9/4/03

Today's Eats -

Points: 34
Water: 5 Veg/Fruit: 3 Milk: 0
Points: 34.9 Adj: 0 Act: 4.9 Rem: 4.0
Bank: 21.8 Adj: 0
Bank Max: 35 Point: 0 Act: 0
Bank Method: Start on Monday
Vitamins: Yes

Breakfast: 4.0 points
4.0: Egg sandwich -morningstar no cheese

Lunch: 5.5 points
5.5: BK Veggie Burger w/o Reduced Fat Mayo

Dinner: 18.5 points
3.1: Chik patties - morningstar
3.1: Chik patties - morningstar
0.1: Beans; snap; green; canned; no salt added; drained solids
5.9: Veggie munchees -12
2.1: Orange juice; chilled; includes from concentrate
2.1: Orange juice; chilled; includes from concentrate
2.1: Orange juice; chilled; includes from concentrate

Snack: 6.9 points
4.8: ice cream; low fat fudge ripple - 1 cup
2.1: Cereals; LC OATS 1 cup

Activity Log: (Min:Int: Points Desc)
25:M: 2.7 Bus-walk
20:M: 2.2 Evening- stretches

Mark Millmore's Ancient Egypt - Hieroglyphic Writing: Ancient Egyptian writing and Egyptian mathematics.

Commercial Animation art: This collection of art and photos all came from the Ray Patin Studios. They produced hundreds of amazing black and white TV commercials all through the 50's and early 60's.

News items :

Stranahan House plans to mix spirits, history in October tours for tourists' joy

"Visitors are flocking to the Stranahan House, but not to research the county's oldest existing structure, the one-time town hall, and home of the town's founder and its first school teacher. They're looking for ghosts."

Capitalizing on a local ghost team's report in May that the 1901 home and trading post of Frank and Ivy Stranahan is haunted, Stranahan House officials have decided to conduct special ghost tours in October, featuring tour guides in Victorian mourning costumes explaining superstitions of the time.

A coffin typical of that period is under construction by the Stranahan House's maintenance man. If the tours go over well, one might become a standing feature during tourist season.

Marketing the Stranahan House as haunted might be unorthodox, but so far it's a strategy that's working.

Officials at the museum on the New River downtown, where the modern-day city began, say publicity about the South Florida Ghost Team's investigation in May brought the attention they've been craving.

"I just think this has been the one shot in the arm that the house needed," said Stranahan House education specialist Marlene Shotamus. "Attendance really picked up."

Shotamus said the morning after the South Florida Sun-Sentinel featured the investigation; a group of 90 students from Pine Crest School came through. Some swore they'd felt a presence.

"Some smelled perfume, the eyes in Frank's portrait downstairs moved, laughter came from the vents in the dining room, and one child felt someone tap him on the shoulder when he was upstairs," she wrote in an e-mail at the time.

One radio station, Majic 102.7, had a séance there afterward, with a psychic and the ghost team on hand.

The next morning, during rush hour, drivers were given the mysterious details.

"There was a rocking chair in the middle of the room," disc jockey Rick Shaw told listeners, "and all of a sudden it started rocking by itself."

The creepy possibility that spirits of dead people are haunting the Stranahan House could save it from relative obscurity, even though national debunkers like Fort Lauderdale's James Randi, the "Amazing Randi," have said the ghost team's proof -- including ghostly "orbs" captured on digital cameras -- is easily explained away.

The house is off East Las Olas Boulevard, where U.S. 1 slips under the New River. But it's difficult to see from the road and has had trouble luring visitors. It's on the National Register of Historic Places, but many people living in Fort Lauderdale couldn't pinpoint it on a map.

Stranahan House officials think visitors who take the ghost tour will return for the regular tour, to hear about the deeply religious "little white mother" who taught Seminole children to read and her husband, who ran a ferry on the river, a trading post and a bank and was involved in civic affairs.

At the least, museum officials are having fun telling people about the growing legend. Museum docents have claimed they heard strange noises in the home. Feeding that legend is the fact several people died there.

Frank Stranahan drowned himself in the New River in 1929, in despair over losing his friends' money when his bank failed. Ivy Cromartie Stranahan, his wife, died in 1971 in a bedroom. Her father, Augustus Cromartie, died in the house, as well. Shotamus said her research also uncovered a Seminole woman who died in the trading post in 1901.

Shaun Jones, leader of the South Florida Ghost Team, said her group was sure it felt spiritual presences in the home. They hope to find out whether its next door neighbor, the historic Riverside Hotel, also is haunted. For now, they're pleased with the excitement.

"I think it'll be good for the house, good business for the house," she said. "A lot of other cities have ghost tours, like St. Augustine, and I think South Florida needs to start it."

That house is about a mile from my place. The New river is what passes over the "Haunted Tunnel."

Sage herb 'can boost memory'

"Centuries-old theories that the herb sage can improve memory appear to be borne out by modern research."

Scientists at the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria tested 44 people, who were either given the herb or a dummy placebo pill.

They found that those given the sage oil tablets performed much better in a "word recall test".

Experts believe the active ingredient may boost levels of a chemical that helps transmit messages in the brain.

The Medicinal Plant Research Centre (MPRC) at the universities are testing many old-fashioned claims about the healing powers of herbs and flowers.

Sage is often referred to in ancient texts - in 1597 the herbalist John Gerard said that it was "singularly good for the head and quickeneth the nerves and memory."

Researcher Nicola Tildsley said the results of the study proved that, in some cases at least, the herbalists should be taken seriously.

She said: "This proves how valuable the work by the old herbalists was, and that they shouldn't just be ignored because they were writing centuries ago."

There are still question marks over the herb's ability to boost long-term memory, she said.

"Tests would need to be carried out on people over a longer period of time to prove that sage improves exam performance - but we don't have any plans to do this at present."

However, it is possible that the herb could help patients affected by Alzheimer's disease, she said.

Alzheimer's is accompanied in many cases by a drop in the same brain chemical boosted by sage in experiments.

It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which may also conceivably help - although this is still far from proven.

The centre has already embarked on a study to test the effect of the herb on Alzheimer's patients, and results from this are expected soon.

The memory study was published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.

Will Scientology Celebs Sign 'Spiritual' Contract?

Tom Cruise claims to have been dyslexic before he was saved by Scientology.

Let's hope that he can read the fine print in a new agreement the religious organization is demanding its members sign.

The contract — called the "Agreement and General Release Regarding Spiritual Assistance" — makes it clear that the signee does not believe in psychiatry and does not want to be treated for any kind of psychiatric ailment should one befall him.

Instead, once the paper is signed, the agreement calls for the Church of Scientology to step in if there's ever a problem. The result would be total isolation and constant surveillance.

The question is: Will the stars upon whom Scientology has depended to carry its message — including Cruise, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, Lisa Marie Presley and her mother, Priscilla — sign a new agreement that could potentially hand over their rights and personal freedom to the church?

The wording of the agreement is shocking, to say the least. If a member of the church becomes what we might call "mentally incompetent," he automatically agrees to be placed in the care of Scientology counselors, potentially barring family, friends or anyone else from interceding, including doctors and psychiatrists.

The new agreement seems to stem from a long-simmering wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the estate of Lisa McPherson against the Church of Scientology.

It alleges that McPherson died in 1995 after being held against her will by the church for 17 days. When she died, it is claimed, her body was covered with cockroach bites and McPherson was dehydrated.

By having members sign the contact agreeing to be isolated from family and medical professionals, the church apparently believes it would be immune to such lawsuits. The lawsuit, which has suffered several postponements, may come to trial in 2004.

Outspoken critics of Scientology — such as Carnegie Mellon professor Dave Touretzky, who uncovered the new agreement — claim the form is designed to protect the church from further litigation.

But will Cruise, Travolta, and others agree to the same wording that non-celebrity followers must in allowing themselves to endure something called the "Introspection Rundown?"

Calls to their spokespeople didn't help very much. Travolta and the Presleys' publicist referred my question back to the Church of Scientology. Cruise's office didn't have an answer.

An assistant in the Scientology office did tell me that she was a member of the church and had signed many different contracts.

The Spiritual Assistance agreement reads in part: "I understand that the Introspection Rundown is an intensive, rigorous Religious Service that includes being isolated from all sources of potential spiritual upset, including but not limited to family members, friends or others with whom I might normally interact."

"As part of the Introspection Rundown, I specifically consent to Church members being with me 24 hours a day at the direction of my Case Supervisor, in accordance with the tenets and custom of the Scientology religion. The Case Supervisor will determine the time period in which I will remain isolated, according to the beliefs and practices of the Scientology religion."

"I further specifically acknowledge that the duration of any such isolation is uncertain, determined only by my spiritual condition, but that such duration will be completely at the discretion of the Case Supervisor. I also specifically consent to the presence of Church members around the clock for whatever length of time is necessary to perform the Introspection Rundown's processes and to achieve the spiritual results of the Introspection Rundown."

(Any isolation, of course, would be preferable to watching Travolta in "Look Who's Talking.")

What does this all mean?

Linda Hight, spokeswoman for Scientology, told me last night that the contract is self-explanatory.

"I'm sure you know the English language," she said, "and you know what it means."

She described psychiatry as "barbaric, harmful, and fraudulent."

"The contract is drawn up," Hight added, "for those who wish [to use it]."