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11/02/2007 @ 9:58am PST
Friday Morning, November 2nd! Odds and Ends today, including "It's this weekend we get to sleep an extra hour"!
It's one of those days I've got a thousand things on my mind, including "falling back" at 2 a.m. Sunday morning. That's right, this is the weekend under the new Daylight Saving Time scheme the government came up with to save an extra 1% energy yearly, to turn back our clocks an hour. Enjoy that extra 60 minutes!
Some health tips to start your day.
1. Be a Copy Cat. Your kitty has the right idea. Learn to do stretching exercises when you wake up. It boosts circulation and digestion, and eases back pain.
2. Start your day (or end it) by exercising on an empty stomach if you want to lose weight.
3. Neurobics for your mind. Brush your teeth with the 'other' hand, take a new route to work or choose your clothes based on a sense of touch rather than sight. People with mental agility tend to have lower rates of Alzheimer's disease and age-related mental decline.
TRAFFIC NEWS: An engineer with the Oklahoma Transportation Authority has figured out a way to get people to slow down for construction zones. Jerry Slaughter uses speed limit signs that say "17 MILES PER HOUR"....because, he says, the odd speed limit gets people's attention way better than a normal number like 20 miles-per-hour...and they actually do slow down.
Myth Debunked: If you swallow gum, it takes seven years to digest. Fact: Gum doesn't get digested...it just gets railroaded out of your body with food that DID get digested in about 24 hours.
2 Quick Questions: Why isn't "phonetic" pronounced the way it's spelled?......And if you're traveling in a car at the speed of sound, can you still hear the radio?
Finally, this classic riddle again? The legend is that when asked this riddle, 80% of kindergarten kids got the answer correct, compared to 17% of Stanford seniors.
What is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have it, The rich need it, And if you eat it, you'll die? (The answer here on Monday, in case you don't know it)
On the "Tuna Clips" today, with the time change this weekend, there's a time-mind experiment and the results of it the next day on part 2 of the clips. Try it yourself once you hear it and your life will be changed forever.
Thank you again for all the wonderful emails you're still sending (the newest ones are posted on the "Tuna Talkback" link). I do so appreciate it and thanks for continuing to check in on this website, last month there were over a half million hits. I'm hoping for the opportunity to be back on the radio as soon as the opportunity is there.
Charlie
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11/01/2007 @ 8:50am PST
Thursday Morning, November 1st! Yesterday was a very difficult day with some very sad news.
Yesterday morning, shortly before noon, I received one of those emails that just really makes you stop everything you're doing for awhile. In this case, it was about a little red haired princess I had met during our annual Tunathons at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles the past 4 years.
I had the good fortune to meet this petite young lady, Vanessa Rodriguez, who suffered from Cystic Fibrosis, that lung disease that finds young children fighting for every breath they take throughout their all too short lives. Vanessa was only 9 years old at this year's Tunathon, and we surprised her with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presenting her a pimped out pink wheelchair on behalf of the same people who "Pimp My Ride", the TV show.
Kids always want to be cool, and if you're confined to a wheelchair, why not make it the best it can be! Vanessa is pictured below with the Mayor. Vanessa and I posed for a picture in the Children's Hospital garden area later that night where the Tunathon Prom was going on for all the kids who can never leave the Hospital to attend one of their own.
You can see just looking at the smile on Vanessa's face that this was her shining moment, when she really did feel like the little princess that she was.
This is how I want to remember her, because that email from Children's said that Vanessa had received her "angel wings" yesterday morning. What struck me about Vanessa was how sweet she was, always a smile on her face and those bright little eyes hoping for a future of many years ahead. She had become best friends with Miley Cyrus, "Hannah Montana" when Miley visited the hospital and met her, with Miley even inviting her down to the set of the show where she tapes. They shared lunch together.
Her mom Milly is a remarkable woman who did everything she could to keep this little star's light shining for all of us to enjoy. Please keep Milly and Vanessa in your thoughts and prayers today.
There's only one new "Tuna Clip" today. It's Vanessa, who I wanted you to know a little better, so there's a 90 second conversation between Vanessa and me (Milly told me that Vanessa is very shy until she's around you for awhile), and then Milly herself talking about Vanessa and Children's Hospital. Brace yourself for the end, it's a moment that caught me by surprise, when Vanessa started one of these prolonged coughing episodes that happened to her many times a day, with her convulsing little body trying to expel the fluid buildup in her lungs. She recovered and smiled that day just like always, hoping for many more days ahead.
Charlie
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