Frail-ing Youth: Orthopedic Weakness -- Part 1

I hate compound fractures: Just to warn you, Kevin Ware's injury occurs at 0:24:

One of my middle-aged  FB friends had an interesting question regarding this:

"Is this normal, or could it be an indication of a serious orthopedic condition? I'm having a hard time understanding exactly why his leg should have snapped like that." 

Kevin Ware is a young man, yes, but nowadays being young is no factor for adding these injuries to the "impossible" file. Just the right impact the the perfect angle could either snap your leg in half or just pull it up under you.

Anyone who's ever attended a college game has seen how often these players tumble, leap, and spring around the court with the position of any lower appendages being a second thought. All that work on their legs will do damage in good time. Kevin's predicament has been witnessed in other athletes like Joe Theismann or Joba Chamberlain, but bone and joint problems should not be seen as issues isolated to the sports world.

I am DEFINITELY not an athlete, but too long ago I began suffering chronic knee pain. With every step I took up and down the stairs, sharp pangs traveled through my knee caps. I thought I was developing Arthritis. But here was the problem--I'm 30 years old-- only 2 years younger than Kevin Ware. I was too young to have arthritis-- or at least I thought.

Another cause of knee pain is obesity. The knees were nerve meant to carry more than so much body weight, but I had lost a significant amount of weight, so it wasn't that. After eliminating all these factors I wasn't sure what was causing my continuing knee pain. With those leg-snapping fears in my mind, I wanted to take precaution and FAST!

Well, tune in for my solution, until then, don't assume because you're young that you have bones of steel.  As for you, Kevin, wishing you well on that recovery.

*shudders and rubs calves*

source: http://i.imgur.com/onwSIkZ.jpg

American I-DULL

If any American Idol viewers were wondering what became of rooting for Rodney "NAYO" Barber will have to sit down for some bad news: Just as I was walking down 5th street from like I usually do, I heard the sounds of a voice I thought I wouldn't hear ever again.



Dumbfounded, I looked around for the source only to spot the familiar donation box once again.  This time the box read "AS SEEN ON AMERICAN IDOL", rather than "HELP ME GET ON AMERICAN IDOL" and his nickname "NAYO" was now Spelled "NAO." Barber explained that his mother had a stroke, forcing him to return to Charlotte, but I'm sure there's more to the story.



So far none of the AI pages that appear in on page 1 of Google mention Rodney's departure or even answer the question directly.  Any other answers are blatant attempts at directing traffic to AI's official site. Speaking of such, Barber's no longer listed among the contestants. Is his mother really incapacitated? Or did he get eliminated? Or did he get the Jermaine Jones treatment?


After the very public lawsuit by other disqualified contestants of the past, I wouldn't be surprised if the AI crew was trying to put a gag order on Rodney and anyone else involved.

Besides, I told him to try again for The Voice or X-Factor anyway!

Charlotte's Only Cartooning Club Finally Gets Recognized!

This week yours truly is featured with her co-cartoonists in the Charlotte Observer.
Have a look-see:

Charlotte cartooning club not all free-form

Grammys 2013: Crickets Chirp for Chris Brown

For anyone who watched the Grammys last night and still wonder if CBS actually added an applause track to cover the lack of applause for Chris Brown, I can assure you're not crazy. There's plenty of reason for the silence: Brown's obnoxious twitter boast from his last award win, not to mention his twitter fight with Jenny Johnson, his fight with Frank Ocean and the car crash he had not too long before even arriving to the show.

A photo has a South Asian woman in red sitting just behind Chris Brown's left shoulder giving one of the best evil glances I haven't seen since Sophia Loren had the misfortune to sit next to Jayne Mansfield and her cleavage.

Even Adele was caught on camera yelling at the befuddled-looking singer.















Of course, the few news sites that bother to mention it can only "speculate" the possibility of an audience-wide silence when Brown's name was mentioned.

But I have unsubstantiated proof:

One of my East-coast FB friends won Tickets to the award show as a guest, and was able to confirm the rumors.

The Grammy's will make a Domestic abuser look appreciated just to avoid an awkward moment.
Gotta love their devotion to deception.

The lucky ones sat in the nosebleeds this time.

American Idols among Us

Unbelievable Story Time

 Every night after the crowd empties out of an event at Time Warner Cable Arena, the curb of East 5th street would be lined with street performers sitting before their guitar cases full of spare change. One performer would always stand further away just near the media entrance. A tall black guy with dreads, a purple baseball cap, and a black trench coat singing gloriously above a cardboard box reading "American Idol Audition". If you find yourself walking up from Caldwell Street, his voice warns you of his presence before you can see him. I never paid too much attention too him after the first time, often tired and focused on getting home in the dead of a cold night. But this time I was Stayed home to watch with family. The AI auditions were in Charlotte this week, and guess who appears?    

Hope we never have to see you back on that corner, Rodney. ;-)

Kreator's Blokked Nite

                                         

It never occurred to me how easy it was to draw George Herriman's Krazy Kat until a very late -almost morning-night of creator's block. I need to have more moments like these.

When Babies Collide

 Not once but three times have I found videos with the same scenario: Two babies of different parents meet, one squeals and scares the living daylights out of the other one.

Is it their temperament? Are they not used to registering responses from their own? Each baby in the vid is too young to have self recognition, so they don't understand that other baby as something that acts and looks similar to themselves.

 I'm not a pediatrician, and only seen Discovery's "The Baby Human" series, but I wonder if this phenomenon has been explored. This mothers forum explains it's the unknown nature of the other infant and sudden loud noise that frightens them.

Come to think of it, this baby (on the right) tries to ease his fears by touching his baby cousin.....until Mom stops him:

 

Thankfully, someone in the forum is just as aware of the self-recognition issue as I was and had a pretty good advice:

Sometimes we are unaware that we reinforce their fears by looking a little anxious when faced with a situ[ation] we think they may not like. Smiley smiley and positive comments are needed.

Well said. Being a mom, like understanding a baby's brain, is an eternally developing process.