Category: Letter

Last spring, Michael and Cathy Deering of Eden Prairie fled for Barra de Navidad,
a country beach town along the Costa Allegre (“Happy Coast”) of western Mexico. There they riffed on the theme of our March issue by engaging in a whole other sort of body count.

A note from the publisher: Due to a breakdown in our crack fact-checking department (which was caused, if you must know, by a complete failure on our part to acknowledge the distraction caused by the failing infrastructure of the American road system, the war on terror, and the recent Twins losses to the Cleveland Indians), we messed up repeatedly last month in a story about St. Paul Public Library Director Melanie Huggins (“A Woman of Action”). (Where’s a reference librarian when you need one? Unfortunately, nowhere in Minneapolis on a Sunday or Monday.) Anyway, to set things straight, here are the true facts, gleaned from the librarian herself: Huggins graduated from college at the ripe old age of twenty-one, instead of seventeen, as was alleged. The story also had Huggins pregnant within the first year of her acquaintance with her husband—but it really took them a leisurely three years. Finally, the author attributed several accomplishments to Huggins: opening Zelda’s Café at the Central Library, offering ESL classes, and opening a satellite branch at a domestic violence center. These amenities pre-date Huggins’s arrival; however, she does fully support them. As for us, if you don’t believe the above excuses, try these: The sun was in our eyes. Our shoes were untied. We thought we heard our mother calling. Yeah, that’s it. That’s why we dropped the ball.

Reading The Rake in a hand-pulled rickshaw is not recommended for a weak
stomach. Tim Leone-Getten and Leslie Olmen visited Calcutta, India with
other area teachers on a South Asia teacher exchange program with Hamline
University and Relief International.

The hardiest breed of Minnesotan can’t get enough snow, even in summer. That’s why Kami Brueshaber and Jason Aide of Minneapolis chased winter all the way to Talkeetna, Alaska, a “teeny town in the shadows of Mount McKinley,” wrote Brueshaber. She added: “Everyone there has a real laid-back attitude. Don’t expect much to be happenin’ before 11 a.m.”

As exciting as a visit to the towering mountain might be, the pair also took care to peruse a favorite reminder of their flatland home. What other publication besides The Rake could entice them to expose their hands—ungloved, mind you—to the chill air?

I just read your August issue about the autistic teenager and the “violent, unpredictable man” that those pills turned him into [“Crazy”]. I am not writing to make any kind of stand on medicating autistic or ADHD kids. To be honest, I’m not really a fan of pills for kids (other then those that are seriously, medically needed). But sometimes they are needed, and often they are helpful.

I want to say that most of the stories I read and the things that I see on TV are about high-functioning autistic children. Sometimes I feel that children like my son just disappear. Maybe they don’t look good on film? I know that trying to interview him would drive a journalist insane. He’s ten, but he has only one word and he only uses it when he’s with me. That word is mamamama. I think it’s a word. (I understood when he was maybe five that he’d probably never be able to tell me that he loved me. I’ll take that mamamama, even when it comes with a bite or a pinch.)

All the focus on the kids at the high end of the autistic spectrum makes me wonder if there are no other kids like my angel. (But I know that’s not the case.)

You did a story about a higher-level functioning autistic child. Please, can you do one about a child like mine—a ten-year-old with a two-year-old’s mind? One out of every 150 children is now being diagnosed with some level of autism. This is becoming a huge thing. At least some of those children will be like mine. And when their parents die, who’s going to be taking care of them?

I was saddened to read Ms. Bauer’s article, and am somewhat relieved that in this instance most of the effects of misdiagnoses and poor management appear to be temporary. I am one of the psychiatrists who was featured in Gardiner Harris’s New York Times article [“After Sanctions, Doctors Get Drug Company Pay,” New York Times, June 3, 2007] referenced by Ms. Bauer.

As I review her story, the major problems that I see in her son’s care are the failure to attribute his changing “symptoms” to the antidepressant, and the subsequent misdiagnosis of the changes as a spontaneous psychosis, hence the addition of the neuroleptics (antipsychotics). I doubt that pharmaceutical company influence led to the antidepressant prescription or to the addition of an antipsychotic when the clinical picture changed. I do feel that failure to see a pattern of side effects was a major problem.

Much of the money paid by pharmaceutical companies to physicians is for pharmaceutical-sponsored educational programs. Much of this is about illness recognition and how to make a correct diagnosis, and is often “unbranded” (in many talks specific medication brands are not mentioned). Paradoxically, pharmaceutical company-sponsored education for health care professionals hopefully will decrease the frequency of similar disasters happening to other patients by increasing MDs knowledge about diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and recognition of side effects.

In this instance, the problem is knowledge, not influence. Mayo Clinic doctors did a fantastic job in this situation, but many MDs who avoid drug company contact end up ten years behind in education about when to use—or avoid—treatments.

On page 32 of our August issue, we featured a 1995 photo of the Minneapolis band Suicide Commandos, but failed to credit photographer Dan Corrigan. We regret the oversight.

Fogo de Chão [“Meat and Greet,” July] is a frenetic experience, loud, fast, and exciting. It’s not for anyone looking for a quiet evening’s dining experience. I’m surprised Jeremy [Iggers] did not mention the hectic pace.

While we in Minnesota were asleep at the bridge, we didn’t notice that people concerned for a free Tibet traveled to China and hung a banner on the Great Wall. These protesters (one of whom was from the Twin Cities) spent 36 hours in detention before being deported. Talk about missing a story. This was news to National Press Canada, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Al Jazeera, CNN, Sidney Hearald, Reuters India, Radio Free Asia, The Toronto Star, The Guardian London, The Channel 4 News UK, The Cambridge Evening News in the UK, The Globe and Mail in Canada, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty in the Czech Republic, The Age in Australia, CBC – The Hour in Canada, London Free Press in Canada, San Diego Union Tribune, Brisbane Times in Australia, International Herald Tribune in France, Montreal Gazette in Canada, Gulf Times in Qatar, Economist in UK, … You get the idea. Not only did the Minnesota press miss an international story with a local connection, so did The Rake.