Have you still got lots of green tomatoes on hand? If so, I’ve got a fried tomato recipe to share on my words bill of fare that is direct from our Canadian West.

If you plant heirloom open-pollinated tomato varieties (not hybrid), you are preserving a true-to-type variety and supporting a worthwhile preservation effort. To save some seed, cut a fully ripe tomato across the middle and not through the stem and blossom end. Clean the seeds and dry them away from direct sunlight. Stir a few times daily to speed the drying process and prevent clumping. Once fully dried, store the tomato seeds in an airtight glass jar with a label showing variety name and date and keep the jar in a cool, dry place.

By the time you read this Grainews issue, our three days of the Thanksgiving long weekend may well have come and gone. I’ve been doing some personal appearances along with Chris the 120 bass “Accordion Guy.” I have yet to meet an accordionist besides Chris who plays both accordion and keyboards together at the same time, and he does it so well too. I’ve told him how much I appreciate it when he plays “Turkey in the Straw” on his squeezebox. I’m also really thankful there was a turkey in the oven at my place on Thanksgiving Day. A couple of friends who are cooks make super-duper homemade soup from their turkey carcasses. Keep it up guys! And, yes, you can buy commercially made turkey and chicken bone broth at some stores.

I’m a true, red and white flag, patriotic Canadian. In 2017, after the devasting wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., I wrote a song with 10 verses, and the ninth verse says:

We stand proud sing O Canada loud,

Yet seldom boast we’ve got the most, 

That’s who we are Canadians are,

That’s who we are, that’s who we are.

(Should we be boasting more?)

Hey everybody out there, it’s my tip o’ the hat time. I’ll just imagine many of you are seated comfortably on the front row and tippin’ your hats back to me. 

‘Letting food be thy medicine’      

The Hippocratic Oath serves as a foundation for the oaths taken by modern medical school graduates. A compilation of writings attributed to Hippocrates presents a rudimentary understanding of how the body works and the nature of disease, providing a lasting legacy of ethical practices and standards, which serves as a moral guide for physicians today. 

Historians also rely on a biography of Hippocrates written some 500 years after his death by a Greek physician named Soranus, who extracted and applied information from legend and a collection of medical writing commonly called the Hippocratic Corpus. 

Born into a wealthy family, Hippocrates was likely given a solid education before learning medicine from his father and Herodicus, another Greek physician, prior to practicing medicine. Known for teaching as much as for his healing abilities, Hippocrates passed on his medical knowledge to his two sons and started a school for medicine. It was probably here that many of the methods attributed to Hippocrates were developed. 

Hippocratic medicine was humble and passive. His therapeutic approach was based on “the healing power of nature” (vis medicatrix naturae in Latin). According to this doctrine, the body contains within itself the power to rebalance and heal itself. Hippocratic therapy focused on simply easing into this natural process. To this end, Hippocrates believed “rest and immobilization” were of capital importance.

In general, Hippocratic medicine was very kind to the patient, emphasizing gentle treatments and cleanliness. For example, only clean water, wine and plants from nature were used on wounds. Other treatments included massage therapy using soothing balms and oils derived from plants and trees to provide therapeutic benefits.

Hippocrates was known as “The Great” concerning his disposition. He was first portrayed as a “kind, dignified, old country doctor” and later described as “stern, forbidding, yet a wise physician of very great intellect and especially practical.” Francis Adams, a 19th-century Scottish medical doctor and translator of Greek medical works, described him as “strictly the physician of experience and common sense.”

In Hippocrates’ time, often the best thing physicians could do was to evaluate an illness and predict its likely progression. Hippocrates was reluctant to administer drugs and did not choose specialized treatments that might prove to be wrong. He offered a generalized diagnosis and prescribed generalized therapy treatments, which included fasting and consuming a mixture of honey, vinegar, steamed vegetables, raw greens and raw fruit. To sum it all up, we can say that Hippocrates advocated and prescribed a form of getting well by “letting food be thy medicine,” but he also knew certain foods could make you sick.

Exercise is nothing new. It was also part of Hippocrates’ advice. He loved going on walks and wrote, “Walking is a natural exercise, more than any other form of physical exercise.” Some current studies maintain walking can be more beneficial than running. Hippocrates considered a stroll after dinner to be very beneficial. “It prevents fattening of the stomach,” he said around 400 BC. Now we daily say an hour of walking a day keeps the doctor away, as does eating an apple a day and eating a slice of raw turnip a day, plus drinking two litres of good quality water. End the day by prioritizing sleep. Aim for seven to nine quality hours a night. It definitely applies in today’s burdened world more than ever.

Fried green tomatoes

Here’s my recipe for fried green tomatoes:

6 large green tomatoes, slicer size

Salt and pepper to suit

3 cups flour

1 cup cream or 1 cup milk

1 tbsp. flour

1 tbsp. butter, melted

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

Slice the green tomatoes, then salt and pepper each slice generously or to suit. Next dip tomato slices in flour until each is thickly covered. Fry slices in deep, hot oil until nicely browned in a skillet, then remove and drain slices on brown paper. Once all tomato slices are fried and finished draining, pour off excess oil from skillet, then add cream or milk to the skillet. Stir in the flour to thicken, then add butter, salt and pepper and stir well. Place the fried tomato slices in a bowl, pour the hot prepared mixture over them and serve at once. Green tomatoes cooked this way are really delicious, served with or without any remaining mixture left in the skillet. Ripe tomatoes can be fried in a similar fashion for a different tomato taste.

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The new Act removes hemp from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, says Keith Jones, vice president of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance. As well, hemp grain and stalks have been exempted from the Cannabis Act altogether.

“So that simplifies things in a whole bunch of ways for us,” says Jones. Jones is general manager and chief financial officer of Rowland Farms. Rowland Farms grows between 4,000 and 6,000 acres of hemp each year.

Many of the regulations were really onerous for farmers, says Rowland. For example, farmers had to re-apply for a cultivation licence every year. Under the new legislation, cultivation licences will be good for five years, as long as the grower abides by the licence terms.

• Read more: Hemp growers eye new markets for 2018

While some requirements were just a nuisance, others had a cost. Hemp growers also had to hire a third party to collect random samples of the crop. Those samples were then tested for THC. Rowland says that hemp crops were only grown from certified seed of an approved variety, which didn’t produce more than trace levels of THC. The incoming legislation drops the requirement for third-party testing.

The Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance lists several other changes, such as dropping the prohibition on growing hemp within a kilometre of school grounds and dropping the criminal record check requirement. Farmers will also be able to collect and sell the flowering heads, leaves and branches of the plant.

The new Cannabis Act modernizes the way industrial hemp is regulated, says Jones.

“Most of the changes were overdue, and the Cannabis Act was the impetus for going ahead and making the changes. We’re pleased to see them.”

Using the whole plant

Easing up on the regulations around growing hemp may also open new markets for farmers.

Industrial hemp only produces trace levels of THC, the psychoactive ingredient that can get cannabis users high. But, as a cannabis plant, it likely produces other medicinal components.

Trichomes, which are microscopic hairs on the exterior of the plant’s flowers, produce medicinal components such as cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is produced in the body, but it’s often in short supply, says Natasha Perkins, director of business development at PrairieCann Growth, a medicinal cannabis company.

CBD is effective for treating seizures, inflammation, and pain, she says. But, she cautions, “it’s not a cure-all and you should consult with your doctor before switching your medicine.”

Still, many questions remain about how farmers would harvest the flowers and how those flowers would be valued and graded. Perkins says it would depend on why the processor was purchasing that flower.

“In our case, and probably most cases, it would be the potency of the CBD compound found within that crop.”

Farmers who want to see whether their flowers are worth harvesting would need to check with Health Canada first, says Perkins, to make sure they aren’t violating their cultivation licence. They could then contact the Sask Resource Council about testing for CBD.

“They’ve already set up a testing facility for cannabis, which would work just as well on hemp.”

Jones says Rowland Farms is tracking the hemp-derived CBD market, as well as the fibre market. But for now, the farm remains focused on hemp grain, which goes into products such as hemp hearts.

Rowland Farms has been growing hemp grain since 1998, and it’s an important core business for the farm. Most of their acreage is organic. The farm has long-term supply agreements with most customers instead of yearly contracts.

“But we don’t hemp grow on spec — we know where our crop is going to go,” he says.

Harvesting the whole plant may be easier said than done. Because Rowland Farms focuses on grain, by the time the combines hit the hemp fields, a lot of the flower and leaf material has dropped.

“Any that’s still there is discharged out the back of the combine with the rest of the straw as well,” says Jones.

The hemp industry is looking at several different harvest techniques to capture that material, but it’s not yet clear which will work best in Canada, says Jones. Significant research and development is needed, he says.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has funded three of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance’s high priority research projects, and the group will likely be looking for research questions and funding on this topic in the near future, Jones adds.

Perkins forecasts a glut in cannabis supply after legalization, at least at first. Getting value from hemp flowers won’t be as simple as just selling a crop, she says. Instead, farmers will need to partner with someone who will add value through their secondary processing.

It’s not just the flowers that may have more market potential. Jones says that that removing hemp from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act will make it easier to attract investment into the hemp fibre processing industry. Previous attempts to build fibre-processing plants failed to get enough investment.

For investors, relying on the supply of a material that fell under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act was unpalatable, says Jones. There was always a risk that government could change legislation, damaging the industry.

Jones is hopeful that investors will invest in processing and kick-start a fibre industry in Canada now. He’d like to see Canadian hemp used for everything from clothing to car parts, an industry that Europe and China are already active in.

“Canada is already the global leader in hemp for food production, based on the great experience with hemp hearts, hemp oil and hemp protein.”

It took 20 years to reach 100,000 acres in hemp production, Jones says. He hopes the modern regulatory framework will be like removing a governor from an engine, allowing the industry to achieve the potential it’s had for a long time.

“I think it’s an exciting time for the hemp industry.”

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Walter meets us at the door, greeting us by name. “Good to see you!” He takes our coats and leads us into the living room; we make small talk about the weather; a perfectly normal conversation. Yet this man is no longer capable of even making his own coffee.

“I can’t tell you how often Walter asked this morning who was coming and why,” his wife Sharon* says. How then, did he know our names? Sharon repeated them to him just before opening the door. It’s one of many tricks they use to cover up his declining brain function. Just as he’s always done, Walter often drops one of his funny anecdotes during the visit. It doesn’t hit us until later that he didn’t really take part in the discussion as he used to. That’s what Sharon really misses — a real dialogue with him. Walter has difficulty following complex thought. Now, when Sharon wants to watch an interesting TV show with him he’ll soon say, “They’re just talking nonsense,” and disengage. He still answers the phone at times. Then he’ll tell Sharon, “It was someone, a man — oh, maybe a woman. It wasn’t anything important.” Later someone will turn up at the door. Eight years ago Walter spent three days painting the outside of the house. A few days later he said to Sharon, “I should paint the house.” That’s when she realized something was wrong. Walter’s late parents both had dementia as did his late sister and a brother. “We had the advantage of an early diagnosis,” says Sharon. Alzheimer medication works the best during the early stages of the disease. The diagnosis was a relief to the couple. To Sharon — because she could now attribute Walter’s strange behaviour to his disease. To Walter — because he now had a legitimate excuse for his forgetfulness. Walter and Sharon live on a mixed farm, sharing the yard with their son Peter* and his family who are now the main operators. Ten years ago Peter noticed that his father no longer reported a sick calf. In time, the young couple was afraid to go away on holidays. “We realized we couldn’t count on Dad to take care of things anymore,” Peter says. It was only when Walter admitted this too, that a neighbour could be hired for holiday duty.

Walter can still be counted on to clean out the calf barn in the morning, something he’s always done. Peter sometimes has other jobs for him too. “I’m always glad if I don’t have more work afterwards than before,” Peter says. He admits to being impatient sometimes after explaining something to his father for the third time and he still doesn’t get it. “Dad will remember for three days that I was upset with him but he won’t know why anymore.”

For now the farmyard is still a safe place for Walter where he can keep himself busy with a broom or hayfork. Sharon is thankful for every hour she doesn’t have to look out for him. “It’s the little things,” she says, “like having to remind him about everything, saying the same thing over and over, and helping him with the smallest things.”

Every second week Peter takes his father along on his tour to purchase calves. Twice a month Walter spends a day at an adult daycare facility. “It’s important to me to know that Walter could go to a place he’s comfortable with if something would happen to me,” Sharon said. It’s clear to all that Walter can only stay home as long as Sharon can care for him. It’s not easy for her but, “We once promised to be there for each other, in good days and in bad.”

Walter still sings in the men’s choir and attends the weekly senior’s gym club. The men know him and make sure he is safe.

“I feel like an old tree with a healthy root system but the branches are starting to die one by one,” Walter once said about his illness. “Bit by bit I’m dying.”

“Yes, it’s a bit-by-bit goodbye,” Sharon says. “I don’t have the partner anymore whom I once married and that’s what I find the hardest.”

*All names changed.

Reducing your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia

Although age is the greatest risk for developing Alzheimer ’s disease, it is believed that a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce the risk of dementia. A healthy brain is better equipped to fight degeneration.

• Challenge your brain.

a ) Try something new or change the way you do a task; even if it’s just brushing your hair with your less dominant hand.
b) Play games that challenge your mind — chess, card games, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles.
c) Learn something new like a language or a musical instrument. Take a course, pursue a new or old hobby, visit galleries and museums.

• Be active socially. Staying socially active seems to have a protective effect on dementia.

a) Stay connected to family and friends.
b) Remain in the workforce or find volunteer work.
c) Join an exercise group or a book club.

• Make healthy lifestyle choices. Maintaining good health is as important to your brain as to the rest of your body and reduces the risk of dementia.

a) Eat healthy. Choose dark-coloured foods such as blueberries and spinach. Eat foods high in omega-3 such as nuts and fish.
b) Stay active. Moderate regular physical exercise reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke.
c) Reduce stress. Practise relaxation techniques such as meditation or yoga.
d) Keep track of your numbers. Keep your cholesterol, blood sugar and weight within recommended ranges. Manage diabetes well.
e) Quit smoking and avoid excessive alcohol consumption.
f) Visit your doctor. Regular checkups and prompt medical attention to problems help to maintain good health.

• Protect your head. Brain injuries, especially repeated concussions put you at a higher risk for dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease.

a) Wear protective headgear. Use an approved helmet for your type of work or sports such as skiing, skating, rollerblading and cycling.
b) Avoid concussions by reducing risk of falling. Install handrails, clear snow, and throw away scatter rugs.
c) Drive safely and wear a seatbelt.

Source: Alzheimer Society of Canada website

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Being sick brings out my inner whinger. I hate curtailing my physical activities. Missing work days stresses me out, especially during the busy winter season. I also feel a latent guilt over taking sick days or even getting someone else to feed horses for me. I think this is a common thing for those of us who grew up in a rural culture that endorses being tough.

But then I think of Bev McPhee’s sage advice. McPhee was one of my grad school instructors, and also a corporate consultant. A consultant’s most valuable asset is her health, she told us. I think that advice applies to everyone, no matter how a person earns a living.

Resolution to avoid career-ending injuries

By far, the closest call I’ve had was my concussion a few years ago (although on the plus side, I did get a decent column out of it). It was actually my second one. I’d incurred a less serious injury years earlier while horsing around with friends in Edmonton and smacking my head on the sidewalk. That first concussion didn’t really affect me, and I forgot about it for years.

My second concussion was the result of Bear, one of my horses, tossing me. I still have Bear. For a while, we were very nervous with each other, so I eventually sent him to a horse trainer, Cliff Elliott. Between Cliff’s work with Bear, and my work on my own tension, Bear and I now get along pretty good. Non-horse people are often amazed that I’d keep a horse that injured me, but horse people get it. Any horse can be dangerous, and accidents are usually the rider’s fault.

I haven’t had any real long-term problems from the concussion. The only potential effect that lingers has to do with my writing. I sometimes substitute the word I meant to write for a different word. Usually it’s a word with somewhat similar spelling. This happens a few times a week. I usually catch the mistakes while editing, if not right after typing out the errant word. But it’s possible that I did this before I smacked my head, and didn’t notice. It’s also possible that something else is to blame, such as social media.

I’ve been lucky. But I now know better than to take that luck for granted.

Head injuries aren’t just for football players

There’s been a lot of focus in the last few years on head injuries in athletes. Repeated knocks to the head have been linked chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative neurological disease that can only be diagnosed after death, by examining the brain.

There is no cure for CTE. Right now, the only way to prevent it is to avoid incurring multiple concussions.

Football, hockey, and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) have been getting most of the media attention over CTE. But bull riding ranks right up there.

Last November, the Globe and Mail published an in-depth piece looking at head trauma in bull riding (you can find it online by searching “bull riding globe and mail”). The article examines the life and death of Ty Pozzobon, a talented Canadian bull rider who killed himself in January 2017 at the age of 25. He became bull riding’s first confirmed case of CTE. Pozzobon left behind heart-broken parents, friends, and a young wife.

The time Pozzobon died, he’d been knocked unconscious while riding bulls at least 13 times. He’d suffered concussions as far back as age 17. He’d had 20 brain bleeds.

There’s a terrible irony in that, considering all the focus on the welfare of rodeo stock these days. It’s hard to imagine rodeo organizers putting in a bull with the types of injuries that the cowboys ride with.

Of course, the other part of the equation is the culture of toughness and stubbornness in bull riding. It’s like the ranching and farming culture on steroids. Many bull riders compete with broken bones, and they often hide or downplay their concussions.

There are people working within the sport to bring in much-needed changes. A big part of that is changing bull riders’ aversion to acknowledging their own vulnerability. As bull rider Tanner Girletz put it, you don’t feel too tough when you’re carrying your friend in a casket.

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I get to hear about the research into food uses and health claims of the crops grown in Western Canada. I eat pulses for the fibre and protein. I use canola oil several times a week. I’m not shy about eating gluten. I occasionally have oats for breakfast (it’s a great option while traveling), and lately I’ve been baking with them.

I’m also a flax fan. So when I saw that Crop Sphere had a session on flax health claims, I had to check it out.

Dr. Grant Pierce presented the results of a year-long clinical trial looking at whether eating ground flaxseed drops blood pressure and cholesterol. Pierce heads research at St. Boniface Hospital and is also a professor at the University of Manitoba.

Cholesterol is certainly bad for your heart health, Pierce said.

“But high blood pressure is four times as important as cholesterol for heart disease. High blood pressure right now leads to 10 million deaths worldwide each year.”

And 19 out of 20 Canadians will develop hypertension if they live an average lifespan.

He told us that, “current approaches are not working as well as they should. And maybe we can complement drug treatment with another therapeutic approach,” Pierce said.

Flax has three things going for it:

1. Lignins, which are a potent anti-oxidant. Oxidation is an important part of almost every disease out there today, Pierce said.
2. ALA, an Omega 3 that acts as an anti-inflammatory.
3. Fibre, which will reduce low-density lipoprotein (“bad cholesterol”).

The study was a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial. Pierce explained that’s “fancy jargon meaning it’s the most tightly controlled trial that we can do today, equivalent to any drug trial that’s out there.”

Over a year, 110 patients took part — 52 in the placebo group, 58 in the flax group. All the patients had peripheral arterial disease. The typical participant was a 66-year-old man who had smoked over 20 cigarettes a day for three decades before quitting. He had hypertension. There was a good chance that he also had high cholesterol and/or diabetes.

The flax group consumed 30 grams of milled flax every day. That’s about three heaping tablespoons. Pierce said they worked with Cigi and the Food Development Centre in Portage La Prairie to develop buns, pasta, muffins, and bagels so participants had variety.

Each month the patients would order their carbs. Researchers tracked those orders, so they have a good idea what flavours and products worked for that demographic. “They didn’t like the sun-dried tomato. They loved the cinnamon raisin bagel and that continued throughout the whole study,” said Pierce.

The placebo group got whole wheat instead of flax. Researchers measured the ALA in participants’ blood, just to make sure people from both groups were following the rules. Both groups had low ALA levels in the beginning, but the flax groups’ levels rose through the year.

Flax as good as any drug

Researchers also measured participants’ blood pressure throughout the year. Both groups had the same (high) blood pressure numbers at the beginning of the trial. The flax group saw a significant drop in their blood pressure through the trial. The placebo groups’ blood pressure stayed the same.

Specifically, the flax eaters’ systolic blood pressure dropped about 10 mmHg. Their diastolic blood pressure dropped by seven mmHg. (Systolic is the higher number, and diastolic is the lower number).

Patients who had systolic hypertension reaped the most benefits from the flax. They saw a 15 mmHg drop in systolic blood pressure.

What exactly does that mean? “Flax seed is at least as good as any drug that’s out there today, if not better,” Pierce said. Those numbers represent a big, big drop in stroke and heart attack incidence, he added.

Researchers also looked at cholesterol. Total and LDL cholesterol was the same in both groups at the start. Over 12 months, the flax group saw a 10 to 15 per cent drop in both total and LDL cholesterol. The placebo group stayed the same. Pierce said that anyone eating flax will continue to see cholesterol drops whether or not they’re on cholesterol-controlling drugs.

“And it’s better than if you’re just on the cholesterol-controlling medication.”

You probably don’t need to consume 30 grams of flax a day to see benefits. Pierce said they used 30 grams because they didn’t want to find out part way through that people weren’t getting quite enough flax to see an effect.

Pierce said they saw a blood pressure drop within the first month. That month the flax eaters were only getting 20 grams a day, so they could get used to the extra fibre.

Don’t throw out your medication. But it might be worth a conversation with your doctor. Pierce’s study, along with other research, is available at flaxresearch.com. The site requires users to register, but there is no cost.

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The highest relative risk factor, according to the study, was agriculture-related work. Not surprising, given the mix of manual labour and seated positions in most ag jobs. Whether it’s rice farmers in the oceania, grain farmers across the world, hog/dairy/beef/equine workers, or tobacco farmers in Brazil, there’s high incidences of low back pain within the population. It’s most commonly caused by poor movement habits, postural deficiencies, long periods of immobility, repetitive movements or a combination of all of these.

If you’re suffering from acute low back pain that is severe or new to you, seek advice from your doctor, athletic therapist, physio, kinesiologist or movement professional as soon as possible. Pain is there to tell you something, not to be ignored.

Eating right, moving right, and using appropriate stretches, heat, and ice will be key in managing your back pain. Consulting your local movement professional and having an assessment done is the best way to prevent or treat your pain.

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Yes, that’s the new boundary that medical technology dares to be pushing as an Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero late last year claims he and an international team of specialists have the skill and capability to surgically lob the head off one body and carefully attach it to a different headless body.

The lead candidate in this story, to have his healthy head attached to a new healthy body, is a 31-year-old Russian computer scientist — just a kid — who has a “devastating muscle-wasting disease that has left his body compressed like an accordion.”

And wouldn’t it be wonderful if this guy who is imprisoned by a faulty body could be given a fully mobile life, to use his skills and talents and mobility to enjoy all that life has to offer. On the down side, the healthy recipient body for this new head has to be donated by someone who is mortally injured in an accident.

The theory certainly has some merits, but it opens way more than just a simple can of moral and ethical worms. First, there is the technical issue of whether it is even possible. Other surgeons and bioethicists say in polite terms a head transplant is just fiction. Doctors so far have never succeeded in rewiring a human spinal cord. Canavero may have some tricks up his scrubs no one knows about, but you have to wonder.

And critics also question, what happens if it only sort of works. What if there is a big “oops” moment and the procedure results in a severely mentally disabled brain on a body that doesn’t move? Then what do you do with this computer scientist who is worse off than he was before? Throw him out with the medical waste?

And Canavero talks about the bigger picture potential of a head transplant — cloning and living forever. So you collect a DNA sample from Lee Hart, use that to create a human clone, grow the clone out to say a physically healthy 20-year-old body, but you don’t activate it. It is just a body in cold storage. So Lee Hart gets to be 65-years-old, the original body is showing some wear and tear, so he decides it is time for a make over. Into the operating room, lob off the 65-year-old head full of wisdom and knowledge, attach it to the body of the 20-year-old clone, attach the jumper cables to the new body and voila, Lee Hart is good for another 50 year run.

Again it is an amazing theory, but you really have to wonder will it ever be possible? Should it be?

So back to my original decision. Aside from the cloning option, which is likely a really long ways off, so if I go forward with this head transplant today, do we end up with my head and brain on a new body, or does the John Doe recipient end up with an ugly old head and an often troubled brain, bordering on crazy some days? Do I want to impose my kind of thinking on a healthy human form? Like this morning — I got really angry because the toaster didn’t pop, so I started planning revenge against Walmart and Sunbeam. Do I really want a seemingly innocent body carrying out these acts of aggression? Does society really want that perpetuated?

I meet a friend down the road. “Hey, great to see you Bob. All is good. Going in for my third body transplant next week. My brain is actually 180 years old. I still haven’t figured out how to properly use this 100-year-old smart phone yet but I’m sure that will come… Oh, what do you mean no one uses smart phones anymore?”

Stuff like that. I have enough trouble pretending I can keep up with technology and trends today. Do I really think this old head is going to be any smarter 100 years from now?

The cold hard reality is that I should just stick with what I got. As it is, I can’t watch any TV, music, or movie award shows — I have no idea who these people are. It takes a lot of work now to pretend to keep up with technology. And I like to get to bed by 10 p.m. I don’t think that’s fair to a young healthy body.

And if by some fantastic medical development I did keep some version of this “unit” running for another 100 to 200 years, do I really want to still be writing about the role of copper in wheat in 2080, the potential of carbon credits in 2100, a livestock traceability system that is just about there in 2110, and a brand new 2125 idea to create something called the Canadian Wheat Board. Been there, done all that. There can be some things worse that death.

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