PITA Professor General Reflections

Recipes Gluten Free Dec 13 2017 I’m still figuring out this blog thing so I hope that I can organize it so that it is easy to find different types of posts.  I have been doing a lot of gluten-free cooking lately because of the holidays so it has been on my mind.  Many years ago I had lots of very weird bizarre GI problems that cropped up that took more than 2 years to figure out.  As soon as I stopped eating wheat-containing products, the problem went away in less than 36 hrs.  This is apparently very common for people with a gluten allergy.  However, being gluten free is not without its frustrations.  Others automatically assume you are celiac and then want to counsel you about your own diet.  Celiac disease is certainly very awful and I cannot imagine having severe reactions over just a micrograms of gluten.  And, honestly, people just like to tell many others about how to manage their health conditions has been my experience.  I...

On Politics - Trying to be Balanced.  November 25, 2017  This past year (2017) has been hard for me since my general inclination is to try to meet in the middle or truly find ways to solve problems.  At Oak Hills High School (1982-1985), our principal, Ed Eckel, used to remark that an educated person can effectively argue both sides of any issue.  I am not sure we live in a world where many people try to educate themselves on both sides of an issue.  It troubles me that we are becoming more and more tribal.  We all subscribe to our own news liturgy to inform us as Molly Worthen, has noted in Nov 2017 in the NYTimes.  While her article is more about the right, I can argue the left is equally as bad with their liturgy.  It seems like most nights everyone is just shouting at each other.  I used to wind down around 8 pm or so and just mindlessly watch TV and stretch or do other things (clean up magazines, finish reading the morning...