Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS Literature: What to Expect at the French Frontier (James Baldwin)

“The man at the frontier has cigarette ashes all up and down his uniform, and a cigarette is established between his lips. He has not the remotest interest in the voyager, or his passport. Sometimes he forces himself to squint at both. Sometimes he looks at the baggage, sometimes not. Sometimes he stamps the passport;Continue reading “RKS Literature: What to Expect at the French Frontier (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The Brutally Manufactured Lola San-Marquand (James Baldwin)

“I never knew her to dress in any other way. She must have had hundreds of black dresses and scarves-though-in fact, a black and impetuous toque sometimes did duty for the scarf, This, however, was mainly on opening nights. She impressed me-she impresses me still-as one of the most curious, most loving, devious, ruthless, andContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Brutally Manufactured Lola San-Marquand (James Baldwin)”

RKS Health: The Great Hernia Adventure: Devolution of Pain Into Annoyance as a Pain Management Tool

Imagine on day 28 after your hernia procedure the pain remains unwavering. It is on the low level of let’s say 4 or 5 out of ten. You have given up on your over-the-counter pain meds as how much more can your body tolerate and at a certain point they don’t seem to annihilate orContinue reading “RKS Health: The Great Hernia Adventure: Devolution of Pain Into Annoyance as a Pain Management Tool”

RKS Health: The Great Hernia Adventure: Recovery from Inguinal Hernia Surgery: The Terror of Anticipated Pain and Opioid Pain Relief

Dr. Google/ChatGPT explain the over-the-counter pain relief medications and the big guns like opioids the latter instilling, perhaps rightly so, terror of opioids. I am sure you have your personal perceptions of the evils of opioids. On a scale of 1-10 my view is I’ll take post hospital when my pain scale is a 12/10.Continue reading “RKS Health: The Great Hernia Adventure: Recovery from Inguinal Hernia Surgery: The Terror of Anticipated Pain and Opioid Pain Relief”

RKS Literature: White Police: Black Men (James Baldwin)

“Because I’m black and they paid to beat on black asses. But, with a kid your size, they just might get into trouble. So they let us go. They knew you weren’t nothing but a kid. They knew it. But they didn’t care. All black people are shit to them. You remember that. You blackContinue reading “RKS Literature: White Police: Black Men (James Baldwin)”

RKS 2025 Wine: A Graciano from Spain’s Navarra Appellation

Graciano is a spicy aromatic, intensely flavoured grape and is less tannic than Tempranillo and tends to oxidize easily. It is not capable of ageing for any extended period. It prefers cool clay-chalk soils and mild damp climates and dislikes drought and intense summer heat. We try an Agramont Graciano from the Navarra appellation inContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: A Graciano from Spain’s Navarra Appellation”

RKS Literature: Eyes Upon Me (James Baldwin)

“These were the eyes of children stronger than me, who would steal my movie money; these eyes were the eyes of white cops, whom I feared, whom I hated with a literally murderous hatred; these eyes were the eyes of old folks who thought I was a sissy and who might wonder why I wasContinue reading “RKS Literature: Eyes Upon Me (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The Younger Brother (James Baldwin)

“I think it may be easier to love the really helpless younger brother because he cannot enter into competition with one on one’s own ground, or on any ground at all, and can never question one’s role, or jeopardize one’s authority. In my own case, certainly, it did not occur to me until much later-toContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Younger Brother (James Baldwin)”

RKS Health: The Great Hernia Adventure: Recovery from Inguinal Hernia Surgery: PAIN AND SUFFERING

There would seem some consensus as to some of the temporal aspects of pain after inguinal hernia surgery and the bottom-line conclusion of expect some pain is not debatable! What is not so easily ascertained is the length and severity of the pain. Pain is a relative concept. The degree of pain experienced by thoseContinue reading “RKS Health: The Great Hernia Adventure: Recovery from Inguinal Hernia Surgery: PAIN AND SUFFERING”

RKS Literature: Your White Skin is the Problem (Andrea Levy)

“You know what your trouble is man?’ he said. ‘Your white skin. You think it makes you better than me. You think it give you the right to lord over a black man. But you know what it make you, man? It make you white. That is all, man. White. No better or worse thanContinue reading “RKS Literature: Your White Skin is the Problem (Andrea Levy)”