Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Ancestry and other B.S.

Son's DNA kicked this process off and got my curiosity heightened.


I recently had my son's DNA tested out of curiosity. I followed his belief that after he was tested, I'd know what my DNA was too. This was not the case. After Joey was tested, we read the results eagerly. The tests gives estimates and basically there is a leeway of 5 to 10 percent.

35% to 39% European Jew. Hey no surprise there right? This includes all regions found in Germany, France, Lithuania, Latvia Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Bosnia, Serbia and Estonia.

8% Benin/Togo African which includes Ghana, Nigeria, and Mali. I figured that's got to be his father. Joey's dad is Dominican. 1% Senegal, the Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, and Guinea-Bissau are included here.

3% North African including Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Libya. Everyone I knew said, "Oh that's his Dad too.

Turns out he had about 10% Irish and English. Everyone thought that was me. I was like, no way - I'm not white like that.

A large 18% is Italian and Greece and 17% is Portugal and Spain.

3% from India.

Then there were traces of up to 3 percent each of Asia Central including Turkmenistan and Afghanistan DNA, 3% North American Indian DNA, plus Middle Eastern, formerly Persia, now known as Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Now for my surprises!


Turns out I have no West European, English or Irish DNA.


No surprise either since Joey has 2 parents and he was 39% European Jew then that I'm 76% European Jew right?

I am 12% Italian and Greek. Primarily located in: Italy, Greece

Also found in: France, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, Romania, Turkey, Slovenia, Algeria, Tunisia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo.

2% India DNA labeled Asia South and this includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.


Some 2 to 3 percent of Asia Central including those regions Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Also found in: Iran, & Pakistan.

Some 2 percent Iberian Peninsula. Hmm, always thought I had some Sephardic blood and there we go, now a fact.

The 2 percent Middle Eastern (no surprise here) is me and may include his Dad too.

The 1 or 2 percent North African is also me, including DNA from the regions Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Libya. I figure probably Jews I descended from were traveling Berbers there at some time.

Happy too that I was right that his Dominican Dad, Felix, was the one with the English and Irish DNA and that I knew right away I was the one who had South Asia DNA from India.

Yay! Now I know more about my history.

Did you know the Mormons will help you find out more about your ancestry for free. I plan to go once I'm up and around again.

Luckily for me, some of my father's people immigrated here from Eastern Europe in the 1890's having the foresight to see what was coming.

Other Upcoming News:


Now the partially bad news and good in another way. I am having hip replacement surgery at Columbia Presbyterian this coming Thursday, May 7th. I have been mostly disabled since ripping several ligaments and tendons from doing Pilates on the machine. I did 14 sessions between end of October 2014 and first week of January. Who knew Pilates could be so dangerous? Recently a friend told me she tried it and saw right away that you must have a very strong core and be strong to begin with to do Pilates.


At the New York Reforming Pilates center they encouraged me to do more and come more. I never realized the damage I was causing and thought the pain was caused by minor injuries like pulled muscles. By the time I realized the extent of the damage, it was too late and I could no longer walk. I continue to do the exercises taught to me in Physical Therapy but the right leg doesn't follow my brain's orders. You know how they say the leg's connected to the hip, but I never realized how much the hip controls the legs. At the Pilates center they make you sign a waiver too the minute you do anything there. I should have known better, but it also sounds like neglect on their part.

Most importantly, I ripped the Ligamentum Teres, which holds the hip joint in place. The Minimus Gluteus tendon also had partial tears as did many other things. The hip joint had some arthritis but 14 sessions of Pilates just did me in. I should have stuck with my yoga and when I am fully functionable again I will.



Monday, April 06, 2015

Song I wrote for Grandson Oliver

I sing this to Oliver, my grandson, and he loves it. I began singing it to him when he was a few months old. He is now almost a year old and still loves it.  

I once sang at an outside poetry/music festival and people liked it. 

I LOVE OLIVER


I love you in the morning 
I love you at night
I love you when you just wake up
I love you when you’re cranky
I love you as much as key lime pie
I love you all the time

Love you in the morning 
Love you at midnight
Love you when you’re bright and sunshiny
Love you when you’re cranky
Love you all the time

Love you in rain. 
Love you in sunshine.
Love your smile 
Love to witness your delight.
You’re all right with me
Even when you’re wrong
You’re all right with me
I love you all the time.

Right back where we started from

I love you in the morning 
I love you at night
I love you when you wake you
I love you when you fall asleep
I love you when you cry
I love you all the time

I love you in stormy weather,
I love when we’re together
I love you everywhere
My love for you defines me
You’re totally divine!
You’re the sunshine of my life

I love you in bright times
I love you in sad
It’s always understood
Loving you makes bad times good
I wish you endless possibilities
Love you open opportunities


I love you in the morning,
I love you at night
I love you all the time

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

American Train Trip

Sitting on an Amtrak train heading back to NYC
Pass through Mystic, Connecticut 
Quaint country houses, a huge river
Big bridge with bright lights
Feel like a character in a movie
The guy at the table across talks rapid fire on his cell
About Jack Black who was supposed to
Hit up the presentation today and how in spite of
Jack having that high six figure salary
He's got no experience at this job
How he had to take Jack Black's place 
And do what Jack Black should have done
Patricia is supposed to be his boss 
But he has to tell her what to do
“It's like a marriage,” he proclaims
The train conductor announces
Arriving at New Haven, Connecticut in 2 minutes
Fellow passenger’s cross conversation and my movie end
Inspired I search for my pen and remember 
Mariel asked to borrow it and didn’t return it
I pull my luggage from the corner 
Ransack roughly through my clothes 
Find my iPad, pull it out and write this poem instead

Monday, January 19, 2015

All Sentient Beings Count

Every year 10 billion animals, cows, pigs and chickens are slaughtered for food.  Every single second 300 animals are killed for consumption in the USA. Snap your fingers, yes in that time, 300 animals are killed. That is 18,000 every minute, which adds to 1,080,000 every hour, animals that suffer from birth to death in warehouses. Many people behave as though animals have no feelings. Animals love their young, and suffer. Pigs are smarter than dogs. 

Here in the USA our farm animals are treated extremely cruelly from the day they are born till their slaughter. Baby pigs and cows have their testicles cut off with rusty scissors and are given nothing for pain. When infections follow they go untreated and animals die. Cows horns are removed cruelly by sawing them down or chopping. Cows are artificially inseminated and not permitted to graze and forced to eat foods they are unable to digest. Cows, pigs, goats and chickens are not allowed to walk, feel the sun or graze.

We can talk about repercussions of factory farming or intensive animal farming industry although it is clear not everyone agrees because they want to continue eating meat. Sometimes it is because they don’t have knowledge or facts, some people enjoy the taste and others eat because it’s cheaper to buy a dollar deal from Burger King or McDonalds than to have salad, rice & beans, (rice & beans is an entire wholesome protein by itself) cooked vegetables. Very few people care to consider the horrible conditions farm factory farm animals are exposed to.

How many people think about chickens piled body upon body in cages where they die, bodies, wings and feathers squashed and dried on the cage bars. Cows cannot digest corn or grains, but cows are forced to eat GMO corn Cows cannot digest the GMO corn they are forced to eat because their stomachs are made to eat grasses.. Some farmers have ground up the newborn calves and feed them to the mother cows. Cows are naturally vegetable eating species. All animals are forced to survive standing and living in their own excrement. When workers come and clean they get angry and upset having to shovel literally through feet deep shit and piss. Can you imagine the smell?

Because our animals are confined in small spaces where movement is inhibited, they live in such filth they need antibiotics just to survive. Then they are forced to consume hormones to grow. Farm animals experience fear and pain and very little else. Cows are impregnated through artificial insemination. If this were done to a woman they’d call it rape. Their babies are taken from them and birth because the female cows are only impregnated to make milk. If the baby calves survive, workers pick them up by their hind legs and bang their heads against the cement floor, sometimes in full view of their mother, to kill them. We live like we are in a third world country too where only money has a say. Factory farm animals never get to see the sun, are not permitted to graze, to walk or run. They are not permitted to enjoy their short lives and then the only thing to set them free from their pain and abuse, is their slaughter, often performed cruelly too. Animals are often hit with hammers in their head but are still conscious and machines meant to do the workmen used to do, often miss their mark. There is a reason why Muslims and Jews use a sharp knife to the throat to kill animals for consumption.

Thinking about this same animal as a form of your nutriment and diet, realize that hours standing in excrement and urine will enter the bloodstream of the animal forced to live that way. After birth, piglets are separated from their mothers. Kept immovable between bars is how these pigs live.

We cry about dogs in China, Korea, and other countries while meanwhile we treat our animals the same. I had a pet chicken given to me when very small and that chick followed me all day for months until I left the farm where I’d been living. All animals are sentient beings have feelings. We need to clean up our own back yard before complaining about the world. Our farm animals also watch in fear as others are slaughtered and mistreated.

I am tired of all the killing and cruelty in the world; from farm animals in factory farms who only get to live 2 years the most if they’re lucky to dogs in east Asia. Cows and pigs can live 15 to 25 years if allowed. All of these animals are mercilessly beaten and treated. Why do humans need to eat cows and pigs? And if they must eat them do they really need to eat so much? Do you really look at a pig and baby sow and say wow yummy?

Calves here are killed at birth for the milk industry and they call that veal. They are not permitted to suckle and are taken from their mothers as soon as they are born. Then there's the force fed ducks. It is all too disgusting and I'm tired of all the cruelty. Man's inhumanity to man and animals is disgusting and we need to be ashamed - since we are supposed to be the "highest species.” Pigs are smarter than dogs. Why don't more people care?

Fine - eat your meat – and consider the effect on health. How much mean protein do you think you should consume to maintain good health? How much do you need? Do you want to know the truth about factory farms? Do you want to know scientifically how the animals treated like this effect your health; examine the abuse and treatment of the animals killed for consumption? Eating the meat of an animal abused its entire life, flooded with adrenaline and fear, and force-fed indigestible foods, hormones and antibiotics cannot be good for your health. Animals are forced to consume the antibiotics and hormones to permit them to grow and survive in the filth the factory farm animals are forced to live in. 

Our children living near by factory farms get cancer caused by contaminating ground water. Imagine our outcry if we no longer processed human waste, like Typhoid Mary all over again, only this time it’s caused by waste from concentrated animal feeding operations instead of human waste.  Big money is slowly killing us but we turn a blind eye. March willingly to our demise, like another Adolf Hitler. We assist in earth’s destruction, contribute to the consistent abuse; make the poor more poor, while we all die from cancer. Struggle over pennies rule us and soon with all the runoff waste and fracking, we won’t have an earth to sustain us.

Groundwater contamination from feces from eight billion chickens slaughtered yearly to satisfy the human race. Bones so weak they can’t stand because they never see the light of day, force-fed antibiotics because they live in such filth, so the antibiotic causes a growth spurt. Poison the ground so even us vegetarians and vegans are no longer safe. Tyson escapes pollution regulations through loopholes. How many of you can afford to eat organic food?

Middle class Americans under attack, our country isn’t what it’s meant to be.  We need to take our lives back. Give small farmers back their share and let them care for animals meant to be human food. Let animals graze and see the sun the way they’re supposed to. Agriculture should require waste treatment centers for animals waste just like for human waste. That is how they farm in Europe where they have already outlawed factory-farming practices for being unsafe, unsanitary, unhealthy for consumption, plus creating groundwater contamination. We are led like we wear blinders and rarely do we see the truth, similar to the movie, The Matrix. Were we permitted actual reporting instead of the news we see on TV, our eyes would open. The world is overcrowded and people refuse change. It's ok - another 5 million years will rid the earth of us.

The minute I heard about the dead bear cub about 6 months old found under a bush in Central Park I said, “This bear cub was kept as a pet and abused.” Instead all of the initial reports said the cub’s injuries show he was run over. Over 10 days later it is reported there are slash and stab wounds.

Animals have no voice. My heart can’t turn off the pain so I beg for mercy for them. Please stop the trickle down abuse. My voice is lost on the 1 percent. I turn to you and cry “Mercy for the planet!”

Please pledge to love our earth. Before it’s too late to reverse the devastation and we’ve all been sent to damnation, let’s escape this trickle down abuse Matrix. Let’s join instead to spread the love, create a world where there truly is a greater good for all men together, where every man supports for his brother and sister, a peaceful world where future generations can survive. For those of you who choose to eat meat, buy from small farms where animals are permitted to graze and well treated. Many farmers are now turning to new ways by blocking off tracts of land in a grazing circle; animals are permitted grazing year round. Farmers save money on hay and the animals are happy being moved to a fresh grazing area daily. 

A righteous man regards the life of animals – Proverbs 12:10

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. - St Francis of Assisi

Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our sould when we look the other way. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs… (They) are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no rights to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty … - James Harriot


The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated – Mahatma Gandhi.

Link to educational video below: