Portrait of Dora MaarPablo Picasso
1937
Musee Picasso: Paris, France
Today is the anniversary of the day I moved to Vancouver. It was a dry, hot, tropical-feeling day just like today, and I fell in love with Vancouver. But every day I learn something new and interesting about this city. Yesterday I discovered that the use of Botox for cosmetic purposes was invented right here in ... ta-da ... Vancouver. Who knew! A local ophthalmologist by the name of Dr. Jean Carruthers discovered that the Botox toxin she used to treat her ophthalmological patients also erased frown lines, and the rest, as they say ...
It just so happens that Dr. Carruthers' husband, Dr. Alistair Carruthers, is a dermatologist, and they experimented on their receptionist. Et voila! frown lines gone. However, it took a few years for the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery to accept the idea, but in 1993 Botox suddenly took off.
I had dinner with a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago, and she seemed "fresher-looking" than I had seen her look for a while. I thought perhaps it was because she had quit smoking, but then she admitted she had had Botox for her migraine headaches.
Yah, right...
Well, if it works, why not? Most people do everything they can to keep the hands of time turned back. They try to eat healthy foods, they get at least some form of exercise, they take multi-vitamins -- why not a little tweaking on the exterior as well? However, I just bought a new TV set, so the Botox injections are going to have to wait -- at least until next payday.
Or not...
Vancouver is a fun place, and you never know what interesting things you're going to find here.
27 comments:
Quitting smoking is the MOST important decision you'll ever make in your life, for you and your loved ones. It is better to start Now, because the longer you stay on it, the more damage it will do to your body.
No Tobacco, I could not agree more! I don't smoke. Do you know the poem:
Tobacco is a filthy week
I like it;
It satisfies no normal need
I like it;
It makes you thin,
It makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean,
It's the worst darned stuff I've ever seen,
I like it.
Not me... *heh*
But thanks for spamming ... um ... visiting. :-)
My two oldest boys have been wanting to take a summer trip up to Vancouver, and my eldest will be 16 in July. I was thinking of making this the year we go "across the line". Of course we will all have to get passports now, but if you could give me some suggestions on some sights and places to eat, I'd love it.
Hi Jo, amazing what comes out of Vancouver ; Fred Herzog, Botox, and one of the most amazing blogs out there : A Majority Of Two...
In relation to the Botox subject and the notion of changing our appearance, physically or virtually, you may enjoy the post and the following discussion that went on in the comments box at Steve's "Bloggertropolis" in his post titled "Au Naturale" on Monday 25 May, blog is here :
http://www.pocketropolis.co.uk/blog/blogger.html
Steve is one of the best writers I've come across in the entire blogosphere...
I hope the Botox in Vancouver is more affordabe than here in the U.S.! (Aren't all drugs cheaper in Canada)!
I would do it, if it weren't so expensive. A friend of mine works a a medical spa and says it only lasts about four months.
Think I will pass on the botox....these aren't wrinkles, they are character lines and I ma quite the character!
Mean Mama, you should try to come here during the Festival of Lights fireworks over English Bay. It's absolutely spectacular..! It's the end of July and beginning of August.
Owen, thank you! *heh* And thanks for the link. I'm going to check it out.
John, gosh! You don't need Botox...! You look really young! Yes, in Vancouver the Botox costs about $500 a "session" and it lasts about four months. I think I'll just keep my wrinkles ... I mean ... laugh lines. :-)
Kathy, good for you!! Have you ever seen "The Housewives of Orange County"? They are so Botoxed, they can't move their faces. *heh*
Injecting poison into your face? Sounds great! What could go wrong?
I'm going to go with the "or not".
I've decided that in lieu of needles stuck in my face with toxic poison, I'll just grow old gracefully...or clumsily. I hate needles! Yikes!
I love a few character lines, faces are so interesting to look at. I find women who have had botox and other treatments hard to look at, their faces just don't look right. Jo, don't you dare, you're beautiful just the way you are.
LOL, no tobacco. Thanks for that.
Yep. Vancouver sounds great, lol. I've never been there, but my aunt and uncle live there and I'd love to go. Ahh botox. What a miracle it is. :) I don't use it......... but I probably will. I'm vain.
I'm just going to second what Mary Ellen said - eep! I was just finally able to psych myself into giving blood after I turned 40 - I don't think I could do the needle thing near my face.
TV and movies give young folks the idea that they have to look glamorous all the time. Go to the mall, as I did the other day, and look at all the "ordinary" people. All shapes ans sizes and all beautiful human beings.
Good afternoon from Athens, Greece. With having nearly 93F there are many faces to be seen, having used this botox thing too. Was last week that a student said to me, that I do look like a 'middle aged man'...maybe time to think about botox-ing myself - which I guess isn't helping anymore.BTW, gave the student double homework for the weekend ;)
Botox helps with migraines? Weird! I'd do just about anything to stop a migraine, including injecting botulism. I will research that. I just won't tell anyone if I do it haha.
In lieu of flushing my $$$ down the toilet and sticking poison in my face, I opted to buy some L'Oreal collegen stuff and after using almost one tube, I can honestly say I see a difference - not much, but some. So I'll get more of that.
My problem with Botox is that you have to repeat it every 3-4 months. That gets expensive!
Botox is also used to treat excessive sweating. My cousin has it injected into her feet, hands and armpits. I'd just rather sweat, have headaches, and be wrinkly. I try to stay away from anything that seems to unnatural.
Botox....I work with a gal who also works for a dermatologist and she administers Botox injections regularly...it's very very popular...but I must admit...I didn't know it originated in Vancouver...just another Vancouver claim to fame....
My mother has had chronic migraine headaches for the last 39 years. She has tried every drug under the sun as well as, needle therapy (ouch!), biofeedback, diet change, etc. Nothing had ever given her relief until botox.
Before botox, she would have 2-3 migraines per week. Now she can go 2-3 MONTHS without a migraine. In my book, it's a blessing. :)
Oh, my favorite Picasso. Studied this painting in college and really identified with Dora Maar.
Botox? I haven't had it done, but maybe in my seventies.
Madame Ladybug, *heh, heh* Oh, yes....
LoverOfLife, me too, I'm afraid. :-)
Mary Ellen, yes, I agree. The thought of a needle ... filled with poison? Shudder...
LovelyPrism, thank you! And yes, they never look better, just artificial.
Greenpanda, your aunt and uncle live here? Whereabouts!?
TheBug, no I don't even like needles at the dentist. *Shudder*
Dee, you are SO RIGHT! Celebrities all look the same, don't they!?
Mo'ikeha, oh you are wicked. :-) *heh* And you don't look as if you need Botox. Don't do it!
Scarlethue, yes, Botox is apparently very good for migraines.
Leslie, L'Oreal is a fabulous product. Stick with that. You look great anyway...!
Kenju, yes! Once you start you have to keep going, right!?
Cat, yes, I have heard that it is good for excessive sweating. That's funny, hey?
MaryAnne, Hi! Mental telepathy. I was just thinking about you yesterday! And yes, it originated in Vancouver, in an office on Broadway. :-)
Forgotten Katalyst, oh, gosh, I'm glad to hear it help your Mom. Yes, I knew it was good for migraines, but my friend does not have migraines. That's what tickled me. :-)
Marguerite, it's one of my favorites too. I have never studied art formally, but I have read several books on Picasso, his life and his subjects. He was quite the fellow. :-)
Botox for migraine?...Sign me up! I'll inject mad cow semen if it will make my migraines go away! And do they inject it between your brows?...that is where my scowl..I mean laugh lines reside!
No Tobacco,
I know you've got a book out on the evils of smoking (doesn't evehybody?) but there's also the story of the 91-year-old smoker, and I am well nigh onto becoming one. Yes, yes people get irritated by cigarette smoke and one must be sensitive to this, but how clinically provable are instances of cancer in people exposed to second-hand smoke, or, for that matter smoking itself as as a cancer cause. Lazy patholgists, I say. "Did he smoke?" "Yes."..."Well, that's what killed him."
As a doctor you know there are at least seventeen cancers and and the cause and effect game is never won.
There is second-hand smoke, yes. It's damn irritating, sometimes even for a smoker not smoking at the time. But it is a temporary irritant, no worse than your car exhaust or the air you breathe in a large industrial city.
The anti-smoking-second-hand smoke movement is a shuck.
I cannot resist a rant.
Every year, thousands of medical doctors and other members of the “Anti-Smoking Inquisition” spend billions of dollars perpetuating what has unquestionably become the most misleading though successful social engineering scam in history And we in Ontario, an especially nanny province, we see our Orwellian lobbyists pursue smokers with a fanatical zeal that completely overshadows the ridiculous American alcohol prohibition debacle, which started in 1919 and lasted until 1933.
Nowadays we look back on American prohibition with justifiable astonishment. Is it really true that an entire nation allowed itself to be denied a beer or scotch by a tiny group of tambourine-bashing fanatics? Sadly, yes it is, despite a total lack of evidence that alcohol causes any harm to humans, unless consumed in astromomical quantities, like the poor rats they overdosw eith nicotine to get the desired (and paid for) result.
Although there is no direct link between alcohol and tobacco, the history of American prohibition is important, because it helps us understand how a tiny number of zealots managed to control the behavior and lives of tens of millions of people. Nowadays exactly the same thing is happening to smokers, though this time it is at the hands of government zealots and ignorant medical practitioners rather than tambourine-bashing religious fanatics.
Governments know that their past actions are directly responsible for causing most of the lung and skin cancers in the world today, so they go to extreme lengths in trying to deflect responsibility and thus financial liability away from themselves, and onto tobacco instead. There is statistical evidnece that tobacco causes cancer--largely lazy coroners-but there is no direct causal evidence to suggest garmless organic tobacco has ever hurt anyone,. ,and in certain ways can justifiably claim to provide startling health protection.
Not all governments around the world share the same problem. Japan and Greece have the highest numbers of adult cigarette smokers in the world, but the lowest incidence of lung cancer. In direct contrast to this, America, Australia, Russia, and some South Pacific island groups have the lowest numbers of adult cigarette smokers in the world, but the highest incidence of lung cancer.
What is wrong with this picture?
We worry about sixteeen-year olds contracting cancer, while bullets fly all around and authorities abdicate their real responsibilites.
I know many people (and see many more) who do Botox and while some look great, others have perfectly expressionless faces that look as if they were caught in a wind tunnel.
Much as I would love to look younger again, I would rather look old than deformed.
Botox....h-m-m-m-m....I think I'd rather do my facial exercises instead. Maybe I'm just a bit squeamish.
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