Author Archives: maryjane

Ready for a dose of sweet, sweet heartache?

Of course you are.

This is the kind of story that makes it feel like Valentine’s Day in August.

Image by L. Prang & Co. via Wikimedia Commons

After 96-year-old Fred Stobaugh lost his wife of 75 years, he did something he’d only done once before:

He wrote a song.

Inspired by loneliness and love, he sat alone in his Peoria, Illinois, home and penned “Oh, Sweet Lorraine.”

Oh, Sweet Lorraine

I wish we could do

The good times

All over again

Shortly after putting his love to lyrics, Fred spotted an ad in the local paper announcing a contest for singer-songwriters sponsored by Green Shoe Studio.

He didn’t suppose he fit either bill, but he just happened to have one song up his sleeve …

Oh, sweet Lorraine

Life only goes around

Once

But never again

“I’ll just send a letter,” Fred remembers thinking, even though contestants were asked to send newfangled YouTube videos of their musical performances.

With old fashioned resolve, he sent his song on paper. He wrote on the envelope, “‘I don’t sing, I would scare people, haha!”

Fred assumed he wouldn’t hear back from young, hip Green Shoe Studio.

But you know he did.

This is just that kind of story.

Contest director Jacob Colgan contacted Fred to tell him that he would like to professionally record “Oh, Sweet Lorraine.”

“Why would you do this for me?” Fred asked.

The answer was plain, Jacob explained, “Your song touched us.”

My memories will always

Linger on

Oh, sweet Lorraine

Listen to the song in the video above, wipe your tears, then go and pick up your own copy of Fred’s song on iTunes. so that you can listen,

again and again and

think about how sweet life can be

if we just will, sweet Lorraine.

Looky at the surprise left on my doorstep. My grandgirls were here last night to harvest veggies for their household and thought to pick a bowl for me along with leaving me a sweet handwritten note. How about that heirloom tomato? It’s our best year ever for heirloom tomatoes—big, fat, sweet, red, gorgeous, and drippy-juicy, yummy good.

Like O-M-G.

What’s up with G-M-Os?

(Genetically Modified Organisms, if ya didn’t know.)

Let’s focus on one thing today—corn.

Did you know that 85% (some studies show up to 99%) of non-organic corn grown today in the U.S. is genetically modified? It’s a Monsanto product called “Bt Corn,” and its genes have been modified so an insecticide, called Bacillus thuringiensis, is produced by the plant.

That’s right, it produces its own pesticide, that when eaten by certain insects, breaks open their stomachs.

Bt-toxin, from soil bacteria, has been used as a natural pesticide for years. The difference?

The GM version is built inside the plant—the toxin doesn’t wash off, you can’t avoid eating it, and it’s thousands of times more concentrated than the spray. It even failed the World Health Organization’s allergen screening tests.

This means, no matter how hard you scrub, you’re consuming high levels of this toxin. A recent study tested pregnant and non-pregnant Canadian females. It was accepted for publication in the journal Reproductive Toxicology, peer-reviewed, and proves the toxin isn’t breaking down in our gut like Monsanto claims, it’s showing up in the blood of those who eat it.

“Doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found the corn’s Bt-toxin in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, as well as in non-pregnant women. (Specifically, the toxin was identified in 93% of 30 pregnant women, 80% of umbilical blood in their babies, and 67% of 39 non-pregnant women.)” Source: mercola.com 

Oh, and if you eat meat, remember that almost all cows and livestock in the U.S. are fed GMO corn (except my dairy cows, of course, who eat only local, non-GMO grass hay along with certified organic alfalfa pellets—sadly even alfalfa can be GMO now). More on how this affects these animals, and subsequently, you. Did I mention that GMOs are NEVER allowed in organic food production? ‘Nuff said?

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