From the "Where Would We Be Without Them?" Dept.

"Your reasonableness is poisoning my fear."

                        -- Stephen Colbert

          What a great message by the sanity advocates today.  It looked like a nice cross-section of Americans there on the Mall.  Cheryl Crow and Kid Rock playing with The Roots??  What more could you ask for?  Such scenes always remind me of a very cool song about a coast to coast adventure based on hope.  (If Elvis covered it, it must be good, right?) I think it was in the Ken Burns' PBS documentary about the history of the blues in which

Media Coverage of Hidden Brain Damage Mounts

Recently Deceased College Football Player Diagnosed with CTE

J. Paul Zoccali

            Former University of Southern California standout and professional ranks surface-scratching offensive lineman, Chris Brymer made a seemingly graceful transition from a brief, journeyman’s professional football career to founding his own mortgage company.  He then gradually slipped into a delusional state, which started with severe bouts of paranoia involving his wife before progressing to his making claims that he can control the weather and spending most of his workdays staring out his office window watching birds.  As outlined in Peter Jamison’s in-depth SF Weekly article, “Head Case,” Brymer’s story, which will likely become a watershed case in the study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, recently took a decisive turn.  After months of living on the streets of San Francisco, Brymer is currently charged with four counts of felony assault stemming from an altercation at a soup kitchen allegedly including a racial epithet.