GLAD TO BE OF HELP: So over the weekend I posted a link to a book that helped me back when I had shoulder problems some years ago, and I got this email from reader Richard Rusk:

I just ordered one through Amazon. My wife has a damaged rotator cuff after a fall. She had a major hemorraghic stroke at age 53 four years ago and is weak on her left side. She dozed off sitting at the computer and fell to her right, messing up her right shoulder. We have seen a doctor and done therapy and she has made progress but it is still a problem. We may end up having surgery at some point but I am looking forward to seeing what this book recommends.

And thanks for these things:

An article in 2011 about the growth of teenage brains–it changed the way I see my teenage daughter and has improved our relationship. I thanked you for it then and you responded saying you were glad it helped.
The Pizzazz rotary oven–a regular meal at my house now is fish sticks, french fries and onion rings made on the rotary oven. We love how they crisp up nicely. We do pizzas on it too sometimes.
The idea of an Ipad for a stroke patient. I bought one for my wife when she really only had use of one hand and she loved being connected to a growing group of her old friends she found on Facebook. She felt a huge sense of isolation when she came home after 13 months in a nursing home where she was a social butterfly among the residents–they bond kind of like college kids in a dorm or military guys in a barracks. (She has improved greatly and now has a much higher level of partial use of her bad hand.)
The “Three Simple Steps” book by Trevor Blake. His life advice lines up with other authors I have been encouraged by, but from a different viewpoint. I think it confirms that good ideas are good ideas, and the Gods of the Copybook Headings are right.
Pointing me to Gary Taubes and strength training, although I have only taken baby steps.
Quoting me recently on my comment that the news media and Hollywood are both union environments–we might expect some pro-union slant from them. (Now I have been quoted in the New York Times for a wisecrack I made as a former Enron employee and in Instapundit. Maybe my descendents will find all that with future Google searches–who knows?)

Wow. Glad to help.