Wading In

Forget dying, get flu shot to avoid being sick By Kelvin Wade October 28, 2009 5:36PM I had the flu not too long ago. It started with a sore throat but soon progressed to a hard cough that hurt my chest every time one burst from my mouth. Next up were chills like mini arctic blasts down my spine that no blanket could alleviate. Aches and pains gripped my neck and joints. Then came that feeling like I'd been run over (and backed over) by a bus. Every step I took required superhuman strength and seemed like I was walking in molasses. Food into my stomach quickly reversed itself. And what scraps stayed down, moved through my system much too quickly. A sudden brutal cough coupled with loose bowels makes for a miserable experience. Was it H1N1 or seasonal flu? I don't know. I didn't much care at that point. That virus knocked me out of commission for nearly 10 days. According to a recent Associated Press-GFK poll, 38 percent of parents don't w...

Mraz, Courtemanche good fits for City Council By Kelvin Wade October 21, 2009 4:50PM It's hard to go wrong choosing among the candidates for Fairfield City Council for the two available seats. We have some great candidates. The first person I'd consider voting for is John Mraz. It was Matt Garcia who encouraged me to meet with John. Matt encouraged me to see the man behind the caricature. The criticism I hear about Vice Mayor Mraz is mostly style rather than substance. Yes, he rubs people the wrong way. Yes, he's the type of guy who'll tell you the dress makes you look like a hippo but that's because if you ask his opinion, you're going to get it. He walks the walk. He pushed for a youth center. He supported a gang injunction. He's been a hardliner when it's come to local crime. And the results speak for themselves. You want a curmudgeon in office especially during financially lean times. In Mraz, you'll have a public serv...

Kid is both annoying, endearing By Kelvin Wade October 15, 2009 2:35PM I've never wanted to have children. I've never really been impressed by the so-called miracle of childbirth. How can it be a miracle if it happens a zillion times a day all over the world? Aren't miracles rare? If two distantly related, half-educated, drunken hillbilly teens can make a baby by accident in the back seat of a rusted out Ford in their trailer park in the sticks, (pardon my grammar) that ain't no miracle. But through happenstance, my significant other has two grandkids, 12-year-old Lauryn and 4-year-old Vika. Lauryn is her own Chinese puzzle box but this column is about Vika. I met Vika when his family moved here from North Carolina when he was 17 months old. In no time, I found myself tasked with changing his diaper. The last time I'd seen anything that remotely looked like that diaper, it was coming out of Linda Blair's mouth in 'The Exorcist.' Matters di...

Secure your guns, and peace of mind By Kelvin Wade October 08, 2009 10:06AM A Vacaville couple was arrested this week on a variety of criminal complaints stemming from the tragedy last month when their 8-year-old son accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister with a handgun he'd found on the couple's bed. Due to his parents' alleged irresponsibility, unfortunately, this little boy will have to live with this horrific memory. There is no pain worse than losing a child and losing a child through one's own negligence must be unfathomably painful. But if the press accounts are true that there were multiple unsecured firearms in the house and that they shouldn't have been there at all due to the wife's felony drunk driving conviction, then it's hard not to feel contempt for that kind of recklessness. These kinds of incidents anger responsible gun owners because too often the focus is on the weapons and not the irresponsibility o...

Thank You, Mr. President By Joe Scarborough Count me as one conservative who is disappointed that President Obama's hometown will not be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. Chicago is a beautiful city that would have made a perfect backdrop for the Olympics. The President was right to fly to Copenhagen to try to land the games, not for the sake of his city, but for the good of his country. The fact President Obama failed makes me respect him more for taking the chance, and the fact many right-wing figures opposed the President's mission shows just how narrow-minded partisanship makes us all. For the better part of 20 years, a bitterness has infected our politics that has weakened our country. We Republicans spent eight years trying to delegitimize Bill Clinton. Democrats spent the next eight years doing the same to George W. Bush. Now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office again, it is the GOP who is trying to delegitimi...

Junk food tax is a step toward universal health By Kelvin Wade | | October 1, 2009 14:52 Last month, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced he'd be seeking a tax on soft drinks at retail stores to fight obesity. Now San Francisco has replaced Berkeley in coming up with nutty ideas but this one isn't bad. Kelly Brownell, an obesity expert at Yale University, and Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health are among many experts who advocate such a tax. According to a recent study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, adults who drink one soft drink per day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight or obese. For children, the risk of obesity increases 60 percent per daily serving of soda. It's no wonder we're a nation of porkers. But I don't believe a tax on soft drinks goes far enough. Being someone with excess adipose tissue, I'm all too eager to place my gelatinous posterior behind the idea of a 'fat tax.'...