The Importance of Hair

My New Hairdo 9/28/11

Hair is important... just ask any guy spending $19.95 a month on rogain, or the average woman who spends well over $100 every 5 weeks for a cut and color (don't even get me started about the additional cost of a blowout).

Millions of dollars are spent every year in salons and on styling products, and networks are starting to create reality TV shows (e.g. Tabathas Salon Takeover; Shear Genius) that showcase the "real" trials and tribulations of bobs and bangs. Even Sarah Palin's hair salon is getting its own series: Big Hair Alaska, "where the personalities of the owner and her staff are as big as the hairstyles they create."

Why all the fuss?

Hair has long been considered a source of mythological and cultural strength. Some Native American tribes believed that scalping was a way to capture their enemy's strength. In the Bible, Samson is granted unimaginable physical strength by God on the condition that he never cuts his hair. (Samson of course loses his power when Delilah finds out his secret, and has his head shaved.) Even today, certain faiths still forbid their followers to cut their hair, such as Amish women and Sikh men.

Hair is important... just ask any cancer survivor who has gone through the trauma of losing it.

I've been a frequent flyer at different cancer centers these last 15 months, always with a full head of hair. While I am grateful that carcinoid cancer really doesn't have a treatment path that leads down the way to baldness ... my locks always make me feel like a bit of an impostor - like a weak warrior on a battle field of combat veterans who wear their shiny bald heads (delicately lined with thin blue veins, wrapped in colorful silk scarves) like fierce battledress.

In the new Seth Rogen comedy, 50/50 (opening this weekend) two 20-something bosom-buddies find out that one has cancer - with a 50% chance of survival. The trailer plays a familiar scene in which they use a "questionably clean" set of body trimmers to shave off the one friend's hair, before the chemo and radiation can melt it away.

This film scene isn't fiction for one of my seniors - Tim - who did the same exact thing, two years ago. (Except he used very clean trimmers of course!)

In tenth grade, Tim was diagnosed with advanced stages of Hodgkins Lymphoma, and had to complete the year through home-tutoring and painful cancer treatments. He returned his junior year and organized the first ever PC Relay for Life, which raised over $43,000 dollars for the American Cancer Society. He and I were the speakers at Relay's opening ceremonies, and formed an instant bond. We were both thrilled that he was in my English class this year, and for the past two weeks, we have been working on his college essay.

Tim started his college essay with a memory from the day his pediatric oncologist told him, "you have cancer" for the first time. At this point, his immediate thought did not turn to the fear of dying, but to the fear of going bald. Apparently, Tim was absolutely obsessed with his hair and couldn't imagine living without it. Eventually, he decided that he needed to be the one to take his hair - not the cancer... so first he gave himself a Mohawk, and then he shaved his head.

Having the privilege of getting to know this young man, I can unequivocally state that Tim's spirit and strength could outmatch a follically endowed Samson in any battle - any day of the week.

So I think the mythology got it backwards. Hair in and of itself does not pass along secret powers to its owner... rather it is the act of losing one's hair in a deadly, knockdown-dragout fight against an invisible enemy that makes one truly heroic.

Visiting Home - Fallbrook, CA

Paradise: My Mom's Back Yard

After our Santa Fe trip, Diana and I spent a couple of days at my mom's house in Fallbrook, CA, and laid by the pool, ate great food, and met her new horse Andy.

This is Andy (and what he thinks of me)



... and this is me trying to bribe him with carrots.

After the stables - mom and I traded in the carrots for a Hawaiian lunch



...and then, Diana and I took in a car show.

Diana and I even got to see a movie during our visit: Cowboys & Aliens, which I give 5 out of 5 stars. I can't believe the critics who slammed the film... the movie is about cowboys versus aliens - what did they expect?? Like Snakes on a Plane (another classic), the movie doesn't purport to be anything more than what it is - fun, campy brilliance. (Then again, I am somewhat of an eccentric aficionado of fantastically bad B films - as evidenced by the fact that I consider Shark Attack 3: Megalodon one of the greatest movies ever made.)





On Sunday, my sister met up with Diana and I for an afternoon Padres game. Now, I'm a Yankees fan and Diana is a Giants fan - but baseball is baseball, and neither of us had been to Petco Park. On the way down to San Diego, we gave Meredith a crash course in the basic rules and strategy of baseball. It turned out to be a great game between two not-so-great teams (Padres vs. Rockies), which resulted in a win for the home team. Bonus - we had insanely good seats (15 rows from the field), which only cost $38 a piece on StubHub.





After the ballgame, we dropped Diana off at the San Diego airport for her return flight to San Francisco, and Meredith and I drove up to Claremont for some sistah time.

Allusions in Paris

Allusion: a reference in a literary work or film to a famous person, place, or thing in history, or another artistic work.


Yesterday, I lunched on popcorn and snow caps as Gary and I took in Woodie Allen's new movie, "Midnight in Paris" - which was simply fantastic.

I didn't really know anything about the film before going, except that it was about Gil (Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood movie script writer who goes to Paris to try to write something "serious", and in the process finds a portal in time back to 1920s Paris.

There were only 7 of us in the theater, so when the protagonist Gil first enters this "alternate 1920s Parisian universe" and meets "Zelda" - my gasp was clearly audible. My mind began racing - "no way, can't be" and then... Scott (as in Fitzgerald) introduced himself to a wide-eyed Gil.

Neither Gil nor I could believe our luck - not only was this a trip back to 1920s Paris - but a ticket into one of the most incredible literary and artistic group of friends history has ever known: Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, TS Eliot - somehow Gil had found my beloved "lost generation" literary heroes.

As the movie progressed, the allusions kept coming (Picasso, Matisse, Baker, Porter etc) to my delight, and I just melted into the romance of the era, good acting, breathtaking cinematography, and Allen's witty dialogue. I felt like Ceceila in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" - like somehow I had jumped into the film and was tagging along with Gil - throwing a knowing, nudging elbow here and there at inside jokes concerning these literary and artistic legends' lives.

After the film, I tried to find a list of allusions in the movie and came across several scathing reviews criticizing Allen's 1920s cameos. I was surprised by the negative reviews - claiming that the allusions were only added so pseudo intellectuals could loudly acknowledge obscure historical references with a grunt or vigorous head nod. Ridiculous. That's like claiming the creators of The Simpsons and Family Guy only put literary and artistic allusions into their shows so parents can look down their noses at their small children and dogs, and "humph" in triumph at their own intellectual superiority.

I am a high school English teacher - allusions and other literary devices are the bread and butter of my trade.

I tell my students that they need a baseline knowledge of historically and artistically important works, people and events because these "allusions" weave a fabric of common experience that present-day authors and creators draw upon to provide a richer experience for the reader or audience. In a way - allusions are a short cut to deeper understanding... If I say, "I really, really, really, really, really, love my boyfriend" - that only conveys a vague explanation of my emotions... but if I say, "I love my boyfriend as much as Juliet loved Romeo" suddenly, the depth of my relationship is more clearly conveyed.

Allusions are important, and intellectually satisfying - as demonstrated beautifully by Allen's film. Through Gil's charming relationships with literary and artistic giants of the past, he reveals a simple but important truth: sometimes the enchantment of nostalgia can prevent us from seeing the beauty of the present.

You better believe that I'm showing a clip from this film after I teach "The Great Gatsby" - and I can guarantee the smiles and "ohhhs" of understanding from my students will not be mere feigned intellectual prowess, but honest reflections of the wonderment they will feel when they realize that they are finally in on the inside jokes.

Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D.

"I look for zebras because other doctors have ruled out all the horses." Gregory House, M.D.

Last May, I wrote a blog post chronicling appearances of "carcinoid" on the popular show House, M.D. (one of my mom's favorite shows). Recently, I came across this "insider's guide" to House - with a title too good not to include in my blog.

BOOK EXCERPT:

“It is an axiom of medicine: 'when you hear hoofbeats, you think horses, not zebras.' Dr. Gregory House and his elite team of diagnostic fellows chase medicine’s “zebras” — the anomalies, the odd presentations, the diseases so rare that most doctors would not have encountered them in a normal medical practice.

House, M.D. is, itself, a zebra in a herd of horses. It is a rare find of a show blessed with consistently sharp, intelligent writing: densely packed and multifaceted. It features one of the most complex characters ever to have been written for the small screen, Dr. Gregory House, brought to life through Hugh Laurie’s brilliant and nuanced performance."

Title: Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D.
Author: Barbara Barnett
Genre: Television Nonfiction
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Ecw Press (September 1, 2010)
Available on Amazon

CBS Cares

While typing up a vocab quiz, I had an old episode of Criminal Minds playing in the background... only half-way listening, I had to pause and rewind a recent PSA from CBS to make sure I had heard it right. I have no idea if they were purposely trying to be funny or not, but it's SNL classic stuff. The script reads:

"Seen a lot of movements since the 60s, but no movement is more powerful than the one you experience when you're preparing for a colonoscopy, because colonoscopies save lives. Talk to your doctor. CBS cares."

If you've ever had to do a "bowel prep" for a colonoscopy or similar procedure, I'm sure you'll agree that no truer words have ever been spoken.

Steve Jobs: Silent Neuroendocrine Tumor Survivor

In 2010, Forbes Magazine estimated Apple's Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs's net worth at 5.5 billion dollars, and Fortune magazine named Jobs as the single most influential person in business. Despite his money and influence, however, Steve Jobs has failed miserably in one critical area: as a survivor advocate for neuroendocrine tumors.

Neuroendocrine tumors (NET) cause carcinoid cancer, and Jobs had one. Like most things Apple, news of Jobs's health has been kept tightly under wraps, despite swirling conjecture. The first confirmation of cancer came from Jobs himself in an August 2004 email to employees, which he wrote from his hospital bed after having an islet cell pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor removed. The email was upbeat and boldly claimed that the surgery had "cured" him of cancer. Then, he went silent.

Jobs's ongoing secrecy about his cancer and treatment has spurred some outrageously false media reports, including a mistakenly published obituary by Bloomberg financial newswire in 2008. But instead of using these media glitches as an opportunity for advocacy, Jobs has just laughed them off - even jokingly quoting Mark Twain: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated".

So it was no surprise that Jobs made big news in March 2010 when he agreed to stand by Arnold Schwarzenegger's side at a press conference introducing new organ donor legislation. In front of reporters, Jobs publicly revealed that he had received a liver transplant in 2009, and spoke passionately about needing a "media campaign" to make an otherwise uniformed public aware of the need for organ donations. Again - Jobs said nothing about his rare underlying cancer, which is most likely the reason why he had to get a liver transplant in the first place.

Jobs's comments were akin to a parent at a GM press conference arguing for better breaks after losing a child in a drunk driving accident. While no one can argue against the importance of organ donations (or breaks), the root cause of the tragedy remains buried thereby squandering a unique opportunity to emotionally reach people on a life-saving issue.

I understand that Jobs is considered an indispensable asset to consumer confidence in Apple, which in turn affects stock prices; but as Charles de Gualle once said, "the graveyards of the world are filled with indispensable men." What if Jobs's legacy wasn't simply a cool phone and snazzy computer? What if he stopped looking for the hottest new gadget and started inspiring others to look for a cure for neuroendocrine tumors?

Charles de Gualle also said, "Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own." I hope that someday Jobs will make the fight against neuroendocrine tumors and carcinoid cancer his own, and use his iconic status to convince the world to join him.

Sloan-Kettering in Criminal Minds

Anyone who knows me also knows that I am obsessed with crime dramas - especially criminal profiling. For all you "Criminal Minds" fans, I was recently watching a marathon and one of the episodes gave a shout-out to my hospital, Sloan-Kettering.

Episode: What Fresh Hell?

Summary: When a young girl is abducted in broad daylight from a playground in a seemingly safe neighborhood, the BAU initially believes her father is responsible. When he is able to provide an alibi, the team is forced to look for clues near where the girl lives to determine who is really responsible. What was the father's alibi? He tells agent Gideon that he was at Sloan-Kettering Hospital, secretly receiving cancer treatments in NYC when she was abducted.

House Md on FOX Television

One of my very good friends loves the show House Md., which is a television show about a cantankerous yet brilliant doctor (named House) who is the Sherlock Holmes of rare diseases. When I told her about my cancer, she said that she had heard about carcinoids on the show. So for all you House fans out there, here is a list of episodes in which carcinoids make a guest appearance:


Season 1 Episode 3 "Occam's Razor" (Chase hypothesizes patient has a carcinoid)
Season 1 Episode 5 "Damned if You Do" (Cameron hypothesizes patient has a carcinoid)
Season 1 Episode 14 "Control" (Wilson does a CT scan to rule out carcinoid)
Season 5 Episode 10 "Let Them Eat Cake" (Kutner hypothesizes patient has a carcinoid)
Season 5 Episode 18 "Here Kitty" - (Final diagnosis - by House of course - is carcinoid tumor of the appendix)