Back in the stages of an early reality, Chemistry 24 or Basic Biochemistry appeared as a prerequisite at the University of California.  The majority of this introductory class focuses on enzymes, their structure, their function and their chemical properties.  Enzymes are folded polypeptides that enable chemical reactions that would not occur naturally to proceed with rapidity and finality.  Each enzyme has an active site where the molecules orient to coerce a chemical reaction and an allosteric or binding site where the majority of the chemical molecules position before the reaction takes place.  After the primary chemicals line up on the enzyme the product dissociates from the allosteric site due to a decrease in intrinsic binding to the amino acids that form the allosteric site.  New molecules then diffuse out of the milieu to take their place and the reaction repeats itself rapidly.   An enzyme can increase the rate of reaction of a chemical process almost a million fold like Carbonic Anhydrase, the fastest enzyme ever studied.  The cell has a plethora of enzymes within that catalyze basic metabolic processes and also the processes that the cell type is noted for.  A majority of the class in Introductory Biochemistry studies enzyme kinetics and the types of inhibition that affect the rate of chemical processes studied.

The basic types of enzyme inhibition are reversible and non-reversible.  Non reversible inhibitors bind covalently to the enzyme, usually its active site and cause a permanent change of conformation that abolishes the enzyme function.   An example of this type of inhibition is the nerve gas agent Sarin.   Sarin is a fluorophosphates that reacts with the serine molecule of the active site of acetylcholinesterase, rendering the enzyme completely non-functional.  Clinically this appears as a nervous system short circuit with convulsions and respiratory paralysis.  Sarin is a non-reversible agent.   On a graph of enzyme activity versus inhibitor concentration, the curve is sigmoidal and logarithmic to the negative ln function. 

Reversible agents come in many different varieties. Some reversible enzyme inhibitors resemble the substrate of the enzyme to such a degree that the inhibitor competes with the active molecule in the milieu in proportion to its concentration within the cell.   The inhibitor looks like the substrate but catalysis doesn’t take place, the inhibitor dissociates and if a natural substrate is present, it binds and the reaction proceeds.  If the competitive inhibitor is in high enough concentration, it will shut down all reactions on the enzyme in the cell.  Removal of the inhibitor renders the cell reactive and metabolism proceeds.   On an activity versus inhibitor concentration graph, this type of inhibition looks like a straight line with an x and y intercept activity proceeding from high to low. 

Another type of reversible agent binds to the allosteric site on the enzyme and by stearic interactions and hydrogen bonding occupies the majority of the enzyme site and prevents substrate from diffusing from the milieu to the enzyme due to its intense binding by non-covalent interactions.  A graph of enzyme activity versus inhibitor concentration shows another straight line schema but with a steeper negative slope and x intercept closer to zero.  This description is enzyme inhibition simplified so even a novice can understand it.  The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that the current Statin agents prescribed by the AMA are reversible agents of the latter type that bind to an enzyme by hydrogen bonding and van der walls interactions and won’t let go.  Then result is death of the cell. 

The main statin of interest is Lipitor.  Lipitor and its myriad of patent analogues bind to the allosteric site of the enzyme hydroxyl-methyl-glutamyl-coenzyme A Synthetase; or HMG-Coa synthetase for short.  Hmg-Coa becomes mevalonate which is a steroid synthesis intermediate that forms cholesterol. This is the reaction that is inhibited.  Lipitor is said to prevent the formation of cholesterol thus limiting current atherosclerotic processes in the body hence less stroke and heart attack. The problem is this: mevalonate forms estrogen and androgen the sex hormones which means you become sterile with less libido.  Mevalonate also forms 21 hydroxy keto steroids like cortisone which affect vascular tonus of the mesodermal arterioles and glucose level in the blood which means the heart can’t beat as hard or fast and the pancreas fails to produce  the hormones insulin and glucagon.  In addition mevalonate also forms aldosterone, a potent mineralocorticoid that acts on the distal renal tubule to reabsorb sodium.  The body under Lipitor administration loses sodium in a diuresis and the kidney can’t work properly.  The only benefit of Lipitor administration is the liver will produce less cholesterol and bile acids for the systemic circulation and this benefit is transitory as the poisoned liver cells will ultimately fail and cause a pan lobular hepatic necrosis also known as cirrhosis of the liver.  Inhibition of mevalonate formation affects many different cell types and myriads of reactions in the body

The body naturally gets rid of cholesterol by secreting it with bile acids into the intestinal lumen.   Because cholesterol and bile acids re-absorb in a enterohepatic circulation,  the only way to excrete cholesterol is to eat tons of roughage that contain sitiosterols or chemicals that bind bile and cholesterol and excrete the steroids into the fecal stream. Lipitor will prevent the formation of cholesterol but will also inhibit other bodily processes to the extent of morbidity and/or mortality of the host.  Enzyme inhibitors as a generality are metabolic poisons.

In nature, in man, the pharmacologic agents that function well are structural analogues or receptor blockers.  Structural analogues for natural chemicals follow stoichiometric laws, don’t accumulate and the enzyme inhibition is proportional to concentration and reversible.  Receptor blockers turn off the signals that the brain and the organs give to initiate a chemical process.  This type of fine tuning is not as drastic or catastrophic as enzyme inhibitors with high degrees on allosteric binding.  Structural analogues and receptor blockers are the agents of choice for the manipulation of metabolic processes in the image of God called man.

Enzyme inhibitors are another product of an industry that gleans billions of dollars annually from Medicare in a patent medicine with a thirty year lifespan.   If a person has the genetic haplotype of a Pima Indian or the genetic defect of hyperbetalipoproteinemia, than this drug might have some benefit but these people are a minority, Hence Lipitor is an orphan drug.   The only rational treatment for high cholesterol is to stop eating meat except for fish and consume large amounts of vegetables with roughage to soak up the cholesterol.  May mankind have the courage and the intelligence to realize the truth and act accordingly? 

The pharmaceutical industry is a trillion dollar cartel of corporations that make the medicines that Medicare and OASDI pays for.   The pressure in the industry is creating novel agents that evoke a patent that runs for thirty years.  This is to say, all people that make the medicine must pay royalties to the patent holder.  Pharmaceutical companies employ organic chemists who put together new and novel molecular arrangements on a host nucleus that evoke a new patent issue.  The race is on to produce new analogues of older offerings so the people think they are receiving the bounty of our society’s new technologies and synthesis.  In reality what the government pays for is multitudes of medicines configured as carcinogens that the working class ingests chronically.   The result is that people are not dying from age old illnesses but instead are dying of cancer.  A diagnosis of cancer eventually bankrupts the patient with therapies of marginal benefit and immense cost.  The result is retired people spending their life savings on Medical care and ending up penniless and on Medical.  The purpose of this paper is to show the multitude what the rich and influential are doing to augment the return on their hedge funds and municipal holdings.  The people working together cannot be thwarted by wealth of immense proportions.  A little knowledge can set you free.

What the industrial chemists are doing is building molecules with biological significance.  In the lab, chemists slowly link chemicals together and form new agents.  The easiest way to make a ring structure in the lab is to use organic nitrogen ion and add it atom by atom until the linear molecule cyclizes.  Nitrogen has an extra pair of unbounded electrons that make it easy to create linear arrangements and ring structures.  These sp2 hybridized electrons look for positive atomic centers on carbon atoms and link readily.   The result is a polyamide ring structure that resembles an organic molecule. In nature, God makes ring structures with carbon and uses one nitrogen or sulfur atom to cyclize the structure.  Rings with several nitrogen’s have unbounded electron pairs and readily add to macro-lecules like DNA.  The result is DNA bound to nitrogen rings and the bound DNA cannot open, close, replicate, repair or translate.  The result is a cancer with few tumor specific antigens, similar to stem cell neoplasms.  Pathologists are now finding these cancers with new genetic defects as a result of binding to chemical rings.  The author will illustrate the preceding assertion with examples of current available medicines.  Any medicine with a cyclic polyimide or amide ring structure is a potential carcinogen.  Here are the facts and the race is on. 

Prazosin is an alpha-1 blocker medication designed to treat high blood pressure. It has a low incidence of side effects.  It causes primarily with chronic use non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma or cancer of the heart. 

Minoxidil is a prescription agent use for the treatment of high blood pressure and hair loss.  This agent also has a paucity of major side effects

Niclosamide is a medication used to treat tapeworm infections.  The major side effects are vomiting and abdominal pain.  With prolonged use it causes cancer of the colon.  Unlike other newer medications, it has a nitrate tail which makes it along with other nitrates a Trans version agent that causes genetic mutations and cancer. 

Triamterene is an effective potassium sparing diuretic use for high blood pressure.  Common side effects include depletion of sodium, folic acid and calcium, nausea and dry mouth.   It can also cause kidney stones.   It causes cancer of the kidney.

Hydrochlorothiazide is a diuretic medication used to treat high blood pressure and edema.  Side effects are decreasing kidney function and pancreatitis and high blood sugar.  It has the history and notoriety of causing primary cancer of the pancreas in addition to severe diabetes mellitus.  Doctors still prescribe it readily today!

It’s about time that the affluent and well-off have the chemists of the people build ring structures with carbons one atom at a time as God intended rather than using free radical processes.   This author feels that the establishment and powers that be, conduct such behavior in an effort to not pay pension benefits for retired wage earners.  They have all died of cancer.  Maybe some religious and altruistic people will have some compassion for the multitude wage earners and respond appropriately.

In the order to increase corporate profit and minimize losses, the establishment preserves food.  Dried and processed foods have storage lives that exceed one year.  How is it possible food will not be decomposed by microbes during storage resulting in a product that must be written off in the books as spoiled and unusable.  In addition, customers return decomposed food and the corporation must pay the transit fee, inventory loss and destruction cost.  The answer why food lasts so long on the shelves at supermarkets is that it is preserved.  The way the corporation preserves most food is with metal salts as microbes cannot metabolize metals. Metals as they accumulate in the body cause kidney failure heart disease and more.  The population at large does not have the time or money to live on fresh meat and steamed vegetables as the rich do.  The multitude lives on preserved food so they can maintain their existence as employees and educate their children.  What can we do about it to give our lives a healthier and more productive existence?  The corporate mentality argues that food preservation is necessary because without it, waves of food borne microbial illnesses occur and afflict the nation. The purpose of this communication is to establish ways to preserve food without affecting the health of the people.  End stage disease costs the nation billions of dollars and year in health costs and ultimately bankrupts all the working class.  Let me begin.

This paper suggests a series of experiments that must occur to establish substances that can preserve food with relative safety and low toxicity.  The transition metals of interest are copper and zinc and the alkali earth metals are calcium and magnesium.  Calcium and magnesium are the first choice to use as food preservation agents.  Calcium is present in bone and exists as the Calmodulin contractile system of muscle.  Magnesium is the active cofactor ion of ATPase which is the currency of energy production. The transition metals of copper and zinc are possible sources as copper is a cofactor in ceruloplasmin brain metabolism and zinc is a cofactor for the B vitamins.  Aluminum is another possible agent for preservation but toxicity studies are in order to further characterize this amphoteric hydroxide moiety. 

The experiment to elucidate which are the best agents follows.  With a one molar solution of the chloride anion salt of the cations as base solution, make serial dilutions tenfold in a series of tubes of tryptic soy broth, a substrate which grows most bacteria abundantly.  Inoculate the series of each salt broth with a stock ADCC isolate of staphylococcus, a gram positive and E.coli, a gram negative which are indicator species and are found in most spoiled foods.  After 24 hours of incubation notice which broths are most antimicrobial by the intensity of turbidity also called opalescence?  The end point of antimicrobial action is the series dilution of the tubes that remain transparent.  From this simple experiment, the corporate structure can see which metal salts are most efficacious in their antimicrobial action.   They might decide to use the most effective agents in combination with one another.  Then corporate can lace their food with these least toxic metals to preserve them and ensure a longer shelf life without detriment to the population at large.

It says in the good book that everything that mankind needs to ensure a healthy and happy life is right in front of them, but they must search to find it.  It is these boldly empowered intrepid souls, the shakers and movers who make the world a better place to live in that we salute and acknowledge.  We can’t get very far without them.  Thank you and have a good day. 

If someone acquires an illness, the causal factor is an infection or a poisoning.   The first course of action is to discard any possibilities of a bacterial, parasitic or viral infection by using pertinent lab values, serological studies and gold standard cultures.  If none of these admonitions pan out, the disease is caused by a poisoning.  The most common poisonings result from the administration of metal salts.  A quick mass spectrometry or HPLC determines the causal agent and treatment follows.

Most chronic degenerative conditions like:

Diabetes

Autoimmune syndromes and lupus

Arteriosclerosis and myocarditis

Neuralgias and paresthesia’s                        

 Result from the acute or chronic ingestion of metal salts.  Our pluralistic society preserves foods with metal salts and this action while resulting in an increasing gross income for corporations and miniscule loss from spoilage, causes untold cases of acute renal failure, hypertension and heart attack. 

Iron salts cause diabetes mellitus and liver necrosis.  Chromium and Nickel cause autoimmune syndromes.  Heavy metals ruin the countercurrent multiplication apparatus in the kidney and provoke renal failure.  The accumulation of transition metal ions in the circulatory system causes hardening with resultant emboli and stricture.  Any metal ion administered chronically or in a huge bolus provokes an illness or organ failure.  Big business preserves foods with metals to increase profit.  What are the little men of this world to do when fresh produce and meat is not available for consumption.  Any baked goods, pastel or grain concoction can be considered suspect.  What can we do?

Chelation therapy reverses the degenerative processes of metal intoxication.  The problem with chelation therapy is cost and compliance.  Chelation by a physician is costly and may take up to ten years for completion.  A patient must meticulously and assiduously persevere in a prolonged chelation course to achieve health once again.

The chelation agents available are many.  Russian agents are unknown to western civilization.  The main agents known to American medicine are BAL, EDTA, desferoxamine and stibocaptine.  British anti-lewisite is efficacious against heavy metals.  EDTA is a commercial agent that can be administered orally that removes most divalent cations from the body.   Desferoxamine is an agent used for iron therapy and also mercury, it is given parenterally.   Stibocaptine is a Russian agent with poorly known qualities.  There exist other agents but this author is not familiar with them.  It is of the author’s opinion that chelation therapy is best administered by a physician trained in their use as all medicines have acute toxicities and side effects that are best noted and treated by those trained in their use.  As always, Medicine is expensive and the long term treatment with chelation agents might be out of the pocket book of many to whom it is most surely deserved. 

As human beings ply the long road called life, if they survive long enough, they will ultimately encounter renal failure or cancer.  Organ failure particularly renal failure happens from prolonged absorption of metal salts.  These salts once absorbed by the body decrease organ function in proportion to concentration and eventually cause failure.   Being a carbon nitrogen life form, salt accumulation is not the subject of this topic but cancer is.

Cancer occurs when the DNA of a cell is damaged to such an extent that normal existence is not possible.  Three things cause cancer: organic chemicals, ionizing radiation and specific viruses.  Before we ascertain the epidemiology of origin, let us look at the beginnings.  Many moons ago Bonner et al

Ran assays called hybridization curves on DNA.  On a plot of concentration versus time, he obtained a sigmoidal relationship he extrapolated to cell function.  DNA is composed of functional genes in the minority juxtaposed amongst a majority of spacer DNA.  The functional DNA was the low concentration DNA and spacer DNA the high concentration DNA.   With such a physical makeup, nature protects the functional DNA from mutation by interposing it with extreme amounts of spacer DNA.  It is extremely unlikely that chemicals or radiation can damage specific gene DNA because there is so little of it in proportion to spacer DNA.  If a gene is damaged by carcinogens and rendered non-functional, an alternate gene exists and an alternate protein is created by the cell to replace it.  The cell has all the genes necessary to maneuver the organism from Birth (ontogeny) to adultism (phylogeny).  If a carcinogen destroys a gene function by mutation, a gene with a similar protein during embryogenesis replaces it.   This is why cancer cells express somatic antigens similar or identical to primitive stem cells, these antigens are termed onco-fetal antigens.  If a carcinogen mutates a region of DNA that codes for replication, that cell grows continuously, out of context with a healthy adult cell.  This is called metastatic cancer.  The key element here is that carcinogens change the base structure of DNA or cross link it and when the damage is so extensive that the cell cannot repair itself it becomes cancerous.  It follows that cancer results from extensive damage to DNA not point mutations found and chronicled by molecular biologists

It is currently thought that a given cancer cell of a given tissue has characteristic gene damage characterized by restriction endonuclease mapping of the genome. This thought of genotyping a cancer cell to determine its biological tendency is post hoc analysis of the ultimate.  A cancer cell of a given tissue suffers from so much DNA damage that the endonuclease mapping characterizes the cell of a distinct cancer type only because so much DNA has been altered. Somatotyping a tumor has no diagnostic significance or clinical prognostic value.   In the cancer clinic the most vehement tumors evidence cells with extreme DNA damage.  Horrible cancers look like primitive stem cells histologically and biochemically.  This fact only alerts the clinician that the patient undergoes extensive exposure to carcinogenesis on a daily basis.

We see that nature protects the genes by distributing the functional codons amongst extensive spacer DNA making a direct hit on a codon by carcinogen a remote event.  However, when this does occur, the cell can use another copy of that gene from a more primitive aspect that may not function as well as the copy given to the adult form.  When the DNA alters irreversibly or a hit ensues on a proliferation gene, cancer ensues. 

Now that we know what cancer is, the question is how to treat it.  Statins or gene products are as relevant as snake oil. Alkylating agents and methotrexate destroy what is left of a functional immune system so the host dies of a septic infection.  The only possible way this author can think of to treat cancer is to mutate the cells even further, until they die with nucleotide analogue inhibitors or antimitotic agents.  This way the cellular limb of the immune response can eventually within five years identify the cancer as foreign and eliminate it.  Treating the neoplasm with antibodies created by mouse or tissue culture immunocyctes, directed against oncofetal antigens creates an autoimmune event further weakening the host immune system.

It says in the Old Testament, that all the medicine mankind needs to survive is right in front of us, waiting to be discovered.  Plant extracts like quinine, fungal extracts like cyclines and more might have activity against cancer. We have to look at them again.  Using HPLC and crystallography we might discover new potions or tinctures from eukaryotes that evidence activity against rapidly dividing cells. There is a lot of work ahead of us until we get to where we want to be.  Or as the marines herald; “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”  I hope I live long enough to see it. 

Beautiful world all around

Sit inside without a sound

Outside specters will creep

Noiseless silhouettes that seem

Looking again at the phone

Pick it up and no one is on

In a room alone with a ghost

Stick a needle in my toe

Green and beautiful weather

With it and no one to share

Cooking inside in my kitchen

Hoping some day for better

Invisible forms that seethe

That runs for corners and deeps

Disappearing again with a leap

Touching me while I sleep

Freedom is not really free

Is priceless for the ultimate fee

No one seems to be around

Whispers never sound really loud

Somewhere someone is weeping

Waking up from a daytime dream

Someone is ripe for the keeping

Praying for the time they can leave.

It is the most exclusive marina on the west coast. Immense in size, single slips on the edge of promontory’s span outward into a spacious harbor complete with breakwater a half a mile long.   Big boats berth on the end of the single slips that sell for more money than most people make in a month.  On land there is a huge club-hotel for the elite to water before they go out on a voyage.  Every day the elegant buffets serve hundreds who spend their time eating, playing and sleeping.  Huge fish islands and omelets made to order inundate the other half who dresses in elegant vestment in order to attend the sumptuous repast.  All this is tangential and distant for the real reason the other half spend their money in an endless hole of costs to float about in the ocean away from the prying eyes of the law.  Man is a Norwegian adventurer.

Parking is ample for the few and usually is.   Walking out to the platform on plastic trails anchored to concrete pylons, white with sea time blue trim is a journey in itself.  The boats and yachts and speeders span out into the horizon as someone, anyone makes their way to the end berths that house a single huge ship, a toy for big boys to play with.  These huge yachts are features unto themselves.   Constructed of plastic reinforced with fiber glass, the white shimmering majesty of ocean vessel astound and amaze and captivate anyone who would believe that these things are made for people who are looking for something to do. This is at least a forty two foot long luxury ship. The boat encompasses bedrooms and staterooms and large kitchen that cluster about a main control house with wheel, chair and electronics. Down below, accessible by stairs is the engine room.   Two meticulously handcrafted turbo diesels amass side by side spinning twin shafts aft.  The engines alone are beautiful, with shiny chrome housings and colored metal accoutrements that make these powerhouses state of the art.  Anyone who goes out on the open ocean on a ship knows diesel is the way to go because conventional gasoline engines don’t work when water gets into the gasoline tank or into the carburetor inlet.  Diesel engines run in the cold and wet and water in the fuel seems to make them run even better. 

This is Earl’s ship.  He is a property developer and needs a place to get away from it all.  This yacht can sail to Hawaii and back on a single load of diesel fuel and the trip can be done in style.   Storms and squalls and hells fury cannot daunt a ship made to thwart the best nature has to offer.  For what reason someone would have such a device is beyond the imagination in a city where no one walks and a new battery on a set of wheels is enough to get you anywhere you want to go, anytime of the day or night. 

This is where I hang out when we are at anchor says Earl.   This is my stateroom.   In a storage closet closed with metal straps I keep my weapon to defend against invaders.   Out on the open ocean where there is no one around, anything can happen and a captain needs to have protection from invaders and pirates who can show up at inopportune times and ruin your adventure.  In the plastic bag is a Thompson 45 sub machine gun.  I keep it in a bag so the salt and corrosion can’t get to it while it sits under wraps.  With three full magazines and a drawer full of ammunition, I can keep anyone at bay while we broadcast a mayday to the coast guard.  Isn’t it a beauty?  A Fully automatic rifle with a sixteen inch barrel and hardwood stock that is ready to rock and roll at a moment’s notice.

It is heavy says the Wracks

It has to be heavy for fully automatic fire because the recoil pushes the barrel around. 

I see, say the Wracks. 

I like to go out on weekend cruises and take friends with me says Earl.   Sometime you might be invited to come along.

Thank you says the Wracks.

Wracks and his family disembark down the Shipley stairs onto the plastic dock.  The Fonz is not around and usually isn’t for this sort of thing. 

Are you going out on a boat asks the Wracks.

I don’t think so says father Wracks.  Earl just likes to show his boat to anyone who is interested.

 Does he hang out at the club and eat in the fancy restaurants questions the Wracks.

I don’t think so.  He uses the facilities to entertain his clients for business ventures says father Wracks. It is time we get home.

The marina has its own freeway.  It has the number sixty.  The Fonz would use the entry ramp to drag race his 911 Porsche turbo Carrera.  The freeway eventually turns into highway one and before too long the Wrackers are back in Tranquil hills in their little hose with a brick entry and light post that goes on sometimes at night when guests arrive.   Grandma is in her bedroom with a speaker to her ear watching reruns of the Lawrence Welk show.  She waves hello.  It is winter now and darkness arrives earlier than normal for this neck of the woods.  The Wracks goes outside.  He can smell the sea air wafting strongly up through the canyon to the development.  The sky is grey and the sun sets orange against the horizon studded with fluffy purple clouds.  The stars and night will arrive soon.  The ocean wetness scrubs the air so the ozone does not obscure the nighttime sky. Interesting is how the other half lives, living in their own adventure bought with non-olfactory money and nothing else.  He has his life and career to live on and that is what he looks forward to.

Dinner is ready Wracks.  Come and get it says mother.

The Wracks goes in, shuts the door, and joins his family for dinner. 

Winter

Grey and more grey

Dimness covers everything

Cold wet quietness

In the middle of winter

Staring out a window

Framed by old memories

Lowly lighted roomness

Winter slowly ebbing

Iridescent monitor

Becomes my companion

Coolness down to the bone

Weather will not let go

In my little space

Sitting on my bed

Together with my thoughts

I realize it is April

Red budding blooms

Peak their way out

From the grey stillness

So very far away

Good weather occurs almost every Christmas in Tranquil hills.  It never rains.  This year is no exception. The ritual Christmas dinner assembles in the kitchen by Grandma and mother Wracks.  Tonight there is a huge eye round roast which was the Wracks grandfather’s favorite, with baked potatoes and sour cream, boiled green beans with oil and garlic and garlic bread.  The Yorkshire pudding will be made as the dinner is served as it is best when hot and sinks when it gets cold. The ingredients include meat drippings, flour and baking powder and   it bakes at four hundred degrees for fifteen minutes. In the dining room, the big oak table sits eight and seven will partake of the ceremonial religious repast.  The best wedding china sets out on the table with ceramic napkin rings and linen of stark white.  The red table cloth with a flower centerpiece demarks this festivity as Christmas day.  Next to the fine china abut a water glass and a wine glass in crystal showcasing the sterling silver flatware done four pieces to a place setting.  The food will place on the pass-through arcade and the guests will go first to savor the fine cooking buffet style.  Wracks mother is a gourmet chef and authored a cookbook the size of the Bible under a pseudonym which was her name before it changed.   This chronicles as another story.  The clock displays five thirty p.m. and the guests should be arriving presently. Grandmother hears a car outside and opens the door to greet the guests.  Sallie and Earl step out of a silver coupe de ville Cadillac.  Earl has a bottle of hard liquor in his hand and Sallie has a box of chocolates. This couple attends the same church as mother Wracks and is in the same guild.  Earl is middle sized man with greying blond hair wearing an expensive charcoal grey suit.  Sallie is petite and demur and the plush mink coat on her shoulders almost dwarfs her small slender body. The stole is almost the same color as her hair silver beige and must be quite expensive.  Earl greets the Wracks and hands the bottle of Scotch Whiskey to father Wracks.

This is the best Scotch says Earl.  Save it for when Sallie and I come over.  It is all I drink. 

Both Earl and Sallie herald from Texas from some successful family there and the large solitaire diamond on her middle finger must be at least five karats and flashes when direct light impinges upon it.  Sallie has three children, one a girl the same age as Wracks, a son, and another who she marks as adopted. They live in the most fashionable town in Los Angeles and their house presents on a one acre lot which includes a swimming pool, maid’s quarters and three car garages.  The Wracks mother met her at a church gathering and she announces that she has a daughter of marrying age. Wracks cannot understand why someone with their wealth would have any interest in a middle class family, but they do.  The guests move to the living room, a space with a large window over green and white shag carpeting and antique furniture. 

Make me a drink inquires Earl.  I would like a double and the wife would like a Manhattan on the rocks

Father Wracks moves to his makeshift bar above the television and complies.  He then serves the drinks to the guest.  They commiserate for a while with mom and Dad until Grandma announces that the roast is done and the Yorkshire pudding is in the oven.  Everyone shows, then sits down, even the Fonz who nests on the right hand of mother like he normally does. Father Wracks cuts into the large Roast.  It is rare just like their generation likes it.   Wracks prefers medium done but will eat whatever he can get and tonight it is Christmas dinner.  The essence slowly flows out of the bright red meat onto the platter.  The greasy Yorkshire pudding has risen and shows up on the buffet line and the guests are first and line up and heap the good food upon their plates.   Mom Wracks really is a good cook.  She really is.  The Wracks is last as usual and takes whatever he can get.  Father Wracks pours a red cabaret sauvignon into his glass and passes the bottle around.  It empties quite rapidly.  He then chinks his fork upon his glass, stands up and proposes a toast:

Who in the world is better than us?  Manga.

And the meal begins.  Grandma does not eat much and puts her meat on the Wracks plate.  She watches out for him.  Then the desert follows; a blueberry pie and an apple pie with vanilla ice cream.  The wracks have a piece of each.  After dinner the guests and the folks move back into the living room and bring a bottle of French cognac and snifter glasses in with them.  The Wracks is not much of a drinker.  He and grandmother rinse the dishes; load the dishwasher and then the Wracks scrubs the cooking pans with steel wool and takes out the trash.  He says hello to his little terrier locked in the clothes washer room so he wouldn’t terrorize the guests.  Wracks put some meat scraps in his dish and the dog barks and it is Christmas. The Wracks returns to his room he shares with his brother.  At about ten o’clock, or more, grandma announces the guests are leaving.  Wracks returns and helps Sallie into her Cadillac and closes the door.  In unison everyone says Merry Christmas and the meeting culminates.  The Wracks gathers up the cognac glasses and spent napkins and brings them all into the kitchen.  He then walks to the living room and sits in the chair next to the Christmas tree and watches the lights blink on and off repeatedly.  The ornaments are hand made by grandma, sequins embedded with pins on Styrofoam balls with names and scrolls upon them.  The flickering lights impinge and dance upon the reflective sequins.  The few gifts of the year surround the base of the tree from the morning opening.  The Wracks is in college and he doesn’t need anything except tuition money and this is all he gets.  He is the lucky one. He lets the dog back in the family room and puts up the dog barricade and retires to his room.  He is tired and slowly starting to fall asleep.  He takes off his pants and fits into bed and then into unconsciousness. The fonz doesn’t live here anymore.

Christmas is the most important holiday of the year.  It is a day where we celebrate our ethical values and charity and vow to make the world a better place.  For the Wracks, Christmas was a day with a family and a good meal and dose of love.  He would not give up his memories for anything, because they are special and meaningful.  Some people don’t have any of these simple yet tantamount quantities in their lives.  Christmas is love and giving and rejoicing in the gifts and bounty the God provides.  In Tranquil Hills it is Christmas day.  The Wracks is the lucky one. 

Fall begins in the month of October

When the harvest is ready to go

Brown leaves and fruits of our labor

Seed that long have been sown

The wind becomes chill in October

The clouds now are safe in their home

Days become shorter and shorter

While the mornings start to chill to the bone

October is not quite November

Birds flutter and fly in formation

The season is the beginning of winter

The start of white yuletide Novation

Let not the reaper forget to remember

To cherish the bounty until spring

As the cool quiet evenings of October

Herald a new beginning of things

October is not near to December

When winter slows life to a crawl

Orange harvest moon couldn’t be rounder

In the still black nights of fall

The stars up above shine and glimmer

At the cool mother earth down below

We have all forgotten the hot summer

The green leafy life that has grown

Orange is the color of October

And purple too on the other end

As the chaff is stored up for fodder

The season bids adieu to a friend

Just as the crops are stored for winter

In cold long months that are lean

The harvest season ends with a whisper

On the day that is called Halloween

Thanksgiving is the end of November

When we celebrate the accumulation of wealth

The harvest again is over

There begins a new season of hope

Fall begins in the month of October

My second favorite time of the year

The season marks the start of long labor

Orange moon and violet night in arrears

The Harvest marks the year in remainder

For a cold winter sleep in transition

Awaiting the sun to rejoinder

When the spring brings new life to fruition