Booth's Mental health

[Jim Page]

Okay; enough of this topic. Can we please move on now to Booth's Dental Health?

Thanks so much.

I've seen his toothbrush in the Ford's Theatre Museum.

--Jim

[Jenny]

So this is why I am wondering if Booth got no sleep on the night of the 13th whether there was an effect. Why, when writing his mother at 2:00 A.M., would he include the words, "Excuse brevity; am in haste." Was his mind racing?

His thoughts very well could have been racing in my opinion!

[HerbS]

Jenny-Great posts! I have a sleep problem,so my doctor thought of Valerian Root and Melatonin pills[go natural]and it works! Roger,I always lost sleep before games,but I agree with Jenny about Booth's mind racing.Jim,I agree with you-let's look at Booth's dental health,as it could reveal his mental health!

[Jim Page]

Hey, Roger--

I'm no diagnostician, that's for sure, but what you describe sounds much like what I went through when I had a hyper-thyroid condition called Graves disease. It's a tricky thing to treat, as getting the replacement thyroid hormone right is like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. I also literally doubled in weight, after being rail-thin all my life.

But the trouble sleeping, racing mind, snappish behavior, and so on are classic signs of an overactive thyroid.

--Dr. Jim

[RJNorton]

Hi Jim. Part of the problem was something I didn't mention but will now. It was common for the parents of the players to sit right behind the team bench and openly make comments on every move I made during the game. If there were disagreement on a player substitution, for example, oftentimes I could hear the objection from the kid's parent. It would purposely be said loud enough to make sure I heard it. I knew this kind of thing was coming, and often this was a factor in the sleeplessness the night before. The overactive thyroid may well have played a role, and I know I was more prone to anger/snappish behavior after a night without sleep.

[L Verge]

At some point over the past few days, someone on this thread asked if I would contact Terry Alford for his feelings on Booth's proclivity to drink. Here's his response:

"You know, there are grades to that problem, and I don't have a scale, but it seems to me he drank to cover a bit of depression. Unfortunately, when he drank, he didn't get silly or sleepy. Drink "seemed to bring out the bandit" [the desperado] in him, said his friend John McCullough. "

I think Terry chose his words carefully and is right on target by realizing that "there are grades to that problem [alcoholism]" and also that "I [we] don't have a scale."

I do know that I researched the history of alcoholism/depression/and anxiety attacks in my own father's family. In a family of four boys and one girl, every boy was an alcoholic except one, my aunt and her two daughters suffered from both panic attacks and depression, and I spent two years fighting a chemical imbalance in my 30s - no alcoholism involved, but anti-depressants were needed to solve the problem. Maybe my family's history has made me more sympathetic -- and more selective in branding someone an alcoholic.

[Jenny]

Laurie - your father's family sounds a lot like my father's side of my family. Thank you for posting Dr. Alford's reply! I agree with him.

[Susan Higginbotham]

I think Dr. Alford was wise not to attempt an armchair diagnosis. I also think that if JWB was indeed an alcoholic, those who knew him would have more to recollect about his drinking--as those who knew his father certainly did.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Rosieo. I have "Fortune's Fool" and also had the great pleasure to hear Prof. Alford speaking on his book this past March (and, please allow me to remark, perceived calling his work and research "his stuff" as disrespectful).

I am truly sorry the discussion and facing other viewpoints stressed you. By some wordings I felt "invited" to discuss. And truth to be told (perhaps a cultural issue?), parlance at times stressed me, too.

I am sorry, Eva Elisabeth, I am not sure I understand what you have written here. Are you calling me disrespectful and saying I made you feel stressed?

I said to me it sounds disrespectful to call a scholar's well-researched work "his stuff". Maybe this perception originates in cultural differences, it would not be appropriate in German/y, and reading such just shocked me. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said - "Language is the source of misunderstandings".

[Susan Higginbotham]

Thanks, Rosieo. I have "Fortune's Fool" and also had the great pleasure to hear Prof. Alford speaking on his book this past March (and, please allow me to remark, perceived calling his work and research "his stuff" as disrespectful).

I am truly sorry the discussion and facing other viewpoints stressed you. By some wordings I felt "invited" to discuss. And truth to be told (perhaps a cultural issue?), parlance at times stressed me, too.

I am sorry, Eva Elisabeth, I am not sure I understand what you have written here. Are you calling me disrespectful and saying I made you feel stressed?

I said to me it sounds disrespectful to call a scholar's well-researched work "his stuff". Maybe this perception originates in cultural differences, it would not be appropriate in German/y, and reading such just shocked me. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said - "Language is the source of misunderstandings".

In American parlance, saying that a scholar "knows his stuff" (i.e., his subject) is a compliment.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Susan. Wow, I'm sorry, I didn't know that one. We would say that he knows his "Sache", which could be translated by "thing", "business", "matter" or "case". The German word for "stuff" is a very disrespectful, downgrading, risqué expression (for "Sache/n", thus all these words). Slang, and inapproproate in the very context in public domain.

[L Verge]

Just like Gene is reminded of an appropriate song, I'm reminded of an experience that I had in England by using the past tense of the verb "to stuff" -- "stuffed." Back in 1971, a friend and I spent the summer traveling in Europe, and one of our first stops was London. We made contact with a family that a mutual, American friend had suggested; and they invited us to their suburban home for dinner.

I was offered second helpings, and I declined and added "I'm stuffed." The family literally dropped their knives and forks. It seems that the term "stuffed" was slang for "pregnant." Since abortion was then illegal in the U.S., the family automatically assumed that I was another American who had come to England for a legal abortion. We quickly cleared that situation up!

[Gene C]

This may be a little of subject but, that reminds me of a song.
I thought the video was kind of cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0duy030p-NM

[HerbS]

The phrase"stuff"is often used here in the North East[USA] as a figure of speech!

[Susan Higginbotham]

Just like Gene is reminded of an appropriate song, I'm reminded of an experience that I had in England by using the past tense of the verb "to stuff" -- "stuffed." Back in 1971, a friend and I spent the summer traveling in Europe, and one of our first stops was London. We made contact with a family that a mutual, American friend had suggested; and they invited us to their suburban home for dinner.

I was offered second helpings, and I declined and added "I'm stuffed." The family literally dropped their knives and forks. It seems that the term "stuffed" was slang for "pregnant." Since abortion was then illegal in the U.S., the family automatically assumed that I was another American who had come to England for a legal abortion. We quickly cleared that situation up!

For good measure, you should have told the family that you loved to shag.