CarolAnn

OK - I was going to make some Mary Kay joke, but the the cow....and the other thing.....and it just didn't work anymore.

Byron Nelson had the nickname "Lord Byron" because of his elegant swing and chivalrous demeanor.

My soulmate is Leonardo da Vinci.

Glad to assist the sandal-clad plagiarists. I used to teach a 10 day degree level unit just on suicide, self-harm and self-mutilation. It was a scream. Its also one of those easy subjects where people just don't get bored with the topic. Are tattoos classed as self-mutilation? Yes in a theoretical sense - along with piercings they count as socially acceptable forms of self-mutilation. As they are socially determined they aren't counted as self-harm or mutilation in surveys, whereas, cutting, burning, inserting sticks up the jacksie ec etc are counted. Its not a precise science! My therapist always was suspicious when I would turn up with a new tattoo or piercing. As a suicide survivor (three attempts - two were incompetent and one was ill-timed) and self injurer, and carrying a nice little package of bipolar disorder I for the last 23+ years, I've always been amazed at my propensity for creative pain. It served me well in childbirth when I was able to refuse all pain meds, but then it also allows me to turn around and idly draw pictures on my stomach with a utility knife or make a nice little mickey mouse background with a lit cigarette. Fortunately I've managed to have that nice little personality trait under control for many years with only a few periods of emergence.

Pooka - FYI. You may find this interesting. **************************************************** Mental Health: A Report of the US Surgeon General Overall Patterns of Use According to recent national surveys (Regier et al, 1993b; Kessler et al., 1996), a total of about 15 percent of the U.S. adult population use mental health services in any given year. Eleven percent receive their services from either the general medical care sector or the specialty mental health sector, in roughly equal proportions. In addition, about 5 percent receive care from the human services sector, and about 3 percent receive care from the voluntary support network. (The overlap across these latter two sectors accounts for these figures totaling more than 15 percent.) Slightly more than half of the 15 percent of the adult population that use mental health services have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder (8 percent), while the remaining portion has a mental health problem (7 percent). Bearing in mind that 28 percent of the population have a diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorder, only about one-third with a diagnosable mental disorder receives treatment in 1 year. In short, this translates to the majority of those with a diagnosable mental disorder not receiving treatment. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/ment...c7.html#overall ****************************************************** Health insurance in the United States is notoriously lacking when it comes to mental health. A person can have the greatest health insurance in the world and be limited to 25 outpatient visits for mental health or substance abuse in a year with a $10,000.00 lifetime benefit. Consequently, despite the fact that illness rates are probably similar, I can't believe that treatment rates are. The working poor have no access to mental health services since they make too much to qualify for government programs but they have no insurance. The poor have goverment programs, but they are underfunded and poorly staffed. People like me have access to services but it is extremely expensive to have a chronic mental illness - medications frequently aren't covered by prescription insurance, psychiatrists can only see you for 15 minutes, ongoing therapy is expensive if you can even find a therapist who can see you in the evening so you can keep the job you need to pay for the medications your insurance company isn't paying for. That's only if you are cognizant enough to know you have a problem. This is why Sabrina lives outside the Dallas Morning News building.

I read this to be 230 out of 1000 people with a mental disorder, meaning 23% of the people suffering, not 92% of the people suffering. So if you have 1000 people, 250 will have a mental disorder. 57.5 (don't ask) will go to their physician. 34.5 will get a diagnosis and 4.8 will go a psychiatrist. .99 of a person gets banged up in the psych ward. That sounds high to me, but more in line than the 92% figure. Granted, my experience is in the US and not the UK - since we don't have socialized medicine and we have no way to forcibly commit in most states we have more people who don't get help.

The American Psychiatric Association did a review of studies that covered suicide by profession in the US and discovered one glaring problem - only about half of the states put the deceased's profession on the death certificate. I have kept a lookout for more data on this (for reasons some will understand) and I haven't seen anything in the US that would indicate there has been any clean data review since. There's lots of urban myths - even one that says dentists have the highest suicide rate, others that say police officers, others that say pilots - but I've never seen one substantiated.

Happy birthday to Gore Vidal, who seems to be in pretty good shape but is 81 today nonetheless. He made a mark in my life when I read the quote "The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes." This makes me the most interesting person on the planet.

No, don't tell me - let me guess. It was spelled "Iain?"

Happy birthday, Bruno!

He's out.

Josco, it might just be me but didn't it go something like 'three may keep a secret if one of them are dead?' No, it was "Three may keep a Secret, if two of them are dead." Poor Richard's Almanac, 1735.

Because we are open minded, experimental and not constrained by society's archaic attitudes about sex. Oh, and because I was raised by a hippie.

Gives a whole new meaning to that tingle.

This one is especially for Star Crossed: Check out the kitties.

Reflect on the meaning of "accident prone."

I voted for Brooke Astor.....just because....

You should hear the hoorah going on here in Dallas right now. Did he or didn't he? It has led the news since last night.

Mickey was a busy guy.

Byron Nelson's tournament raised over $90M for charity during his lifetime. I hope it can soldier on now that he's gone, but I wonder what the lack of those hand-written invitations to play with do to participation.

Get to the front of the line.

You know, I've also often wondered if he would martyr himself, therefore ensuring enduring almost-deification. Then I follow that wonder with the thought that he's too egomaniacal to kill himself. I don't know that he's dead, though. I would like to think it, but I just don't know. Boy, I'm of two minds about this whole Bin Laden thing.

I'm not going to get into a philosophical battle on the rightness or wrongness of the death penalty - mainly because I am a Texan - but I will try to comment on your pointers here. News outlets don't publish or broadcast the offenders last words, as a rule. They just report the execution. See above. I, for one, am not sure I'd buy something endorsed by someone who was just executed for bashing his girlfriend to death with a statue, cutting her up and throwing her body parts in the Trinity River. I don't think there is a statute that covers the length of last statements, but I believe the warden has the right to shut the offender up. I also don't think a last statement is a legal right - I could be wrong about that, though. I think "stay strong" is a common phrase in Texas - both of my sons use it. According to the state, it costs a little under $62.00 a day to house death row inmates. As of today, there are 391 offenders on Texas' death row. That comes out to $24K and change a day, so call it $9M a year.

Oh boy. A Colt 45. I bow to the Australian John Wayne - while shaking in my shoes, I might add. Didn't take long to get down to threats. Have you blown all your literary abilities on your fantasies of Mr. O'Sullivan? I'm still trying to figure out the CA/cancer thing..... If all you've got is a Colt 45 you're sadly losing from the start. Even broke teenage aspiring drug dealers here won't lower themselves to single action. Star Crossed, I think I'm going to give in to someone who doesn't understand how to consolidate posts, can't pick up on sarcasm and who can't come up with a response better than waving around obsolete firearms. Release the kittens if you see fit, but I suspect there are more worthy things to sic them on. Personally, I'm going to leave this particular den of treacle and find some intelligence in another thread. Whoever pinned this can live with it.

I think that's the point for those of us who are, shall we say, a bit put off by the recent postings in this thread. No one I can think of has a problem with esoteric, strange, or unconventional. What we do have a problem with is the gushing, pre-pubescent hero worship that sounds like a convention of teenyboppers. I mean, I'll grant you that Richard O'Sullivan was cute in his heyday, but I really don't have any desire to break into Brinsworth and rape him. For what it's worth, I don't think he's going to kick off anytime soon. Fire when ready.