Polish Man in New World

Psoriasis is well-known in Portland to my surprise and drugs are promoted widely there. Psoriasis is a condition that is poorly understood though and blame is put on genes. I can not escape comparison with homosexuality here. The drugs that are on market have a lot of side-effects as they state clearly in the ads! Of course they do - as any drugs against homosexuality drugs against psoriasis will be a form of a systematic torture therapy. Art Work in Portland Gay Bar. How come that general public fears people that deviate a "bee-dick" too far from normal? How can Western Medicine treat something misunderstood? Western Medicine prescribes expensive drugs that kills symptoms not causes.  In my nearly 20 years long struggle with psoriasis I can say that psoriasis relates greatly to the stress level. Every time I take holidays I recover a little bit. In other words do not put psoriatic nor gay people in stressful situations. Just be nice, please . Coming from my ...

I met a self-confident rat walking across my little courtyard in New Orleans. Then I met Bruno (or if you prefer B.R.U.N.O - Brave Rodent Utilizer in New Orleans ) who is actively researching the distribution and ecology of local rats. And then, last Friday, I had to say good bye to Bruno as he leaves to follow his supervisor. Unfortunately, the rats stay in New Orleans - they do not follow Bruno nor his supervisor. New Orleans is apparently a home to two types of fury fellows: Norway rats and black rats. While Norway rats tend to live in underground burrows,  black rats live in tree canopies or the roofs of buildings. I assume I met my fellow European :) Credit: Timmy Madere, Tulane University .  These rats are small and shy. I had no time to take a picture of that little bastard as they are  neophobic too - yes new scientific synonym I just learnt meaning that they don’t like new things. “ Getting your hands on an animal is incredibly hard ,” says Rat Researche...

I nearly threw up and passed out at the only museum in entire of USA that is solely devoted to slavery. Museum is located at Whitney Plantation, Louisiana and we visited it last weekend. We have yet again learnt that freedom is a costly thing. At the same time, once the birth of that very freedom is concluded, we choose to forget the blood, tears and suffer that accompanied it. Presently, the image of slavery is still being romanticized and smoothened on its sharp edges, isn't it? These heads on pikes are hidden away now in a corner of the plantation due to its brutality. Apparently, they caused too much anger on social media. These heads on spikes are not an example of author's imagination though as you may think reading in U.S.News of " Ceramic sculptures at the Whitney Plantation ." These are the copies of heads that once belonged to slaves who were trying to free themselves from sugar cane plantations. These heads on pikes are true representation of heads th...

Poor boys are the boys that have to wear nasty fluoro vests in public. Our last weekend visit to Ogden Museum in New Orleans (Free Entry Each Thursday!) shed a lot of light (BTW: phōtós in Greek) on how I always unclearly felt about NOLA streetcar drivers. Thanks God for artists. Artistic souls do have that sensitivity we normal people tend to lose. We do need more artists as they can see and can open up that undescribed feeling buried deeply in us: "Color tends to corrupt photography and absolute color corrupts it absolutely. Consider the way color film usually renders blue sky, green foliage, lipstick red, and the kiddies' playsuit. These are four simple words which must be whispered: color photography is vulgar." - Walker Evans. So much agreed with Walker Evans ( Plenty of photo exhibitions at Ogden's ). Why on Earth Poor Streetcar drivers need to wear those ugly vests!? Is it because you can not hear nor see a rumbling heritage streetcar coming!? Thes...

Flying high or manoeuvring swiftly on a jet ski is way more easy and fun when you're single. "Singletons" can move fast and make exciting mind bobbling twists in life too. In politics, for example, this fast-twist tactic can work very well when you are one of the opposition leaders. One can quickly fly to places of action/disaster/strike and blame the ruling party for all the misery. Once one happens to win election he/she realises that governing is way more than one's own glory - taking steering wheel of a state means also a service to other people - hell a lot of other people. Riding the government boat is not like jet ski ride anymore - it is  rather like riding a big container ship where one should make very careful turns. If one is unhappy with these real facts and one can see that fake media pin points at one's self-obsession then one has two ways out: One can either learn to work in a team or, One can drop "the toys" and leave the sandbox...

Swamps transcend Louisiana. You can even taste the swamp by biting local air. Add a super high humidity to the picture and all you want to do is to stay put, light up a ciggy, have a drink and spit. You would probably just shrug your shoulders at the sight of local alligator crossing the magical land of Avatar , sorry Louisiana. Bold Cypress ( Taxodium distichum ) Last weekend we followed steps of one local drunk pirate Jean Lafitte (or privateer as it was his legal profession) to Jean Lafitte Preserve . This fauna and flora reserve is located only 30 minutes drive south from New Orleans. Although it is a nature reserve you will quickly realize that there is not so much fauna nor flora left in the region. The alligators are tiny as the big ones got shot. Back in times settlers drew them nearly to extinction. They did manage to annihilate local birds just by shooting them down - Passenger Pigeon or Carolina Parakeet are never to be seen again. To learn more about local flora ...

I and CB   attended a launch of "Option B" - book written, and presented here in New Orleans, by Sheryl Sandberg - COO of Facebook. The audience comprised of around one thousand women and few men. What was the most eventful part of this event was the Q and A session at the end of it. All the women poured out very personal hurtful stories into the public and very poor Sheryl -  all what she could answer was to repeatedly say "I am sorry",  "I'm sorry to hear it" and  "So sorry again". One woman threw-up, fainted, and ended up being carried out by paramedics. OK - since that eventful event [ May 09, 2017 ] I finished the book. "Option B" book project was meant to help Sheryl to overcome a grief after her husband passed away suddenly in 2015. She uses vast psychological research to, if to summarize in less than 140 characters, - to prove that all humans need a lot of support to become meaningful and happy people. It seems lik...