“The conception that the tick has to be attached for 48 hours to inject the bacteria is completely outdated,” she said. “There are studies that show that an attachment of 15 minutes can give you anaplasmosis, 10 minutes for the Powassan virus, and for the different strains of Borrelia burgdorferi, we have no idea.”
This past Friday, Dr. Nevena Zubcevik, attending physician at Harvard Medical School and co-director of Dean Center for Tick Borne Illness at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown (SRH) traveled to one of the nation’s front lines in the public health battle against Lyme disease to speak to a group of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital physicians. “I wanted to do this presentation by Skype because of all the ticks you have here,” she joked.
Dr. Zubcevik was at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital (MVH) to speak at grand rounds, a weekly meeting of clinicians, which on this day was open to the public, resulting in an overflow crowd at the Community Room just off the hospital lobby.
Over the course of the hour, she shared the most recent findings that she and her colleagues have made on the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, in particular on the 10 to 15 percent of patients who suffer long-term symptoms, defined by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). She discussed the protean nature of tick-borne diseases, the importance of public awareness, and the urgent need for the medical community to step up its game.
“Graduating medical students and doctors really aren’t educated about the gravity of this epidemic,” she said. “There’s a gap there that needs to be filled. We’re all responsible to educate our young doctors about what this entails.”
Dr. Zubcevic said the recent revelation that actor, singer, and songwriter Kris Kristofferson was cured of dementia once he was properly diagnosed with Lyme disease should be a lesson for medical professionals on how pervasive the disease is, and how often it is overlooked.
“Sudden-onset dementia should really be a red flag for Lyme [disease], especially in people with compromised immune systems,” she said.
“Everyone over 50 has a compromised immune system.”
Photo without irony. For irony scroll down to see the poem, Mending Wall, by Robert Frost, and for Hancock’s portrait of Frost.
Update: shortly after posting and thanks to Good Morning Gloucester facebook feed and readers, there may be more information coming on the outside-r artist who built such a great fence design. Please send in more information soon. And here is some! Danny Diamondwrites: “I painted this octopus (and the rest of the fence) back in October. It belongs to Jon Just Jon and Lisa Bouchie. The octopus was painted entirely with low-pressure spray-cans.” And Lisa Redbird adds: “…conceived by Lisa Bouchie, built by Mark (Girard) of Spotless Monkey and spray painted by Danny Diamond. A true artist collaborative…”
Mending Wall
1914 poem by Robert Frost, American poet (1874-1963), first published in anthology North of Boston
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door-game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go beyond his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Robert Frost sat for Walker Hancock, Gloucester resident, esteemed sculptor and one of the country’s Monuments Men. Frost walked our local woods.
Artist: Walker Kirtland Hancock, (b.1901-December 30, 1998) Sitter: Robert Lee Frost, 26 Mar 1874 – 29 Jan 1963 Date: 1969 bronze sculpture cast after 1950 original (collection Amherst) Dimensions: Without socle or mount: 16 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 10 inches Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Robert Frost collection at Amherst College (on the faculty for 40 years; also University of Michigan, Middlebury, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale, among other places) Hancock’s sculpture is in this collection. Sculpture of Frost by artist Penelope Jencks was unveiled in 2007
Dinner Specials Each Week!
Wednesday, January 4th, 2017 – 7pm
Guest Host: JOHN ROCKWELL!
Happy New Year! The amazing John Rockwell hosts the
Wednesday show this week in my absence (I have a private
performance elsewhere). It has been a while for John, so
do come and cheer him on. He is pure joy onstage! …and
I’ll see you all next week! ~ Fly
Dinner with great music!
*Each week features a special, invited musical guest
The Rhumb Line Kitchen……now features Janet Brown with some new and healthy ideas!
Plus a fine, affordable wine menu!
Upcoming…
01/11 Sasquatch
How, seriously HOW, have I never gone here before?
I remember all of the hubbub when they were in the planning stages and when they were getting ready to open…but since then, July 30th 2015 to be exact, I hadn’t made it in.
Well, that changed just before Christmas. And now I CAN NOT WAIT to go back.
Fermented foods have been receiving a lot of attention in health food circles lately, and they deserve it! We’re kicking off our monthly workshop series with a Fermented Food workshop presented by partner Pigeon Cove Ferments. Come learn how to turn your surplus garden veggies into these healthy and tasty ferments in our two-part workshop on January 11th and 18th at 6pm! Tickets are limited and you don’t want to miss this!
The Annual Meeting of the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, Inc. will be held at the Gloucester House Restaurant, 63 Rogers Street, Gloucester, MA, on Wednesday, January 18, 2017, at 7:30pm. The purpose of this meeting is to hear reports of the past year’s activity by the Music Director, President, Treasurer, Manager and Board Officers. The meeting is also convened to elect Directors and Officers for the period from January 18, 2017 through January 19, 2018. The meeting will be preceded by a cocktail reception at 6:30pm. ($36. per person/ cash bar). It is not necessary to attend the reception in order to attend the Annual Meeting. For further information please contact David Benjamin, Business Manager, 978-281-0543.
Cape Ann Symphony Photos by Jeph Ellis
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Commit to your yoga practice in 2017 and join us for a game of Treetop Yoga BINGO!
HOW TO PLAY: Grab a BINGO card, they are available at our front desk. Complete a square and get it initialed by our staff or teachers. As you complete a row, you win prizes! It’s that simple.
PRIZES!
Complete One Row: WIN a Treetop Yoga reusable water bottle
Complete Two Rows: WIN a FREE class for you or a friend
Complete Three Rows: WIN $25 Treetop Yoga Gift Card
Complete the Whole Card: Receive 50% off a Jade or Manduka yoga mat and a chance to WIN a $100 Treetop Yoga Gift Card
Treetop Yoga Studio
Come as you are, we’ll meet you there http://www.treetopyoga.com
3A Pond Road, Gloucester MA 978 282-YOGA
Say you’re on the road and bring a DVD player to play Game Of Thrones On Your Hotel TV and you forget the DVD player remote. On Android there’s a free app you can download to your cell phone “Sure Universal Remote” Which acts as a remote for a ton of different brand’s devices.
Worked great. Here’s a screenshot –
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Seeing double? Yes, you’re supposed to. The Sawyer Free Library addition was designed to mirror Cape Ann Museum as a balanced and nuanced architectural symmetry in deference to City Hall, and catalyst for a graceful city civic center.
Cape Ann Museum, December 2017
Sawyer Free Library has announced a public meeting January 11th for discussions of a new building. (See the flyer at the end of this post.)
City Hall may have some upcoming construction on the Dale Avenue side as well.
Both projects are largely in the name of accessibility of a physical nature. Can they be cost effective, worthy of our history and culture, protect our significant buildings, and address current and future needs? The following are some of the issues, local coverage, links to resources, and archival material for your interest.
NEW LIBRARY 2016. And 1973.
Before the current 2015-16 library outreach, the library hosted extensive visioning sessions throughout 2013. I went to a couple, and I was invited to take part in a focus group (on schools and the library.) A completely new library and jettisoning of the historic Saunders library building was not an expressed community value. What were some common discussion points? A strategy for digitization of historic archives and newspapers, more staff, more hours of operation (Sundays), better bathrooms, parking issues, air conditioning, electrical work, maintenance, security, maximizing technology/ content access with schools, ditto Cape Ann TV, and attendance (see this great video from Lisa Smith by kids for kids ) were some goals that were mentioned.
So it was a surprise to see the unveiling of new architectural renderings that did not showcase the Saunders house. It’s like the White House not featuring the White House. I think the Saunders house should be key and central to any building overhaul, not tossed aside. Providing universal access should preserve the intended awe factors if there are any, FOR EVERYBODY–such as the architectural details, proportion, welcoming entrance and unique heritage of a historic building. In this proposal, with Saunders severed there is zero physical access to the main event. What a missed opportunity. And for a library. What do you think?
Today’s paper mentioned that the Saunders house could be used for other purposes instead of the library. Why can’t that be the case and the library maintain its #1 asset? The downtown cultural district (which is not going forward in the same capacity) and other organizations could use the library meeting spaces. Do we really need to conjure up another stand alone endeavor?
Back in 1973, the Trustees of the Library began a fund drive for the new library addition; the city of Gloucester paid 2/3. As the Library’s General Chairman, Joe Garland led that campaign. Not surprising, the text of the brochure is a good read! The architect was Donald F. Monnell. (In 1971 Monnell was quoted in the papers speaking about the attributes of Central Grammar. One likes him more and more.) The population served was 27,000–nearly what it is today.
Awesome design on this 1973 brochure for the fundraising campaign for the Sawyer Free library– led by the Joe Garland (cover). See photos of complete pamphlet
See “Preserving our Civic Center,” great letter to the editor by Prudence Fish, Gloucester Daily Times, December 23, 2016
Working together
2016 Planning term and movement- “Scaling Up”
A quip about the concept of Scaling UP that I remember from a conference this past September at Peabody Essex Museum and hosted by Essex National Heritage was to “think about the farm not just a barn”; in this case a downtown, or an entire city and region. I like thinking this way in general–architecture and planning, art, and schools. But this conference pushed me to add overlays beyond my areas of expertise or focus like wildlife and waterways. Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts–there’s so much! Mayor Romeo Theken is committed to working together and feels that planning is important and broad. One example, see Gloucester Daily Times Dec 19, 2016 Officials: City to Prioritize Its (competing) Needs
There are several looming questions, evaluations, and decisions.
Every era has choices. The prior library expansion plans began well before 1972. Possibilities swirled as they do now. (Back then, Central Grammar was also in the news, may or may not have been razed, and possible uses favored senior housing, commercial development, an annex to City Hall, and a courthouse police station.) Today there are competing building needs and uses floated for properties as diverse as: the Cape Ann YMCA on Middle Street, the post office on Dale, the Gloucester Fire Department, police headquarters, St. Ann’s, and the elementary schools–and that’s just to name a few. Let’s celebrate enviable architectural strengths, and not fuss with buildings that should be venerated, unless it’s to help them be accessible and healthy. Let’s get the balance right.
HISTORY MAKING PLEA- Archives for all
The prohibitive costs of best practice historic preservation (ADA compliant, temperature and humidity controls, security, sustainability, in house scanning/OCR/audio transcription, etc) is impossible for all the worthy collections in town, and pits them as foes when vying for funds. Let’s flip that impediment on its head and make Gloucester a model for the state. Its treasures would be available worldwide if they were trulyaccessible –digitized.Two words may help accomplish this goal and free up cash for individual operations: shared overhead. It’s one hope I continue to stress–the need to share necessary resources for a state-of-the-art research and warehouse repository. This universal hub should be large enough to encompass any holdings not on view. There could be a smaller downtown central site combined with a larger off site location, such as at Blackburn. The list of sharing institutions could include and is by no means exhaustive: our municipal archives that date back to 1642; Cape Ann Museum; Sawyer Free Library; North Shore Art Association; Beauport; Hammond Castle; the Legion; Amvets and other social clubs; Sargent House; several places of worship; Gloucester Daily Times; Annisquam historical building collections; Lanesville; Magnolia’s historic collections; artists/writers estates; Veterans office; our schools; Isabel Babson Memorial Library, and perhaps businesses such as Cape Pond Ice and Gortons. The library plans don’t appear to retrofit their site(s) for this goal.
If incentives and policy supported neighborhood character over less generic construction
that would be wonderful. It’s not just Gloucester.
PRESS RELEASE: GLOUCESTER MLK DAY CELEBRATION
WHAT: AN AFTERNOON OF PRESENTATIONS ON THE MLK HOLIDAY hosted by the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation
WHEN: MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2017, 1:30-5:30pm
WHERE: THE GLOUCESTER MEETINGHOUSE (Unitarian Universalist Church), corner of Church & Middle Street, accessible side entrance at 10 Church Street
PROGRAM:
1:30 Mary Ellen Lepionka, Cape Ann Algonquians’ first encounter with Samuel de Champlain
2:30 Lise Breen, history of early African-Americans and slavery in Gloucester
3:30 GWC Fish Tales, first-hand stories about injustice and hope
4:30 Mayor Sefatia Romeo-Theken, summation on cultural diversity
5:00 Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers the ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ on the CAC&S big screen
5:30 Closing, tolling of the Meetinghouse Paul Revere bell for freedom
WHAT’S SPECIAL? A rare opportunity to gather in community to celebrate the legacy of Dr. King, learn about persons of color and diverse identities on Cape Ann, and rededicate ourselves to the American creed that all persons are created equal.
COST: FREE with voluntary donations, all welcome. Refreshments will be available.
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org
ABOUT THE GLOUCESTER MEETINGHOUSE FOUNDATION: The mission of the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation is to preserve the 1806 landmark building, Gloucester’s last-surviving historic Meetinghouse, as a civic hub, entertainment venue and community center.
RELATED MORNING EVENT: The Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport holds its annual Peace March commemorating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. in which members and friends gather at 9:30 am for sign making, followed by a march through downtown Rockport at 10:00 am, and gather after the march for hot cider and goodies, followed by a short worship service. For more information see: http://rockportuu.org/
GLOUCESTER EVENT CONTACT (not for publication)
Charles Nazarian, president
Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation
10 Church Street
Gloucester, MA 01930 http://www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org
chasnaz@gmail.com
978-821-5291
Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation, Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation qualified by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. With this designation, contributions to the GMF are tax-exempt to the extent of the law with no goods or services received in exchange.
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Good Morning Gloucester 