Category: musings

SoCS: sweet taste

My favorite foods are sweet.

I know that humans’ first taste preference is for sweetness. It’s why breast milk is so sweet.

Most people, though, go on to develop preferences for additional flavors. I, though, am not very tolerant of foods that are sour or bitter. Strong flavors are often physically painful for me and I’ve learned that something that most people perceive as mild are often overwhelming for me. This is especially true for hot/spicy foods, like peppers. I also don’t drink coffee or tea, which are just too bitter for me.

I wonder if this taste preference for sweet and intolerance for sour and bitter is a natural defense. One of the conditions that I have is interstitial cystitis, also known as painful bladder syndrome. (It’s probably also related to my hEDS and mast cell activation disorder, but I digress.) One of the ways to help reduce IC flares is to reduce acidic foods as much as possible. Most sour or bitter foods are also high in acid, so maybe my intolerance of those flavors is a self-defense mechanism.

By the way, salty foods are also bad for people with IC so I eat low-salt, as well. I don’t find salty foods physically painful, though, unless it is really, really, really salty, which feels like burning in my mouth.

I’m such a delicate flower!

And sweet! 😉
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “sweet.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/05/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-16-2026/

One-Liner Wednesday: relative threats

New favorite analogy from The Daily Show moment of Zen earlier this week: COVID is to wildfire as hantavirus is to a wet log in a cold fireplace.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/05/13/one-liner-wednesday-an-oldie/ (Sorry that I couldn’t find the proper citation.)

Mother’s or Mothers’ Day

Today is celebrated as Mother’s Day in the United States. In other years, I’ve shared about the older, Mothers’ Day begun by Julia Ward Howe in the years following the American Civil War.

This year, I’m sharing historian Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack on Howe’s views and actions.

Today, I’m wishing peace and equal rights to all mothers and all people everywhere.

SoCS: contrast

One of the many things about which I have to be careful is the use of contrast with CT or MRI scans.

We think the reason is that my kidney function is kind of flaky and the contrast agents are hard on kidneys.

The wild card is that my kidneys may be stressed because of a vascular problem related to my hEDS. I have an appointment with a specialist in NYC later this month to investigate.

Stay tuned…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “contrast.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/05/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-9-2026/

Voting challenges

Vote for Democracy #57


(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

The United States is facing even more serious challenges to our election system.

The US Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Callais has set off a spate of redistricting in southern states which, while they are being labeled as partisan, are effectively race-based, even though primary elections are very close, or, as in Louisiana, already underway. All of these states are looking to cut down the number of Democrats and Black elected officials.

This morning, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the April vote that would have redistricted that state and potentially added more Democrats to the US House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November.

It’s very discouraging because Trump and the Republicans are actively trying to stay in power through manipulating the electoral system, even though their policies are increasingly harmful and unpopular.

It’s time for citizens to take back their electoral power. Given that new district lines will make it more difficult for Democrats and people of color to elect their preferred candidates, voter turnout will be crucial. It may, though, not be sufficient to overcome these new obstacles. Voters who are registered as Republicans need to vote against all Republican nominees who favor these unfair and unconstitutional policies and help elect officials who believe in the principle of one person, one vote and who will uphold our civil liberties and rights.

I admit that this is a discouraging time in our efforts to uphold democracy but we must keep working on it. As Joyce Vance titled her recent book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable.

100,000!

Yesterday, WordPress told me that Top of JC’s Mind/joannecorey.com has passed 100,000 views!

That’s cool!

I have to remind myself that there are also additional views of my posts because some people read my blog via email and don’t visit the site directly, so would not be counted.

Perhaps, those counterbalance the views that result from random bots. Every once in a while, I have a day where I get the message that “my stats are booming.” Those days seldom result in comments or likes, though, so it’s likely they are bots roaming around WordPress. The exception was April 17 when I suddenly got 35 new subscribers, although, presumably they are mostly bots, too.

The main factor in getting to 100,000 views is that I’ve been around since September, 2013. I’ve had a long time to accumulate views. Granted, some bloggers would be disappointed if they weren’t getting 100,000 views per month/week/day(!), but, fortunately, I’m in this for the sake of sharing and chronicling and communicating rather than as a moneymaker so I can just be grateful rather than anxious about stats.

So, thank you to all my past and current visitors!

Even the bots, as long as they are not being destructive…

May Day!

Vote for Democrary #56

While May 1st is observed around the world as International Workers’ Day, it’s usually not a big thing in the United States, which observes Labor Day the first Monday in September.

This year is different.

Indivisible and other organizations are spearheading May Day Strong, calling for no work, no school, and no shopping today. There will be rallies in some places for those who are able with others, like me, participating from home. I’m wearing my “Presidents are not Kings” shirt and refraining from shopping today. (No work and no school are every day things for me.)

One of the messages today is “Workers over Billionaires.” The hope is that a show of economic power will draw attention to the unfair tax structure in the United States and the undue influence that wealthy individuals and corporations have over our government. This is also tied to current abuses of power by the government, trying to strip rights and protections under the law and interfere with elections.

As it happens, May 1st is also observed as Law Day in the United States. The Amercian Bar Association explains this year’s theme:

The 2026 Law Day theme is “The Rule of Law and the American Dream.” The rule of law—the idea that no person is above the law—is what ensures the rights of the people to live their lives as freely as possible and to pursue their dreams. The ABA encourages all Americans to recognize Law Day on May 1, 2026, and to reflect on how the rule of law ensures all Americans have the ability to fulfill their dreams.

This dovetails well with the May Day actions and No Kings, Hands Off, and other rallies that have been happening during Trump’s second term. Law Day seems even more urgent this year with the lawlessness of immigration enforcement and detention/deportation without due process, election interference, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and the decisions of the Supreme Court that fly in the face of precedence and the Constitution.

I don’t know what the impact of this May Day and Law Day will bring but I am looking at it as another step in the movement to restore the rights and freedoms of the American people, taking back the power from the corrupting influence of autocrats and oligarchs.

There is a third thing about May 1st that is important to me. It’s the first day of EDS & HSD Awareness Month. (EDS is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome; HSD is the related diagnosis of Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder.) I was diagnosed with hypermobile EDS (hEDS) in January, although as a genetic connective tissue disorder, it has always been there. I hope to do several posts this month to continue to raise awareness and to update my readers about my current treatment trajectory.

Of course, there will be more posts in my Vote for Democracy series, too. The caveat is that there will never be as many posts as I would like, unless/until I can clear the brain fog and get more energy back. There will be other topics popping up, as well. You can never tell what might be at the top of JC’s Mind!

Or maybe you can….

National Poetry Month ’26

Here in the United States, April is observed as National Poetry Month. While my writing and activities are constrained by my health, it was my privilege to be involved with a couple of poetry events this month.

I was able to read a couple of my poems as part of the Tioga Arts Council‘s Poetry Out Loud event. Area poets gathered to read poems, their own or others’. I especially loved hearing from some of my friends of the Grapevine Poets and from Dante Di Stefano, whose spouse is director of the Tioga Arts Council. The amazing thing about the reading was that there were a number of participants who had never before done a reading or even attended one. We also had a wide range of work read, including a poem in Bengali which was a combination of singing and speaking.

For the third consecutive year, one of my poems was accepted to the Write Out Loud event at the Fenimore Art Museum near Cooperstown, NY. The performance was the evening before the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton’s spring concert and I knew I would not have energy to sing dress rehearsal, scoot to Cooperstown for the evening, and sing an afternoon concert the next day, so I happily ceded reading duties to Sharon Rankins-Burd, who read my poem “The Bridge” so admirably last year. This year, my poem “Nor’Easter Numbers” was the first poem on the program. I’m looking forward to the recording of the reading becoming available. I’ll post when it is! Update: the recording is now available here.

How did you celebrate poetry this month?

One-Liner Wednesday: O Canada!

I’m sharing this with love for our Canadian neighbors; when the singer’s microphone developed problems, the hockey fans in Buffalo took over singing the Canadian national anthem and it’s so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes.

Please join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/04/29/one-liner-wednesday-almost-didnt-make-it/

Baltic concert

Last Sunday, I sang a concert of music from the Baltic region with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton under the direction of John M. Vaida.

It was a great experience for us and for our audience. We got to perform pieces by composers that were new to most of us. I added languages to my personal list of sung texts, Swedish and Estonian. We also welcomed the Fair Winds Quintet as our guests, made possible by a grant from the United Cultural Fund of the Broome County Arts Council. They played a set before the sung concert and another to begin the second half of the program after intermission. It was wonderful to have these talented local artists join us for the concert.

One of my favorite pieces on the program was “Cantate Domino”, a setting of part of Psalm 98 by the Lithunian composer Vytautas Miškinis. Another highlight was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Bogoroditse Devo” from his All-Night Vigil. I had first sung this under the direction of Dr. Bruce Borton with the University Chorus. Bruce had prepared a new edition of the Vigil for us to use and we later sang this movement in later programs, so it always reminds me of him. Bruce also became the second artistic director of the Madrigal Choir a few years before his retirement from Binghamton University. After the pandemic shutdown and the end of University Chorus, Bruce welcomed me to Madrigal Choir. Shortly after I joined, Bruce fell ill. I wrote about the last concert he conducted with Madrigal Choir here and about singing at his funeral and Madrigal Choir tribute here. This Rachmoninoff piece was part of a concert dedicated to Bruce at the University. I was grateful for the opportunity to sing it again, especially at Trinity Episcopal Church where Bruce had sung and volunteered for many years as a congregant.

I particularly loved the final piece of the program, a newly written hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, set to the tune “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius. Rev. Gillette is a local Presbyterian pastor and hymnist with over 500 hymns to her credit. This poem, “O God of Love, This Is a Time of Turning”, was written in January, 2026, after speaking with a seminary friend serving in Minneapolis. We printed the words in the program and invited the audience to join us in singing – and they did!

We sang, “May we stand firm for truth and peace and justice;
May we leave fear and hatred far behind.”

May it be so.