WORLD IS ALIVE.." 'Bettejo Dux'-----Bettejo is a columnist in the Garden Island newpaper and author of the Novella, "The Scam."www.bettejodux.com

...with the sound of nature. A song that's been sung for a thousand years. This world fills my heart with the sound of nature. My hearts wants to sing every song it hears.

Oh, boy, I really got going this morning. The roosters in the Kalaheo hillside were out in force. I've heard roosters only crow when they've been awakened by a light. One sees a light, wakes up another rooster-who probably hasn't seen the light- and pretty soon the scattered flock is chiming in, sounding up, and joining the chorus.

If that's true, we woke them first. That's a switch.

They don't write letters to the Forum complaining. Guess I'll have to do it for them. I stand staunchly on the side of the rooster. Turn out the darn lights. Probably some drunk coming home late.

I think I'm lucky I live in old Hawaii. Surrounded by lots of open space. Cleanest, freshest air. Green hillsides full of cattle, horses, goats. Birds a twitter- when twitter was a sound and not a space in cyber. "The sound of cattle mooing is a comforting sound," my neighbor once said. I like that. Once a bellering mama cow, trying to give birth, kept the entire neighborhood up all night. We were all relieved- and delighted- when a healthy happy baby boy plopped out at glorious sunrise in a grassy green pasture. His mama was vey proud,.She licked him dry, and soon he was up and on his wobbly feet slurping breakfast.

We named him Sunny.

He lived a short fat life of luxury. Free. Fed. Watered. Loved. He gamboled. Then we grocked him to fullness. His parting was swift. Painless. I won his liver. Oh, my, does anyone remember the taste of grass fed calf liver? You have't lived.

Soon at a little ladiys' afternoon party-back when I was doing 'little lady'- the right red or white stemmed wine glasses, little fingers coiled, hair coifed, beef liver pate on a porcelain plate-a darling feral piglet, in broad daylight, invited itself in. I was proud of my guests. Not one of them fainted. We fed it crackers and cheese, it had such a soft little piggy snout, and soon trotted off to find his mama when she snorted.

And you want to talk about bird noise in the morning? Back in Transpac days with a rollicking frolicking drunken fleet of drunken sailors-boys and girl-awoke hungover to the max in Lahaina and those blankety blank mynahs- at least a zillion of them in- in the Monkey-pods hastened all us hung over morning after nuts-quckly to the bar at the Pioneer Inn to ease the pain. Pushing through the crow of groaning staggering mankind I threw rocks at the trees and swore. When I was racing with my husband I could swear in fourteen languages. Sailors swear.

I'm getting better. I only swear, under my breath, at Kauai Rooster haters.

I will defend, to the death, the rights of sleep deprived roosters, to crow. So there.

"Death, taxes and eating organic..." 'James "Kimo" Rosen' This blog also appeared as my column in the 11-05-13 , Kaua'i garden Island news

http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/guest/death-taxes-and-eating-organic/article_a9d4fa5e-4508-11e3-b02a-0019bb2963f4.html

Death, taxes and eating organic

If carbonated beverages, hot dogs, french fries and fried chicken also known as comfort foods were known as healthy alternative foods would you eat them more often? How many people actually given the choice between the perfect french fries or carrot sticks, would choose carrot sticks? My guess is the majority would prefer french fries? 

Recently  a big box store sold a batch of organic berries from Oregon where 87 people nationwide including  5 people in Hawai'i  contacted the  Hepatitis A virus.
http://www.komonews.com/news/health/Hepatitis-A-linked-to-frozen-berries-sickens-Washington-211038151.html

Sometimes eating organic really is not that healthy after all. There have been numerous accounts of organic produce, meats and poultry being recalled for salmonella, botulism, E.coli  and many other life threatening diseases. I have never heard of a GMO being recalled, but that's for another column.

Pesticides can be used in the growing of “organic” vegetables and fruits, and often are. They just must be derived from natural sources, not synthetically manufactured. My question, is this any better? Not to me.  Just because it’s a “natural” pesticide,  doesn't necessarily mean it’s safer or even good for you. For further reading check out the article;"Eating Organic may be harmful-  the truth behind organic produce."
 http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/03/eating-organic-may-be-harmful-the-truth-behind-organic-produce-doug-smith/

Did you know that the french fries at Burger King  are cooked in trans fat-free vegetable oil and do not contain animal products,while the side salad ranch dressing alone has 240 calories--ironically, making the value sized  french fries with 200 calories a more healthy alternative to a side salad and dressing.

My brother in laws brother a strict vegetarian for many years and the poster child for eating healthy died a young man at age 53 from Leukemia. An obese friend of mine who ate almost anything  she desired her whole life lived into her mid 80's.

What really aids longevity? Some say happiness, some say diet, some say genetics? Nobody can answer why a smoker may live longer than a non smoker, or why a junk food junkie can live longer than a someone practicing a strict vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.

Kauai has a huge alternative vegan and vegetarian culture believing they are living a healthier lifestyle. For some it may be true, for others it may not. There are people that need the proteins from meat, poultry and fish to function optimally, while others can get by without.

The answer seems  different with everyone.
Is it possible many things we know are wrong concerning health? Could it be that the all American hot dog is the new health food? Remember one mans meat is another mans poison.

I recently saw a bumper sticker that said, "Try organic food...or as our grandparents called it, "Food!" My favorite organic food joke; the wife says to the produce manager,"these vegetables are for my husband, have they been sprayed with any poisonous chemicals?" The produce manager replies, "No, ma'am,you'll have to do that yourself." 


Whether it's fat free, sugar free, or gluten free, or whether your a carnivore, vegetarian , vegan, hot dog junkie or keep kosher. One things for sure-- death, taxes and eating organic, nobody's getting out of here alive.

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"The Elderly Need Advocates..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspiration Sunday)

Judith Whitehead pictured above with her 94 year old father, Bert.
Judith lives in Amherst New York and has worked in the ophthalmology field of
medicine for over 30 years and counting...

The Elderly Need Advocates

The elderly need an advocate to be their mouthpiece
I have worked with the elderly population for many years in the medical field, have a bachelors degree
in Gerontology and  have seen people suffering from dementia in many stages.
Recently my elderly dad became very ill with a blood infection, high fever and Kidney infection; he was
taken to the ER for diagnosis and treatment.  Being 94 yrs old, confused and with some dementia he was
combative and scared.  Within 12 hours he was in a room to begin treatment for his sepsis; the quickest
mode of treatment was with IV antibiotics  and hydration.   The next morning he declined to drink any
fluids, was tired of having his veins collapse and was very angry.  His case was given to a “hospitalist”
which is who  inpatients are now assigned when entering a hospital for care.  She spent a very short
time with him and made a judgement call…she decided to call palliative  and  hospice in for a consult
with the family; in other words, make him comfortable,  and not treat his infection.  Needless to say, I was livid.
In no uncertain terms I informed her we would not be giving up on his so easy;  we started an oral pill
the next day.  He began to respond, feel better, lost his fever and his white count dropped after a few
days to the normal level.  He began to eat hearty meals and was able to return to his assisted living
facility in 4 days.
The hospitalist made a judgement call.  Do we look at the elderly now as disposable; are they no longer
going to receive the best care first before giving up on them?  Do we feel their lives are no more
important than a 50 year old with the same symptoms? I can see if he had had an ailment that was not
reversible; I can see if extraordinary   measures were being asked of us; they were not. He merely had a
bad infection that could have been treated and by God it was.

His life may not be a bed of roses; true his mental capabilities are not what they used to be and he has
limited motion but was by no means ready to pack it in yet.

I hope health care is not veering  in this direction;  I hope our concern for cost effective measures do not
outweigh the compassion and concern for our elderly that they so greatly need.  We are all going to live
longer lives with the medical advances available today; we had better learn to make better calls when
evaluating our senior patients. It’s a scary world out there if you are alone and elderly; line up an

advocate to be your mouthpiece in advance for these occurrences’ for they happen without warning.

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"Channeling Andy Rooney..." 'James "Kimo" Rosen'

Channeling Andy Rooney

Andy Rooney the former sixty minutes commentator who always had the last word is my mentor. He is my favorite writer, columnist and satirist of all time. I used to watch the CBS show, Sixty minutes religiously only for the last 3 minutes with Andy Rooney. He was off the wall, always had a point and always made me laugh. I miss Andy Rooney.

 If I could  had spoke with him I might had started my conversation with his famous refrain,"Did you ever wonder." Did you ever wonder why you are actually talking to me? I would answer, because of the Prozac I slipped in your drink?

Andy Rooney was  the reason I watched "60 minutes." Most of the shows anchor's are well advanced senior citizens and without Rooney the show has pretty much sealed it's fate.

Rooney was blogging before blogging was even a word, or people knew what blogging was. I  call Rooney the original blogger, the guy who blogged before  it became a word. Mr. Rooney had the best job in the world.

 If  Mr. Rooney could write an essay from beyond it  might begin;"Did you ever wonder why they say people "pass away?" What have they passed, footballs, baseballs or maybe just a little gas? Rest in Peace Mr. Rooney, and Mahalo Nui Loa for being my mentor...

I am currently  reading a book of essays I  purchased at the Kapa'a library's annual book sale by Andy Rooney.  The book is titled,"Uncommon Sense" and only cost me  fifty cents. With that said,  I    hope to channel Andy Rooney with my own thoughts and words on the usage of the word zero. here goes; 

"Did you ever wonder why" sports commentators always announce the  score as 14-Oh, instead of 14-zero?. I was always taught as a child that  'Oh' is a letter not a number. When talking numbers one should use zero, not Oh.

I had a hard time explaining  this to my students in Japan when I was teaching English as a second language back in the day. The students always wanted to say Oh, in lieu of zero? They watch American movies, sports  and TV and often hear Oh used to represent zero.

It's never the other way around, nobody ever says, zero boy, or Zero man, it's always  Oh boy, or Oh man.

Oh is oh, and zero is zero.  With that said, others insist on saying the score is 35-zip. Zip seems better than Oh, just because Zip begins with a Z, just like zero.

Many will call the score 35- nothing. I still like nothing better than Oh, but not as much as zip when representing zero.

Zero is one of the few words in the English language that begin with Z. The only letter with less words , are words beginning with X. My pocket dictionary show only  six pages for the heading" XYZ." Why are there so few words beginning with X,Y, and Z? Since there are so few words beginning with  these letters it's important to use as many Z words as possible, zero boy, hope this makes sense.

Whether it's nothing, zip,  or oh, zero is what I was taught to use in elementary school. The teachers drilled me that Oh was not a number and when I would accidently say Oh instead of zero I was made to stand in the corner.

Thinking back on that teacher she was a big  zero , a big zip, a big nothing or should I say  a big Oh?

 Did you ever wonder why they say rest in peace?We miss you Andy, RIP. 

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"Lovers..." Bettejo Dux

Bettejo Dux has lived  on the Cosmic island  Garden Island
of Kaua'i over 30 years. She is a weekly columnist in the local
newspaper (The Garden Island News) and is a published author
of the Novella "The Scam." Order your copies below.
www.bettejodux.com

Lovers

I’m stuck on the love boat. The emotion is such a powerful one it can be applied to anything. For an example: I love tomato soup. I mean, I  love it. So does my digestive system. So do my taste buds. With my  lovable Vita-Mix I can build a  tomato soup that never tastes the same way twice.

Those are my taste buds talking, In my new book, Children of  the Extinction, the kids do a lot of eating and, as I sit at my computer, I get a raging case of the munchies. Good thing I enjoy non- fattening snacks.

There are loves that strike my ears, too. I love Gaite Parisienne and Joan Baez . I love  harps and  pipes and the song of the birds.  The screech of the parrot,  the thunder of a peacock’s voice.

Fragrance?  I love Shalimar. My mother always smelled of Shalimar. Her closets. Her dresser drawers. Her bathroom. Your could nose her presence a block away.

For the eyes?  I love green plants, tall trees, red  flowers. I love blue skies, grey skies, gold skies in the morning, red skies at night. I love moon glow, star shine and rainbow glitter. Ever seen a moon rainbow? ‘They’ say you’re not an Hawaiian until you've seen one.

‘They’ say los of things.

I love ink on paper. Words. I love the English  language. I love Vonnegut and Thurber and Sandberg.

What do I love to touch the most? My horse’s thick mane, my dog’s silky ears.   I guess, today, what I love  most  are animals.  All animals. The good, the bad and the ugly. A world without animals? Horrors.

I recall a debate as to whether animals have souls. It’s an interesting idea to a devout non-believer-who does not ‘believe’ in souls, but who does know, if there is such a thing, animals have one, too.

Gary Zukov,of all people, one of the finest interpreters of frontier science, believes animals have collective souls. His Seat of the Soul is a “readable , thought provoking (work) on how our perceptions must change dramatically if we are to survive.” If you have a curious, loving mind I hope you find and read it.

What I do know from years of observation? From an open mind that can look and ask questions and not get totally lost in the god/no god thing?  Loving all animals, that’s us, too, is a good idea.. Our closest living relative  is the chimp. We can exchange blood- providing our type is the same, of course- and that, to me, a devout non believer  is a wonderful thing to think.  I love that we’re related to this incredible creature.

I hope all of you reading this will share with me this love. Will love all animals on this planet. Even us guys.

The essence is all about love. The love of life. Be thankful you’re a living thing on such a beautiful planet. Let’s hope greedy,  lesser minds do not destroy it.

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"Hospital Visits, Think Again..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspiration Sunday)

Judith Whitehead pictured above with her 94 year old father, Bert.
Judith lives in Amherst New York and has worked in the ophthalmology field of
medicine for over 30 years and counting...

Hospital Visits, Think Again

If You think you are safe in the hospital and are 94…think again….

Recently my dad was hospitalized for a serious blood infection and kidney infection; he had sepsis.  Being out of sorts, feverish and out of his element he was not happy. Having difficulty finding collapsed veins and not wanting to eat a hospitalist took a look at him and made a judgement call; he’s 94, has dementia and is combative…let’s call in palliative care and hospice to talk to the family.   By no means is my dad ready to buy the farm yet.  

If he had been younger, this option  would have not even been brought to the table.  Needless to say, after my intervention, he was put on oral antibiotics and responded well to them, started eating like a horse and was released from the hospital 3 days later on my insistence.  

We better keep an eye on our elderly because snap decisions can seal their fate!


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"The Newspaper..." 'Obama Da Dog'

Obama Da Dog enjoying the newspaper!

The Newspaper

Can you imagine your grandparents having  read the newspaper and seeing comments like,"IMHO , LOL, and WTF?" Let me start by saying that "WTF" does not stand for Wednesday,Thursday and Friday and In my honest opinion (IMHO) I have never told anyone I am Laughing out loud, (LOL)maybe a smiley face or a tehe, but LOL?

A recent survey  stated more people get their news from the Internet than from newspapers — and more ad dollars went to online outlets than to newspapers. This trend is growing  toward electronic journalism and in the near future  we may not have the luxury of choosing to read a real hard copied newspaper which in itself would be a travesty.

I have been reading the Garden Island News online for almost ten years now. I use to comment to the stories I found interesting and after a few years quit commenting because of the venomous hate from other commenters should you disagree with them. These were the commenters that preached Aloha, that's if you agreed with them, if you didn't agree with them, they were out to get you.

Two weeks ago I decided to subscribe to the Garden Island newspaper, the real thing, the hard copy. The way I read the paper as a young man and youth. I forget how wonderful reading the newspaper can be.  I was not tempted to comment to a story with the potential of being verbally abused  by another commenter that may had disagreed with me.  I do not have to worry about spilling my coffee on my computer and having an expensive repair or having a virus stop me from reading a certain article.

Just relaxing with the Garden island News with my morning coffee in my favorite recliner, dog at my side, is a comfort I had forgotten. 

Reading the hard copy, I do not see all the varied opinions expressed through the comments board. It is comforting reading the newspaper without  other readers chiming in.  I just read the paper without talking back. It's relaxing and feels wonderful to just read the paper like our ancestors did many years ago.

For anyone trying to save a few bucks by reading online, there is still nothing like the Sunday paper.  There are many inserts not available online that are only available with a real hard copied  newspaper that  can save you enough money to pay for the subscription because of  all the coupons to  many stores and restaurants. I  found  coupons  for  free taco's  and  two for one dinners that I never would had found reading online. I was also able to read the comic section in color on Sunday, Charlie, Lucy and Snoopy still make me laugh.

With all the political hate, and social media hoopla out there--along  locally on Kauai  with bill 2491 which has torn a community apart. It  finally  feels awesome to read a newspaper uninterrupted again without commenters ruining the  enjoyment of reading the paper.

I had forgotten the beauty and   fun of asking  others in the living room with you ,"could someone please pass me the sports section?

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