Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Howdy! Dinner at Texas Roadhouse is noisy & pleasantly ‘rowdy’

While being led to our seats, I was hoping the food would be as ‘crunchy’ as the peanut shells covering the floor. The cowboy music filled the room; it was a blast! it was noisy and almost ‘rowdy’. No sooner did we sit down, than my cell phone rang; I could hardly hear the ED doctor; no emergency; we could eat our hearty meals with enthusiasm and having fun while eating like each and everyone in the Texas Roadhouse. When you are in Texas, eat like Texans.

After hearing this was our first visit to the restaurant, the server suggested their signature steak; I should have said “bring them on”, as did the one from Texas (I am hoping you know to whom I referred). Katy settled with Grilled BBQ Chicken. My House Salad with one thousand island dressing was a good sign that good food was to come. The bread disappointed me, but Katy liked its sweet flavor.

Being a peanut lover I felt at home seeing a basket of roast shelled peanuts on the table; I cannot say the meal was complete as I didn’t wash the steak down with the beer to get into the mood to blend into the atmosphere that “Texas” takes pride in.

In defense of Rosalind Franklin

In my post at Sermo about the discovery of DNA structure I failed to mention Rosalind Franklin, a doctor protested saying “With all due respect, you missed Rosalind Franklin, whom J.D. Watson, in The Double Helix credited with the actual x-ray crystallography that sealed the hypothesis.” To which I responded,

I admit it is an unforgivable oversight of not mentioning The Dark Lady of DNA (Rosalind Franklin's biography by Brenda Maddox) when talking about the discovery of DNA structure. Her untimely death in 1958 must make the Nobel Committee much easier to give the awards in 1962. But I have campaigned for her tirelessly over the years. James Watson once suggested that Nobel Prizes should be given in 1962 to him and Crick in Medicine and Wilkins and Franklin in Chemistry, all for the DNA structure. That might be a way to solve the problem had Franklin not passed away then.

Max Perutz and John Kendrew shared the Prize in Chemistry that year; I believe Watson initially went to Kendrew's lab where he hooked up with Crick; that was the golden days for Cavendish Lab.

John Steinbeck was there for Literature that year and even Linus Pauling was there for the Peace Prize or may be the Nobel Committees felt Pauling could or should be (almost) there for the DNA structure, too.

Dr. James Watson in Taiwan

I learn that Dr. James Watson is visiting Taiwan from Edwin Tsai’s Facebook page. The College of Life Science of the National Tsing Hua University is having a 3-day conference (April 1-3, 2010) boasting Dr. James Watson; his mere presence will make it an extraordinary one, even though he is now a Lion in Winter. I do not know whether he’ll be there 3 days in a row or just Today’s (April 3) lecture.

On Feb. 25 I had the following post at Sermo and one doctor remarked that he met Watson at a conference a couple of years ago and “I was totally shaking and star struck. I have never felt that way meeting somebody before. Forget Brad Pitt. Now there is a STAR.”

Another doctor wrote, “Got to see Francis Crick at Northwestern University in 1974, speaking about his subsequent research. Spoke at the Technological Institute [a huge complex; it was said it is bigger than the Pentagon, I visited Joy there on many occasions during her undergraduate years] Auditorium, which seats about 900. I’d suspect there were easily 1,300 or more in the audience.”

The following is what I posted at Sermo on Feb. 28.

Today (Feb. 28) in 1953 Francis Crick went to Eagle pub (nearby Cavendish Lab) to tell everyone within hearing distance that he and James Watson had found the secret of life. And molecular biology was born.

Sidney Brenner once said Crick was the only one he knew can make a living by being a theoretic biologist. He devoted much of later part of his life in “the scientific search for the soul” (the subtitle of his book, Astonishing Hypothesis). Watson is a more prolific and better writer, though.

Crick and Maurice Wilkins (The third man of the double helix) passed away in 2004 and Watson is now a lion in winter. We haven't heard much from him since he made a so-called “racist” remark while promoting his book (Avoid Boring People) in London in late 2007. His memoir came in segments; "The Genes, Girls, and Gmow" ended at his getting married, and "Avoid Boring People" told his life in science up to the time when he left Harvard in 1976. He still has much to say and he shouldn't be silenced.

There is no trace of any racism in “Avoid Boring People”; the outspoken Honest Jim is absolutely not a racist at heart, it is his brutal insensitivity and loose tongue that got him into trouble.

The untimely death of Rosalind Franklin

Speaking of the untimely death of Rosalind Franklin, the following is my comment on her in a post about the early detection of ovarian cancer.

Doctors had difficulty detecting Rosalind Franklin ovarian cancer back in 1956, and we're still facing almost the same dilemma nowadays.

Before leaving for the United States in the summer of 1956 for a 2-month stay at various Labs, including Woods Hole Lab at Cape Cod, Cal Tech, and a 3-week stay at UCLA virus Lab at Berkeley (where she celebrated her 36th birthday), she had a medical check up by a doctor at the University College London's student health; no problems were found. This was a routine physical required of those exposed to radiation risks in their work.

During the last week of her stay, she had trouble zipping her skirt and her "midriff began to bulge". She went to see a doctor; "You're not pregnant?" asked the doctor, "I wish I were," was her answer. The doctor suspected ovarian trouble and the surgery at London confirmed ovarian cancer (the right ovary was the size of a croquet ball) on September 4. She died of abdominal carcinomatosis on April 16, 1958.

The life time risk for ovarian cancer is 1.4% in the US (1 in 71 women), it is 39-46% among the carriers of BRCA1 mutation and 12-20% for BRCA2 mutation. The BRCA mutations are particularly prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews, and I believe Rosalind Franklin was an Ashkenazi Jew, not 100% sure, though.

de Gaulle was a headache for both Winston Churchill and FDR

This is my letter-to-the-editor at Observer Reporter (Washington, PA) in early 2010 about the interesting relationship among de Gaulle, Churchill, and FDR.

Edwards' scandal, blaming the mainstream press -- my letter-to-the-editor

This is my letter-to-the-editor at Observer-Reporter (1/29/10) chastising the mainstream press for failing to inform the public in time about John Edwards' scandal. No wonder the National Enquirer is now officially in the running of a Pulitzer Prize in the category of Investigative and National Reporting.

(The following is my letter.)

I am glad you wrote an editorial on Edwards’ folly on Jan. 25.  Never has a politician stoop so low.  Edwards will never tell a truth unless it is absolutely necessary.

I still fault the mainstream press for failing to inform the public soon enough.  It is a disgrace to America that he could run a presidential campaign and was even ahead of Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Caucus.

It is true that a politician’s personal life is none of our business.  But a powerful and immoral politician is a dangerous thing.  Let’s not forget that Lincoln’s greatness largely comes from his courage and morality.

While the National Enquirer devoted its resources to pursue and unravel the scandal back in 2007, the mainstream press kept silent, allowing Edwards to brush it off as “tabloid trash”.

Remembering Virginia Woolf today

Today (March 28) in 1941 Virginia Woolf with stones in her pockets walked into River Ouse in Lewes, England. Was she thinking about the last line of her beloved novel The Waves? “Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!”

During her last bout of depression and breakdown, she went mad hearing inside her head (auditory hallucination) a chorus of birds singing in Greek. I wonder whether she could be saved had the SSRI and SNRI (popular antidepressants) been available then? I recall Arvid Carlsson, in his Nobel Lecture in 2000 said that the suicide rate was reduced by about 20% a few years after the SSRI became available.

Gardening by Dr. & Mrs. Der-Fong Fan (范德豐)

Dr. Fan Der-Fong (范德豐) gave a talk about gradening at the Taiwanese Bible Study.  Dr. Fan, who along with his wife, Mary, are renowned gardeners/horticulturists in greater Pittsburgh area. We’re always looking forward to be their guests when the harvest time comes. Their garden is as beautiful as the produce is fresh and pleasing. Here are the proofs.

Dr. Fang and Dr. Liang's gardens inspired us to start our combined vegetable and flower garden.  Katy has been doing the garden with Dr. Greenlee and Mr. Gapen over the years, now with the passing of these two seasoned gardeners, I picked up what they left behind, the torch was passed; but that is another write up.

A Winter's Tale

Unlike Shakespeare’s, my winter’s tale is about the winter storm that caused the unprecedented power outage in nearly 40 years.

At the end of the last snow storm in early February, the sun came out high in the sky; it was truly a thing of beauty; this must be the way Nature showing off its work, saying "look! See what I have just made!"

our neighbor

We're left without electricity and heating for two days; it came back in time for the Super Bowl, thanks to the power company kind consideration. We literally went to bed “after dark”, but one can only sleep so many hours, my iPod ran out of battery and cannot be recharged without a computer on; trying to read with candle light but gave it up as it strained the eyes. Longing for the hot food, but the nearby McDonald closed for two days. We still had the warm heart, but that is the only thing left that is still warm in the house. I took time making rounds in the hospital and Katy went with me; she spent time in the hospital Wellness Center taking a hot shower.

We finally dug ourselves out (the electric blower lay idle watching us laboring with each shovel) only to have the second storm came in days; it wasn’t as bad the second one around, but with the high walls along the drive way, where were we to put away the more snow to come?

my Facebook debut

I better start facebooking as Facebook has topped Google on visiting the Web sites, lest I would be left too far behind. Visits to Facebook made up 7.07% of all Web visits compared with 7.03% for Google. Facebook is where all friends are.

Chinese lunar New Year celebration 匹茲堡美華協會春宴

We’re honored and privileged to have 2009 Miss Pennsylvania and 2009 Miss Pennsylvania Teen attend the Chinese New Year celebration sponsored by Overseas Chinese Association (OCA), Pittsburgh Chapter on Feb. 27, 2010.

The following is Katy's dispatch to the World Journal (世界日報) that was published on March 10, 2010 reporting this event.

美華協會匹茲堡分會日前假敘利亞廟會中心（Syria Shrine Center）舉行虎年新春聯歡宴會，300多位中西嘉賓出席，場面熱鬧。

晚會由第11頻道電視台主播提蜜卡‧安提斯（Timyka Artist）及凱倫‧尹（Karen Yee）主持，出席貴賓包括美國鋁業公司（ALCOA）、紐約美隆銀行（BNY Mellon）、匹大醫學中心骨科部門（UPMC）、PNC銀行、大都會保險金融服務（MetLife）等代表，以及台灣同鄉會會長黃琦惠、餐飲公會會長陳飛、慈濟負責人陳家興等。

 

該會會長李東昌致詞表示，美華協會自1973年成立以來，積極參與美國地方和國家事務，以爭取平等機會和待遇，並宣揚文化，以消弭族群偏見，是大力宣導與確保美國亞太裔公民權益的組織。

 

他回顧了去年舉辦的許多活動，包括1月該會青少年在謝家碧老師指導下，第一次做舞蹈才藝公演，參與匹茲堡北邊的救世軍濟貧餐飲。2月牛年春宴。5月亞太裔傳統月，該協會參與了絲綢電影節、龍舟節、亞洲文化節、支持台灣實踐大學的羅漢門宋江陣表演。10月參加防癌協會「生命接力」募款活動。11月假匹茲堡大學UPMC診所舉辦義診。歲末參加匹茲堡市區感恩節遊行。他表示，能圓滿達成這麼多社會服務工作，得歸功所有志工的付出；他呼籲，華人應踴躍參與人口普查。

 

曾任該會會長的陳家興被選為今年的榮譽主席，並獲李東昌頒贈「德行廣眾」獎牌及禮物。國會眾議員墨菲（Tim Murphy）向該會頒贈賀詞，並頒發義工國會獎（Congressional Award）給三位高中生。

 

當晚表演除有該會醒獅團與歌舞團，也邀請匹茲堡海華青年管弦樂團和「彩虹兒童」演出。中外貴賓一邊享用由匹茲堡華人餐館協會準備的佳餚，一與欣賞謝家碧策劃的精彩歌舞，其中「敦煌飛天」及「彩帶舞」更是贏得如雷掌聲。

 

當晚摸彩活動，由2010美國賓州小姐吉娜‧喜芮莉（Gina Cerilli）和2010美國賓州妙齡小姐伊蓮娜‧拉闊垂（Elena LaQuatram）抽獎。另有舞獅及慈善義賣，最後學生獻花謝幕，圓滿結束這場春宴。有意加入該分會者，可上網址

George Washington's wisdom -- my letter-to-the-editor

This is my letter-to-the-editor (3/5/10) at Observer-Reporter (Washington, PA) telling a less well known wisdom of our cherry tree chopper.  I like the editor using "By George" as the heading of the letter to express a 'surprise'.

Miss Pennsylvania

We’re honored and privileged to have 2009 Miss Pennsylvania and 2009 Miss Pennsylvania Teen attend the Chinese New Year celebration sponsored by Overseas Chinese Association (OCA), Pittsburgh Chapter on Feb. 27, 2010.

Katy sent a dispatch to the World Journal. The link may work for a limited time only.

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_njpa/6625480/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E7%BE%8E%E8%8F%AF%E5%8D%94%E6%9C%83%E6%98%A5%E5%AE%B4?instance=nj_story1

Taiwanese Pittsburghers welcomed Dr. Wen-Ta Chiu (10/21/09)

Members of the Taiwanese American community at Pittsburgh were privileged and honored to welcome Dr. Wen-Ta Chiu (邱文達) during his visit to Pittsburgh on 10/21/2009; on the occasion of his being selected as the prestigious GSPH 2009 Legacy Laureate—the highest honor bestowed to the alumnui of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. (click the photo to enlarge it)

The welcome party was held at the Sushi Tomo of Pittsburgh; we all enjoyed good food and good company. After the dinner Dr. Chiu had a Power Point presentation introducing Taipei Medical University (TMU), of which Dr. Chiu is the current president. We’re very impressed by the rapid development and expansion of TMU under his leadership. (A granddaughter of my eldest sister is currently a 5th year student at TMU.)

Rarely has any physician excelled in so many diverse fields of medicine. Dr. Chiu’s service and contribution in neurosurgery is matched by his skill in managing large medical universities and large teaching hospitals, not mentioned his experience and expertise in the field of public health. His selection of being a GSPH 2009 Legacy Laureate is no surprise. Our hats off!

Katy sent a dispatch to the World Journal (世界日報, published on 10/31/09), in which news about receiving the prestigious and highly competitive Godina Lecture Award in the field of microsurgery by Dr. Yur-Ren Kuo (we’re fortunate to know him during his research days at UPMC and still miss him), was also mentioned, that will be another post. Stay tuned.

Iron City architecture -- my letter-to-the-editor at the Wall Street Journal

This is my letter-to-the-editor published at the Wall Street Journal on 10/3/09, talking about the architecture of the Iron City (Pittsburgh).  The last G20 meeting was held at Pittsburgh, during which period the Wall Street Journal had a book review about the Pittsburgh city architecture.

(The following is my letter)

Princely Observation From the Iron City

I read David Shribman's review of Franklin Toker's "Pittsburgh: A New Portrait" (Bookshelf, Sept.  22) with delight and pride. It was the Pittsburgh landscape that brought Prince Charles, the most celebrated architecture critic, to Pittsburgh in 1988 when he was the keynote speaker at the Remaking Cities Conference.  His royal highness observed "if we encourage a renaissance of craftmanship and the art of embellishing building for man's pleasure and for the sheer joy in beauty itself . . . then we shall have made our cities centers of civilization once again.

Jer-Yuan Tsai

Waynesburg, PA"

Chemistry is essential to doctors

In these letters-to-the-editor at WSJ, the writers tell why doctor needs to know his/her chemistry, especially organic chemistry and biochemistry.

The old faithful couple at the Old Faithful

Janice called from the Old Faithful yesterday afternoon; we’re there two summers ago, here are some of the pictures.

Yellowstone National Park is the geyser country, about one-third of the world geysers, of which the Old Faithful is the most famous one, are here between Madison Junction and the Old Faithful. There are all types of nature wonders, such as mud caldrons, bubbling and colorful paint pots, and fumaroles. The most amazing is that there are all close together, proving God is considerate, creating the Wonders for the tourists’ convenience.

The old faithful couple at the Old Faithful

The Old Faithful presently erupts every 90 minutes or so, there was a mathematical relationship between the duration and intervals. The intervals between eruptions are longer now than used to be; it was attributed to the earthquake, not the 1988 fire as explained by our tour guide. The eruption shoots out up to 8,400 gallons boiling water to a height up to 184 feet lasting for up to 5 minutes.

It is OK not to read the books you collected

I spotted two used volumes of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization: Volume V The Renaissance and Volume VII The Age of Reason Begins at Harvard Book Store while visiting Janice last November, and only took them out to look for something on a few occasions. (I have checked them out from library many times in the past, though.)

I once got Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson from a book sale in the library, even though I already have had one copy for many years. I have two copies of Churchill’s Blood, Toil, Tears & Sweat (The Speeches of Winston Churchill); it was only $1.98, I simply couldn't resist not taking it home, even though I do not need it.

I brought a bag of used books home from library last week, costing $2 a bag, and those books are still in the bag. One of the books was A Planet called Earth by George Gamow; Joy, he was the same Gamow in James Watson’s Genes, Girl, and Gamow (the book you bought me) after the Double Helix; the other was James Michener’s Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections.

Janice, I am hoping you haven’t thrown away May 31 the Wall Street Journal (Weekend Journal) yet. Hopefully you didn’t miss the article “The Book Collection that Devoured My Life”. There was a “Letters to the Editor” on the Journal today (June 9)—Not reading the books I collected, I now proclaim myself as “the elite and unruffled ranks of the truly cultured" as the letter said.