Lucky Day

Whoa! I just used my luck quota for the whole year: As I was heading for a meeting with the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation, I realized that I had forgotten that I never brought home my bike from Café Septième on Broadway this past Monday! By unrealistic luck, it was still there. Thus broadly smiling I biked the few blocks to the POF in perfect time for the meeting.

50 minutes later, I'm back on the street, but NOW my bike is gone! I look around, don't see it anywhere nearby, so I start walking a bit down the street. I notice a bus stop about 100 yards ahead and see a man trying to mount a bike to a bus that just stopped there. I feel lucky, so I run down to the bus, and sure enough, THAT'S MY BIKE! I grab the handle looking firmly at the man: "That's my bike! I have the key for this lock, you don't!" Fortunately, the bus driver sees everything too since in Seattle, the bikes are mounted in front of the bus. Shortly after the man gives up his story (someone sold it to me for $50. You give me $50 then) and gives me my bike. I unlock it and walk away shaking by the experience (I always get that right after an attempted stealing episode), but smiling at my IMMENSE luck!!! 30 seconds later, and my bike would be gone!!!

In respect of the limits of luck's nature, I walk to the bikeshop and make them tighten my exisiting luck and buy an Amsterdam proof bike lock, too, just to be sure.

May luck smile on all good people this sunny weekend!

Gay Rights On a Roll

I am so proud of the Americans these days: First they come out in droves to vote - for a president with a white mother and a black father - and now finally gay rights seem to be on a roll in the US too!

I wonder how much Sean Pean and his Oscar winning role as Harvey Milk has helped this development :-) Not that I needed to be turned, but I definitely loved the movie and want to check out this documentary about Harvey Milk.

No matter what has moved the people in Iowa, Vermont and now New York to join forces with Connecticut and Massachusetts, I hope this movement will continue to all the other states in the US - this is notably an encouragement to my fellow Washingtonians here in the North West: make it happen!

Denmark, where I am from, was one of the first countries in Europe to allow gay marriage:
"Currently there are nine European countries that give marital rights to gay couples. In Scandinavia, Denmark (1989), Norway (1993), Sweden (1994), and Iceland (1996) pioneered a separate-and-not-quite-equal status for same-sex couples called "registered partnership." (When they register, same-sex couples receive most of the financial and legal rights of marriage, other than the right to marry in a state church and the right to adopt children.) Since 2001, the Netherlands and Belgium have opened marriage to same-sex couples." (source: Slate)

Since August 2001, gays in Denmark can also be married in a church as long as both a mayor and a priest is present, but they have to find a priest that is willing to do so. The priests can't be forced to do it since some are against performing a wedding ceremony for a gay couple in their church. Oscar Frederiks church in Göteborg in Sweden was the first church in Scandinavia to marry a gay couple according to homotropolis.dk. This month the Swedish parliament voted that all marriages from May 1 2009 are gender neutral. Swedish priests that are against performing a wedding ceremony for a gay couple still won't be forced to do so though.

In December 2007 the Danish parliament voted to allow gay couples in Denmark to adopt children, after seeing it work well in Sweden, our more advanced brother country. Heja Sverige! Go Sweden!


Link time line:
NY Governor Introduces Bill to Allow Gay Marriage
Big Wins Re-Energize Gay Marriage Activists
Mayor Bloomberg urges NY to allow gay marriage
NY State Court Recognizes Gay Marriages From Elsewhere

A more pleasant flight ahead w United

Yes, oh YES! How I have waited for this to finally happen! Every time I get on on an airplane, my heart pumps with fear that I’ll have to sit next to an obese person that will at best make the trip uncomfortable for me, at worst, leave me harmed after hours of being unable to sit in a healthy position. I don’t know whether that famous story about a person that was crippled for life after being squished to the round airplane window wall by a severely obese person is true, but nonetheless it has frightened me!

So it is with great relief I hear this :-)

As for the obese, I do recognize that it is not solely their own fault that they have become overweight, seeing that unhealthy food is much cheaper over here in the US than healthy food is! A fact that vexes me greatly!!! That means that people with very little disposable income have no other choice than to eat bad food more often than they might have wanted to if they could afford to eat exactly what they wanted.

I point a big accusing finger at all the fast food companies to start taking responsibility for the obesity they create and start serving healthier food. I have noticed with great satisfaction that McDonalds in Denmark serve a children’s meal with incredibly sweet and crisp baby carrots instead of fries, and a very delicious top quality unfiltered apple juice instead of soda served with the hamburger and a plastic toy. THAT’s what I want all the others to do too!

Each state authority should also put pressure on food producers, food retailers and restaurants to serve better food. And schools should serve healthy food for lunch. I know it’s possible to do for a fair amount of money - or at least it is in Denmark, where unhealthy food is very expensive, and healthy food is kept cheap, and the British cook Jamie Oliver has proven it to be possible in the UK too.

So yes, don’t punish the people of normal weight in an airplane, but help stop obesity and help the ones already obese to get back to a normal weight. That will be a huge investment in the American society: to have healthier people living longer and being able to work for longer.

Read article on Huffington Post