We had a bit of a scare yesterday. My sister left me a message just before noon after she got a call from the nursing home where my father is living. They were concerned because he was feeling weak and dizzy, and was unable to complete the morning activities.

Bonnie and I had just been saying that he was due for an “episode” of whatever these things are that have been taking him step by step down the dementia trail. Every six to eight weeks, for more than a year, he has had a period of confusion lasting several days. He usually just stays in bed, has no energy, can’t focus his thoughts. Then he slowly emerges, but with a bit more memories or abilities missing. It’s been at least six weeks since the last one. It looks like another may have started yesterday.

Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the voicemail until just before going into a 5 p.m. meeting. So I broke away after 6 and went over to check on him. By the time we arrived, he was asleep. I woke him up. It took several seconds, but he recognized and greeted both Meda and me. He had a rather dreamlike explanation of what was happening, but could put a sentence together even if it didn’t totally make sense. That was a good sign.

We’re braced for today and whether, as in previous periods, the confusion deepens. Perhaps this was a false alarm. We just have to wait and see.

Now, just a few odds and ends for the end of the work week.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports on the debate over that state’s film tax credit.

The state subsidy going to films such as “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp, cost $128,000 per each year-long job created, the Department of Commerce study found. In contrast, the agency’s other programs cost about $6,200 for creating a job for the first year and that position might, unlike some film jobs, last much longer than that, the study found.

Sounds familiar. Similar figures were bouncing around our legislature during hearings earlier in this session over the issue of whether movie companies should be able to dip into the state’s high tech tax credit.

An old friend, Howard Ehrlich, has an interesting research project underway studying the effects of news reporting on the community, and the degree to which television news can further or encourage discrimination.

Our guiding hypothesis is that local TV news in its current form functions to deplete the social capital of the communities it covers. We conceptualize the news program as the mechanism for contributing to or withdrawing from the social capital of the city. Each story is a transaction and, at the end of the broadcast, these transactions sum to an account. We recognize, too, that these transactions can be synergistic. For example, 15 stories (in 20 minutes) dealing with murder, child molestation, fire, auto accident, and robbery yields something more than a litany of crime and catastrophe. It is a depiction of the community as a dangerous place, one in which anyone different can be a realistic threat. To the extent that ethnic minorities, women, and other subordinated categories are associated with these pathologies or are rendered invisible in these transactions, the news program is transmitting a social justification for discrimination.

Lots of substance there despite the weighty sociological jargon.

You can find more at The Prejudice Institute web site.

I scanned another year of political history–clippings from 1986 regarding the activities and issues of Common Cause in Hawaii. The collection now includes 1983-1986.

It turns out my wily sister, Bonnie, has been “secretly” blogging. I say secretly because she hasn’t said anything about it along the way. Not that she was required to, but…In any case, I stumbled over her blog earlier this week. You’ll find her blogging as Tutu Bonnie.

Speaking of women bloggers, here’s a nice profile of Hilo Hattie, who spent the last part of her life in the house next door to us in Kaaawa.

Isn’t this the picture of a contented cat? Duke’s catnip session has left him exhausted and happy, and the catnip toy wet with cat spit. He’s my poster boy for this Feline Friday.