Book Review

Book Review: Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin, PhD

Recommended by a co-worker, and made into an HBO movie with Claire Danes, “Thinking in Pictures” is effectively Dr. Temple Grandin’s attempt to explain how, as an autistic person, she thinks differently. As a computer science major, I am kind of fascinated by this subject. Had I gone to college 5 years later I probably would have majored in neuroscience (I did a lot with AI).  Also autism and a host of other “chronic” conditions are a true challenge for our country’s health system.

Dr. Temple Grandin is responsible for designing a large number of the cattle processing facilities in the U.S., and claims it was her autism that allowed her to empathize with the cattle and so design facilities that would be more effective in handling them. She is also famous for her public relations work for autism. I was disappointed to learn that Ger and I wouldn’t be in Philadelphia when she comes to speak at the Academy of Natural Sciences later this month, but I finished the book anyway.

While I was expecting to learn from this book, I wasn’t expecting some of the things she wrote about to ring so true. For example, she wrote how she disagreed with a college professor who “speculated that humans had to develop language before they could develop tools.” I remember learning this in college too and just couldn’t see it. You don’t need language to build a tool. (How a person reacts to this statement is actually a good way to differentiate if a person is a visual or language based thinker).

Also, she writes how she enjoys reading since it is like ‘taking in information” that she can then access later when necessary. I must admit this is why I like to read, especially about people who have experiences or situations I most likely will never be in. Reading her descriptions about her thought processes made me realize I am a visual thinker as well.

From a health administration perspective, her book describing autism and what worked for her is very illuminating. The big takeaways here are that all autistic people associate details into categories to form a concept and “fear is a dominant emotion in their autism”.

What helps these people function most (and what helped her) is behavior therapy. For example, she didn’t have a concrete visual corollary for the abstraction known as “getting along with people.” It wasn’t until she had enough experiences that she could address this deficiency. She needed to be taught how to behave in situations because she couldn’t pick up subtle cues.

No doubt part of the reason she couldn’t pick up on subtle cues is because her nervous system is in a state of always being “on guard”. In autistics, their “flight or fight” response is always just a hair trigger on. She writes “my nervous system was in a state of hyper-vigilance”. For her, prescription drugs helped modulate her nervous system.

One of the reasons a person with autism is always in a state of tension is that they have sensory differentiations that are very real. People with autism experience touch, light, smell and sounds differently.  This is the one area in the book where Grandin gets a bit touchy. “I can emphasize with a laid-off worker because I can visualize his family sitting at the dining room table trying to figure out how the bills will get paid,” she writes. But she doesn’t understand how people can’t imagine or emphasize that other people who might process senses differently.

We know from “Blink” that under traumatic situations, a regular person can become autistic-like. Grandin writes that this is perhaps this flight-or-fight anxiety is “an old anti-predator instinct that has surfaced?” One of the keys to truly helping autistics is to help them create a situation that allows them to feel calmness, since then that becomes tangible and they can transfer that emotion. If the flight or fight response is on, not much of anything is going to be happening.

In general this was a fascinating book, which will spawn lots more reading (I have lots of notes). With autism being such a big topic, this book should almost be required reading for everyone on the planet. While a lot of the advice would be relevant to all people (for example she advises taking autistic children to the science museum and doing experiments with them) it is good advice nonetheless.  I really have an improved understanding how “animals and autistic people think without language”. I’m eager to see the Claire Danes movie now and see how it compares.

End of April

Random thoughts and pictures this week… My parents stayed with us week before last, and when my mom is around I’m reminded more about the traditional South American fare I grew up with.

It kind of struck home as my mom cleaned the lettuce that was growing in the backyard. She wasn’t about to let it go to waste!


It was nice to come home and have poached salmon with a side of rice and beans. With the salmon, it’s a more American interpretation of what I grew up eating. Fish, Meat, Pork, rice and salad, plantains and avocado slices.
29:28 Zoe talks about the diet I grew up with...
While I will eat anything and love to try to make different types of things, the core is always these staples, these comfort foods.
While Matt has taken to the rice as below (we were at a pot luck at his day care and he did try a couple of things)..

This just broke my heart…

Matt and Emmett duking it out over the Lays potato chips. What you can’t see is piping hot from scratch shortbread cookies on the tray on the table just out of range of this photo.

Well at least he’s eating, right? Gas is off in our house so no baking this weekend (or hot showers). Ger says, “If you want to do something domestic, you can try cleaning the house.” (NOT LIKELY!)

Meanwhile I found this picture of blueberry muffins from earlier in the month. Spring and summer is coming which means fresh blueberries, so I was cleaning out the freezer to make room.

I’ve very excited to try some spelt and vegan blueberry muffin recipes this summer.

With all the rain, it’s been hit or miss at Soccer.

I think the combination of spring, rain and a super busy week made me crave hot oatmeal this week. It just really hit the spot.

Book Review

Book Review: The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is an author whose books I totally love. “Blink” and “Outliers” were both so awesome, I couldn’t help but give “The Tipping Point” a whirl.

Besides being a Malcolm Gladwell book (read: awesome from the start) this book cleared up a mystery for me. Not a stay up late at night mystery, but along simmering Emily mystery: Why was Paul Revere’s ride so successful and whatever happened to the other guy that rode out that same night? I mean, if old Paul had knocked on my door late at night, I probably would have thought it was a burglar. But New Englanders sometimes do weird things (witch hunts, fluff sandwiches, wearing pink and green together, I can go on, but this is about Gladwell’s book) and it was to their credit that they did muster and face the British. But I could never quite envision in my head exactly how this went down. What did Paul say to these people?

Apparently Paul’s ride had all the elements in place to start a chain of events – it met his criteria for a tipping point. First, the people involved usually fall into the category of connectors, mavens and salesmen. Second, the information or object needs to have a stickiness factor. Finally, the overall message has to be in the right context.

Paul Revere was apparently a major connector and information maven, and the other guy who rode out that night, while being nice enough and a good citizen was not. So when Paul gave out the message they took it seriously. “If Paul’s telling me to muster, other people will be mustering too.” He also had the right information and knew enough people to go right to the salesmen in each town – the people that could get other people to muster in that town. The other guy probably told people who went back to bed, or who didn’t have enough pull to get the others to muster.

The second point is that the idea has to be “sticky”. Stickiness is something that MBA types – especially marketing MBA types- give a lot of thought to and it’s hard to pin down. What makes a piece of information actionable or distraction proof? Here he goes into a fascinating description of some of the research on children’s television, namely Sesame Street and its successor Blue’s Clues. The portion on stickiness was probably the weakest section of the book, but it’s a hard concept to pin down.

The third point is the importance of context. Here he makes the claim that the reduction in crime in NYC was a result of a crackdown on petty crimes, like vandalism and turnstile jumping. Gladwell writes that if the subway car is clean of graffiti and you know if you jump the turnstile you will be prosecuted, then you are less likely to engage in opportunistic crime. He states that people commit crime when they are in a context where crime pays, and will think twice otherwise. This was fascinating to me, since it is such a simple concept that has so obviously paid off in a big way for NYC. It also makes me want to go tear down all the abandoned factories in North Philadelphia.

All in all, this was very powerful book. Malcolm Gladwell deserves his reputation. For me personally, two things came out of the book. First, was that I was so happy when he quoted the David Hackett Fischer book, “Paul Revere’s Ride” and I was able to go to the bookshelf and flip through it. One of my bucket list dreams is to have a truly awesome personal library and I was so happy I was able to link these two seemingly random books. I’ve wondered lately about going all digital with books, but it was really nice to go to the shelves on the porch and scan through the titles till I found it. The second main point was that I will totally pay more attention to the little things that set the context in life. That is why this week I got these flowers at work.

They were just a few dollars from the flower lady outside, but besides being pretty I figured I’d work a little bit on setting a more positive context.

A spring weekend in April…

This weekend I took Matt to his first soccer practice. Matt was very shy of course, and so we ended up mostly watching the other kids. A few times he did get in there to kick the ball and the coach told him he did a good job. Matt totally has the concept of soccer down, or rather I should say, futbol. He should, kicking the ball was something we started very early (like when he could walk).

Today was a rainy Sunday, so we spent most of the days indoors. Ger was post overnight, so it was definitely a PJ’s day.

When you are in the house on a weekend in PJs and it’s raining, that means baking.

Matt was a very good helper, he helped measure out the ingredients including counting the eggs. These were bran and flax muffins with apples and carrots so it had a lot of ingredients.

Post- Easter

This weekend, I took Matt to the Zoo along with our neighbors, Adam and Marta and their two kids. Matt was most mesmerized by the puma.

And here is where the I-phone camera reaches its limits. The puma was right by the glass and Matt was right up close, but  I just couldn’t get a close enough shot. I think it may be time to research cameras, or at least practice having the other digital camera around more. That would have been an awesome shot. (In fact there were so many good shots, but I wasn’t lucky that day.)

 

Matt and Emmett also enjoyed seeing the snake exhibit.

Meanwhile, I’ve been crushed, CRUSHED that Au Bon Pain changed their sandwiches. If  ever there was a sign of inflation this it. It is all the same price, but they are smaller, less pesto and they had some strange processed may spread. So I’m resorting to making one of my favorites and packing it.

Mozzarella, Pesto and Tomato with Spinach. What is the world coming to when Au Bon Pain changes the sandwiches? The end is near folks.

Meanwhile this week, the rosemary is looking pretty wild, so I put some into a marinade for grilled shrimp…

 

Rosemary can also be used in the base for a cottage pie…

 

but no not in brownies. We had a brownie craving but I couldn’t find the box. We normally have several on hand so I attempted from scratch. The Joy of Cooking recipe didn’t disappoint, but for time mgmt. purposes, the box is still faster.

Of course ultimate organization would have meant that I would have found one of the four boxes we had on hand, but Rome wasn’t built in a day…

Easter Week

Last week started off with the ritual egg coloring…

I think we’ll hold on trying marbled eggs again till Matt’s a little older. Adding olive oil to the coloring definitely makes a big mess.

Ger and Matt had some fun listening to heart beats. Vax made a good patient.

We also renewed our membership to the Morris Arboretum. With some coaxing, I got Matt out on the “Out on a Limb” installment.

What he did remember was the fishes at the fernery. I was very impressed he remembered them, as it had been over six months since we were last at the arboretum.

It really is a secret gem in Philadelphia.

We also took Matt to see the dinosaurs at the Franklin Institute. It was the last week of the exhibit and Ger is about to start a Trauma rotation, so we had a family outing.

They have a two story heart you can walk through. I have been doing some work on number crunching for TAVR patients at work, and so I asked Ger to point out where the valve would go in this procedure.

It struck me how twisty the aortic valve can be, I can really see how plaque could build up in there. Matt really enjoyed walking through the heart, I think he understood it was what he was listening too with his dad the night before.

Checkin’ out the fountain in Franklin Square…

I have some more recipe stuff coming. This is not the same banana bread as last week. I’ve been playing with different versions. Last week was from the ‘Joy of Cooking’ – generous with butter, sugar and eggs. This one is with canola oil, whole wheat bread, brown sugar and egg whites…

…and so the pendulum swings the other way. We’ve been so into getting as many calories as possible into Matt, that I’ve ignored all I learned living in NH/VT. (Somewhere in the middle is probably the place to be).

End of March

Where can the Carroll boys be found as we enter spring?
The usual: Matthew loves to play, and Ger has resumed his position at the grill.
:-)



So it's been about two weeks since I took a look what was on my Iphone. I need to be better about taking pictures as we are out and about. Jenny came to visit (yay!) and I didn't take any pictures, we went to Dan and Anna's birthday party for Alex (2 years) and I didn't take any pictures. Eugene came to visit and we made steak dinner and I didn't take any pictures. So we do do stuff and we do leave the house, I'm just a terrible at remembering to take pictures. Which like so many things, I'm working on!



I do have a handful of some that aren't terrible. Ger and I went our for sushi for anniversary and these oysters where just delish. The weather was unseasonably warm, so we were able to sit outside and people watch. Just sitting still for an hour was a true treat.



I did try and remember to take some pictures out and about, here's Matt trying to decide which apples to get at the co-op. We met Marta and Adam and Ricky at big blue marble, then got some supplies for an impromptu picnic.

Last week I also made a banana bread, another standard Emily recipe.



I have a new basic recipe that I've added into rotation. A tofu, red cabbage and squash stir fry that is filling and light and easy at the same time. It just feels right to eat this time of year. I'm making it again tonight for the week.




and finally we are back to soups. It's been a rich couple of days, cake at work to celebrate birthdays, Ralph's with Steven and then steak dinner with Eugene. So I decided to make a brothy asparagus soup for Sunday and the rest of the week.



Ger ate some too, with crusty french bread.