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Published: 03/13/11

Mom Has Cancer. Her Son Reacts.

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
Mom Has Cancer. Her Son Reacts.

My friend Julie Levine had everything I lacked: A charmed childhood, beautiful kids. I might have envied her had she not been the nicest person I ever met. And, therefore, a magnet for cancer. (On an Internet bulletin board I once frequented, we joked that compassion and a zest for living were risk factors.) Julie is eight years younger than me, so I assumed she would someday speak at my funeral. Especially once I received a diagnosis of stage III ovarian cancer in 2001. Julie came to my hospital room. She took me to chemo. She and her mother came to my house bearing brisket, fudgy peanut ...

Published: 11/9/10

A Magical Life Cut Short, but Lived on Her Own Fierce Terms

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
A Magical Life Cut Short, but Lived on Her Own Fierce Terms

It seems like yesterday. It seems like a hundred years ago. After my friend Linda Elizondo died of cancer last week, her sister-in-law sent me an old photograph which, she thought, captured Lindy's joie de vivre. "A magical life cut short," Lindy's sister-in-law wrote, "but lived on her own fierce terms." I had taken the picture 35 years ago. I don't remember taking it. Not a very natural pose. (Is it any wonder I didn't last long in photojournalism?) What is Lindy doing? What's with the unopened bottle of wine leaning against her leg? The answers are lost to history. Except for the color ...

Published: 08/19/10

She Had a Job, a Boyfriend and a Brain Tumor, Back When Reality TV Was Real

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
She Had a Job, a Boyfriend and a Brain Tumor, Back When Reality TV Was Real

For a moment in time, she was pediatric resident Dr. Marnie Rose at Memorial Hermann in Houston. I got to know her a little during my first, tumultuous year of recovery from ovarian cancer. Dr. Rose was on TV. Back in those days I was combing the schedule for any reality show that slithered its way to the tube. There among the dreck of the early 2000s (guilty pleasures "Mr. Personality," et al., I'm looking at you) was the lovely Ms. Rose in "Houston Medical," an ABC show that featured doctors, patients and their families. The program, shot over the course of a year, ran for six episodes in ...

Published: 07/30/10

Two Weddings and an E-mail

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
Two Weddings and an E-mail

As some may have heard, Chelsea Clinton is getting married on Saturday in a multimillion-dollar wedding. People have said the event is excessive, especially in these tough times. Others, the U.K. Guardian's, Paul Harris, observe, after the family scandals she endured, Chelsea deserves an extraordinary wedding, and still others react with a yawn. For a few, the yawn morphs into a sneer. In the comment section of the Guardian, Harris was upbraided for his sycophancy: "You write informed pieces about Detroit and then end up writing this dreadful crap about the Clinton daughter. Were you hoping ...

Published: 06/23/10

Republicans to the Unemployed: You're Lazy

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
Republicans to the Unemployed: You're Lazy

Salt, meet wound. Wound being unemployment, and salt being the suggestion that the worst economy since the Great Depression was created by its powerless victims -- the jobless. Republicans, do tell: If so many jobs are ripe for plucking, explain the five applicants for every job. (Down from six a few months ago. Oh joy.) Why would anyone believe unemployment is voluntary when there is so much evidence to the contrary? The answer is surprisingly simple: Because that belief makes them feel good. Life is not fair, we learned in childhood. Apparently we never got over it. The psychology term ...

Published: 04/11/10

Christie Buckner, They Oughta Name a Drink After You

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
Christie Buckner, They Oughta Name a Drink After You

Cancer survivors are reluctant to search for old friends with whom they've lost touch. We fear what we may find. Eventually, though, curiosity gets the best of us. Sometimes we get good news. More often than not, we get a death notice. ...

Published: 03/14/10

In Defense of Sean Penn

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
In Defense of Sean Penn

The outspoken director, actor and political activist Sean Penn is no stranger to controversy. Now, however, he's insulted the rectal cancer folks. At least, that's the conventional wisdom. But what did Penn actually say? In response to CBS reporter Lara Logan's question on how Penn felt about criticism of celebrities in Haiti, Penn replied, "Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer, yeah... But I'm not going to spend a lot of energy on it." ...

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Published: 01/13/10

The Bra-ha-ha

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
The Bra-ha-ha

Regarding my previous post My Bra? Color Me Furious, which has clocked in at 1,000+ comments: I guess I hit a nerve. ...

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