time for a new career

For nine years, Sharron Thornton could see only shadows. But over the Labor Day weekend, when doctors at Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute removed the bandages from her eye, she could see their faces.

She regained her vision following a rare procedure — completed in several steps over six months — in which surgeons removed one of her teeth, drilled a hole in it, inserted a plastic lens into the hole and implanted the tooth-lens combination into her eye. It’s the first such operation in the United States, they said.

Thornton now has 20/70 vision, and can recognize faces and read a newspaper with a magnifying glass. She should get better vision once she is fully healed and fitted with glasses, doctors say.

Thornton, 60, knows exactly what she wants to do when she gets back home to Smithdale, Miss., pop. 2,034, in a week or two: “Play cards. Watch TV. Play with my grandbabies. I have seven new grandbabies since I was able to see.”

Thornton lost her vision nine years ago to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a severe allergic reaction to medication that blistered and scarred her cornea, the dome-shaped part of the eye that covers the iris and pupil. She wasn’t a candidate for a corneal transplant or an artificial plastic lens because the eye was too badly damaged, said Dr. Victor Perez, lead surgeon in the operation and cornea specialist at Bascom Palmer, where the procedure was performed.

A stem cell procedure attempted six years ago at Bascom Palmer also failed.

About a year ago, Thornton was referred to Perez, who also is an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Miami Miller Medical School, for what he calls a “procedure of last resort.” He had recently trained in Rome under Italian ophthalmologist Giancarlo Falcinelli, who had developed a modified version of the tooth-lens procedure invented by another Italian doctor, Benedeteo Strampelli.

Strampelli developed the procedure in 1963, but it didn’t catch on for decades because of serious complications, at one point including the tooth-lens combination falling out of a patient’s eye. But with Falcinelli’s modification, the procedure is spreading in Europe and Japan, and, now, in the United States. In Ireland, a worker’s sight was restored after his cornea was destroyed by red-hot liquid aluminum in an explosion at a recycling plant.

Perez estimated there are 200 or more patients in the U.S. who can be helped by the surgery.

A tooth is used, Perez said, because it provides a stable, living platform of tooth, bone and cartilage that can remain alive, get nutrition from the eye and grow into a single piece with the cornea.

Thornton says she was shocked when Perez told her what he wanted to do: “Who in the world would take a tooth out of your mouth and put it in your eye?” she asked.

Read more at MiamiHerald.com

Never mind me. Just makin’ doo-doo from my skull.

Sweet dreams.

Lufkin?

What the shit?

How does paint dry on brushes that are soaking in thinner?
God dammit, Schlitzie.

Monkeys are real creeps.

Living the dream

Make them beats, DJ.
Make them shake their crappers.

These guys should hang out:

God loves you

And I do too.

Pre-Christian Alpine Traditions

I always though something was missing from my December celebrations:

KRAMPUS
The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen). In the Alpine regions the Krampus is represented by an incubus in company of Saint Nicholas. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly in the evening of December 5, and roam the streets frightening children (and adults) with rusty chains and bells. In some rural areas the tradition also includes slight birching by the Krampus, especially of young females.

The present day Krampus costume consists of wooden masks or Larve, sheep’s skin and horns. Considerable effort goes into the manufacture of the hand-crafted masks, as many younger adults in rural communities engage competitively in the Krampus events.

In Oberstdorf, in the southwestern alpine part of Bavaria, the tradition of the “Wilde Mann” (wild man) is kept alive. He is described exactly like Krampus (except the horns), dressed in fur and frightening children (and adults) with rusty chains and bells.

 

Perchten
Originally, the word Perchten (plural of Perchta) referred to the female masks representing the entourage of Frau Perchta or Pehta baba as is known in Slovenia, an ancient goddess (some claim a connection to the nordic goddess Freyja, though this is uncertain). Traditionally, the masks were displayed in processions (Perchtenlauf) during the last week of December and first week of January, and particularly on 6 January. The costume consists of a brown wooden mask and brown or white sheep’s skin. In recent times Krampus and Perchten have increasingly been displayed in a single event, leading to a loss of distinction of the two. Perchten are associated with midwinter and the embodiment of fate and the souls of the dead. The name originates from the Old High German word peraht, or brilliant.

Regional variations of the name include Berigl, Berchtlmuada, Berchta, Pehta, Perhta-Baba, Zlobna Pehta, Bechtrababa, Sampa, Stampa, Lutzl, Zamperin, Pudelfrau, Zampermuatta and Rauweib. The Roman Catholic Church attempted to prohibit the sometimes rampant practise in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but later condoned it, resulting in a revival.

In the Pongau region of Austria large processions of Schönperchten (beautiful Perchten) and Schiachperchten (ugly Perchten) are held every winter. Other regional variations include the Tresterer in the Austrian Pinzgau region, the stilt dancers in the town of Unken, the Schnabelpercht (beaked Percht) in the Unterinntal region and the Glöcklerlaufen (bell running) in the Salzkammergut. A number of large ski resorts have turned the tradition into a tourist attraction drawing large crowds every winter.

In the town of Andrista, Valle Camonica, Italy each year came a mythological figure of the forest: the Badalisc (or Badalisk).^[1]

 

Second Life is the lamest thing that has ever existed.

Seriously. And I have spent a lot of time on the computer doing lame shit.
Wow.
Facebeard, if you spend a couple hours on Second Life, I guarantee that you will be overcome by giant rage and nothing will be spared.
Wow.

Ok. I am going to ride the girl bike down to the store now and buy some beer.
Happy Friday!
SPOOGETE!

And, yes, that is a penis at the base of a cross. You’d think that would be cool, but it’s not.