Presenting…

Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to Tinsel, the newest member of the Spikol-Bertolini household. Tinsel is a Syrian hamster, and the sweetest little boy in the world. I had been looking for a hamster for a long time, but told Vince it had to be a love match.

When I met Tinsel, he ran up my shoulder and hid in my hair.

He likes to climb up the bars of his cage and hide in my shirt. Or, better said, he doesn’t put up a fight when I stick him in my shirt.

Thanks to Javier and Baruchito for the inspiration.

liz | 9:24 AM | Uncategorized

Spikol, as in nickel, as in pickle, as in tickle…

Please watch this video, and stay tuned for question No. 3:

Tina Fey speaks my name

liz | 5:02 PM | Uncategorized

Push it real good!

Does anyone remember that horrible song? It just popped into my head unbidden when I heard that PW won so many awards. Isn’t that song about sex or something? I really wish I could just turn my brain off, particularly the part responsible for Salt n Pepa memories.

But the awards, now that’s good stuff. After the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association named us the state’s best
large-circulation weekly on Wednesday, this morning the Keystone Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists named us “best overall weekly” in Pennsylvania.

Here’s the breakdown of both sets of awards.

Keystone Press awards

Kia Gregory: column, first place
Kia Gregory: general news, first place
Gwen Shaffer: general news, second place
Frank Rubino: sports story, second place
Kate Kilpatrick: feature story, first place
Liz Spikol: feature story, second place
Steve Volk: feature story, honorable mention
Kia Gregory: news feature, first place
Kirsten Henri: feature beat, first place
Jeff Fusco: news photo, second place
Sweepstakes

Keystone Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awards:

Kia Gregory: first place, feature story
Steven Wells: third place, feature story
Daniel McQuade: second place, sports story
Cassidy Hartmann: second place, enterprise story
Kia Gregory: third place, enterprise story
Kia Gregory: third place (tie with Kirsten Henri), commentary
Kirsten Henri: third place (tie with Kia Gregory), commentary
Kate Kilpatrick: first place, headline writing
Kate Kilpatrick: third place, headline writing
Steve Volk: second place, business and labor story
Steve Volk: third place, business and labor story
Jeff Fusco: first place, photo story
Jeff Fusco: first place, feature photo
Jeff Fusco: third place, feature photo
Steve Volk: first place, health and medical story
Steven Wells: second place, health and medical story
Gwen Shaffer: first place, environmental story
Best Overall Weekly

The timing is … interesting. An unprecedentedly award-winning year–a strange time to divest yourself of a superb product, thus potentially divesting the city of some of the best writers and editors in the state.

Oh, crap. Did I just blog that out loud?

liz | 2:52 PM | Uncategorized

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I finally got my hair cut for Lo/fL.

liz | 10:58 AM | Uncategorized

Must-see TV

Andy Behrman, author of Electroboy, will be on Anderson Cooper tonight at 10 p.m. EST. They’ll be talking a bit about Virginia Tech.

Sadly, I don’t have cable, which I know makes me a freak. So y’all have to watch it and let me know how it is. Here’s a previous interview Andy did with Andy, with Drew Pinsky (my love!) along for the ride.

liz | 5:20 PM | Uncategorized

Weird TTWS comment of the day

In response to this post about Eminem, emphasis mine:

hey you guys need to give em a break any one can go down the same way he did any day but still you have the balls to say stuff about my idol you guys are just fucked up in your head so quit with the talkin and actually get the info from him u know .man! i can’t even believe this you guys definatly need something to do or go get laid or something and leave eminem alone.you fat weirdos

*sniff*

liz | 4:18 PM | Uncategorized

Tech Trouble

Now that the photos and videos and writings have been released, it’s reasonable to assume that Cho Seung-Hui suffered from serious mental health problems. But it’s not that simple. It would be unfair to state, without elaboration, that Seung-Hui was mentally ill. That tars all mentally ill with the ol’ violence brush–a damaging and innacurate perception that contributes mightily to the problem of stigma. It’s too absolutist to say that.

Would it help, then, to identify the kind of mental illness he suffered? I don’t think so. Whether he was chronically depressed or had OCD or anything else, the diagnosis cannot explain what he did. Yet I suspect that people will want a diagnosis because they’re desperate for answers: Why did he do what he did? What makes a person do this?

Seung-Hui’s behavior was so aberrant, though, that we can’t answer those questions with any certainty. He committed the largest mass murder in American history. Given the singualr nature of that act, we must also acknowledge the singular nature of his psychology.

Still, we’ll continue to look for reasons. We’ll plunder his past, talk to everyone he ever knew, interrogate family and old teachers and gas station attendants and whoever else might have had contact with him, however brief. In our rage for accountability, we’ll place blame on the university, on law enforcement, on mental health facilities, on whomever we can to exorcise the feelings of futility and powerlessness.

But the truth is that no one–not a university president, not a police detective, not the most penetrating therapist in the world–could have predicted that Seung-Hui would commit mass murder. That’s what makes it so scary.

Ultimately, Cho Seung-Hui is the one to blame, but we can’t hold him to account; he did that himself–another frustration. Now we are left with the awesome responsibilty of moving on in our lives without blaming the wrong people. That’s going to be hard to manage.

liz | 2:58 PM | Uncategorized

You guys are on a roll today

The latest TTWS reader fabulousness comes from Joe G., who is responding to an article I linked to about bipolar treatment with psychotherapy. Says Joe:

It is always worthwhile to take a look at the original article (”Intensive psychotherapy benefits bipolar patients”). The reader will note that broad groups including the estimated 30 to 60 percent of persons suffering from both bi-polar disorder and alcohol or substance abuse were excluded. This was not mentioned in the Reuters article. How might their inclusion and that of other groups representative of the greater community impacted the reported outcomes? “Patients were excluded only if they required immediate treatment for a current DSM-IV substance or alcohol abuse or dependence disorder (excluding nicotine); were pregnant or planning pregnancy in the next year; had a history of intolerance, nonresponse, or medical contraindication to paroxetine or bupropion; or required initiation of or dose changes in antipsychotic medications.” The study also excluded persons who could not speak English.

Then there is the issue of fidelity to evidenced based practices. For example, how many of us can actually access CBT from a well trained practitioner “supervised by nationally recognized experts” where, “Individual CBT sessions consisted of (1) psychoeducation regarding the course of bipolar disorder, medication adherence, and stress management; (2) life events scheduling for alleviating inactivity or reducing overstimulation; (3) cognitive restructuring; (4) problem-solving training; (5) strategies for early detection of and intervention for mood episodes; and (6) selected interventions for comorbidities, if relevant. Early sessions focused on monitoring activity and challenging negative thoughts; later sessions focused on challenging dysfunctional beliefs.”

I could go on.

While clinical studies are always interesting and worthwhile, what is more interesting is how they influence the care actually provided in the community in which we live and seek treatment. Frequently, the treatment we receive is represented as “evidenced based, culturally competent care in accordance with the principles of wellness and recovery,” yet in practice it is often anything we can access.

[I don't know who did this illustration. I apologize to the artist.]

liz | 1:07 PM | Uncategorized

First Person: Sleep of the Must

Kristin writes in response to my column about wanting to sleep my life away:

Wow! I thought I was the only one. As I lay here writing from: yes, my bed! I wonder how many of my days have been lost to sleep. I have terrible sleep “issues.” That’s what I call them now. I can’t think of a better term. They follow me around and nag at me. They are the biggest reason why I can’t have a full-time job and why I consistently underperform in school by missing classes. I sleep a lot, or I don’t sleep enough, but I never sleep 8 doctor recommended hours in one night. What I wouldn’t give to be able to just sleep and rise like a “normal” person! Today I woke up around 4pm. Class started at 3pm and I was supposed to go to the art museum before that.

You’re probably thinking about me setting an alarm clock or something. I burned through those years ago. Every loud awful noise you can imagine I have slept through. I turn alarm clocks off in my sleep. I talk to people when I’m sleeping and later have no recollection of whole conversations. My family tries in vain to wake me up. They’ve tried shaking me, poking me, dripping water on me, calmly saying wake up, loudly telling me to wake up. I still sleep through everything.

But, I also stay up for over 24 hours on a somewhat regular basis. If I don’t take my medication at night I won’t fall asleep, so sometimes I put it off just so I can meet a deadline or get a project done or get to an exam or work on time. I love and hate sleep. If I could stay at home every day of the year and lounge around between my bed and my computer I probably would. I would take a nap in the middle and sleep soundly at night. Well, except for all those weird nightmares and dreams I have. One time I was in that space between being awake and asleep and I opened my eyes a little and thought I saw a huge foot long spider! I was convinced of it and started screaming, but my mom said: you were asleep. I didn’t even realize it. Thank god it was only a dream!

And I hate sleep, because it is my nemesis. I can’t control it, no matter how hard I try. People don’t understand why I just can’t wake up or why I sleep for 14/18/20 hours at a time. No one quite gets why I can’t wake up during normal business hours and why I’m awake at 4am most days.

Part of it is probably the psychotropic meds, but even as a kid I had sleep issues. I never had a problem sleeping until noon on the weekends and I always felt half dead when I had to wake up for school at 7am. Getting through grade school and high school was like torture. And, when I was a baby my mother would find me awake in my crib and playing with my toys in the middle of the night!

But, I love it. What kind of a half depressive/half schizophrenic would I be if I didn’t love sleeping? Climbing under the covers and cuddling next to my cat is like…better than anything I can think of.

I have no cures for you Liz, because nothing works, but sleep!

liz | 9:48 AM | Uncategorized

Bloggity blog blog blog, blog blog? (Say in Henrietta Pussycat’s voice)

I have just discovered a Philadelphia blog I didn’t know about, and I’m sad to say that I only learned about it due to my own narcissism. The Menu Pages is a site about food, something I like but know nothing about. It’s quirky, even making reference to things that aren’t overtly food-oriented, like cities made from sardine cans (pictured), so ignoramuses like me can read it and enjoy it, even as I plunder another box of sugary cereal for lunch.

Of course, I wouldn’t have known about it if it didn’t feature ME, as it does at this moment. Me me me. It’s all about me. Meow, meow, blog blog?

liz | 12:29 PM | Uncategorized