PEOPLESECTION D

THURSDAYAPRIL 30, 2009

Television . . . . . . . . . . . . 3DPuzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4DComics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5D

★★

I figured it for a three-hour job.

By the end of the weekend,the line from the “Gilligan’sIsland” song about what wassupposed to be a three-hourtour kept playing in myhead.

One thing my latest homeimprovement job did was re-inforce the fact that I wouldmake a lousy contractor.

I have a knack for under-estimating how long it willtake to do a fix-it project.

True, this one involved apump and a lot of pipes andworking in a cramped spacethat my body doesn’t getinto and out of as nimbly asit once did.

True, I find it necessaryto pace myself a little morethan I used to and actuallystop now in the middle ofprojects to eat meals.

But shouldn’t wisdomgained from past experi-ences make up for some ofthat?

Apparently not.Figuring out how long a

task is going to take isn’t aproblem at work. I tend tobe able to factor into mytiming that I won’t be ableto reach somebody I need asquickly as I would like.

Getting from one pointto another on a trip usuallydoesn’t take me any longerthan I expect. I’ve come toexpect that traffic probablywill be a problem.

When I sit down to paybills, I generally have a goodidea of how much time thatmundane task will requireeven though I’ll have tolook for my glasses and mycheckbook to get started.

So, why is it that whenI set out to fix somethingaround the house that mytime estimates aren’t justoff by a few minutes, but byfactors of three or four ormore?

I can’t lay it off to in-experience. I’ve been ahomeowner for more than35 years, and I began doingcarpentry and constructionwork when I was in highschool.

I have a pretty good ideaof how long it will take tobuild something, providedthat I have the right toolsand supplies.

Somehow, the time it takesto build something fromscratch doesn’t equate tothe time required for fixingthings. Something usuallybreaks when I’m taking itapart and when I go to thestore looking for the re-placement piece, I find thatthe model hasn’t been madein two decades.

Of course, the fact that myfavorite hardware store atJuban Road and Pete’s High-way isn’t in business anymore doesn’t help either.

Not only did the ownerhave a lot of old stuff tuckedaway, but Joe Harrell haddealt with customers at-tempting every honey-dojob imaginable. He alwaysknew which piece fit whereand how to tighten the wholething down without it fly-ing apart. The kids workingin the mega stores usuallyknow less than I do.

That leaves me with trial,error and extra trips to thebuilding supply store whereI won’t find what I need. I’llsettle for something I canfashion to fit the outdatedgizmo I’m trying to fix.

Advocate Florida Parishesbureau chief Bob Andersonwelcomes comments bye-mail to banderson@thead-vocate.com.

THEADVOCATE

BOBANDERSONThrough aglass darkly

Home repairlessons I’llnever learn

“It keeps kids interested in music and motivated and givesthem a sense of kinship and, as members of a team, feelinglike they’re part of something.”Age: 16School: McKinley Senior High SchoolParents: Cynthia and Donald Broughton and the late Ornlak-sana PaeratakulFAVORITES:Musical genre: Classical and rockTV show: Discovery channel showsMovie: “Forrest Gump”Place to hang out: Fishing by a creek or riverRole models: Parents and cello teacher, Jeeyeoun KoExtra: A junior in McKinley’s gifted program, Jess spent hisfirst two years of elementary school in Bangkok, Thailand.After hearing the cello’s sound for the first time in the fifthgrade, he switched to it from the violin. He recently receivedone of the 10 New Orleans Center for Creative Arts PresidentHonors. Jess will be among the LYO performers at 3 p.m.Sunday at Magnolia Performing Arts Pavilion, 201 Commu-nity College Drive. Listen especially for the techniques heuses to make the cello imitate a guitar in the fourth move-ment of Rimksky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol.

— Relma HargusAdvocate staff writer

BY DEBRA LEMOINEAdvocate staff writer

Elizabeth “B.B.” Blanchard, 16,didn’t think much about a spot shehad assumed was a scar from a cat-erpillar sting the summer before.

Her friends kept asking her aboutthe red, raised mark on the back ofher calf as it spread to her foot andher knee, so she knew she needed tosee a doctor.

“I said, ‘Wait. Scars don’t spread,’”B.B. Blanchard said.

Her dermatologist had never seenanything like it before and took bi-opsies.

The St. Joseph’s Academy sopho-more said she never imagined thatshe had a disease she had learnedabout in reli-gion classes— leprosy.

Hansen’s dis-ease, the newername for lepro-sy, is a misun-derstood bacte-rial infection that has been aroundfor thousands of years. In this pastcentury, people with leprosy weresent to a former sugar plantationin Carville to live out their lives inforced isolation.

For B.B. Blanchard, there is nostigma. She took a course of antibi-otics for six months, and the diseaseis gone.

A small scar remains on the backof her leg that she said feels oddwhen touched.

“She’s very open about it,” saidDr. James Krahenbuhl, director forthe National Hansen’s Disease Pro-grams based in Baton Rouge. “In

another time, in another country,she wouldn’t be so open about it. Itwould destroy her family.”

In the 17 months since her initialdiagnosis, B.B. Blanchard is gradu-ally becoming a spokeswoman forHansen’s disease, and for how it canand should be treated in this day andage.

Her experience has gotten her fea-tured in two national news articles:one in The Washington Post and an-other in People magazine.

Producers for “Oprah” and with“Inside Edition” have called her, butshe has yet to go on national televi-sion, her mother, Anne Blanchard,said. Activists in leprosy charitiesalso have sought her assistance,

but she has yetto commit, hermother said.

“I just wantto live a nor-mal life,” B.B.Blanchard ex-plained.

B.B. Blanchard is on the honor rollin advanced classes, a competitiveswimmer and taking dancing les-sons twice a week.

As her life remains normal, herinterest in her condition has notwaned.

Hansen’s disease is the subject ofa science fair project for her andher partner, Caroline Hebert. Thegirls recently placed at the statelevel in the Science and Engineer-ing Fair and are headed to the inter-national competition in Reno, Nev.,next month.

Advocate staff photos by PATRICK DENNIS

Caroline Hebert, right, explains the role of mice in research of Hansen’s disease. Hebert and Elizabeth ‘B.B.’ Blanchard, left, did their scienceproject on the disease after Blanchard was diagnosed and treated for it.

ERASINGTHE STIGMA

A TEEN’S TAKE: Jess Paeratakul on the valueof participating in Louisiana Youth Orchestra

BY ELLYN COUVILLIONAdvocate staff writer

The McMains Children’sDevelopmental Center will beholding a fun community eventin May.

Friday, May 8, will be thecenter’s seventh annual RedNose Day designed to raisefunds to provide therapy forchildren with cerebral palsy,development delays and learn-ing disorders.

Prior to that day, McMainsCenter is encouraging individ-uals, businesses, organizationsand schools to “clown around”and purchase red foam nosesand “Red Nose Day” T-shirtsfrom the center.

“We try to sell everything be-fore Red Nose Day so that peo-

ple can be seen walking aroundtown on that day,” said JanetKetcham, executive directorof the McMains Children’s De-velopmental Center.

“Not many people keep thefoam noses on, but they’regreat to have on hand to popon and make someone laugh— not a bad tool to have at theworkplace or home!” Ketchamsaid.

The noses are $5; the T-shirtsare $15 and come with a rednose; and there are also men’sties for $10.

Mother’s Day bears are alsobeing sold for $8 to $10 duringthe fundraiser.

All of the merchandise is

Center promotes awarenessday for cerebral palsy

➤See CEREBRAL PALSY, page 2D

Hansen’s disease touches teen’s life, prompts winning science project

ABOVE: Elizabeth ‘B.B.’Blanchard holds a case of 50slides of cell samples of Han-sen’s disease. She and herpartner learned to count thenumber of bacteria in a tissuebiopsy to prove their sciencefair project theory that antibi-otics rid the body of the bac-teria. LEFT: Anne Blanchardpoints to a spot on her 16-year-old daughter’s leg. Thespot is all that remains of theHansen’s disease that Eliza-beth ‘B.B.’ Blanchard was di-agnosed with 17 months agoand treated for six monthswith antibiotics.

➤See DISEASE, page 2D

“She was never a leper.The L-word is out. She had

it. It’s gone. It’s over.”ANNE BLANCHARD

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Hebert, 16, said she was nev-er scared of catching the dis-ease and asked to touch B.B.Blanchard’s leg daily duringtheir science class.

“My grandma was like, ‘Is shegoing to the colony?’ ” Hebertsaid. “I just thought (that) if itwasn’t safe, she wouldn’t be atschool.”

Last week, B.B. Blanchardand Krahenbuhl spoke aboutHansen’s disease to seventh-grade science students at St.Aloysius Catholic School,where B.B. Blanchard once at-tended.

Misunderstood diseaseMany of the misconceptions

about leprosy come frommovies and books that portrayit inaccurately, Krahenbuhl toldthe seventh-graders.

“Fingers don’t fall off. Nosesdon’t fall off. All of that is utternonsense,” Krahenbuhl said.

As the skin bacteria grows, itdamages peripheral nerves. Inadvanced cases, people withHansen’s disease lose theirsense of touch in their handsand feet.

When people can’t feel theirfeet or hands, they frequentlyinjure these body parts withoutknowing it, Krahenbuhl said.These repeated, unnoticed in-juries get infected, and some-times need to be amputated. Di-abetic nerve damage causessimilar problems in feet.

The motor nerves that controlthe hand also are damaged,causing fingers to retract intoan unusable claw, Krahenbuhlsaid.

The National Hansen’s Dis-ease Program, part of the U.S.Health Resources and ServicesAdministration, treats about 40to 50 patients annually fromacross the country on an outpa-tient basis, he said.

The disease remains rampantin parts of Brazil, India and thePacific Islands where there isoften little or delayed treatmentand intense stigma surroundingit, Krahenbuhl said. About300,000 people are infectedeach year worldwide, accord-ing to the World Health Organi-zation.

In the United States, Hansen’sdisease is rare with around 150new cases reported each year.Typically, immigrants fromcountries where the disease re-mains active are the ones whohave it.

About 30 people born in theUnited States, like B.B. Blan-chard, get it each year, Krahen-buhl said. They typically live insouthern Louisiana or the Texas

Gulf Coast.Krahenbuhl said his theory on

why the disease is active inLouisiana and Texas is thatthese states have the highest ar-madillo populations, an animalthat the disease thrives in. Thatlink has yet to be proven con-clusively, but Krahenbuhl’s re-search seeks to prove it.

Hansen’s disease does notspread from person to personeasily, in part, because 95 per-cent of the population has a nat-ural immunity to it, Krahenbuhlsaid. Within days of treatment,the disease is no longer conta-gious.

Because of the rarity of thedisease, doctors often don’tthink to look for it as a cause fora skin infection, he said. If adoctor presses on a red rashand the patient can’t feel thetouch, then it could be leprosy.A biopsy can diagnose it, hesaid.

The L-word livesMuch of the stigma about

Hansen’s disease comes fromthe Bible’s Book of Leviticus,Krahenbuhl said. Those chap-ters refer to lepers as unclean

and being punished by God.But the disease called leprosy

in those verses was probably acompendium of skin diseasesrather than the leprosy that ex-ists today, Krahenbuhl said.However, the leprosy in theNew Testament of the ChristianBible is probably the same dis-ease seen today.

Leprosy is now calledHansen’s disease, in part, to re-move some of the stigma, hesaid. It is hard to raise money tocombat “Hansen’s disease” inimpoverished countries, so theword “leprosy” is still used andis interchangeable, he said.

B.B. Blanchard said herfriends affectionately call her aleper from time to time, and itdoesn’t bother her. If a strangerdid it, she would be upset.

The l-word is one Anne Blan-chard, a librarian at St. Aloy-sius, doesn’t like associatedwith her daughter, she ex-plained to the seventh-gradersas she introduced B.B. Blan-chard and Krahenbuhl.

“She was never a leper. The l-word is out. She had it. It’s gone.It’s over,” Anne Blanchard saidabout her daughter.

Advocate staff photo by PATRICK DENNIS

Elizabeth ‘B.B.’ Blanchard, left, a St. Joseph’s Academy sopho-more, stands in front of her winning science fair project onHansen’s disease with her project partner Caroline Hebert.Blanchard’s interest in the disease, also known as leprosy,comes from having had it and being cured a year ago.

Clean, re-season yourwooden salad bowls

Dear Heloise: Through theyears, my wooden salad bowlshave acquired a sticky residuefrom various salad dressings.I am unsure what to use toclean this. I’ve tried every-thing that I could think of toclean the bowls without de-stroying their natural patinafinish. What is the best andsafest way to clean this stickyresidue on wood? — Joanne Mar-tin, of Flemington, N.J.

Dear Joanne: If you keep yourwooden bowls clean and re-seasoned periodically, theycan last for generations. Justuse a mild liquid hand-dish-washing detergent to wash thebowls using warm water.Rinse and dry thoroughly,since prolonged exposure towater can cause damage.Next, use a soft cloth or papertowel to spread a light coat of

mineral oil (vegetable oil canbecome rancid) on the entirebowl. Let it work for 12 hoursor so, then wipe with a papertowel. When the beautifulwooden luster becomes dull, itis time to re-season. Remem-ber that water can damageyour wooden bowls, so puttingthem in the dishwasher is a bigno-no! — Heloise

E-mail a hint to heloise@heloise.com. © 2009, KingFeatures Syndicate

Gutlessgirl offerslife in hell

Dear Carolyn: I have been see-ing a girl I work with for fivemonths. We don’t see muchof each other, and talk onlyas she can. She has been in-volved with someone for fiveyears and is engaged.

However, she is not happy.Hasn’t been for a while. Sheprofesses her love to menearly every day, and I havelet my feelings be known.

I am concerned that she willnever leave this other manbecause she has told me shedoes not want to hurt him. Shehas told him about us, but hedoesn’t want to give up onthem. She is having a hardtime breaking his heart. Do Istay around and wait for her,or tell her she needs to makea decision? — S.

Dear S.: It’s all so excitingwhen you’re professing newlove, stealing moments totalk, trying on various fu-tures in the agreeable con-fines of your mind.

But a lifetime with some-one as gutless as the girl youdescribe? Hell.

She does get bonus pointsfor telling her fiancé aboutyou. That couldn’t have beeneasy. However, it’s conceiv-able she told because he bust-ed her, or you cornered her orshe hoped he’d dump her forit, thereby making the toughchoice for her. Any of thosewould negate her bonus.

Regardless, the net result isher creating round-the-clockdrama where there’s a simplealternative: take the heat.Withdraw from both men soshe can think straight. Risklosing both men because theright thing beats the safe one.

Instead, she’s making I’m-too-nice-to-hurt-anyone!!! ex-cuses while she — conve-niently and not coincidental-ly — keeps all her optionsopen. Her top priority is toprotect her own interests.

Why are you abetting this,settling for this, waiting inline for more? Unless youwant to live a life built aroundher weakness, tell her to callyou when she grows up.

E-mail Carolyn at tellme@washpost.com or chat on-line with her each Friday at11 a.m., at http://www.washingtonpost.com. ©2009, Washington PostWriters Group

In-law breaksGrammie’s heartDear Annie: My 29-year-old son

and his wife have two youngchildren. My oldest grandsonand I were very close. Ibabysat, took him swimming, tothe park and the library, taughthim to ride a bike and accompa-nied him to Sunday school.

Four years ago, my daughter-in-law, “Amanda,” accused meof talking about her behind herback. This was not true. She toldmy son he wasn’t allowed to vis-it me unless she was present.Then she started complainingabout me. Finally, she said myson couldn’t speak to me any-more and I wasn’t allowed tosee my grandson. She also cutoff my son’s father and stepfa-ther, leaving only her family.My grandson was devastated hecouldn’t see his favorite Gram-mie.

This campaign of hers cameat a bad time in my life, as I was

going through an amicable butprotracted divorce. Friends en-couraged me to move backhome to North Carolina. I wait-ed a year, but my son neverspoke to me or acknowledgedmy cards and gifts, so I lefttown. I’ve since had difficultyfinding employment and am liv-ing with friends. A year ago, Ihad triple bypass heart surgery.

Without my knowledge, a friende-mailed Amanda and beggedher to allow my son to speak tome, saying I might not survivethe operation. Amanda e-mailedme directly, saying she spoke tomy son about it and they bothrefuse to speak to me becauseshe and I “didn’t see eye to eye.”I was shocked at their cold-hearted cruelty.

Even though I’ve healed fromsurgery, my heart is still bro-ken. Lately, I’ve been thinking Iam better off without them be-cause they must be horriblepeople to treat me so despica-bly. Please tell other youngwomen that demanding controlover their husbands causesheartache to everyone and willeventually come back to hurtthem, as well. — Heartbroken in N.C.

Dear Heartbroken: We agree thatwhat goes around comesaround. It’s sad that your

daughter-in-law isn’t willing toallow her husband to have a re-lationship with his family. It’seven sadder that your son per-mits this.

If you wish to send cards orgifts to your son and grandchil-dren, continue to do so even ifthere is no response. You neverknow what the future holds. Butotherwise, find things in yourlife that make you happy. Be asurrogate grandmother to oth-ers’ grandchildren. Keep activeand create a family out of yourfriends.

“Annie’s Mailbox” is writtenby Kathy Mitchell and MarcySugar, longtime editors of theAnn Landers column. E-mailquestions to anniesmailbox@comcast.net, or write to “An-nie’s Mailbox,” P.O. Box118190, Chicago, IL 60711. ©2009, Creators Syndicate Inc.

available at the McMains Cen-ter, 1805 College Drive.

Louisiana’s first lady SupriyaJindal is serving as the hon-orary chairwoman for thisyear’s event.

School children have alsobeen participating in a coloringcontest; the winners will be an-

nounced between 11 a.m. and 1p.m. on Friday, May 8, at TheMall at Cortana.

For more information, call theMcMains Children’s Develop-mental Center at (225) 923-3420or http://www.mcmainscdc.org.

By The Associated Press

Today is Thursday, April 30,the 120th day of 2009. Thereare 245 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:One hundred and fifty years

ago, on April 30, 1859, theCharles Dickens novel “A Taleof Two Cities” was publishedin serial form in the premiereissue of All the Year Round, aliterary magazine owned byDickens.

On this date:In 1789, George Washington

took office in New York as thefirst president of the UnitedStates.

In 1803, the United Statespurchased the Louisiana Ter-ritory from France for 60 mil-lion francs, the equivalent ofabout $15 million.

In 1939, the New YorkWorld’s Fair officially openedwith a ceremony that includedan address by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1945, as Russian troopsapproached his Berlin bunker,Adolf Hitler committed sui-cide along with his wife of oneday, Eva Braun.

In 1970, President RichardM. Nixon announced the U.S.was sending troops into Cam-bodia.

In 1973, Nixon announcedthe resignations of top aidesH.R. Haldeman and JohnEhrlichman, along with Attor-ney General Richard G. Klein-dienst and White House coun-sel John Dean.

Ten years ago:A bomb exploded at a gay

pub in London, killing threepeople and injuring more than70. (David Copeland, a whitesupremacist, was later convict-ed of murder for a series ofbombings in London and sen-tenced to six life sentences.)

Five years ago:Arabs expressed outrage at

graphic photographs of nakedIraqi prisoners being humili-ated by U.S. military police;President George W. Bush

condemned the mistreatmentof prisoners, saying “that’s notthe way we do things in Amer-ica.” On ABC’s “Nightline,”Ted Koppel read aloud thenames of 721 U.S. servicemenand women killed in the Iraqwar. (The Sinclair BroadcastGroup refused to air the pro-gram on seven ABC stations).Michael Jackson pleaded not-guilty in Santa Maria, Calif., toa grand jury indictment thatexpanded the child molesta-tion case against him. (Jack-son was acquitted at trial.)Former NBA star JaysonWilliams was acquitted of ag-gravated manslaughter in theshotgun slaying of a limousinedriver at his New Jersey man-sion, but found guilty of tryingto cover up the shooting.(Williams faces retrial on areckless manslaughter count.)

One year ago:The Federal Reserve cut in-

terest rates for a seventhstraight time, reducing thefederal funds rate a quarter-point to 2 percent.

Today’s Birthdays:Actress Cloris Leachman is

83. Singer Willie Nelson is 76.Actor Gary Collins is 71. ActorBurt Young is 69. Singer Bob-by Vee is 66. Actress Jill Clay-burgh is 65. Canadian PrimeMinister Stephen Harper is 50.Actor Paul Gross is 50. FIUcoach Isiah Thomas is 48.Country musician RobertReynolds (The Mavericks) is47. Actor Adrian Pasdar is 44.Rapper Turbo B (Snap) is 42.Rock musician Clark Vogeleris 40. Actor Johnny Galecki is34. Singer-musician Cole Deg-gs (Cole Deggs and the Lone-some) is 33. Rapper LloydBanks is 27. Actress KirstenDunst is 27. Country singerTyler Wilkinson (The Wilkin-sons) is 25.

Thought for Today:“Upper classes are a nation’s

past; the middle class is its fu-ture.” — Ayn Rand, Russian-born author (1905-1982).

SUGAR AND MITCHELLAnnie’s Mailbox

HELOISEHints fromHeloise

CAROLYNHAX

TODAY IN HISTORY

CEREBRAL PALSYContinued from page 1D

DISEASEContinued from page 1D