Trivia and touchy topics

Hi neighbors. It's good to be back home in Nevada! Last week I traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to watch my daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law join the Aimes ISU Ballroom Competition Team perform at the college in their Halloween Masquerade Madness Show.

As their teacher and coach, my daughter had let the students do all the planning for the event while she concentrated on working with them and other performers on the dance routines.

The decorations were great and they served food! Being under 30, no one thought to make coffee. But, that was the only fault I found in their handiwork.

My six-year-old granddaughter wowed everyone when she danced the Tango with her mother during a break. All-in-all it went well.

Now this was my first time to drive in Des Moines and I am happy to say that the two times I got off track were not really my fault, and were not really off track.

The first was taking the wrong exit which turned out to be only half a block from the right exit and ended up on the same street anyway.

The second was thinking I was taking the wrong exit only to discover everyone else was there with me and it was actually a very poorly marked detour for road construction.

Now before someone starts howling that I'm wasting too much time on trivia -- my granddaughter, trivia? -- let me move on to politics.

OK, here's my stand. Republicans have been in too long, time for a change. Since here in America we have only two parties that ever actually get elected, looks like we're stuck with Democrats.

My choice for Democratic Presidential candidate is Christopher Dodd, although I don't agree with every thing he offers. The others did not impress me as much on the televised debate. I just don't trust Barack Obama.

I see Hillary's proclaimed medical reform as a poorly concealed socialized medicine package. I don't want socialized medicine, no matter what she wants to call it. Yes, we need better medical care in America, but socialized medicine is not known for its professional, timely treatment or continued commitment to patient care.

Speaking of medicine, here's my latest pet peeve. What's up with drug companies advertising prescription drugs on television? What is the point? Do they think anything we see on television we feel we need to go out and will buy? We ARE adults here right? Patients should be informed; but we all know advertising is not educationally motivated. Advertising is a way to sell a product. Why else would they pay millions of dollars on advertising? Let them use that money instead to lower prescription drug costs. Or let them "advertise" to the doctors and pharmacists.

If they want to pitch their product to the public, let them do it on the Food and Drug Department's Internet site and furnish ALL data collected during laboratory and clinical testing of the drugs they are pitching. Let these advertising pages have open blogs so people who have used the drugs can comment on how effective they were and side effects. Oh, let's not forget those side effects! Have you noticed how happy the cartoon characters or actors on the screen appear while the list of side effects is rattled off in a hurried whisper? I really don't care how much it cost a company to "invent" a drug. No one patient should be expected to pay several hundred dollars for each pill. (Yes, I've actually seen the price tags!) Maybe if they didn't have to budget in all that television advertising costs they could keep this down a little.

I wonder too, how much "reinventing" is only a method to come up with a new brand name formula because the older one's patent is running out? How many new medicines offer actual improvements over their predecessors and to what degree? We consumers need to know what new medicines are available. But not without knowing just how they differ from cheaper, older generic drugs already at hand.

I know companies supposedly can't advertise a drug unless the Food and Drug Department has tested and approved it. But then, since Sept. 11, I've come to have some doubts about how effective most government agencies actually are.

Until the next time friends consider this, wouldn't you like to have as many choices for president as for headache relief?