Recently I read an article on the brain that stated that to keep the brain sharp one needs, apart from good nutrition and physical exercises, to learn new things and have a variety of experiences. This will help the aging brain's neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt. Experiences change a brain's physical structure and keep it young. In the last three weeks I certainly had a variety of experiences. The day after arriving in Georgia I went to the Marietta chalk festival, see my last post here. Then at the end of my two-week stay there I traveled north to visit apple orchards. The next day I walked up trails in a remote state park in the North Georgia Mountains, followed the next day by a visit to the largest and most prosperous plantation and historic home of Chief Vann, the 1790s Cherokee Indian leader and wealthy businessman. Upon my return to Nashville my son-in-law called me and invited me to join him and his visiting cousins to attend the Nashville Symphony on Thursday November 9th. His cousins, from Goa, India, enjoy music and this was a different type of concert. It was to be the rock band the Jefferson Starship accompanied by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Of course, I was ready to go. The Jefferson Starship is an offshoot of the original Jefferson Airplane group formed in San Francisco in 1965. The Jefferson Airplane became a pioneering "psychedelic" rock band and was the first to be known internationally. My late husband and I attended their concerts in San Francisco and the Bay Area. I just looked in a bag I brought back from my garage in Georgia and found several posters from that time, including the August 1966 concert at the Fillmore Auditorium which we attended. The Jefferson Airplane also headlined the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, which we also attended. They headlined other famous concerts, such as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and the Altamont Free Concert of 1969. Two of their songs "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" are among the 500 Greatest Songs of all time, and were played on Friday. One of the Jefferson Airplane's musicians was Paul Kantner, who when he split from the group in the 1970s founded the Jefferson Starship band. Their catalog included their own songs as well as rock classics. Grace Slick, the Jefferson Airplane's lead singer, joined the Jefferson Starship and kept singing her well known tunes such as Somebody to Love, as well as White Rabbit, which she had written. Kantner died in 2016, age 74. Grace Slick was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, wrote a book and retired from her musical career. Now 84 years old she lives in California and paints. In the pictures below she is to the right of Janis Joplin, in the 1960's, and now in her Malibu studio. Below, some of her paintings. The Jefferson Starship keeps touring the US and internationally (they were in Japan last January.) They had 15 energized performances scheduled for 2023 and one of them is this weekend with the Nashville Symphony at the Schermerhorn Center, shown below. We had seats on the balcony on the left. First we parked the car near the symphony hall then walked a couple of blocks to the Assembly Food Hall for dinner. While going there we went down Broadway. It is Nashville's famous street packed with many places to drink and listen to live music. It was raining but there still were many people queuing to enter all the bars and honky tonks pumping their music out into the street. They had the walls and windows open so the music was quite loud. The bands and singers could be seen on stages and people dancing on the floor. All types of music could be heard: classic country, rockabilly (southern style rock,) blues, guitar, karaoke, old time music, bluegrass, etc. These places are open every day from 10 am to 3 am and there is no cover charge to enter them. Even being Thursday night with rain, they were packed. Below is Broadway at night and on a weekend. Many musicians and singers live in Nashville and the surrounding areas. I hear it is not uncommon to see famous country stars come into a club and stage an impromptu performance. Tourists come here from the US and overseas. Nashville also has a reputation as being a top destination for bachelorette and bachelor parties. They come from all over the country and ride in open air buses down Broadway, wearing cowboy's hats and boots, drinking and carrying on loudly. They ride in "transportainment" vehicles, some can pedal while drinking. These vehicles can be buses, tractors, trucks with hot tubs and so on. Click on collage to enlarge. Photos below courtesy the Honky-Tonk Express. Being a rainy Thursday night in November, I only saw about 3 of those party vehicles - they come mostly in spring and summer weekends. We reached the Assembly Food Hall and took the escalator upstairs. This is a European style multi-level culinary and entertainment place. It is large, about 100,000 square feet with 30+ eateries and bars, three live performance stages and a sky deck with views of Broadway. We decided to eat Vietnamese food. It was very tasty as each restaurant has been hand-picked for its high quality food. Then it was time to go to the concert. The Jefferson Starship band consists of co-founding member David Freiberg (rhythm guitar/vocals) who also co-founded Quicksilver Messenger Service (another San Francisco band from 1965) - David is 85 years old. Another classic member is Donny Baldwin on drums, 72, then Chris Smith on keyboard with bass, Jude Gold the lead guitar, and singer Cathy Richardson. In the photo below, Donny Baldwin is on the right, Cathy Richardson with Jude Gold on top of collage and below, David Freiberg on left next to Chris Smith and Jude Gold. In January 2020 I had been to this Schermerhorn Symphony Center to see "Salute to Vienna," a New Year Viennese Style celebration - see my post here. My daughter had come with me then, but this time she is attending a medical conference in Miami Beach, Florida, and had to miss this performance. The design of this concert hall provides vivid acoustical clarity. During the year a broad range of classical, pop, jazz, and family concerts are offered here. The sound was truly very clear. Being on the balcony we could see both the symphony musicians and the Jefferson Starship group quite well. I tried to take some photos with my cell phone. They are not very good but they give an idea of the show. Cathy Richardson has great vocal abilities and delivers vigorous harmonies. David at 85 has retained his sensational vocals. This band does not sound like a "senior" band, that's for sure. Photo below courtesy Stefan Nilsson. David Freiberg is not the only star performing in his 80s. Many artists of that age have also kept their energy and vocal strength, such as Paul McCartney of the Beatles, at 81, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, at 80 and Ringo Starr who is still touring at 83. Their sound is still fresh and relevant. Below on right Mick Jagger, and Ringo, David on left and Paul. Jefferson Starship performed for about 45 minutes with sets from the Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship classics and their newer songs. Then there was a 15 minute break followed by another 45 minutes of music. I wish I could have a video sample of this performance but I found a short on YouTube of Jude Gold playing Empryonic Journey. He is truly a super guitar player. This had been a terrific show with excellent music from the 60s, 70, 80s to the present, as they are still evolving. Their music was full of rhythm, energy and joy. It was a thrill to listen to them and a lot of fun.

Last weekend we enjoyed Holiday and Christmas festivities in Nashville and rural Tennessee.  Saturday December 7, 2019, was the 92nd Nashville Christmas Parade.  This Christmas Parade has been a yearly tradition in Nashville since 1927.  Elaborate floats and giant helium balloons slowly went down Broadway.  Nashvillians lining the streets applauded 15 high school and university marching bands from nine states:  Tennessee as well as Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan.  I watched the morning parade at home on television and took photos from it (they are not too sharp.)  Click on collage to enlarge.

There were also mass performing groups of singers, dancers and choirs.  A group of 74 dancers from 7 different states came as a single team to perform as America's Clogging All Stars.  They learned their clogging routine through social media and came together to dance in Nashville.

Of course Nashville being "Music City" there were many artists' performances, mostly "country music."

Then the parade ended with a float carrying a waving Santa Claus.

In my last June post "Walking in my Nashville neighborhood..." I explained that my house is located in the Hillsboro-West End section of Hillsboro Village.  Most homes there were built in 1910-1935.  Hillsboro-West End has the largest, cohesive collection of early 20th century houses in all of Nashville.  The neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and much of it is protected by Conservative Zoning.  In 1975 an association, named Hilsboro-West End Neighborhood (HWEN) was founded to preserve its character and enhance the community.  On that Saturday and Sunday they offered "A Holiday in Hillsboro Village," with 30-minute tour rides to see festive homes decked in holiday decorations, proceeds going back to preserving the neighborhood.  They urged the community to place lights and decorations outdoor around their homes.  I did not have any in Nashville so I ordered some and paid extra shipping so they would get to me in time.  I also volunteered to serve cookies and hot cider at the hospitality center before the start of the tours.

Early on Saturday afternoon my daughter and grandchildren came to help me decorate the house.  The decorations I had ordered never showed up.  As I was leaving to go to the hospitality center my daughter was driving to the village hardware store to buy some outdoor Christmas lights.  At the hospitality center cookies and hot cider had been brought on a long table but I was the only one there serving all the riders before their tour.  I was quite busy from 3:30 pm to 7:00 pm.  Then I met with my daughter and her family to take a ride on the "Jolly Trolley" as the horse and carriage tours had been sold out.  There were no windows in the trolley and a bit nippy!  A young country singer with a guitar lead the passengers into singing Christmas carols as we passed many homes decked in dazzling illuminations.

Walking back to my house after the ride I took more pictures of the decorated houses as I went by.  I almost passed by my house as there were many lights there and I did not recognize it.  My daugher had done well with little decorations and time.  My house is shown on the bottom extreme right of the collage below.

On Monday morning I tried for several hours to find out what had happened to my decoration package.  Finally I talked to a human who told me that it had been delivered.  I then checked with the delivery service and was told that it had indeed been delivered on Saturday morning and they sent me a picture.  I recognized the white wall and baby stroller from my next door neighbors (the ones who kept trespassing in my back yard last summer during their garage update.)  I looked and there was an opened package on their front porch.  The babysitter was outside and I asked her if it was mine - my name and address were on the box.  When I asked why they did not let me know or bring me the package, she answered that they were all busy people and certainly did not have the time to fuss with packages.  When I told her I saw them walking outside during the weekend and even going on strolls, she gave me a bad look  and said that they must not know my address.  Really?  Mine is the same street as them with just a number down?  I thought that the holidays brought the best in people ... well, not this time.  It showed pettiness and Christmas no-spirit, no kindness, don't you think so?

I did find plenty of kindness and friendliness on Sunday December 8th, 2019, at The Farm.  My daughter, grandchildren and I decided to drive to Summertown, Tennessee, about 1 1/2 hours down from Nashville where The Farm is located.  That weekend they were having The Farm School Holiday Bazaar with all proceeds to benefit the school.  My two youngest grandchildren attend one of The Farm School satellite campus in Brentwood.  My late husband and I visited The Farm several times to see our friends from San Francisco (click here and here to read about it.)  Their site says "The Farm is an intentional community of families and friends living on three square miles in southern middle Tennessee, founded on the principles of nonviolence and respect for the earth.  We started The Farm in 1971 with the goal of establishing a strongly cohesive, outwardly-directed community.  We want, by action and example, to have a positive effect on the world."  In 1970, 300 hippies from San Francisco lead a caravan of old school buses across the country.  They settled on 1,750 acres of land in Summertown, TN, and created a commune which has now evolved into an "intentional community."  It is the oldest commune in the USA.  The bazaar was in two school buildings.

For lunch we shared a small pizza.  While we waited for it the three grandsons were actively tree climbing.

They were still hungry, so we went to the kitchen in the Solar School that had been transformed into a cafe with beverages, desserts and more.  Live music was being played there by local talent.  My grandson ordered a large burrito.

Then we walked back to various rooms in the building where vendors from throughout Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia offered unique gifts.  Local artisans from the surrounding area also brought one of a kind stained glass, tie-dye clothing, pottery, plants, jewelry, knitted woolens, handmade dolls, hats, scarves, books, ornaments, posters with quotations and more.

A Santa was selling attractive photographs.  The vendors donate a percentage of their sales to The Farm School.

An older gentleman was selling little pewter figurines that he had crafted.  I bought a tiny camel to add to my collection.  I walked outside, looking at the solar school painted walls as I passed by, then waited for the family.

While I waited for my daughter and grandchildren at the Hippy Gift Shop, I took some pictures of the old school buses that had been stationed there since the 1970s (part of the 80 buses that had left San Francisco.)  They showed their age.

The Farm community, now with a couple hundred of residents, mostly baby boomers (some younger, some older,) with some having lived there all their lives, has survived and prospered as a free-thinking community.  I talked to more people there in an afternoon, all friendly and kind, than in Nashville in more than a month.  But it was time to get back to Nashville and get ready for my upcoming return to Georgia.

In my post of June 11, 2018, I mentioned that our black walnut tree had been uprooted by the wind and fallen on the roof of our Georgia house.  I drove from Nashville to Georgia to have it removed, then found a roofer who agreed to replace the roof in August.  In August I drove back to Georgia but he did not show up.  I had to find another roofer who agreed to replace the roof last Tuesday, September 18, so I drove back to Georgia on Sunday 16th, 2018.  Because of Hurricane Florence the insurance company had delayed our claim and not approved the new roofer.  The new date for the roof will be in October and I'll drive back here then.  Last month I stopped at my usual rest area on highway I-24 near South Pittsburg, Tennessee.  This time I could see a white blanket near the banks of the lake and as I approached was greeted by a million of little flowers with a sweet aroma (similar to jasmine.)  They formed a cascade of delicate flowers on the fence.  Their name is "Virgin's Bower" (aka Devil's Darning Needles or Old Man's Beard.)  This little flagrant flower is from a vine, the clematis virginiana, from the Ranunculaceae family (buttercup) it is aggressive and invasive.  The Cherokee Indians used it for medicinal purposes.

When I stopped again last Sunday the flowers were gone as well as the sun.  Below is a map showing where the rest stop is located between Tennessee and Georgia.

I am still in Georgia, working in the house, clearing, cleaning, giving away but I did hurt my back a bit as well as my recently operated knee by moving some heavy objects, so am taking a break today.  I'll drive back to Nashville in a couple of days.  All the closets are still packed full and while cleaning I always find some items I have not seen in years.  Again I found bags with old photos.  These are film pictures, taken years ago.  My scanner is now in Nashville but I copied some of the photos with my cell phone so I could show them here.

Looking at some of these photos brought back many good memories.  I did not look at all of them as I need to spend as much time as I can on clearing out the house.  I don't even watch TV apart from the news and weather, and lately the news brought back some memories that were not that good.  When I left Paris, France, in the early 1960s, to travel to the USA, a friend who had lived several years here gave me some advice.  He said that the US culture was very different from the French, that it was male-oriented.  He added that in France boys play with girls from an early age and feel comfortable with them and respect them.  They can have close female friends for years without any sexual situation.  But in the US, maybe because of boys' dominated sports, starting in schools, gender inequity starts early, and girls are supposed to care about boys' feelings but not vice versa.  He also said that there is a great deal of violence against women in the US that goes unreported because abusers are protected and women are discredited, disparaged and blamed.  So he added ... "you are pretty, so watch out."  And this was back in the 1960s ...  Below are some pictures I found of me from about that time.

On my way west I stopped in Washington, DC, to visit a girlfriend from college in the UK.  I remember that it was a lovely week-end.  My friend said that she had planned to have a picnic in a park with her boyfriend and that he had found a friend for me as a "blind date."  She added that he came from a very rich family in Maryland and had just been given a fabulous convertible car.  I did not know what a "blind date" was as we don't even have a French word for date, and told her I did not need one, but she said it would be fun.  We went to a secluded area of the park along a river, placed a blanket on the ground and the basket of food.  They had forgotten the ice for the sodas, and told me to get acquainted with him while they went to get ice.  I remember his car as being huge; I looked on Google to find one like his.  It was or similar to the Chevrolet Impala below.  He was proud of it and wanted to take me on a ride but I declined (I was not awed by that car as at the time my favorites were British sports cars, like the MG,  Morgan +4 or Jaguar.)  Then he asked if I was impressed that he attended an academy in Annapolis.  I did not know what that was and he made fun of me, saying I didn't know much but then I also was a foreigner, so that explained it.  He told me that it was the most prestigious naval academy in the world.  (Below pictures of the car, and of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.)

He said something like "You are from Gay Paree, then, you know more things like this ..." and he proceeded to pin me on the ground and grab my shirt.  I was terrified and did not know what to do.  I tried to move from under him but he was big.  I started to panic as he was grabbing my bra and pulling my trousers down.  But then I heard my friends coming back and he pulled away.  They could see I did not look right so I told them I had these terrible cramps and needed to get back home for medicine and they took me back.  I never told anyone ever, this is the first time I mention it.  I felt terrible shame that he would think because I was French I was easy and tried to forget it.  I'll give you one more time I was assaulted, at my first job, in San Francisco a few years later.  Here are pictures of me at about that time.  I found these yesterday, and they are not technically good.

My office in San Francisco was on Post Street, close to Union Square.  It was not very large, maybe about 50 employees or so.  I really enjoyed working there and had made many friends, male and women.  My best friends were a woman from Texas and also two gay males, who were wonderful gourmet cooks.  I was a purchasing clerk and had a kindly manager.  I never had to interact with the president of the company, an elder man, who was often away on business.  Below are pictures of San Francisco in the 1960s, with Union Square.  The postcard of Post Street is vintage, early 1900s.

About 2 or 3 years after I started working there one Friday (I remember it was a Friday because most people did not stay late) I decided to work late to finish some work.  I needed to count some items and went into the warehouse in the back - a huge warehouse.  It was very dark because of the week-end coming up.  I was not sure where the items were and walked up and down the aisles.  The president of the company came behind me and asked if he could help me.  I told him what I was looking for and when he led me to the back of the warehouse in almost total darkness I was not suspicious.  Alas, he turned on me, grabbed me and tried to undo my blouse.  I started to shout but he placed his hands on my mouth.  Again I was petrified and remembered my last encounter.  It was so dark there.  He pushed me against the shelves and I fought to get him to move his hands away, doing so I knocked a bunch of boxes on the shelf that went crashing down making a huge noise.  Unbeknownst to us there was a warehouse employee working and he came running to see what the noise was.  The president said it was a mouse that had scarred me.  I don't know if he believed it but I was able to get back to my desk and leave.  I was sick about it the whole week-end but did not tell anyone as I needed the job and knew no one would believe me since he was the president.  I did not even go to my Clairol hair modeling job that I had on week-ends.  (More pictures I found in the closet from that era.) 

I had two more instances like these in another company, but not as bad.  I never told anyone about any of them until now.  The first one happened in the early 1960s or more than 50 years ago!  But you know I have never forgotten and as I was writing this tears were falling down my cheek.  It's silly I know, it was such a long time ago.  I tried to forget but it had been traumatic and I could not.  I researched and found out that the US has 75% more rapes than in France, that it is one of the top 3 countries in the world for sexual assaults.  Every 98 seconds a woman is sexually assaulted in the US and one out of every 5 women is assaulted in college.  The US Justice Dept estimates that 300,000 American women are raped every year (but the CDC estimates that because it is highly unreported the number is closer to 1.3 millions.)  The US audience, male and female, does not seem to care and more assaults go unreported as the victims are usually not believed and blamed if they come forward (63% of assaults are unreported and 99% of aggressors go free.)  I read a couple of weeks ago that some men reported that when they were children (40+ years ago) and Altar Boys, they had been sexually assaulted by priests.  Those men were believed and not ostracized and harassed and no one sent them death threats - but then, they are men, aren't they?  As long as women are not taken seriously (women make 51% of the US population but only 19% of the Congress) there won't be much equality under the law.  The Parliamentary Union compared in 2018 women in parliament in 193 countries,  France came no. 14 and the US no. 103.  Well, I better talk about better memories from my old photographs.  Below, the top pictures are in Bruges, Belgium.  The bottom left is at Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC, Canada and on the bottom right the Tezcuco Plantation in Burnside, Louisiana, built in 1855.

The top left picture below was taken during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.  We had purchased tickets to attend the bicycle racing games in Stone Mountain.  The top right picture was taken in Browning, northwest Montana, the site of the tribal government of the Blackfeet Nation, an American Indian reservation established by treaty in 1855.  I had visited my younger daughter who was spending the summer in Montana for her Master's Thesis from Jones Hopkins University.  She was studying something about the health of Native American women.  The bottom two pictures were taken at Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, that borders Glacier National Park in Montana.

More pictures of the Blackfeet Nation festival.  The bottom right photo was taken on my 60th birthday with my two daughters. 


There are more pictures that I have not seen in ages.  It will be fun to go through those, once I am finished with the Georgia house.  But that won't be for many more months - after additional driving between Nashville and greater Atlanta, Georgia.

Days pass quickly by and I don't have time to come to the computer; I miss reading my blogging friends' posts.  My husband's dementia/Alzheimer is still progressing, and he needs constant attention.  Our 50th wedding anniversary is coming up on June 17, 2017.  I don't believe he knows he is married anymore, so am not sure what we should do?  Take him to a nice restaurant, maybe, to mark the occasion?  He watches some TV but he does not understand much.  Actually he likes the commercials better - they are loud, colorful and even though we see the same ones all the time, they are always new to him.  I have researched some of them, the most irritating ones.  For example, the Ancestry DNA TV ads, like these two below (picture courtesy ispot.tv.)

The woman on top, above, Livie, says in the commercial that she travels a lot and people ask her what her nationality is.  She answers "Hispanic."  Really?  I have never heard of a Hispanic nationality because your nationality is the country where you were born and reside in, where you have a passport.  There is no country called "Hispanic" and nationality has nothing to do with your ethnic background or race.  Silly commercial.  The other lady, an actress named Kim Trujillo, says that her Ancestry DNA test showed that she was 26% Native American, and she never knew it.  What?  How can that be, she means 25% maybe.  To be 25% Native American one of her parents had to be 1/2 and one set of grandparents full blooded Native Americans - and she had never heard of her grandparents?  Several years ago I sent for an Ancestry DNA test as I had a 60% off coupon.  The results told me that I was 1/2 Western European (no European country specified) and 1/2 from the Caucasus Mountains (the dividing line between Europe and Asia.)  That's all the test said.  Since my mother and her family were French and my father's family Armenian I already knew this - nothing new there.  This makes my daughters 25% French, 25% Armenian and they know it.  Below is a map of the Caucasus Mountains and pictures of Paris I took, close to where I grew up.

Other annoying TV ads are those from the insurance company Liberty Mutual.  At first I was quite offended that they would use the Statue of Liberty for commercials - it is a national symbol and should not be cheapened like this.  But then I also found that their ads are false.  I have been to New York City many times and have taken the Statue of Liberty's photos.  The view shown on the commercial is not possible, it is too close and facing the dock.  There is no direct view like the one in their picture - top left of collage below, unless you are in the middle of the New York Harbor or on a ferry.  From Battery Park the view of the Statue of Liberty is of the left side (as I show below in my pictures taken from several trips,) from Governors Island it is also a side view and from Liberty Park in NJ a view of the rear.  A misleading ad - and so is the message.  The ad advertizes "new car replacement" but to obtain it, one has to pay extra on a "rider" as it is not covered in their standard policy, and in tiny prints they also mention that one has to meet the "terms and conditions of Liberty Mutual's underwriting guidelines."  Checking independent value assessment services on the Net, it seems that the cost of this Liberty Mutual rider is more expensive than those from GEICO or Allstate insurances.

Then there are the temporary Republican attack ads on Georgia 6th District in suburban Atlanta (we are in the 11th district and can't vote in this election.)  The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican Super PAC aligned with Speaker Paul Ryan, has been spending a $6.5 million campaign against Georgia Democratic House candidate Jon Ossoff.  The TV ads are constant.  They are super negative, bigoted, Islamophobic, racist and divisive - they show Jon Ossoff's face in front of known terrorists (which I won't copy.)  Even though this is a Georgia election the Republican ads show pictures of San Francisco with people wearing Jon Ossoff tee-shirts, and a guy disguised as a hippie with braids at Fisherman's Wharf, a hipster with an ugly floppy hat in the Russian Hills, and more.  The ads keep repeating "Jon Ossoff is not one of us."  They did go too far by placing a photo of Jon Ossoff on a SF Powell-Hyde Street cable car.  The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency sent a "cease-and-desist" request to the PAC, saying this is unauthorized and a misrepresentation.  The PAC then moved the picture to the Golden Gate Bridge!  Could be the PAC knows their GA Republican constituency, thinking that they are ignorant (that they must believe there are still genuine hippies in San Francisco? - no, they left in 1967 when the wave of hippie wannabe arrived!) bigoted, afraid and uninformed - maybe they are right.  Many Republicans are more interested in "party" than what is best for the "country."  The runoff is June 20, 2017.  These estremist ads smearing the Democratic candidate will then stop, thankfully.  (Photos courtesy Atlanta Journal Constitution.)

I would enjoy talking about all this with my husband as we used to, but because of his illness he cannot - he would not understand what I am talking about (he still does not understand who Donald Trump is.)  So, I thought about talking with y'all!
Just one last terrible ad to mention.  This one really upsets me because it is so deceitful.  Since the onset of my husband's dementia/Alzheimer I have been taking him to the best doctors in Georgia.  He is a patient of the Emory's Brain Health Center in Atlanta.  His doctor is the director, Allan Levey, MD, PhD., who is also the head of the Emory Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (with 400 researchers and clinicians,) one of the top centers in the nation supported by the National Institute of Health.  After watching TV ads for the supplement "Prevagen" I asked them whether I should give it to my husband.  The answer was a resounding "no" because it was worthless.  Furthermore I was told that not a single doctor in the center recommended this supplement but told patients to avoid it.  So I researched it.  In 2012 the FDA investigated the company and found the supplement has serious side effects, including seizures and strokes and had no scientific backing.  They sent the company a warning, telling them that their claims for Prevagen were illegal; their clinical trials were also illegal because they lacked FDA approval and they failed to adequately report adverse reactions.  But the drug company kept saying that their supplement, from an element found in jellyfish, improves memory in 90 days and provides other cognitive benefits.  Their ads affirm that the product is "clinically shown" to support "clearer thinking."  Below is a picture of moon jellyfish, courtesy the Key West Aquarium.

In January 2017, the Federal Trade Commission charged the makers of Prevagen with making false and unsubstantiated claims - read the FTC claim here.  New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement "The marketing for Prevagen is a clear-cut fraud, from the label on the bottle to the ads airing across the country," "It is particularly unacceptable that this company has targeted vulnerable citizens like seniors in its advertising for a product that costs more than a week's groceries, but provides none of the health benefits that it claims."  Dr. Bob Speth, a scientist and professor at Nova Southeastern University school of pharmacy filed a complaint about Prevagen with the Federal Trade Commission in 2016.  He calls Prevagen "one of the most fallacious products I have seen come on the market."  He added that these supplement marketers are making millions of dollars by tapping into the deepest fears of seniors and aging boomers.  Court documents show that sales of Prevagen were topping $165 million in 2015.  All these ads are distressing because so many people believe what they see on television, but fortunately I have a "mute" button on my TV remote...  (Pictures of cannonball jellyfish and comb jellyfish.)

Another event that took some of my time was the election of the new President of France.  Being dual citizen (France and the USA) I received many emails and mailings on this election.  I took a picture of the last mailing I received and show it below.  Marine LePen (48,) the Far-right candidate from the Front National Party, faced independent centrist Emmanuel Macron (39) on May 7, 2017.  Marine LePen strongly admires Vladimir Putin and visited him in Moscow (and he endorsed her for President of France.)  President Donald Trump expressed support for LePen even though her party has a long history of racism, anti-Americanism, Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.  As for Marine LePen she approved of and copied Donald Trump's campaign style.  But this did not serve her well as the latest polls showed that 71% of French people had an unfavorable view of Putin and most of them disliked Donald Trump even more, 82% of French people! The US elected their extreme right wing candidate, but on May 7th, the French rejected theirs and Emmanuel Macron was elected.  It looks to me as though D. Trump scared many countries in Europe as in other countries' elections where the Right wing parties were favored to win, they were also rejected, such as in Austria and the Netherlands.  That said, there is no extreme right propaganda machine like US television channel Fox News over there.

Emmanuel Macron was Economy Minister in a previous administration and also an investment banker.  He speaks fluent English (he was a Young Leader in the French-American Foundation.)  He is married to Brigitte Trogneux, who is 24 years his senior.  Some Trump supporters made jokes about the age difference between Macron and his wife - of course they never made jokes about Donald Trump and his wife, even though she is 24 years his junior!  Macron is the youngest French head of state since Napoleon.  He is very pro-Europe.  Macron's new government administration includes 11 men and 11 women, from right and left parties, in an effort to bridge the right-left divide (this would never happen here!) (Bottom picture is of E. Macron and Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, at the G7 Meeting in Italy this week, courtesy Paris-Match magazine.)

Well I better get back to the Bulloch Hall quilt show.  In my previous posts I showed the quilts exhibited on the ground floor, look here,  and second floor, look here.  It is not because some quilts were in the attic that they were not as beautiful as the others, because they were.  Their bright colors lightened the attic.

We walked closer to each quilt to see their distinct designs.

Some were elaborate.

Others had very interesting shapes and colors.

Some quilts had flowery motifs that were lovely - each one unique.

I was drawn to the blue quilt - it was really exquisite.

We left the attic with our eyes still filled with glorious colors.  In my last post I showed a photo of Bulloch Hall that I had done with a special setting on my camera - here it is below again.

This time I manipulated some pictures of Bulloch Hall.  I am not sure which one I like the best - which is your favorite?  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Since we are going to move from Georgia to our house in Nashville - eventually ... we may never go back to visit historic antebellum house Bulloch Hall again.  In my last photo, I placed an ardent sunset around the mansion to say good-bye, au revoir...