My Little Corner Of A Big City World

A GIRL'S GOTTA GET some exercise in the great outdoors. Just a block from the hotel where I nest is this wonderful trail find made just for me along the East River. No, it's not exactly the Snake or the Buffalo, my favorite haunts, but it'll do in a pinch. And the views are spectacular if you like cityscapes with cars whizzing by. I'm learning to.

My favorite everyday cafe and community center in the city where I go next door for coffee and breakfast early in the morning. I'm getting to know Jose the cook, Elizabeth the hostess who bosses everyone around and gets angry in Spanish, and my fellow intrepid, conservative Larry (Larry arrives late, much later than I, so I only see him when I over-sleep. Larry, by the way, has been rather depressed of late after listening to Michael Savage at night saying the country is gone, gone, gone to hell in a hand-basket. It doesn't help my disposition to listen to too much of this early in the morning. Larry also insisted on telling me about his recent, painful tooth implant and all the drilling. So to distract him, I shoved a photo of Jimmy Carter coming out of the White House this week in his face! That was his punishment. And it momentarily quieted him down.)

The cafe is just starting to serve Al fresco.

Would rather stay here than a penthouse on Fifth Avenue (which I was graciously offered from friends in Wyoming.) I love the owner and she likes me too. I'm considered a regular now. The price they've cut with me is specially designed for a penny pincher. What more could a country girl ask in a big city like this? Close by are newsstands, cleaners, groceries, drug and book stores too.

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Americans today have much better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers: Breast cancer mortality is 52% higher, HIGHER, in Germany and 88% Higher in the United Kingdom than in the United States. Prostate cancer mortality is a whooping 604% higher in the UK, 457% higher in Norway. And colo-rectal cancer mortality is 40% higher among Brits. (Source The National Center for Policy Analysis, in 10 Surprising Facts About American Healthcare.)

And is it any wonder what with 6-12 month wait times for socialized medicine in these countries and Canada? Access to treatment and prevention in the US run circles around other civilized nations. No wonder anyone who can afford to come to America to get treated, does. And Mr. Obama and Congress want to give us a system like Europe and Canada?! It's scandalous.