Golden Girls and Golden Towns

Jessica Savitch was a Philadelphia news reporter who died ten days after my eighth birthday. I remember her death quite clearly, because my mother loved her and was shocked at the horrible way she died (my mother had similar reactions to the deaths of Natalie Wood and Grace Kelly, though her reaction to Grace Kelly's death was much more intense). I remember her as a pretty blond lady on the news whose car fell in the water. You can watch parts of her KYW newscast here. I am presently watching Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story, a 1995 TV movie of her life, starring Sela Ward, who I think is perfectly glamorous and fabulous, although she looks kind of strange as a blonde. Curious as I am, I had to refresh my memory about her story, especially since about five minutes into the film I realized that her life must also have been the basis for the film Up Close and Personal, which I hadn't noticed before (she doesn't die in this mostly fictional, "loosely based" story).
I also immediately remembered another revelation I had about Jessica Savitch when I was in high school. My sister started taking me to New Hope, Pennsylvania when I was about 15, and we spent many long weekends prowling around the town and staying in local inns (usually the Wedgwood, which at the time had a lovely innkeeping dog named Jasper). We also stayed at the Pineapple Hill B & B just once, and it was creepy to the point of ghost-hunting (I wrote a poem about that, too!), although now it seems to have undergone a complete overhaul and looks just gorgeous. One restaurant we really liked was called Odette's. It's right on the river, and they have a piano bar up front. It's extremely cozy on rainy nights, and it was one of the things that made me fall in love with New Hope. I wrote a poem about one night there when my sister and I decided to wait out the rain before driving back to the Wedgwood. It was fantastic and memorable---the wind rattling, us warm and sated and laughing inside. It wasn't until a much later trip to New Hope that I realized that this was the restaurant that Jessica Savitch had been to on the night she died---also a rainy night---and after eating there, she and her date took a wrong turn and ended up in one of the shallow canals that line the roadsides and hide in the hillsides there. They seem gorgeous and innocuous when you walk past them in the daytime, but the idea of struggling to escape a car buried in that muddy bed is a nightmare indeed.
Jessica Savitch's death, however, now reminds me more of my family and of New Hope than of the actual tragedy that occurred. I have to say I was pleased to find links to pictures of the towpath, the canal, and Odette's on the Jessica Savitch page on the Find A Death website. (Although the reporting friend there seems to have a real problem with Atlantic City, there is a good brief biography.)
I would like to tell you that if you happen to end up in New Hope that the best restaurant you could go to is La Bonne Auberge. It's quite expensive, but quite worth it. It's yet another place I went to with my sister. They were terribly sweet there, and I remember that we went and had a splendid time playing with the morels atop the veal . . the mushroom caps went sploosh sploosh sploosh, squirting divine mushroomy sauce. I don't think either of us will ever forget our lovely meal there (the first one---they were very happy to receive us again.) They're only open a few nights a week, but if you are willing to spend money there, they treat you like sweet princesses, and it is absolutely amazing.
It will take me a few days to find my poems about those days. . . I ended up using them during my applications to colleges in high school. My sister and I don't go to New Hope anymore, but I wish we did. I wish I could reread each of the entries I made in the little books they have there in the Wedgwood journals, but to do that we need to go back. . . I'm hoping we will. I realize that we're not really B & B people anymore---we're much too late to bed and too late to rise---but they are days I truly miss.

Runny Noses Help Fight Meth

Yesterday, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed legislation that will require Oregonians to get a prescription for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine. In other words, when your family comes down with a cold, you're going to have to pay for each of your kids to visit a doctor to have him diagnose them with a common cold so you can get a prescription for medicine that has been on the shelves for decades. Very nice. The theory behind this is that it will prevent criminals from using pseudoephedrine in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamines, thus striking another shocking blow to the bad guys in the war on drugs.
But why? Most of the methamphetamines for sale in this state and others are in fact imported methamphetamines, not ones cooked up in your friendly neighborhood trailer. Countless news sources admit that the bulk of methamphetamines in the U. S. come from Mexico. And more than that---most of the pseudoephedrine used in preparing meth is smuggled in from other countries. Very few successful meth cookers are stumbling into the 24-hour drugstore and dumping 50 packages of Sudafed on the counter. Most states (Oregon included) already have (or are on their way to) laws restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine products. These laws require an ID, signature, and perhaps some additional information. Sometimes these laws are used in conjunction with a limit on the number of pseudoephedrine products you may purchase. Laws like this have supposedly reduced the numbers of meth labs in these states (like Oklahoma) by as much as 80%. Of course, this doesn't make a dent in the actual use and sale of meth, because only a small percentage of street meth is homemade.
So what's the point of this legislation? That's what I'd like to know. If requiring logs, IDs, and behind-the-counter sales already reduces meth labs by 80%, why do we need to put law-abiding citizens through the wringer and deny them access to legal medicines that are perfectly safe? It seems like the politicians are embarrassed and ignorant. They're embarrassed that their states are falling prey to drugs and criminal activity, and they are ignorant to the facts of why and how it's actually happening. Or at least willing to ignore those facts. Legislation like this is to garner favor in the public eye and perhaps line the ermine pockets of doctors and pharmaceutical companies (if access is decreased, the medicine prices will have to rise to make up the profits. Or we can buy the new, undoubtedly more expensive "replacement" medicines).
The media has been saturated with meth coverage; listening to them, you'd think it's armageddon, the drug Antichrist, and if it is not smote with all powers of the universe, we will surely become a nation of scabby 'meth-mouths'. But no matter how horrible meth use and addiction is, this step isn't the one to take, because it won't accomplish anything! Correction: it will accomplish something. It will mean that decent, lawful people will have to drive further, pay more, waste more time, and feel sicker just so a few congressmen and governors can pat each other on the back and tell their constituents that they're working on the problems of the community. When really all they are doing is forcing families to spend money that they don't have to get medicines they need to work to actually contribute more to their communities!
It's sick, it's manipulative, and most of the country is falling for it. The papers are calling the Oregon law the new "anti-meth" law, and touting it as a gutsy and heroic move---just what the politicians had in mind. (Note that Governor Ted admits that meth-lab meth only accounts for 20-25% of the meth in Oregon---and factor in that probably only 5% of that is produced using any store-bought pseudoephedrine.) It's not an anti-meth law. It's an anti-pseudeoephedrine law, and the only thing it's going to change is the way you can soothe your runny nose. Governor Ted insisted that there were plenty of cold medicines that didn't use pseudoephedrine---but if any of those worked (or worked as well), how come people still use the pseudoephedrine products? I can tell you why I do: they often work when others don't. A substitute is not the same thing for Sudafed. Maybe after it's made prescription-only, the lawmakers will see what they've done as streetcorner Actifed hustlers appear. Or maybe before the entire country buys this particular brand of bullshit madness, they'll remember that no one is making crack, heroin, or powder cocaine out of over-the-counter drugs, and if I'm not mistaken, it's pretty easy for users to find and dealers to sell. "But it's the labs, those pesky, explosive meth labs!" you cry. Hm. Really? What percentage of the population is suffering from the effects of meth in the meth labs---and what percentage of those aren't the cooks (who really deserve whatever effects they get, if you ask me). Right. Think about that, and cry labs again.
You have rights, and they are worth protecting. As you sit back and let the politicians remove those rights, make sure you're aware of what's happening. Because after we take this slap in the face and smile, there will only be more coming our way. We're suckers, we're falling for it, so why not? What's next? Maybe plastic baggies. I think it's clear that those plastic baggies provide an unmatched method for transporting drugs. If we didn't have them, I'm certain the country would be clean and sober.

Third Time's The Charm

My third experiment in blogging, and I hope it goes better than the first two. Arguably, I have an excuse for the brief life of the first two: hectic times in a usually-low-key life. I don't know if I'm fully recovered, but I certainly have a lot more time to spend on the computer these days, so I might as well try again. With a fresh start, of course.
I know that you can't push these things, so this post is an introduction, but I'm not going to write any more until I happen upon one of those things that makes me wish I had a blog. I'm sure the wait won't be too long.