The Halo-Halo Bistro

By Dr. Herm Valenzuela, M.D. Topics on coronary artery disease and related subjects come almost quarterly because together with stroke are the most common causes of fatalities (more than all types of cancer combined). BTW skin cancers are still the most common form of cancer world-wide than all of the other body cancers combined accdg to the W.H.O. This week's consultant is Dr.Giovanni Ciuffo, professor & surgeon in the Cardiothoracic Dept. at Mount Sinai M.C. (NYC); with my addenda from other refs. "No one is exempt from heart disease, an umbrella term used for those diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels; heart disease (coronary artery disease) and cardiovascular diseases are often used interchangeably," Dr Ciuffo states. "The most recent studies show that up to 50% of the world population will eventually be affected by significant heart disease," he added. About 80 M Americans suffered from heart disease in 2006 and about 865,500 died of this in...

What I consider to be my favorite watercolor is this one of my daughter Tina and Tekka, her dog. Tina and I played tennis one summer day on a Saturday morning at our local sports club. After tennis, we went to our house for lunch in our backyard. It was a nice sunny day. Tina was relaxing, sipping a glass of red wine in our backyard while Louise, my wife was preparing lunch. I looked out and saw a beautiful composition of Tina and Tekka. I happened to have my camera in my pocket and pulled it out to take a photo. With the hills in the background, I thought it would be a good composition. When I first saw the photo on my computer screen, I knew I had to paint it. I had been looking for a good subject for a watercolor painting and I knew this was it. I took my time to paint this one. After about a month, I finished my work. I am very happy with the results. Zack

On the morning of November 27, 1959 at Sangley Point, Philippines, I was very excited when I took the oath to enlist in the US Coast Guard. There were 25 of us and we all knew that after our swearing in process we would be confined on base and could no longer go home. We had a short indoctrination after swearing in and we learned we were steward recruits. I felt homesick already. I had to accept the fact that the next time I could see my family again would be when my four-year enlistment was over or sooner if found to be unfit to serve. We all looked pretty scared not knowing what to expect. We filled out more enlistment paperwork until around noon when it was time for us to go to lunch. A petty officer marched us to the mess hall. This was the first mess hall I had ever seen. Everybody formed a line to get their food. It was cafeteria style. Everything looked delicious. There were green salads, fried chicken and roast beef for the main course and assorted cakes and ice cream...