Tinea pedis

[Above photo:  Peonies at Gilsland Farm.]

20 June 2022

Summer is here. Portland begins to throb with tourists and local merrymakers. Many restaurants in the Old Port area, as well as elsewhere, developed heated outdoor seating during covid, some in tiny plastic individual tents that were warm enough for comfortable dining in the cold of late Fall and early Spring. Outdoor dining, being slightly unusual, encourages gaiety. Portland is now a green, blossom-filled, and lively town, although yesterday it was cold, windy, and rainy. I thought, Summer is a fickle woman, dressed to kill and prepared to complete the act if so moved.

My patio is barren, just slate flagstones. I’m attempting to assemble ideas from friends and neighbors before I disassemble what is there and start anew. I know I want a small sitting area. I also want a weeping Japanese maple and a lilac bush, some low azaleas and peonies. Then greenery, other flowers, and a small vegetable garden. Ariane suggests pea-gravel, which is lovely underfoot at mealtime but requires more attention to keep it nice than do flagstones. I already have strings of tiny lights around the perimeter. My neice cleverly suggested I consult with a local nursery for design ideas and knowledge of indigenous plants to attract bees.

Our parking area for 4 cars is newly-paved and level. It is 35’x 41’.  A pickle-ball court is 20’x44’.  Street parking is very easy on Munjoy Hill. I’ll propose to the condo association—myself and the young couple next door—that we measure and spray the lines for a court and plan to park on the street on Sundays so the neighborhood can join us for a regular tourney. I like ping pong, squash, and racquetball and, although my skills are currently non-existent, I once could play tennis tolerably. By all reports this fastest-growing sport in America is easy to pick up and works for people of all different skill levels. It would be a fun way to join the neighborhood.

My great-nephew—after first generation cousins, nieces, nephews, etc. my genealogical skills are seriously limited—was asked to be a counselor-in-training at his camp of several years, Blueberry Cove in Tenants Harbor. Friday he flew into the Jetport where I met him with a large bag of Cool Ranch Dressing Doritos and a Coke. We drove a couple of hours through green fields and picturesque seaside villages, with a ½ hour stop for a quick EV charge and burgers in Topsham Fair Mall, to deposit him in a clearing in the woods at the camp. He clearly wanted to set off to the lodge solo, it being his first job, so I said goodbye and returned to Portland. He is a terrific youth, in spite of quite a lot of geographic dislocation—Maine to Bethesda to Cape Town to Bethesda—and the early loss of his father. His mother, my niece, has not only grit, good values, and smarts, she is very developmentally thoughtful about his needs and it shows. I enjoyed our brief interlude and tried not to pepper him with too many questions about his life.  Only he can judge the success of my restraint.

I had an infuriating experience today. I have athlete’s foot, acquired from the rowing and squash shower rooms at Harvard. I’ve never been able to shake it, despite being fastidious with clean cotton socks, foot powder, and great tubs, over the years, of antifungal creams: tolnaftate, clotrimazole, terbinafine, ketoconazole, and so forth. Ah, the shaming looks of dermatologists when I’d go for my European-skin sun-damage checks every year or two.

Yesterday I was rummaging through Renys, “A Maine Adventure”, when I came across 1 ½ oz. tubes of clotrimazole 1% from Lucky Super Soft of India for 99 cents. Today, after getting my 2^nd Covid booster at Walgreens I checked the price of the brand name variety—Lotrimin 1%—manufactured by Bayer. An ounce of the Lucky Super Soft costs 66 cents. An ounce of the Bayer costs $35. Do the math yourself, $14.99 for a .42oz tube. Yes, you’ll say, but the FDA doesn’t supervise the Lucky brand. All I know is that I used blood pressure medication manufactured in India for 2 1/2 years in Myanmar, it cost almost nothing, and my bp was well-managed. And virtually all of the psychiatric medications used in Myanmar are made in India. They seem to have the same modest efficacy and significant side-effect profile identical to those made in the West.

I mentioned it to a smart young stock guy at Renys.  He replied, “My dad is a podiatrist. He buys that stuff in bulk for nothing. They are making a fortune with the 99 cent tube. The Lotrimin is a massacre.” And why won’t the GOP allow the government to negotiate lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies?  Lobbying $$$.

I was once riding in Cebu (Philippines) with my host, a pediatric cardiologist with an interest in child sexual trauma, and her husband, a talk show host, in their ancient VW bug. “You can’t turn left here, Rickey.”, Naomi said. He did and was quickly pulled over by a policeman standing in the road. Rickey opened his window and quietly, but authoritatively, said, “I see you work for the government, also.” We were waved on. Naomi lamented the corruption throughout Philippine society. I said, “In the US it is the same, just more quietly and on a much, much larger scale.” The drug companies here and in Europe are bandits; they bribe the politicians to be allowed to continue their thievery, just as the gun manufacturers do. Capitalism demands government regulation, both environmental, public safety, and fiscal, despite the GOP hatred of it.  The market doesn’t correct or favor competition or a clean environment, it favors the owners’ profits.  Politicians should only be able to use public funds for their campaigns.

Today my walking group hit the jackpot! The Gilsland Farm is 65 acres in Falmouth run by the Audubon Society of Maine, 10 minutes by car from my home. It is simply spectacular, surrounded by the Presumpscot River on two sides with gorgeous walks through woods and fields. There is an interpretive nature center, a gift shop/book store, a large lawn with picnic tables where we had lunch, turkeys roaming about, and a massive garden of peonies, thick and fragrant that were the love of the original owner, an amateur horticulturalist. The weather was summer-perfect, as well. I’ll go there regularly. When my sister visits in two 2 weeks she’ll enjoy it.

Kudos to Bennie Thompson. All the Committee can do is skillfully present the facts and hope that enough people can distance themselves from the furor and Fox-yapping to note them.  Much of the future of our democracy, and the rule of law in this country, depends upon it.