Prairie Sunshine @ 40: I can attest to the ‘cinnamon cure’. My step-dad was diagnosed with diabetes a year ago, and started taking cinnamon 6mos ago after my mom read about it. Since then, he’s not had a single reading above normal, and he’s managed to lose nearly 40lbs!

–HELLO. I HAVE TWO DEAR FRIENDS WHO SUFFER DIABETES. IM HOPING YOU HAVE A LINK OR REFERENCE I CAN FOREWARD TO THEM? THANKS IN ADVANCE. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPY NEW YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS –

I’m a lurker here at this site but mostly because I’m reading it at the end of the day (like now).

This evening I compiled a Christmas “party CD” of mostly slower tempo classical favorites. I still have my original CD player from the 80s with a single tray so this cuts down on the switching out CDs.

My selections would go better with snow. Unfortunately we’re still in the 40s here in Boston, MA.

Some CDs people might want to sample:

Chanticleer’s “Sing We Christmas” (Chanticleer is an American all male chorus, singing a cappella in perfect unison and perfect pitch a variety of songs spanning from the Renaissance to the 20th Century. Unbeatable is their rendition of M. Praetorius’ Es is ein Ros entsprungen (aka ‘Lo How A Rose’), “In the bleak mid-winter”, and “In dulce jubilo”

On the Decca/London label “Christmas Adagios”. It’s a 2-disc collection with over 2.5 hours of music from Palestrina, Bach and Vivaldi to Britten and Berlin, sung by opera stars and famous choirs. In particular, it contains a hauntingly beautiful Romanian(?) song “Iubi-Te-voi” (trans. I will love thee, O Lord) sung by soprano Angela Gheorghiu with the Romanian National Chamber Choir “Madrigal”.
I also like soprano Kiri Te Kanawa’s rendition of “Panis Angelicus” by composer Franck.

Philips CD: Handel’s Messiah with conductor Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony, especially track 10 on disc 1 “For Unto Us A Child Is Born”

Also by Decca, “The #1 Christmas Album” 2-cd collection contains a fast and witty rendition of “12 Days of Christmas” and Brahms’ “Child In A Manger”. There is some overlap of songs with the above Decca/London compilation.

And finally soprano Kathleen Battle’s “A Christmas Celebration” CD. I think her voice is by far the best for the famous “Ave Maria” by Schubert and the other “Ave Maria” by Bach-Gounod. Also her “Mary Had A Baby” is amazing.

Merry Christmas.

>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN INTERNATIONAL U.S. AFFAIRS EDITOR: You know, it sounds as if they are pretty sensitive about having a police force from another country come in and do something in their country. And that’s probably some of that Russian pride, and, also, as was pointed, their laws, you know? So, they will have to deal with that.

>The question, I think, now is, is it possible to get to the bottom of this? Because, as Nikolas and everybody else has been pointing out, it’s extremely complex. And where would you get this substance? And how would you get it to the person?

>And, then the ultimate question: Why Litvinenko, and why now? There were a lot of people who obviously wanted to kill him. He had a lot of information. You know, back when he was a KGB officer, his specialty was corruption. He was looking into corruption. So, he probably had the goods on a number of people. And I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who would want him dead.

>ZAHN: Sure.

>DOUGHERTY: So, it’s — you know, where do you go?

>ZAHN: Well…

>DOUGHERTY: There are a lot of people.

>ZAHN: … including reports, Nikolas, that would suggest that people wouldn’t be surprised if Vladimir Putin wouldn’t want him dead, after he went public with allegations that Mr. Putin was having sex with men.

>GVOSDEV: Yes. I mean, that’s certainly been put forward as — as one of the theories.

And remember if your Christmas cards go out late, just call them Russian Orthodox Christmas cards. They celebrate it 2 weeks later.

My personal ?best was February. That was a tough winter. So I just called them Valentine cards.

I stopped the Christmas Card writing many, many years ago. Ironically I was a new convert to the Eastern Orthodox Church at the time (not the reason for my choice). Instead, it was my first rebellion against obligatory cheer. I maintained (and still do) that a loving note to someone is most welcome in the depths of winter when there are a lull in holidays.

I collected dozens of gorgeous Christmas cookie images and images of cookie cutters from the internet. I filled my weekly letter to my 83 year old mom with these images in lieu of baking. I fed our minds . . . “visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.”

Oh, katecontinued, what a great idea! My 88-y.o. mom is 2000 miles away and no longer bakes – wonder if she would like that, too? Thanks!

This year I am not eating white-type carbohydrates, but I collected dozens of gorgeous Christmas cookie images and images of cookie cutters from the internet. In fact, Christy, your Christmas cookie images serveral weeks ago inspired this. I filled my weekly letter to my 83 year old mom with these images in lieu of baking. I fed our minds . . . “visioins of sugar plums danced in their heads.”