Ted Kennedy

Berryjooks recalls when he was in a terrible out-of-state car accident with no health insurance:

... I ended up in New England Memorial in Stoneham, and within a couple of days the doctors there told my parents that there wasn't anything more they could do for me.

A friend of the family called Ted's office and explained the situation, and that same afternoon the State Police came and escorted me to the New England Baptist Hospital and delivered me into the care of one of the most amazing and talented liver surgeons in the country, Dr. Kenneth Warren. The rest, as they say, is history.

Without Ted's intervention, I wouldn't have made it. Children, grandchildren, none of that would have happened.

And who was I?

Just some constituent. ...

Meanwhile, Cleary Squared remembers when his father was diagnosed with a malignant glioma:

... Radiation, plus the gliomas, effectively scrambled my father's brains, and caused other complications such as hematomas, headaches, and loss of physical coordination. By September 2005, he was wheelchair bound, but still somewhat lucid, and actually looked like he was getting better. However, once the cancer spread to his spine, we knew it would be a matter of time. We planned his funeral in October, thinking he'd survive until at least after Christmas. He died two days before Thanksgiving, after celebrating his 35th wedding anniversary, at the age of 63. ...

Malignant glioma, treatment consists of radiation and chemotherapy, but outlook is grim.

Statement from Mass. General.

Information on malignant glioma from the National Cancer Institute: "The outlook for patients with malignant gliomas is poor." More from the Journal of the AMA.

Dan Kennedy, however, notes that Arlen Spector has been serving in the Senate since the 1990s despite battling various types of cancer, including a brain tumor.

Photo by Will White.

Marry into the Kennedy clan, book publicist Stacey Miller recommends.

There's a whole 'nother world westa Worcester. And many folks out there see things a bit differently than we do.

Charlie on the MTA notes that, thanks in part to Ted Kennedy's objection to the Cape Wind project, wind-power projects all over the country have ground to a halt:

Jay Fitzgerald says such a race would prove the existence of a Tabloid God:

Hah, take that, wingnuts! A true commie would know the difference between the Little Red Book and the Communist Manifesto.