Jonathan's blog

I've known that cough medicine isn't recommended for very young kids, but an article last weekend in the NY Times by Gardiner Harris reports that they may soon be banned for kids under 6:

Safety experts for the Food and Drug Administration urged the agency on Friday to consider an outright ban on over-the-counter, multisymptom cough and cold medicines for children under 6.

The reviewers wrote that there is little evidence that these medicines are effective in young children, and there are increasing fears that they may be dangerous. From 1969 to 2006, at least 54 children died after taking decongestants, and 69 died after taking antihistamines, the report said. And it added that since adverse drug reactions are reported voluntarily and fitfully, the numbers were likely to significantly understate the medicines’ true toll.

In the case of pediatric over-the-counter medicines, the agency decided decades ago that drug makers could market the medicines for children even though they had only been tested in adults. Back then, it was assumed that children’s bodies were simply smaller versions of adult ones. That assumption has proven untrue. Indeed, a growing number of studies suggest that cough and cold medicines work no better in children than placebos.

For the music fans out there who have kids, check out Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child.  It's a radio show out of Northampton, Mass. hosted by law professor and his daughter.  It's all kid appropriate though not all kids music.  You get it via podcast in iTunes.  We've really been enjoying the opening set from the Sept. 22 episode:

They Might Be Giants - It's Spare the Rock
They Might Be Giants - Robot Parade (No!)
Jellydots - Sad Robot (pre-release)
Hypnotic Clambake - 500 Robots (Live)
Recess Rock - Kitty in Central Park
Dennis Caraher - You Can Call Me ABC (Live at VFR)
Keith Munslow - I Can't Get Up This Morning (Accidentally [On Purpose])

God has created a masterpiece.  What do you think it is?  This passage jumped out at me the other day in the One Year Bible-on-Radio podcast:

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Eph. 2:8-10 New Living Translation

I liked this poem by Rebecca McClanahan as featured in Tuesday's The Writer's Almanac.

Autobiography of the Cab Driver Who Picked Me Up At a Phoenix Hotel to Catch a Four A.M. Flight and Began to Speak in (Almost) Rhyming Couplets

I got two problems. One,
I never see the sun
and two, if I did,
I couldn't take it, never could.
Now, my sister? Out one day
and brown the next. That's the way
my father was. We never
took vacations but he used to steer
on Sundays with one arm
out the window. Get dark as a black man.
Something in his blood, I guess.
Once I bought me a mess
of tanning cream, but something
kept me from using it.
He's been dead a whole
year. They say there's not a soul
on the streets this hour,
but the souls are just now rousing.
Yes Ma'am, when I see daylight I slide
into my coffin and close the lid.
Cooler that way. They say if you can survive
a summer in this heat, you're a native.
My brother's child? She claims to be one,
but I tell her she's got Made in Japan
stamped all over her keister.
Hey lady, you still on Eastern
time? You can have it. Yesterday
the TV reporter in Cincinnati
was three feet in snow. I phoned
my old drinking buddy back home
to rub it in. Lied and said I was out
today without a shirt. Barefoot.
He said you can keep those hundred
degrees. I said you don't have to shovel
a heat wave. Young lady, you okay?
Looks like you're fading. The longest day
I ever lived was the night
I left for Vietnam. What a sight,
would you look at that? Damn
jackhammers at three a.m.
They sure like to play in the dirt here.
Yes Ma'am. It's the same everywhere.
The shortest distance between
two points is always under construction.

Ever been riding in a car and tilted back the front seat for a snooze?  I certainly have.  Turns out this is quite dangerous, but for some reason the government and automakers are hesitant to make this fact abundantly clear.   The danger isn't much of a surprise if you think about it...but that's the point.  We often do things like this without thinking about...assuming that "if you can recline the seat, it must be safe to do so."

Emily Bazelon has the scoop on Slate: link