Jean Bredin ©. 8/17/17. Ocean Grove, NJ. Click to enlarge.
August 17, 2017. Ocean Grove beach: “It’s 7 pm, the sun is setting, mostly everyone has gone home, but there’s always an assemblage of beach lovers clustered together, who don’t want to call it a day.
“Life is a Beach,” and they know it.”
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB “Amor De Loca Juventud”
Posted in Around the Grove with Jean Bredin, Blogfinger Presents, Ocean Grove beachfront | Tagged Beach fun in Ocean Grove | 2 Comments »
Captivating….Maestro Jason Tramm brings beautiful music to the greatest Auditorium. Paul Goldfinger photos. 8/29/22 Click once each to enlarge all images.
It was a warm night for the Sacred Masterworks concert. All the doors were open in the Great Auditorium, so occasional cool breezes came in.
8/28/22 The orchestra was superb with marvelous musicians, especially the first violinist.
The Masterworks Concert was wonderful. Jason Tramm selected a varied program that was delightful, and the audience, spread out over the giant room, was appreciative. The selection led from one amazing piece to another.
And the cast was perfect: vocalists, orchestra, organ, choir—The Camp Meeting has done it again!
In the park, a grandmother danced to the music with two little girls. The concert was the back-drop. Paul Goldfinger photo.
Auditorium Park as the concert winds down. Paul Goldfinger. 8/28/22 Walk the dog to Haydn.
I was seated up high in the rear. A few people brought small children. They listened and then quickly got restless, but even a taste of fine music for a child…. But the audience was not restless; hardly anyone left their seat to step outside. There was no intermission, and the music flowed from one to the other like a soft stream bubbling through the woods.
As I stepped outside, a woman approached me, wondering about my camera and what I was doing. She was so taken with the amazing event–she said, “I can’t wait to see the pictures.”
So I gave her a Blogfinger card and now I was challenged to figure out how to overcome the dark outside, but the musicians had already done that in their way.
On the way home I met some neighbors—-two literary women, Shelly and Perdita: writers and music lovers who were ecstatic about the concert. Shelly is a veteran of the OG Choir. They were happy in the afterglow of Jason’s magical accomplishment.
This isn’t from the show, but it is Ronald Naldi:
“Torna!”
Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor, Blogfinger.net
Posted in Blogfinger Presents |
Paul Goldfinger photo. Kutztown State Fair.
IRENE BYATT from the 1967 Lincoln Center production of South Pacific:
Posted in Blogfinger Presents | Tagged Photo: Kutztown State Fair |
Still image from a WWII documentary. German town. Paul Goldfinger photo, 2022.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net. Re-post from 2022. Ocean Grove, NJ, USA.
As the Allies moved into Germany, Russians from the east and Americans from the west, they came upon concentration camps devoted to mayhem and murder—horrid leftovers from the Nazi ghouls perpetrating the “Final Solution.” Besides camps in Germany, they found many in Poland.
German towns had been bombed, but many went about their ways acting as if they knew nothing about the Holocaust or what went on in the camps near their towns. They all knew what the columns of smoke meant coming out of the camp chimneys.
Nazi criminals who manned the camps hurried to escape, leaving behind the still smouldering evidence of the ovens. So many of those criminals were never brought to justice for a variety of reasons. Some are still being sought out and prosecuted.
American and Russian photographers documented all of it. The Russian soldiers, in a drunken frenzy, entered towns like this one, raping, killing and pillaging.
But their anger was understandable. About 20 million Russians died due to that maniac: Hitler.
German citizens tried to escape to the west because they expected more humane behavior from the Americans, Brits, French, Poles and others. Anything to avoid the Russian Army.
JETHRO TULL “Requiem”
“Well, I saw a bird today
Flying from a bush
And the wind blew it away.
And the black-eyed mother sun
Scorched the butterfly at play
Velvet veined. I saw it burn.
With a wintry storm-blown sigh,
A silver cloud blew right on by.
And, taking in the morning, I sang
O Requiem.”
Posted in Blogfinger Presents | 5 Comments »
Sophia’s at the Hotel Edison in midtown. Paul Goldfinger photograph 2013.©
LEONARD COHEN, live, from his album the Essential Leonard Cohen.
Posted in Blogfinger Presents |
Stucile Farm Water Tower. Paul Goldfinger photograph. Deal Road in Joseph Palaia Park. Ocean Township. 2/18/23. This structure is over 100 years old. Recently it was structurally strengthened and lit for nighttime viewing by passing cars. Click once to enlarge.
8/2024: Now that structural improvements are completed, the Ocean Historic Society will be restoring utilities to the building. When it was a water tower in the past it was supplying irrigation to greenhouses on the property. There also is a historic building nearby.
Click once to enlarge.
FIONA APPLE: “Across the Universe.”
Posted in Blogfinger Presents |
Photo by Jean Bredin. Ocean Grove. August 19, 2024. Blogfinger staff.
KATE AND ANNA McGARRIGLE:
“Talk to me of Mendocinoclosing my eyes, I hear the seaMust I wait, must I follow?Won’t you say “Come with me?”
Posted in Blogfinger Presents |
Nagles (currently closed) This photo (Paul Goldfinger) was used for a local artist to create a painting. 2024.
Go to Blogfinger.net link below: August 21, 2025 to read about the new owner of Nagle’s who will reopen in summer 2026.
Re-post from May, 2024.:
There is a rumor that someone has signed on to bring back Nagle’s.
We hope so, because a restaurant like that is desperately needed in the Grove, and with summer on its way.
We came by on a Tuesday afternoon in May, 2024, and there is no place to stop for a snack. The coffee shop, bakery, and Victorian snackery were all closed. Days is open weekends until Memorial Day weekend.
BLOGFINGER.net. SCOOP: August 18, 2024. We have it from a reliable source (one of our reporters) that a New York restauranteur was visiting Nagle’s today, considering it as an opportunity. He loved the idea of the old Nagle’s—even the seasonal part and the Saturday night live entertainment. His vision is for a breakfast/lunch place. Of course, this is just preliminary, but hope springs eternal. PG
THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ VIPERS From the soundtrack of Treme.
Posted in Blogfinger Presents | 10 Comments »
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.
There are five places — called “Blue Zones” — where a disproportionately high number of residents live to 100: Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; and Nicoya, Costa Rica.
An Okinawan vegetarian stir fry–very healthy. From the Netflix documentary on living to a hundred. Blogfinger still photo.
The people who live in those places share certain features: stress free environment, healthy diets, weight control, physical activity and a good 8 hours sleep. Also there are undoubtedly genetic elements.
Netflix is now showing a new documentary called “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.” It is an entertaining and beautifully crafted 4 part series where the writer visits 5 very special places. Much of the emphasis is on diet, but the topic is multifactorial.
Among the foods that are stressed are: oatmeal, coffee, modest alcohol, eggs, avocados, whole foods such as rice and corn, and garlic. It’s all very much like the classic Mediterranean diet which we favor in our book. The Netflix documentary does a great job with diet.
The low stress piece interests me. That link makes sense, although the exact mechanism is unknown, and then how to best reduce stress in our complicated lives?
Albert Ellis started a movement in psychiatry to reduce anxiety and stress called “cognitive therapy” or “rational emotive therapy”
It is a very practical approach. You may be able to find his first book “A Guide to Rational Living.”
Here is one example of Ellis’s method:
If you are anxious about some event in your life, analyze the situation and come up with a solution to the problem. Then implement that solution, and the anxiety will diminish. It makes sense, and it works.
Paul Goldfinger MD
BILLIE HOLIDAY. “Easy Living.”
Posted in Blogfinger Presents |
NYC Street series—By Paul Goldfinger (click once to see full frame image; back arrow to return)
Giampaolo Pasquile
“Duck! You Sucker”.
Movie soundtrack of the same name
Posted in Blogfinger News | 2 Comments »
Blogfinger.net photo
See the August, 2024 AMA/FDA update at the end of this 4/24 post:
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC. Co-author of “Prevention Does Work: A Guide to a Healthy Heart.” 4/24.
Here is a link to a 2013 Blogfinger post which explains the definitions of salt and sodium;
This small 15-ounce can of cooked peas in water contains 3 1/2 servings. Most of us can easily eat the whole can because it seems healthy to do so and it goes down easy. One portion has 380 mg (milligrams) of sodium (salt). The whole can contains 1,330 mg. sodium. That’s a huge amount, but not unusual for many processed foods such as canned soups.
On the other hand, a 16-ounce package of frozen raw mixed vegetables (Wegman’s “Just Picked and Quickly Frozen” Japanese Stir Fry) has 5 servings, but each serving has only 10 mg. of sodium. If you eat the whole package, you get only 50 mg. of sodium. If you buy the Wegman’s shelled green peas in a microwave bag, the sodium content is zero and the nutritional value is probably better if you enjoy them raw than if you eat the cooked peas in a can.
Salt contains sodium and chloride, but the sodium is the important component. The American Heart Association recommends that we all consume less than one teaspoon of salt per day. A teaspoon of salt has 2,300 mg. of sodium.
We all should try to keep our sodium intake under 2,000 mg. This includes what’s in your food and what you add to food. Learn to wean yourself off added salt. Fresh corn on the cob seems to beg for salt, but you can get used to enjoying it without the sodium chloride. Avoid processed foods because they often contain extra salt, unless you find a product like our frozen vegetables.
When you read labels, ignore everything on the package except the ingredients. Look for the mg. of sodium. Also look for portion size, because sodium content (along with all other ingredients) is given according to a portion size which may be surprisingly small.
Fresh foods are always best. Processed foods often have added sodium for taste and/or preservation. Please read labels and make good choices for you and your families. Latest update below.
FDA lays out goals to reduce sodium levels in packaged, processed foods by 20%. 8/17/24Reuters (8/15, Vanaik) reports the FDA “on Thursday laid out fresh goals to cut sodium levels in packaged and processed foods by about 20%, after its prior efforts to address a growing epidemic of diet-related chronic diseases showed early signs of success.” In October 2021, the FDA “had set guidelines to trim sodium levels in foods ranging from potato chips to hamburgers in a bid to prevent excessive intake of salt that can trigger high blood pressure.” The FDA “is now seeking voluntary curbs from packaged-food makers such as PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz and Campbell Soup.” The agency “wants to cut sodium intake over the next three years to an average of 2,750 milligrams per day – 20% lower than the levels prior to 2021. |
Now you can’t say that a doctor never told you this stuff.
Cheer up—-here’s Leon Redbone:
Posted in Medical topics | Tagged Medical: How much salt should you eat? | 3 Comments »
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC.
This post is from 2019, but it is still valid:
Almost all doctors believe in treating hypertension, but how many will be enthused about following the new guidelines? We’re talking about the American Heart Association/ American College of Cardiology 2017 guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure.
If you were a doctor, would you spend hours going through piles of hypertension guidelines, looking at all the intricate details, and trying to resolve the controversies? Or would you just do whatever it is that you normally do to treat the most common cause of death in the US ?
And even if a physician were willing to wade into the weeds trying to figure all this out, he might emerge confused, because in the end, he will have to use his best judgement.
Guidelines are supposed to provide consistency not controversy. But when it comes to hypertension, knowledge has been evolving since the 19th century when a device to measure blood pressure was invented. And change is slow.
I have hypertension–it runs in my family. It also increases in frequency as we get older. My blood pressure was normal until I passed 50. As a cardiologist, I keep my finger on the pulse of advances in cardiology.
My own cardiologist is an eminent and respected doctor in this area. But he is fairly conservative, and when I press him about the new guidelines, he usually falls back on his own judgement which doesn’t try to push too hard on drugs. Last time I saw him, it appeared that he was beginning to adopt the new American guidelines, yet he didn’t change my treatment, although he might have.
However my biggest concern is that not only will physicians pay little attention to the guidelines, but probably half of their patients with high blood pressure are not under good control. And there are many people who are walking around despite high blood pressure. These people don’t often see doctors or go to health screenings. This disease is called “the silent killer” with good reason.
Now, in the new world of medical practice in America, we have new ways to practice, and that involves mid-level practitioners such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Also we have electronic medical records and fabulous new technologies to help accomplish our goals. And there is a welcomed trend to use home BP measurements to guide diagnosis and treatment.
The new corporate style of practice involves a team approach to try and improve the track record in hypertension. And when a patient is put into the hands of such “teams,” those teams will be forced to use the latest guidelines, taking it out of the hands of doctors.
And we know that perhaps up to 800 entities such as the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Summit Medical Group, Monmouth Cardiology, etc. across the country have already established this new approach, and more will jump on the bandwagon.
Then, it is hoped that the success rates of hypertension care will become much better. But I am also suspicious of corporate motives in such circumstances. Insurance companies, healthcare entities, and Big Pharma are interested in this topic.
I am skeptical of turning over the care of our patients to corporate managers, bottom line oriented policies, mid-level medical teams, efficiency experts, and one-size-fits-all algorithms. It is a recipe for reduced quality of care, failure to properly evaluate patients, and higher risk of complications, malpractice, and missed diagnoses.
I would be more enthused if the system were returned to the control of physicians.
So, having expressed that concern, we will proceed with the nitty-gritty of providing successful care for the millions of hypertensives in America.
GOLDFRAPP. From the soundtrack of Jack Goes Boating——It’s “Eat Yourself”
If you don’t eat yourself
No doubt the pain will instead
If you don’t eat yourself
You will explode instead
I think this means to take good care of yourself. Have your blood pressure checked. And more–you decide what it means.
Posted in Blogfinger Medical Reports, Blogfinger Presents, Hypertension on Blogfinger | Tagged Hypertension doctor |
Paul Goldfinger still image from the film “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
“Gone With the Wind” with Dick Hyman (piano) and Ken Peplowski (clarinet)
Posted in Blogfinger Presents |