Greetings from Fayetteville, Arkansas, where our clan has decided to spend Thanksgiving this year. I don’t think in all our decades of marriage MD and I have ever traveled on Thanksgiving, at least not on the Wednesday before. It was as bad as I imagined it would be, but thankfully the plane was on time. Going through all the check-in processes at the airport were like normal, just vastly more time consuming than usual.

I got stuck at the TSA Pre Check point, because the camera did not recognize my face. They had to photograph me five times before it decided I was me. It was probably due to my own ketogenic diet, which has given my face a lean, cunning look instead of the fatter, jolly one I had before. I turned my head just slightly as they took the 5th photograph to give my face more width. Don’t know if it worked or not, but they passed me through.

We’re flying back on Sunday, which, I’m sure will be just as bad. So think good thoughts for us. The Fayetteville airport is not nearly as large as LAX, so maybe things will go more quickly. But, then, the Fayetteville airport won’t have the number of staff that LAX does, so…

I’m using the same image this Thanksgiving as I did last, because I love it. It represents the idiocy we’ve been immersed in since Covid struck a few years ago. Before then, I doubt that medical science and politics were correlated. No one’s politics could be discerned by questioning about a medical issue, but that isn’t the case now, as can be discerned from the pumpkin pie pictured below.

My own take on vaccines has done a 180 since I began studying them at the start of Covid. I actually did a radio interview back then during which I stated that I thought the mRNA vaccines sounded like they’d be a new and exciting addition to the vaccine arsenal we already had. Now I could tear my tongue out for having said that.

I’ve got our whole family down on vaccines now. In fact, our middle son told me a few days ago about an encounter he had 15 years or so ago with a group of anti-vaxxers. They had a booth at the Santa Barbara farmers market, a liberal enterprise if there ever was one but a beautiful market. A group of young women in sundresses with their children had a booth and were disseminating anti-vax literature. A lot of people were stopping by the booth and getting literature. As my son walked by, one of the women approached him and tried to give him a brochure. When he saw what it was, he said basically, thanks, but no thanks in a tone that was totally dismissive.

When he told me about this a few weeks ago, he wistfully said, “I wish I could go back to those women and apologize.”

You just never know when you run into the truth head on and simply dismissively walk away.

Keto Testimonials

Here is a comment I received on my last post about the woman with Alzheimer’s.

This comment reminds me of a blog post I wrote years ago. (I apologize that the paragraphs are crammed together, but the blogging platform has changed how it does paragraphs, and I don’t have time today to learn a new trick. The post is easily readable.)

Our friend has still maintained her weight. She could well be dead by now had she pursued her old ways, but who knows. Anyway, we’re all too eager to meet commitments set by others and blow off those set by ourselves, which are often (usually) the most important ones.

Here is one of the absolute best keto/low-carb testimonials you will ever encounter. It appeared in post form today by Nick Norwitz. I had heard part of his story, but not all of it. If you read his Substack, you will be gobsmacked at what a ketogenic diet did for one person. He doesn’t have a paywall on this one, so I’m posting the entire thing.

Click here to read about Nick Norwitz and keto.

Read and marvel at the potential of this diet. As Nick says in the post, it doesn’t work for everyone. But based on my decades of experience it works for plenty; the ones it does work for vastly outnumber the ones it doesn’t work for. At least for those who follow it. It’s worth a try at the very least. And by worth a try, I mean a real try. Not just cutting out bread for a day or two. It takes commitment, but so do a lot of things we all do. Cue to the woman in the post I wrote about above.

I’m Grateful today

Thanksgiving gives us all a designated day to pause and reflect on all that blesses us: family, good friends, peaceful days, starry nights, and in my case, all the dear readers of this publication. I’ve been at this now for almost five years, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all of you who have stuck with me since the ‘no name newsletter’ days and especially for those of you who value my contribution enough to support it with a premium subscription. It really helps make it possible to continue doing it week in and week out.

I’m grateful as well for the back and forth camaraderie the Arrow has afforded me. I love the feedback, good and bad; I appreciate your holding me to account if you see a flaw in my thinking. And I appreciate those of you whose eagle eyes spot the typos and errors and alert me to them so they can be amended.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Newsletter Recommendations

Video of the Week

Well, you might have expected it. Alice’s Restaurant is going to be the VOTW every Thanksgiving The Arrow goes out. It’s a total anti-war song, especially an anti-Vietnam-war song. From the time I first heard it, I loved it even though at that time I was not against the war in Vietnam. I was fighting the draft, but I wasn’t fighting going into the military. In fact, I wanted to be a Navy pilot. But one couldn’t be a military pilot in those days without having a college degree. My engineering school was a five-year program, so I had an extra year before I could be accepted into OCS then flight school. So I was using every opportunity to avoid getting drafted and tossed into the infantry or something, which I was able to do.

By the time I got out of school, the Vietnam war was winding down, and so was the draft. I escaped. Then was offered a nice engineering job, so I took that instead. I figured I would give it a whirl to see if I liked it, and, if not, it was off to the Navy for me. In the interim, I ended up getting deeply into SCUBA diving. Which made me change my thoughts from flying to learning more about operating a large boat. I wanted to get a dive and salvage boat, so I decided the Coast Guard was the way to go. Anyway, that all blew up in a fluke, so I ended up working a few more years as an engineer, then bolted to medical school.

Right now I’m in the middle of reading a terrific book about the Vietnam war. The book is so well written, it almost reads itself. I would urge anyone who wants to know what really happened to read it. I am especially glad now that I wasn’t a part of it. The book truly represents the politics of the time of both parties. Few are without blame.

Whoever said wars should never be left to the generals was absolutely correct, at least as applied to the Vietnam war.

This song is almost 60 years old. Our kids grew up on it; they have all heard it many, many times and love it. They’ve spread it to their friends. But most people not of the era have no idea it exists. It’s much too long to be played on the radio. I do my part to keep it alive by posting it every Thanksgiving. If you’ve heard the song before (or hundreds of times, as I have), just sit back and enjoy the infectious melody again. If you’ve never heard it, you’re in for a great experience. Enjoy!

Time for the poll, so you can grade my performance this week.

That’s about it for this week. Keep in good cheer, and I’ll be back soon.

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This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.

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