Two Great Library Events

I had not one but two gratifying library experiences yesterday.

The first occurred in my tiny local library in West Harrison, NY, a place I often go to clear my head after I've finished writing for the day. As I sat reading a newspaper, I couldn't help but overhear an older gentleman tell the desk clerk he would like to get a library card for his nine-year-old grandson. I idly looked up to see the man standing at the desk, the boy beside him ogling the DVD rack next to them. The librarian explained the simple form and showed the grandfather to a table near me to complete the paperwork while she gave the boy a brief tour of the library.

When the grandfather finished filling out the application, he glanced at me and our eyes met. I smiled and nodded. He did the same and said, "It's a great day, isn't it?"

I looked out the window at the cold, gray rain that had been falling all day, then turned back to him just as his grandson came up to the table with an armful of books and videos. "Yes it is," I answered. "It's a great day."

A few hours later, I had a gratifying library experience of a different kind. It was the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration and Annual Meeting of the Westchester Library System, a consortium of 38 public libraries serving Westchester County, NY. While I knew this was a special occasion, I was astounded by the turnout: well over 200 library lovers packed the venue!

In addition to the WLS staff and trustees (myself included), there were dozens of library directors and staff members, friends' groups, board members, and just plain folks who had gathered to show their love of libraries and the people who make them possible. Even though election day was more than a week past, we even had an impressive array of county and state legislators. It was truly heart-warming to see a diverse group of this size gathered for such a cause.

Three awards were given out by WLS Director Terry Kirchner and Board of Trustees President Patricia Fontanella. The Service Award was presented to Jean Reidy, nominated by the Somers Public Library for her years of dedication to the library community. The Support Award went to The Friends of the North Castle Public Library, which sponsors the fabulously successful Armonk Outdoor Art Show each year, raising thousands and thousands of dollars for the library. The Innovation Award was presented to Greg and Pat Keenan, owners of the Uno Chicago Grill in White Plains. They came up with a weekly--free--pizza party to reward young readers that has been hugely successful.

The program also included several pertinent speakers including Bill Ryan, President of the County Board of Legislators, Mitch Freedman, WLS Director from 1982-2005, and Siobhan Reardon, WLS Director from 2005-2008 and now President and Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The keynote address was by Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
and The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries (P.S.).

As Marilyn spoke about the magic that happens in libraries, I couldn't help but think of the small bit of magic I'd seen earlier in the day when the boy and his grandfather came for the first time to the West Harrison Library. Like every day, yesterday was a great library day.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

Insurance Companies Have A Lot Of Gall

As Congress continues to flip-flop like a beached mackerel over the public insurance option and health care reform, I received notice today of my new health insurance rates for 2010. The increase was enough to give me heart failure, but I stopped and pulled myself together when I realized I really couldn’t afford to get sick right now. Taking deep, calming breaths and trying to think happy thoughts, I did the math just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. I can’t afford mental health care, either.

Yep, I was right. The increase in my premiums for next year is a smooth 18%. Thank goodness I didn’t have any serious illness this year…can you imagine how much my rates would have gone up if I’d had any claims? At least I can get insurance, unlike a whole bunch of other Americans who can’t afford it or are too sick to get coverage.

Maybe my insurance company is struggling, I thought. Maybe they are on the brink of collapse, a disaster that would be precipitated by competition from the public insurance option they so vehemently oppose. They are publicly traded, so that information is pretty easy to find. Next step: the financials.

How about that? 2009 quarterly revenues for the first nine months are substantially ahead (+7.6%) of the same period last year, which was up from 2007, which was up from 2006, which jumped substantially over 2005 (due to an acquisition), which was up from…..you get the picture. Earnings per share aren’t bad either, increasing 35% for the first nine months of this year from the same period in 2008. Guess their health isn’t so bad.

While the insurance companies continue to block the public option and Congress continues to cater to them, though, my heath is deteriorating fast. Deep breaths...deep breaths...deep breaths.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

You Can Help Women In The Congo

If you want to do something positive for the people of the Congo, join the Heart of Diamonds team at the NY Run for Congo Women on Saturday, September 26. It will be held on Roosevelt Island in New York at 8:30 AM at Firefighter's Field. Registration is only $25 and funds raised go to support the work of Women for Women International in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This four-star charity helps women provide for their families by teaching them skills they need to end the cycle of poverty and suffering. It advances funds to help them start businesses and teaches them to protect themselves against the terror around them. Even if you can't participate that day, donations of any size are very welcome and--what's more--your contribution will be matched by a wonderful supporter of Women for Women International who has pledged an additional $100,000 for that purpose!

Today in the DRC, people are struggling to maintain peace and rebuild their lives after one of the deadliest wars in all of history. As many as 6,000,000 people have died as a direct result of the ongoing conflict. Perhaps even worse than the loss of life is the staggering number of women and children who have been tortured, mutilated, and sexually violated by forces vying for control of the Congo's mineral wealth. As you may have learned from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent trip to the DRC, rape as a weapon of terror in Congo has reached epic proportions. The women of the DRC desperately need our help right now.

Won't you please join us? Invite your friends, too. Even if you can't participate that day, your contribution will do a world of good for women in the Congo. When you sign up for the run, don't forget to join the Heart of Diamonds team. And when you're there, pick up some raffle tickets for a chance to win some great prizes including autographed copies of Heart of Diamonds.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

The Fascinating History Of Golf In Westchester

An often-quoted but much-disputed belief holds that New York's Westchester County is the birthplace of golf in America, a claim based on the undeniable date of the establishment of St. Andrew's Golf Club in Yonkers in 1888. The details of the club's founding--along with a delightful collection of other facts about golf in Westchester--are to be found in a fascinating double issue of The Westchester Historian, the publication of the Westchester Historical Society.

"Under the Apple Tree: The History of Golf in Westchester County" was written by Dr. William Quirin, official historian of the Metropolitan Golf Association and the author of 40 books on golf and racing. I had a tiny role in the work when I had the pleasure of reading an early version and offering a (very) few editorial suggestions last year.

Among the issue's many treasures are dozens of pictures, old and new, of golf then and now in Westchester county. Among them are sketches of the the clubhouse at Pelham and photos of the 1911 Men's U.S. Amateur Championship at Apawamis, Gene Sarazen playing night golf in Briarcliff and Annika Sorenstam teeing off at the JAL Big Apple Classic at Wykagyl. The pictures are worth revisiting time and time again.

While Quirin gives plenty of ink to important events in golf history like the role Wykagyl played in the founding of the PGA, Knollwood's grill room discussion between Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones that led to the establishment of the Master's Tournament, and Winged Foot's storied role as a championship venue, he also dug up some slightly more obscure tales that I found even more interesting. Briarcliff Golf Club, for example, was a nine-hole course built in 1902 by Walter Law for the guests of Briarcliff Lodge. Quirin says,

"...it boasted a most unusual first hole--a 250-yard par 4 starting from a tee atop the pro shop in front of the Lodge, with a toboggan-slide drop of 250 feet down the hill to a green nestled in the valley below near Dalmeny Road. Gene Sarazen made a famous hole-in-one there in the 1920s."

You won't find the course today, but nearby is Trump National, built on the other side of the road on the site of a course originally known as Briar Hall, designed by Devereux Emmet and opened in 1922.

The public courses aren't ignored, either. Quirin gives an excellent account of the beginnings of daily fee golf in the county with the building of Mohansic Golf Course in Yorktown, which was opened in 1925 by the County Parks Commission.

This publication belongs in every golfer's library no matter where you live. Copies are available for only $15 directly from the Westchester Historical Society. While you're ordering, consider a membership to show your support for the organization's work to keep our past alive.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

Women For Women Founder Weighs In On Clinton Visit To Congo

Among the important commentators about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo was Zainib Salbi, founder and CEO of Women for Women International. Her appearance on Jim Lehrer's PBS NewsHour added welcome depth to the coverage of Clinton's visit.

I'll be sponsoring a team in the New York Women for Women International Run for Congo Women on September 26. Last year, my wife and I were happy to raise a significant amount for the group's efforts to help Congolese women rebuild their lives. I hope you'll join us in supporting the cause this year. Even if you can't run, a small donation can make a big difference in the life of a women in the Congo.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

A Tale Of Spinal Torment - Part 3 of 3

There were other treatments I may try next time. One is chiropractic. Dr. Philip Striano of Hudson Rivertowns Chiropractic in Dobbs Ferry suggests a course of stretching on the DRX9000, the latest high-tech device for relieving pressure on the disc. In my case, he said, “The machine is able to slowly stretch the scar tissue to make it more linear, actually remodeling it to allow the nerve more room.”

Dr. Sharma agrees, with a caveat. “That traction can be helpful because it temporarily opens up that space where the nerve roots are,” he says, adding, “But it’s not permanent.” That’s okay by me. Apparently, neither was my surgery.

In a demonstration session, I started with a heat pack to loosen the muscles, then I laid on my back strapped to the machine with my knees supported. Striano explained, “It pulls in an algorithm of pull-and-relax, pull-and-relax, so the muscles don’t go into a protective reflex spasm.” In English, he meant that a steady pull would cause the muscles to pull back—hard. During the session, I felt my torso lengthening slowly as it was stretched, then relaxing as the pull was decreased. It would have been easy to fall asleep. At the end of the session, I felt like an accordion relaxing back to a normal posture under the influence of gravity.

The other alternative isn’t whiz-bang new; it’s an ancient treatment first described in 475 BC in Chinese literature. I’m talking about acupuncture, of course, or the insertion of fine needles into the body at specific points. Dr. Sharma says it helps about two-thirds of back pain sufferers, although more frequently simply by relieving chronic pain for an indeterminate period of time. When I described my symptoms to Dr. Gabriel Po-Jen Lu, a Scarsdale MD who practices the ancient art in a highly scientific and quite modern way, he said, “The acupuncture itself doesn’t decompress the disc, but it will relieve the muscle spasms, decrease cramping, improve circulation, and release endorphins, which is your body’s natural pain killer. It isn’t a cure, but it will make your life better by relieving the symptoms.” A typical session lasts fifteen to twenty minutes and costs $75 if administered by an MD like Dr. Lu. Most practitioners recommend a course of three treatments to evaluate the effectiveness in a given patient.

The docs tell me that I’ll be facing this the rest of my life and probably will have some arthritis problems in the back at some point too, so acupuncture sounds fine to me. In fact, just about any of the many treatments available—body-numbing drugs, endless rounds of abdominal crunches, injections in the spine, sweaty contortions in the hot Yoga studio, machines that pull me like taffy, or needles that re-channel my chi—are better than flopping around helplessly on the tile floor like a fresh-caught mackerel.

Part 3 of 3 (originally published in a slightly different version in Westchester Magazine)

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

A Tale Of Spinal Torment - Part 2 of 3

Ten years ago, my diagnosis was based on an X-ray. Now, I also had an MRI and an EMG, or electromyogram, where they shot electrical current through needles into my legs at various places and recorded what happened in the nerve roots. It wasn’t fun, but it could have been worse.

Dr. Sharma told me I had three treatment options: non-operative (medication and physical therapy), interventional (a steroid injection in the spine), or surgery. When I immediately opted for door number three, he suggested I rethink my choice. In my case, he said, “The likelihood is that the scar tissue will come back, so surgery probably wouldn’t have a long-term effect.” Plus, as Dr. Sharma so graphically put it, “Nerves in general don’t take a joke well, so the more you manipulate one, the more likely it is to have a more persistent dysfunction. If you had a big honking disc fragment causing the pain, we could have gone in again, but your imaging studies didn’t indicate anything other than some scar tissue and a slight herniation.”

So we started with anti-inflammatory medication and some aggressive physical therapy under the guidance of Debbie Bisaccia of Reforming Rehab in Harrison. Bisaccia gave me a vigorous core-strengthening regime to follow that included several different kinds of crunches, routines with the Swiss exercise ball, resistance bands, and Pilates reformer. The goal is to strengthen the complex net of muscles that surround the spine, reinforcing it and making it less susceptible to pain-inducing movement.

I got stronger, but the problems didn’t go away so I went for an epidural steroid injection, which is a cortisone shot like you might get for tendonitis. In this case, it goes into the spine while you lie wide awake and very, very still. I wasn’t worried, because the shot was administered by Dr. Maria Cabodevilla-Conn, the same angel with the needle who gave me the EMG, so I knew she had a steady hand. Believe it or not, the treatment hurt like hell for just a moment as the painkiller took effect, then was no more painful than a normal injection.

The epidural made a big, big difference. It looked like I wasn’t going to need surgery after all, but my leg and foot still acted up more often than I liked, so I started considering non-traditional options while I kept up my therapy routine at the gym (my generous insurance company refused to pay for further physical therapy, apparently because I no longer had one foot in the operating room).

My wife arranged a session for me with Toni Goodrich of the Yoga Center of Greenwich. She helped me into some Bikram Yoga poses and talked me through some stretches to open up the channels the nerves follow from the back, through the butt, and down the legs to the feet. When I told Dr. Sharma about the experience, he explained, “The sciatic nerve passes in and around the muscles in your buttocks and your legs. Those stretches keep those muscles from compressing and irritating those nerves.” Whatever. The yoga stretches really helped. I added them to my time at the gym and good things began to happen.

Part 2 of 3 (originally published in a slightly different version in Westchester Magazine)

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

A Tale Of Spinal Torment - Part 1 of 3

The day I decided to have back surgery, I was in Seattle on a business trip. Just as I stepped into my hotel room’s shower, I sneezed, sending a bolt of pain down my leg that literally knocked me down. There I lay, hoping desperately the seizure would stop so I wouldn’t have to scream for help. I didn’t want the bellman to come into my room and find me writhing naked on the tile floor.

That episode was the culmination of years of back problems, debilitating muscle spasms from my neck to my butt, days when one of my arms was paralyzed, nights when I couldn’t turn over in bed and mornings when I couldn’t get out of it. When I collapsed to the bathroom floor in Seattle ten years ago, I had undergone months of treatment for a garden variety herniated disc—muscle relaxants, pain medication, physical therapy, bed rest, ice, heat, you name it, I’d tried it. The pain, primarily sciatica (a severe stabbing pain that shot from my lower back down my leg to my foot), came and went—but mostly it came—until the day it decided to stay.

Every case is different, of course, but according to the Annals of Internal Medicine, low back pain like mine is the second most frequent reason for physician visits, vying with sniffles and other symptoms of colds and flu for the top spot. Rumor (and educated opinion) has it that so many of us suffer from back problems because our bodies evolved to run on all fours across the savannah rather than walk around upright lugging golf clubs or shopping bags. There was also no notch on the evolutionary ladder that rewards sitting behind a desk pecking at a keyboard all day.

My herniated disc was L5-S1, a common problem area between the lowest lumbar vertebrate and the sacrum, or tailbone. The doctors I saw explained that a disc acts as a shock absorber sitting between the bones in your back. It looks kind of like a jelly donut. If you damage your back, either through a cumulative, repetitive injury over time or in an acute, one-time incident, some of the jelly stuff in the middle squirts out. When it pinches a nerve, you fall down naked on the floor.

Not wanting that to happen any more, I underwent a discectomy, where the surgeon cuts away a little bit of bone and ligament in the affected area, moves the nerve—gently, please—out of the way, then scrapes away the offending hernia so it no longer bothers the nerve. Instant relief.

Except…there was some numbness in my right foot and a little tingling in that leg from time to time. It wasn’t much though, and the surgeon said it would probably go away with time. I gratefully learned to live with it—it wasn’t pain.

Fast-forward ten years. I started having severe cramps in my legs and greater numbness in my foot. The spasms bothered me first at night, then during the day if I sat for long periods, finally even while I was walking around. I went to my family physician, Dr. Robert Fusco, who eliminated as many possible causes as he could and sent me to a back specialist.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Krishn Sharma of NY-Conn Orthopedic in West Harrison explains what had happened in the ten years since my back operation: “Anytime you do surgery, scar tissue forms. If we take away some ligament and bone in your back, your body will fill in with a fibrous, scar-like material. That can trap the nerve root and cause you to have some new symptoms, especially if you re-aggravate it.” My pain moved from my back, which doesn’t hurt at all most of the time, to my legs.

Part 1 of 3 (originally published in a slightly different version in Westchester Magazine)

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

Support For Library Book Sales

Library book sales are one life's great opportunities. They're usually sponsored by friends' groups or other non-profit organizations who use them to raise money for programs and other special library events that enrich our communities. Almost invariably, they're operated by volunteers and depend entirely on donated books from library patrons for inventory, so nearly every dollar spent at a library book sale goes toward the library itself. You gotta love 'em!

Unfortunately, library book sales are also often poorly publicized. That's where a new online service comes into play. It's BookSalesManager.com, a simple yet promising directory of library book stores and book sales recently launched to supply book lovers with an easy source of information on sales near them. The site is still in beta stage, so the volume of listings is in growth stage, but it looks like the service has great potential.

Listings are free, as is use of the site by book buyers looking for sales to attend. You can search for sites by state, zip code, and date, and also set up your own calendar to save sales you've spotted that you don't want to miss. It should be a boon to book lovers everywhere and hopefully help library supporters hold even more successful sales.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

A Sobering Love Song For Africa

Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
by Richard Dowden

As an author and activist, I am generally optimistic about Africa's future, but Richard Dowden tempered my hope with a sobering dose of reality based on his decades of reporting on the continent. His powerful guide to sub-Saharan Africa is a must-read for anyone who hopes to understand why Africa is the mess it is.

Dowden is the director of the Royal African Society and spent two decades as Africa editor of the Independent and the Economist. His book is filled with both studied thoughts on the forces that have shaped Africa's history and pertinent personal tales of his experiences there. His message is ultimately fairly simple: Africa's problems can only be solved by African people.

The depressing counterweight to that conclusion that I drew from Dowden's accounts is that corruption is so ingrained throughout the power structure of most nations in Africa that it is unlikely that solutions can ever be implemented.

Having set my latest novel in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I was particularly interested in his conclusions about that beleaguered nation:

"In December 2005 a new constitution was confirmed by a referendum and elections were held in July 2006. The assumption of outsiders was that, forced to govern together, the warlords would check each other's theft and violence. The opposite happened. They keep the country divided, cut deals with each other and filled their pockets."

Dowden makes another observation which mirrors my own experience:

"Despite the politics of theft, violence and patronage, Congo still inspires great patriotism among its long-suffering citizens. They may have little loyalty to institutions or a ruler, but Congolese believe desperately in the Congolese nation and a few are prepared to fight its looting bosses."

Africa - Altered States, Ordinary Miracles reveals Dowden's great love for the continent he has spent his life discovering. It is no dewy-eyed romance, however. He reveals all his lover's warts and blemishes, bad breath and occasional frequent bouts of ill-temper in a paean to her beautiful potential.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.