OF CANCER RESEARCH, AND TURNIPS

In Bellingham, 2010

 

It is a beautiful day here in “Rainville”: mid-70s, light breeze, almost no clouds.  I am supposed to play golf tomorrow, so I assume that all of that will change, but I am enjoying it now.  I went out back to continue planting my garden, and found it more difficult than it ought to be.  I can’t kneel comfortably on my new knee, and my back hurts if I stoop over for more than a few minutes.  I guess this is nature’s way of telling me to buy a condo with a large south-facing deck, and grow things in containers.  But again, there is always Ralph: I can have him do all the work, and then take credit for the outcome.  I think that’s the way to go.

The Rivkin Center newsletter just came out, announcing the recipients of their yearly grants.  Once again they raised, and distributed, more than $1 million.  I will blog a bit about selected recipients in a few days.  For now, I note that most of the successful applicants are focused on treatment: kill the damned thing once it rears its ugly head.  The book I wrote about recently would disapprove of that: “preemption” is its preferred strategy.  I guess I would agree, although I would insist on the equal importance of basic science aimed at understanding the cancer process.  I will blog about that pretty soon, too.

But in the meantime I need to go outside and plant some turnips.