The "lows" and "highs" of tutoring a 2nd grader = A Small Step

    This year I have signed up with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization of Ozaukee County. This group, which matches adult mentor volunteers with children in need in our county, has both a community program and an in school program. I had volunteered for the community program. I wanted to be able to pick up the child I am mentoring and be able to take him/her to various community sites, activities, or even just hang out at my house. But a whole year had passed and I had not been called at all with any possible match. I knew the reason: what child who is somewhat in the know about this program wants to be matched with a 70 year old grandma when there could be younger adults in maybe the 20s or so who are available? I understand, but I was disappointed. Finally I got a call. There was a need to immediately replace a Big Brother to a 2nd grader in the-school program. His mentor was leaving town for a new job. We made the match and I have been meeting with David (fictitious name) weekly since December. David has already been held back for a year in second grade and he is still having difficulty with his school work. We have been working especially on his writing which in the beginning was illegible. I have had to work very hard to get him to 1) write more neatly 2) erase more thoroughly before writing the letters over the corrections 3) keep his letters a standard size and generally reduce that size 4) get him to make the taller letters such as the b and d with taller stems and the p with a tail below the line, 5) capitalize when appropriate, and 6) correct and improve his spelling so that more words are understandable. Sometimes I was having to correct him every few letters.



      Early on he would try to distract me with jokes and off topic comments to avoid working through to the end of the writing project. It was as they say "like pulling teeth." It was so bad that when I described the situation to one of my fellow water aerobics colleagues who had been a teacher, she questioned whether the boy had a problem with writing comprehension, something similar to dyslexia or another such learning disability. However, there was a reason that I knew such was not the case. As some of my readers know, I have a large antique toy collection -- well some are not so antique -- they belonged to my sons, or I have even purchased them as an adult. Since the beginning I have brought along, hidden in my bag, one of those toys that I thought might interest David. If we finish the school work the teacher has assigned, and if there is time in our hour together, he can play with the toy that I bring. On at least one occasion, he liked the toy so much (the M.U.S.C.L.E. men toys which I have written about on this blog) that he asked me to bring the same toy the next week as well. On that second occasion, we had quite a bit of re-writing to do on a story he had written. He knew what toy was in my bag and he wanted time to get to play with it, so he buckled down with only a couple of his distracting comments and finished the school work in record time. Sooo, I know he is capable of doing the work. He just didn't care enough to do the work and perhaps no one at home was interested in helping him. In fact, on one occasion as I corrected his letters again and again, he said, "No one has ever told me like you have how I have to write these letters. No one ever helped me like you do."



     We do have a good time for part of our hour together. David is a nice boy and he has a remarkable memory. He will often recall things that I have told him about his school work, about my life and family, and about my experience in medicine and in raising two boys and seeing that they learned in school. He frequently quotes what I have said to him back to me. He has a love for science as indeed I do and surprises me with his memory about science booklets and science topics that he has learned about. He also has a great love for Super Heroes, has seen their movies, can quote many of their lines from the movies, and demonstrates a great imagination when describing these magical beings' antics.


     David also has quite an understanding about life and his situation in it. He understands about Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization and knows that he has need of this help. On one occasion we had a particularly long story to rewrite so that it would be presentable enough to have posted on the hallway wall. The rest of the class papers had already been hung up and there was a space for his when it became legible. Therefore, on that particular day, I was not allowing any fooling around and insisted that we finish rewriting that booklet. It was quite tedious. When we finally finished, there was just a little time left. David was clearly not speaking to me. I said, " Are you mad at me, David, because I made you work so hard until this was finished?" David thought a minute and then said, "I am not mad at you; I am just mad." He is smart enough to know that he must tread lightly with me. He knows that if I complain about him, that he is not being cooperative, he might lose out on getting anyone from the Big Sisters Big Brothers organization. He has had that explained to him and has signed his end of a contract to always be cooperative.



      On one occasion, I was quite impressed with David's maturity. David's class goes out to recess right after lunch but David joins me for an hour. I often find David at his locker getting ready to go outside because he has forgotten that it is our day. On one of the first few weeks of my mentoring, the little girl next to him at her locker asked who I was. I spoke up and said I was David's big sister. She gave me a funny look and said, "Yeewwww!" She obviously thought this was a little strange that I should be grey haired and be the big sister of a 2nd grader. I wished I had been quicker to respond and that I had said something like: "Well, little girl. David and I are from another universe and in that universe people live to be 500 years old, so it is not unusual for sisters and brothers to be 70 years apart in age." But I hadn't thought of this until after the whole encounter was past. However, David was just very matter of fact. He just said, calmly, "This is Ann. She is with the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program." That was it. This little girl later became my friend and would give me hugs when she saw me, but her initial reaction did set me back a little bit. But it didn't phase David.




     One day we finished our school work quite quickly. David's teacher had not put too much aside for us to do. We meet in the school library so I told David we might have time for both the toy I brought and to perhapsto read a library book together. David made a face. I said, "You don't like to read?" He said, "No, I hate to read. I don't read unless I have to." Well, undaunted, I went over and began looking for a suitable library book. There was one whole shelf of graphic novels. Knowing David's love for superheroes, I found one about Hercules. I simply sat down and began to read it outloud. The next thing I know, David is putting the toy I brought back into my bag. Then he is standing looking over my shoulder at the pictures. The next thing I know, he is reading some of the dialogue out of the bubbles with me. I was impressed. We soon ran out of time, but I suggested he should check this book out and he could finish reading it at home. The librarian overheard us and said, "David, you have "library time" this afternoon, don't you?"  David said, "Yes, but I forgot my other library book at home, so I can't check out another one." The librarian continued to try to be helpful: "If you bring the library book back tomorrow, I will put this book aside for you and you can come down here and exchange the books tomorrow." I was so excited, I went home and described this whole situation to my husband. I actually thought I had made a difference for this boy and maybe he would learn to like to read. Well, as it turned out he forgot to bring his library book back until the next week, but he did check out the Hercules book and on the second week at our session, he was excitedly telling me how the story came out. Now, I am no Pollyanna. I know it is going to take a lot more than this one interaction to make a reader out of David, but I certainly got a big rush out of his response to my efforts. And other little bits of his responses really make me proud. At our last session together David said, "I like how you listen to what I say and nod your head, and say, 'Yes,' and 'Hm hm.' " Such simple things -- read to a child a little bit, listen to a child, help him a little bit with his school work, and show an interest in what he is learning. That is all I have done. And yet it is probably making a big difference in his life. Indeed, I will continue in the program. It is only my being able to give back in a very small way. I highly recommend programs such as this for any age person who wishes to be a mentor.

Mystery Photo 25: Varanasi, in Utter Pradash, India, on the Holy Ganges River.

   The city pictured is Varanasi, also called Benares, a city in the province Uttar Pradesh in northern  India. This city is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world which in my mind makes it holy in and of itself. Archaeological evidence shows settlement here in the Ganga valley began in the 11th or 12th century BC. But also Varanasi is one of the seven sacred cities in the religions of Jainism and Hinduism, in the latter of which it is the favorite city of the Hindu deity Lord Shiva and is mentioned as such in the Rigveda holy scriptures. Since the Mughal Emperor Mohammad Ghari destroyed the city in the 12th century, its temples and buildings in the old city date mostly to the 18th century.
     Varanasi is the spiritual capital of India, as well as a scholarly city with one of the largest residential universities of Asia, the Banares Hindu university located there. The holy river Ganges is the center of much of the religiosity of the city. It is regarded as very spiritually cleansing to bath in the holy river waters. Also it is regarded as very spiritually beneficial to die in Varanasi. In addition, many people are brought here after their death to be cremated along the river's holy banks on the ghats.
     The name Varanasi is thought to come from two rivers, the Varuna and the Asi which flow together at this site to form the Ganges.
     During the time of Gautama Buddha (born circa 567 BC), Varanasi was the capital of the Kingdom of Kashi. Buddha founded Buddhism at nearby Sarnath in 528 BC when he gave his first sermon after becoming enlightened himself.
     In 1897, Mark Twain said of Varanasi, "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." We have been there and indeed, I think Mark Twain was correct.  The long and involved history of the city includes many hard to pronounce Rajput rulers, as well as Muslim and then Mughal rulers, and even some Ottoman rulers. The city was described in the Hindu scriptures in the Rigveda and many lesser known texts.
    Even today, Hindus regard a sunrise holy bath in the Ganges as the holiest of the holy activities or events in one's life. We visited during a Hindu festival at which time many people are on a pilgrimage to Varanasi. Therefore as you can see in the photo below, the ghats were very very busy.

Sunrise holy bathing in the Ganges in Varanasi (Benares)

The

The women wear the most beautiful saris when they go bathing in the Ganges.

A busy holy place!

The cremation area along the Holy Ganges.

Young and old, male and female, infirm and well come to lavage here in the Ganges.

     The Aarti ceremony, or fire ritual, is held every night on the banks of the Ganges in the heart of the old part of the city of Varanasi, on Dasashwamedh Ghat. We had a row boat ride up the Ganges and came ashore near this Aarti site.The word, Aarti, comes from a Sanskrit word that means something that removes darkness. During the ceremony, young Hindu priests use various implements containing fire, holy Ganges water, and the petals of marigolds and other items to worship the local deity, which in Varanasi is the God, Lord Shiva.
     According to Wikipedia, the flower petals represents the earth (solidity), the water and an accompanying handkerchief correspond to the water element (liquidity), the lamp or candle represents the fire component (heat), the peacock fan conveys the precious quality of air (movement), and yak-tail fan represents the subtle form of ether (space). Ghee (clarified butter) is burned along with incense which provides a purified state of mind and each participant offers his "intelligence" through the adherence to the rules of timing and the order of offerings. Thus, each of  the worshiper's entire existence and all parts of our material existence on earth are symbolically offered to the Lord Shiva through this aarti ceremony.
     Aarti ceremonies differ slightly from site to site, but this one in Varanasi involves metal lamps which are swung in circles by each priest around himself. Also each of the 7 priests waves the two fans around in similar circles, then drinks of the Holy Ganges waters, and scatters marigold petals. Each viewer/participant is encouraged to buy a small candle in a paper cup for a small fee to set onto the waters of the Ganges River. Performing the aarti includes waving the lamps with the lighted fires before the deity in a spirit of humility and gratitude which induces faithful followers to become immersed with God's divine form. The circling of the lamps must be done in a prescribed form first clockwise and then counter clockwise representing daily activities while putting and keeping God at the center of all activities. The lamp light illuminates for the performer and the observers the various aspects of the deity so that all may concentrate on his form.

The aarti plate containing some of the symbolic utensils needed for the aarti.

The marigold petals to be scattered during the ceremony.

The fire lamp part of the ceremony.

Five Hindu priests perform this in synchrony facing the Ganges in this photo.

The gentleman in white seems to be in charge. He saw us come in late and ran to the side and brought two chairs for us, placing them in the very front row of the onlookers.

The burning incense part of the ceremony.

A young boy sells candles in paper cups for us to set upon the waters of the Ganges.

The final photo shows several candles floating on the Ganges.

     I must say that our visits to the Varanasi ghats, twice, once at sunrise to see the early bathers, and the again at sunset to attend the aarti ceremony were very moving, among the many sacred events that Amos and I have had in our vast travels around the world. One does not have to believe every nuance of these events or ceremonies to feel moved. It is too bad that such sacred events cannot do more to restore balance and peace to a world now very out of balance.

Mystery Photo 25b: What is the name of the River on which this city lies?

     Here is a photo of  sunrise over the Holy river on which Mystery Photo 25 is located. Can you name the river? You have probably by now guessed that the country is India.

Mystery Photo #25a: Name the city!

      This is the first time I will offer a two part Mystery Photo question? It may be quite easy to identify the country in which this photo was taken. There are a few choices, but I suspect you will all guess correctly on the country. Secondly can you guess what this holy river is called? And finally, if you get this far, what is the name of the city? In Mystery Photo #25b, I will ask another question about this location based on some different photos. Hint: Dig deeply into your knowledge of the Rigveda and prosper in this life and the next.

     I wish you some educated guessing on this one!

"Knight, knave, or pawn? Which is your doctor?"

     I am trying to go through some of my stacks of saved tear sheets. This was always a habit of mine -- to tear out sheets from medical journals, articles, the AMA newspaper and even lay print sources and stack them up somewhere to read later. Unfortunately time would often interfere with this "Read later" intention. And even as a retired physician, lack of time still interferes. So these stacks of paper reside in various places in my home. We are fortunate to have a big home and so these stacks can accumulate for some time. However, finally even in our large home, they begin to impinge upon my positive attitude and begin to weigh on me. Then I must develop a mood in which I can ruthlessly go through them and throw away a huge percentage. It was during such a purge that I came upon this article from JAMA, September 1, 2010 -- Vol 304, No 9.This was a commentary by Sachin H. Jain, MD, MBA, and Christine K. Cassel, MD entitled "Societal Perception of Physicians:  Knights, Knaves, or Pawns? "  Both authors are affiliated with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Washington, DC. There are many writings in our medical journals that I think should be more available to the general lay public. This article is just such an article. I recommend that all past, present or future medical patients -- that basically means everyone -- read this with concentration. It is short but very well written.

 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=186487

The above site gives you the first page of this article but will only let you see the second page if you sign up to JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). Therefore I have provided the second page below:

     "Implications
     "Le Grand's work on post-World War II British social policy found that perceptions of human motivations gradually transformed, with the prevailing view of the typical British citizen morphing from knight into knave as the costs of maintaining an expensive welfare state increased.
     "US perspectives on physicians have undergone a similar transformation with the increasing cost (both to taxpayers and to individual patients) of health care delivery. As physician behavior has been tied to these rising costs and increasing scrutiny has been applied to the quality of care delivered, policy discourse often reflects the perspective that physicians are an obstacle not an enabler to a functioning health care system. Rather than being counted on to exercise their professional ethic to address problems in health care delivery, physicians should be guided to do what is right with an increasing menu of incentive payments (ie, pay for performance or value-based purchasing) or strict regulations. Rather than being counted on to maintain their knowledge and expertise on their own accord, they are subject to periodic examinations to demonstrate continued proficiency.
    "These views are grounded in evidence of unwarranted variation in care, clear evidence of waste and even fraud, and decline in knowledge over time.The modern US physician is regarded as either a knave or a pawn and is seldom regarded as a knight. but the evidence that has led to distrust of physicians does not apply universally and many physicians still are the knights in the health care system. How can society be sure not to undermine those motivated by professionalism while guarding against those motivated by self-interest?
     "Not all policy prescriptions have abandoned the view of physician as knight. Prepaid models of health care payment such as accountable care organizations and the patient-centered medical home place responsibility in the hands of physicians -- with the idea that physicians will be responsible stewards. In these examples, physicians must be counted on to organize and structure care delivery, responsibly use resources, and measure and improve individual and population outcomes. Still, it is perhaps the knavish conception of physicians that makes these physician-driven models of health care delivery more the fodder of pilot projects and demonstrations than models that are rapidly adopted and widely disseminated.
     "Le Grand offers an important lesson and warning: it is critically important to understand and get 'true motivations' right. Disaster may follow if persons largely of a knavish quality are treated as knights; but the same maybe true for 'policies fashioned on a belief that people are knaves if the consequence is to suppress their natural altruistic impulses and hence destroy part of their motivation to provide a quality public service.' Le Grand further warns that policies that 'treat people as pawns, may lead to demotivated workers...again causing adverse outcomes for the polices concerned; while polices that give too much power...may result in individuals making mistakes that damage their own or others' welfare.
     "The US public would be wise to heed Le Grand's advice and carefully consider whether its perceptions of physicians match reality. For their part, physicians must thoughtfully consider whether and how they contribute to the perception that they are knights, knaves, or pawns."

References:
 Le Grand J.  Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy: Of Knights, Knaves, Pawns and Queens, New York, NY; Oxford University Press, 2003.

Choudhry NK, Fletcher RH, Soumeral SB. Systematic review: the relationship between clinical experience and quality of health care.  Ann Intern Med. 2005; 142(4) 260-273

Committee on Quality and Health Care in American; Institute of Medicine. Crossing the Quality Chasm. Washington DC: National Academies Press 2001.

McClellan M, McKethan AN, Lewis, JL, Roski J, Fisher ES.  A national strategy to put accountable care into practice.  Health Aff (Millwood). 2010; 29(5) 982-990.

Enthoven AC, Tollen LA.  Toward a 21st Century Health System: The Contributions and Promise of Prepaid Group Practice. San Franciso, CA; Jossy-Bass; 2004.

     Naturally, reading this led me to consider my own career which is now in the past, but which spanned a time period notorious for rapid and dramatic healthcare system changes. I know from my own experience that remaining a "knight" in the current healthcare system, though obviously desirable and expected by most patients, is exceedingly difficult. It involves expenditure of precious time during and after the patient visit and as a result since the main thing that primary care physicians have to sell is their time, being a "knight" reduces the physicians pay. Still many physicians are willing and do accomplish this exacting task. I like to think that I did at least some of the time. As an example, as was often shown in studies, being a woman physician, I spent, on the average, more time with my patients, and therefore saw fewer patients in a day. But I must admit that sometimes the battle that was required against insurers, and other providers as well as sometimes against the patient's own views themselves, often became overwhelming. When that would happen, I would not uncommonly resort to the "pawn" role. Sometimes it was just easier to say: "I'm sorry, but your insurance doesn't cover that test." During my years of practice, the amount of regulations, the interference of insurers and most recently the governmental requirements and guidelines became more and more obstructive to the "knight's" role. I think that is why many physicians volunteer in other countries or on the Hope Healthcare ship, and in other such opportunities. There they can totally fulfill the "knight" role. It is certainly a refreshing role to fill and a goal that all we MDs had when we graduated from medical school.

     I must make a comment about the "knave" role. I know that such physicians exist. They are the "in and out" physicians who hurry patients through their system, increasing the bottom line by volume, and decreasing the time that the MDS themselves spend with direct patient care. They may indeed learn a new procedure and perform it with excess in order to pad their bottom line. But I do think these physicians are rare. Even the super specialist feels a need to relate closely with the patient. Our selection for medical school and the education and breeding that goes into those 4 years of training holds too strong a power for most MDs to become outright "knaves." Indeed, the question is how to weed out or at least identify those few "knaves" without making the regulations so intense that it turns all of the "knights" to "pawns," and maybe even eventually into more of a "knave." This weighty question is very difficult to answer. But I fear that we have tipped too far into these regulations and requirements. Many physicians, particularly those in primary care, admit to dissatisfaction in their work. I think the latest numbers suggest that as many as 55% of primary care doctors are dissatisfied. That is much too high of a number. It has long been known that job satisfaction is inversely related to the degree of power that the job holder has in his/her day to day work.  I think that this dissatisfaction in MDS and the powerlessness that goes along with it directly relate to the gain in power that has been achieved by insurers and governmental agencies in the healthcare field. We are at a tipping point. And I am fearful that the regulations in Obamacare may cause many more physicians to "hang it up" due to this dissatisfaction.

     These considerations need to be known to the lay public. Society needs to make some very difficult decisions and there needs to be a new way of thinking about exactly what kind of doctor it wants. It would be difficult to achieve a total "knight" medical core, but we must not drive all physicians through the "pawn" stage to either retirement, or the "knave" stage.

     I would appreciate any comments that you might have, whether physician, physician to be, or patient. What do you think?

M.U.S.C.L.E (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere)

     I have been intending to put another one of my antique toys up on this blog with some background information since a couple of my past blogs about my collection have been popular. But I never thought it would be this toy that would end up featured. Here is how this toy topic aroused my curiosity.
     Every Wednesday I spend 45-50 minutes tutoring a 2nd grader in a neighboring community elementary school. The boy has trouble with his reading and writing and also some difficulty with arithmetic. He has already been held back one year and is still struggling. For each of our meetings his teacher gives us something to work on for at least a half hour. Then for the rest of the time we can do what we enjoy doing. Everything must take place on the school grounds. From the very beginning each time I have brought along one of my antique toys to show to my student. We then have some time to play with the toy or discuss its history. I am finding that David (name changed for privacy reasons), like one would expect from most children, is not really interested in long stories or history. He especially enjoys toys that have something to do with current popular toy characters such as Ninja characters and various other Super Heroes or Fantasy characters. My choice for this particular visit produced requests to bring it back for three weeks in a row.



      Pictured above is a collectible set of toys popular in the United States from 1985 to 1988. They consisted of a package of 10 little 1 inch high bubble gum pink medium hard PVC figures of various strange mutant beings housed in a translucent small garbage can with a lid. These packets were often placed near the check out counters of Target and Toys R Us stores at that time period. They were collectible and my two sons were always looking for a new set to add a rare figure to their collection.
     The name of this toy was M.U.S.C.L.E which stood for Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere. I had never looked into the history before, but as is the case for many of my toys there is lots of information on the Internet. I learned that these little figures originated in Japan and there are called kinkeshi. They still lure many collectors even today and there are several websites which still produce regular newletters about the various creatures. These bubble gum colored ones or flesh colored ones numbered 236 different designs. Later the PVC plastic was dyed various of up to 6 colors and these colored ones were mixed with the flesh ones. Collectors still strive to get all of these various designs and colors. Also the United States toys in this line included a random 4-pack of the monsters, and a 28 pack. Also there was a boardgame, a Nintendo game, a championship belt that would hold the wrestlers, and a plastic wrestling ring that allowed fights between your figures.


     The premise of these little toys is fairly straightforward. They represent intergalactic wrestlers striving for dominance in the universe. I didn't know about this premise when I was with David. He thought he recognized various modern characters from various modern fantasy and Super Hero stories. I had to explain that these figures came from another generation, that of my sons' childhood.

 The idea for these toys originated in Japan where they were called kinkeshi, named after the leader of the wrestlers called Kinikuman which means Muscle Man. Originally, like our Superman hero, Kinikuman was really a parody, a goof up of a superhero who was only called on when no other superhero was available. He is a parody of Ultraman dating from the 1960s in Japanese popular culture.  Kinikuman was the leader of the M U S C L E Men. Kinikuman got his power from eating garlic. He has a garlic meter on his forehead.  In Japan, there were also characters called "Cosmic Crunchers" who opposed the MUSCLE Men and whose leader was eventually called Terri-Bull. They and several other well known Japanese characters starred in comics and animated films.  Some of the MUSCLE men wrestlers were parodies of well known Japanese professional wrestlers.  In developing these wrestling figures the Japanese readers and devotees were invited to send in various ideas for wrestlers and many of those ideas were used in this vast number of figures. In Japan there were over 400 such characters. These characters and their stories are still popular and produced today in Japan. Such characters had a brief comeback in the US in 2003 and again in 2011 but these small figures have not been produced in the US since 1988. They were distributed by Mattel, though made in Japan. In Japan action figures of several larger sizes as well as accessories for games and for a wrestling ring were also produced.

     In the United States, these figures may have influenced a later toy produced in the US called Monster in My Pocket. There are several websites for collectors of these various small monster toys as well as websites for monster toys in general. These little wrestlers sell for between 75 cents and one dollar each for common ones. Some online sales of some rare figures reached $10.00 on eBay.

Some scenes from the Japanese comics starring Kinnikuman.

          The above representation is a modern one from Japan showing several members of the Kinikuman family. My collection of little M.U.S.C.L.E. men includes the Kinikuman representation.

     Following are some other views of Kinikuman from the later era when he was no longer such a bumbling superhero,but rather was in some degree of demand in his comic books and animated features.

     Only the two figures Kinikuman and his antithesis, Terry-Bull were named. The rest of the figures sold in the United States were not named. One collector with tongue in cheek has provided names for many of the figures pictured in the large poster below. These are quite amusing and collectors might like to know their favorite figures by these names. I attempted to provide my student, David with some of these funny names (some were R rated and of course I didn't provide them.)  But he preferred to name them according to how they resembled some of the more modern American superheros in various electronic games, and movies. He indeed has a name for almost every one of these figures.

The wrestling rink that was available in the United States.

          Here are some individual photos of some of these figures. Photos of some of my figures are further below.

Here are just a few of the many websites for collectors of these little toys.

The following website is a blog which answers many of your questions about these little figures. It is a very well organized and colorful blog.

http://nathansmuscleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/collecting-faqs.html

     This website has a number of links to sites that would be informative for M.U.S.C.L.E. figures but also links to other spinoffs of these small figures.
http://www.raumhafen.de/galerie/rubber_guys/muscle/

And the most complete blog on these little toys:
http://blog.uofmuscle.com/course-catalog/history/history-100-an-introduction-muscle-figures-and-toys/

And if you are mainly interested in the Super Rares of these little toys, check out this website:
http://rare-muscle-stuff.tripod.com/id3.html

     In 1985 the following poster was available by mail. It shows many of the collectible figures from the first shipment to the United States of pink or bubble gummed color M.U.S.C.L.E men.

     And here is my lot, or should I say my two sons' lot. It was quite a heap of these things for my student, David, to work himself through, just looking at them and coming up with a name for each one.

     Following are several of the more unique and maybe even horrifying of these little 1-w inch figures.

 

              I had no idea that these figures were to become so popular when I would cave into one of my sons at the checkout counter and purchase one of those little garbage cans full of about 10 such figures. Just recently my oldest son who is now a Chief of Surgery in various capacities at his medical school -- with his family he was home visiting us. I took him into my toy room where all my antique and more modern toys are kept. Out of all the toys, what he was drawn to and what he picked up were these M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. "Oh, wow! Mom, I can't believe you still have these." Then he said wistfully, perhaps remembering a far simpler time in his past, he just simply sighed, "Wowowow!"

To the Caribbean 2014

     Yes, we did get out of this area for a short while this winter. We took our second cruise to the Caribbean in as many years. This time we boarded the Oceania Riviera in Miami and headed out into the northeastern Caribbean. Oceania cruises are known as "foodie" tours. Indeed, the food is definitely a couple steps above the typical. Oceania's two larger ships, the Riviera and the Marina, each also have a wonderful library, board game or bridge room, large lovely lounge on top up front where every afternoon wonderful 4 PM teas are served to the music of their live string quartet. The ship has a wonderful spa, private spa deck for "Veranda" guests and above. There is a coffee bar where baristas stir up excellent brew. I particularly like the Artist Loft, with art classes directed by a resident artist. In the past my main media for art was water colors and water color pencils. But on this cruise our art teacher was a proponent of acrylic and favored the use of only a palette knife. Sure makes clean up easier. For me this was very good practice with this media and method. But one of my favorite pastimes was sitting on our veranda while we were at sea, staring down into the deep indigo waters. We have visited the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Southern Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, but none of those waters compare to the indigos and close to shore the various shades of turquoises that characterize the Caribbean. I can sit for an hour just watching the surf as it rolls off the hull of the ship, creating wonderful swirlings and gorgeous turquoises. Once in a while a group of small flying fish will break out of that roiling swirl, at right angles to the ship's path, I am sure, convinced that we are a very large predator.

Our ship,, the Oceania Riviera at Grand Turk cruise ship port.

    Our first port of call was Grand Turk of the Turks and Caicos Islands. This island is quite small and only has one pier. We were the only ship in port. And the port is currently incapable of taking some of the very large cruise ships which I think is a plus. Unfortunately they are gong to add a new pier system which will enable several ships to visit at one time. I think that may destroy some of the charm of the island. The island currently does have a nice developed reception area with nice beaches on each side of that one pier. And there are some very nice boutique shops in this cruise center as well. One of the shops surprised me; it was an Israeli art shop with some Israeli paintings, as well as menorahs, and metal hamsa and chai jewelry and mezuzahs. My husband arranged for us to have a guided tour of the island on of all things -- ATVs. This is the first time we have driven these unique vehicles. Our guide could tell that we were rather inept and kept us mostly on the regular surface roads of the island. Fortunately most of the ship's people just shopped in the boutique stores and used the lovely beach. The island roads were pretty empty. But there was a nice lighthouse to see, some Caribbean flamingos, and there are replicas of the John Glenn Gemini caqpsule around the island because he landed in the waters off the Grand Turk.

Grand Turk Cruise Center beach right next to the pier next to our ship. Many passengers spent the day right here. 

         It was a view of the lovely beach on Grand Turk that I used as the subject for my main acrylic painting of this trip. I wanted to show the blues and turquoises of these Caribbean waters. Here it is:

My version of the Grand Turk beach sitting in a beach chair on the shore side.

Old San Juan

Latte at Cafe Prieto in Guavate.

       Our next port of call was San Juan, Puerto Rico. I visited this island years ago on a pharmaceutical junket and we had rented a car and drove all over the island then. There really is quite a bit to see here. This time we just hired a guide to show us the two forts and give us some history that we had forgotten from the last visit, and to show us a little bit of San Juan. Then he drove us up into the hills behind San Juan to a place called Guavate, famous for Le Choneras. Lechon is pig roasted on a spit. And a restarant that roasts and serves this pig is called LeChonera. The whole name of our destination  restaurant is LeChonera Los Amigos but there are many of these places in Guavate. These are generally rustic restaurants where people dine on picnic tables covered by oil cloth. The meals include the pig (or roast chicken), yams or potatoes, beans, fried plantain, and breads. The food was delicious. It was a Tuesday and it was not very busy at all, so the owner spent some time sitting at our table. He sounded like he was a displaced American by his lack of any accent. But the best part was the cup of coffee afterwards in a neighboring little coffee shop, operated by the owner's wife. This coffee was made from a locally grown premium coffee bean. And of course I had it as a latte. It was absolutely delicious, and fancily prepared by a talented barista. We sat on the deck in back overlooking a deep and lush ravine. It was a great ending to our tour of San Juan.

Leaving the port of Grand Turk.

This is a Royal Caribbean ship called Oasis of the Sea. It carries over 6000 guests

 

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 Our next port of call, St Marten, is an interesting island. Half is French and half is Dutch. The French side used to be the destination of most tourists, but the local French government decided to go along with the French stand during the US First Gulf War. They voted to boycott all US products and to discourage US tourists. Their efforts succeeded and basically their tourism, with the exception of restaurants, has failed. Their hotels have been turned into rooming houses and condos. Many beautiful big hotels had become totally empty relics. Some still stand empty and deteriorating. All cruise ships now land on the Dutch side which has expanded its tourist facilities accordingly, especially attracting small boating operators who travel from island to island, in addition to the cruise ships. People still take a day trip to the French side, so restaurateurs still do OK there. The island has one famous road along the beach where the large jets landing strip starts just at the edge of the road. People love to sit on the beach at the pilots level as these planes come in. Definitely hard on the hearing.

Peaceful afternoon at the beach; plane after plane coming in just like this.

      The next port of call was St. Barts. We had been their during last year's cruise when we toured the island. We knew that the boutiques just ashore were quite expensive and limited and we were not in the mood for beaching it, though the beach right off the pier is very nice. We decided to just stay aboard. In the afternoon I had an art class to attend anyway, and we were painting for a couple hours.
 

Tortola town, on Tortola of the British Virgin Islands.

Lots of small islands around Tortola.

 I liked Tortola of the British Virgin Islands. We had a nice tour of the island, viewing its beaches and driving to high points in the mountains in the center of the island for overlooks. Tortolas is surrounded by many small islands that welcome visitors. There are a lot of Americans that go to Tortola and spend time. We had lunch in a small outdoor restaurant that was situated among some of these American second homes and the owner of the restaurant was herself an American. It is nice that English is spoken here. I could actually see myself with a second home on this island in particular.

Historic Old Santo Domingo, capitol of the Dominican Republic.

     Next was the Dominican Republic. I think many people have formed an image of the DR which is similar to Haiti. But the DR is definitely different.It is the fourth largest economy in the Caribbean and Central America combined. Many incomes are in the area of lower middle class. There is poverty but it is in the rural areas. There is also crime and the Dominican Republic has been criticized for being too lenient on homicidal crime. Also the South American drug cartels are purported to launder their money through the Dominican Republic, creating corruption. But the infrastructure is good. And tourism has created various protected enclaves on the eastern end of the country and to a lesser extent in the northern central area. Also ecotourism is gaining a foothold and the DR has set aside several large national parks in the central highlands. Our ship docked at La Romana which is located within one of those tourist enclaves. I think most of the ships passengers utilized the beach, the local shopping area, or had signed up for ship excursions that took advantage of the local Caribbean waters. We took a different path and headed for the taxi stand. We were the first ship passengers to arrive there and we saw only two taxi vans. We asked what it would cost to drive to Santo Domingo, the capitol, a distance that would take about an hour and a half. One driver answered us quickly in perfect English. The other driver did not speak English. So the English speaker said "I guess I am your man." It turns out that he had lived in the United States, in Florida for about 8 years. He gave us a safe drive to the capitol, a small amount of information and he put us with a walking guide of the Old Town of Santo Domingo, which has many interesting historical buildings, churches, and shops. There are buildings here from the 15th century because this is the area that Columbus chose to develop, at that time, to become capitol of Hispaniola.
      I wanted to purchase a necklace of larimar beads, which is only mined in the DR. This elderly walking guide got me to a shop where I was able to make my purchase, adding another piece of jewelry to my collection of pieces from around the world. We enjoyed a nice lunch, and then drove back to La Romana and headed to the ship. In all it was a very nice and successful day. We were glad we had taken the opportunity to get out of the tourist enclave and see what the DR was all about.

A boulder of pectolite containing considerable larimar effused through it.

My larimar bead necklace. 

     I want to fill you in a little about this stone -- larimar. In 1916, a local priest asked the government of the Dominican Republic for permission to exploit this stone and even start to mine it but was refused. Then in 1974, a local resident and a Peace Core volunteer found pebbles of the stone that had washed down into the estuary of a stream that originated in the nearby hills and mountains. These two succeeded in getting permission to mine the material and others tracked down the vein of rock where this substance originated. The stone is really taking off in popularity throughout the Caribbean and is even being sent elsewhere around the world to be used in jewelry. The name was created by that local rediscoverer of larimar as a combination of his daughter's name, Larissa, and the Spanish word for sea, mar.  Pectolite is an acid silicate hydrate of calcium and sodium. Pectolite is found in many places around the world, but only in the Dominican Republic does this stone contain the blue color, which has some of the calcium replaced by copper. Geologically, the surrounding stone or pectolite was volcanically created but had holes and cracks in it which were later filled by the blue copper containing silicate creating this stone. Indians in the area had long found pebbles of this blue mineral among beach stones, having been tumbled and polished as they were washed down the hillside and finally onto the beach near the source mountain. Now the original mountain has been found and about 2000 vertical shafts penetrate it where this stone is mined. Apparently there are also a lot of fake larimars, some plastic, some other bluish minerals, especially being sold by vendors on the beaches of the DR .But there is an interesting test one can carefully perform. If you hold the beads or pendant of larimar in a match flame for a few seconds, it will remain cold to the touch afterwards. Plastic of course would melt and your vendor would probably not let you do this. But you must be careful in the case of beads or a strung pendant to not hold the flame near the stringing element for that is often plastic and would then break and release the beads all over the ground. How embaressing! Where I bought this necklace, there was a guarantee of authenticity and there was actually a boulder of larimar there on the countertop as well as boulders for sale. My nice graduated bead necklace cost $300. This is a somewhat soft stone and also in heat and high light, the blues may fade so it should be kept in a cool dark place when not being worn. I especially like how it warms up over time as it lies against the wearer's skin.
 

The trained marching flamingos at Nassau Zoological Gardens and Aviary.

  After a day at sea, we put in to the last port of call, Nassau, of  the Bahamas. We had arranged for a driver to meet us and take us around the island. The first site you see from the ship is the huge and familiar Atlantis resort, for which we see many advertisements on TV. One of the ship's excursions included a tour of the Atlantis and its many different campuses. We had no interest in this and instead saw the rest of the small island. I was surprised at the many lovely streets, roads and the growing resort communities. The Chinese are building a huge resort hotel which is supposed to rival the Atlantis. The port at Nassau can handle at least 8 ships at a time and it can handle the huge Allure of the Sea, sister ship to Oasis of the Sea by Royal Caribbean, which was by the way in port while we were there. Wow, what a ship. Its passenger count is 6200 while our ship has a lowly 1200 passengers on board. We certainly prefer the latter. In fact we even prefer two other ships in the Oceania line, the Nautica and the Regatta which only have 600 passengers.

Leaving Nassau, we say good bye to those wonderful turquoise waters of the Caribbean and it's back to Miami for us.