If You Can Find The Time.

If you are a music fan, but are not sure that classical is your music du jour choice,  I would recommend picking up a music CD entitled "Tchaikovsky At Tea Time."

It is on the Philips label: #28945 44982 and is a compilation. If your memories of Tchaikovsky are primarily The 1812 Overture - a rather challenging piece - this CD will be like a breath of fresh air. It is recommended for nurseries of small kids, as well.

I often put this CD on out on the lanaii when I'm reading the paper or just musing like a Pa Kettle lookalike, rocking away in his rocker while Ma Kettle says, "Hush children - your Pa is thunkin."

In the Sullivan household the CD is a favorite of my wife Phyl and myself - but not Bella.

Apparently the opening bars of the andante cantabile (a really relaxing part of the String Quartet No.1 in D)  was not meant for tiny Chihuahuas with delicate hearing.

Playing this selection when she's around never ceases to cause Bella to start her own sing-along with blood curdling moans.

Another recommendation, "If you can find the time" - and might be in a relaxing Bossa Nova mood is a  CD by Stan Getz entitled  "The Bossa Nova Years (Girl From Ipanema)" - one by Paul Desmond entitled "Bossa Antigua" - and finally one that son Bruce played for me in Pittburgh and later rewarded me with, entitled "Salsamba" - which was recorded in a Pittsburgh studio.

You will note that my recommendations so far are strictly musical. I would not dare to suggest a clothing style or particular fashion look. As you, who have read my blog, probably will recall, I was still wearing Knickers in the 5th grade.
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Finally, I definitely endorse a reading on the health cost mystery.

Be prepared. It requires a judicious use of time and patience but will clarify for you  (probably for the first time) just why we spend 20% of our gross domestic product on health care - twice as much as most other developed countries which get the same or better health outcomes..

If you like reality stories with heroes and villains you'll find them all here.

The biggest villain, and one which you probably never heard of,  is "The Chargemaster"- which Time Magazine calls "the mysterious internal pricelist for products and services that every hospital in the U.S. keeps." (and which few hospital administrators can or will attempt to explain - partially because they don't understand it themselves).

However, it is the key ingredient in our disastrous health insurance costs and most responsible for the hospitals charging  (as an example) a 10,000%  markup for acetaminophen - and, that's only for a starter.

The story also makes clear why the hospitals - in true Pac-Man fashion- are eating up the smaller hospitals in your area as well as several physician practices - simply to keep your medical carriers from being able to negotiate substantial discounts on those bills you are receiving.

It is a fascinating story and one that my wife - a former large hospital bill negotiator for a large insurance company - can confirm is costing us one helluva lot of money - and it is doubtful Congress will ever step in to apply an anti-trust remedy.

Other villains uncovered are "the usual suspects": the grossly overpaid Hospital administrators, the manufacturers of hospital equipment, lobbyists, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, doctors who accept pay for being so-called drug company advisors - one political party that simply refuses to do anything about tort reform - and another party that the hospital and drug industry lobbyists all have in their collective hip pockets.

Spoiler alert: The identity of the real hero involved here will surprise you if you've been previously sucked in by all the media drivel.

It's called Medicare - and Brill reveals how they could actually do even more if Congress did not tie their hands by allowing them to only pay "the approximate costs" of care. 

For all of us who struggle with the high costs of medical insurance it should be required reading.

It is a 24,105 word story that became my "segmental" reading choice in "Barry's Bathroom". It is also a incredibly clear explanation as to why our health costs are so outrageous.

The information resource here is the March 4, 2013 issue of Time Magazine which has a Special Report entitled "The Bitter Pill" by author Stephen Brill (the founder of Court TV). It is subtitled "The Free market in American medicine is a myth with or without Obamacare".

In your library it will be Vol. 181, No.8| 2013

Once more we have clearly been underserved by our elected officials - which is an enigma we appear unwilling to attempt to resolve.

Like the blog title says, "If You can Find The Time". (pun intended)