On June 7, 2023, I was privileged to cover the convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Convention–my first time attending the meeting since 2018, when the 25th anniversary of the gathering was held here in Boston. The excitement was back–with 9144 companies registered to attend, many with booths, tables or pavilions–and, according to Stat News, some 15, 000 investors, executives and promoters.

On the afternoon of its third day, the convention, headlined “Stand Up for Science,” had a more fun and friendly vibe than I’d noticed at past BIO conventions.

Short on time, I wandered around the exhibition floor–chatting with exhibitors and attendees, snagging a latte, dark chocolate squares, a small nylon backpack advertising New York State Life Sciences, and a large mousepad.

I was sorry to miss many fascinating discussions: “Realizing the Promise of Gene Therapy and Gene Editing: Current Challenges, Opportunities and Trends; ” “A Price Control Odyssey: The Inflation Reduction Act’s Effects on the Innovation Ecosystem;” ” Belonging in Biotech: How to Advance Greater Inclusion Across the Biotech Workforce;” “Launching Successful Gene Therapies; Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance with Vaccine Innovation; ” “New Approaches to Oncology Drug Discovery;’ Re-imagining Drug Development and Regulatory Submissions through Cloud-Based Technologies;” “The Intersection of Cancer and Mental Health”; “Women and their Health: Fueling an Ecosystem of Scientific Innovation to Address Unmet Needs”. All of the above (and more) took place in the same hour as my first chosen panel discussion of the day: “Psychedelics…the Trip Continues.” (I viewed a streaming version because the main conference room was packed full.)

Psychedelics…the Trip Continues

Freelance journalist and broadcaster David Cox led Jeff Rolx, venture partner and portfolio CEO at 02h Ventures; Kurt Rasmussen, Chief Scientific Officer at Delix Therapeutics, Inc., and Peter Silverstone, CEO and Director of Zylorian Health in a wide-ranging discussion of the future an evolving industry projected to be worth billions of dollars, one day.

The panelists described the variety of challenges faced by the fledgling industry as it evolves from what the official writeup termed “a stigmatized counterculture” to a scientifically robust industry.

Among the challenges:

• Navigating the wide variety of regulatory systems in the US and abroad as well as attitudes of different states and national governments
• Issues involved in clinical trials given potentially dangerous side effects; measuring efficacy of treatments when placebos are not an option
• Whether the pharmaceutical industry will invest in a field with a “hippy” reputation
• Whether non-hallucinognic forms will be likelier to be used therapeutically before hallocinogenics
• How psychedelic therapeutics will get to market given the difficulty small developers may have in getting funding
• Determining what the therapy is and how it can be standardized.

“We are completely blind right now, ” said Silverstone, of Zylorian Health. “Our AI [artificial intelligence] overlords may soon tell us [what to expect]…but we are just at the beginning.” Silverstone predicted that the next three or four years will be telling for the industry, and suggested that 2024 could possibly be “a big year” for psychedelics.

Roix, of 02 Ventures described the current mental health situation as a “public health emergency,” with huge numbers of patients struggling with depression and post traumatic stress disorder. There are complex protocols and treatments and too few resources, he said. He also wondered how anyone will make money–especially if psychedlics work after just a few treatments and are not given as pills to be taken every day.

According to Silverstone, science is moving to the point where “the opportunity to deliver something novel in the field of neuroimmunology is huge.”

He predicted that the field may need to be “reformatted” to interest big pharma–“which will jump in when it’s ‘de-risked’ from safety concerns, reimbursement issues and questions about whether non-hallucinogens will work.

Rassumen of Delix Therapeutics expressed optimism that non -hallucinatory forms are possibilities. He pointed out that that compounds that enhance structural nerve plasticity are “starting to uncover how the brain changes over time”–which could, perhaps in conjunction with stem cell therapies, lead to getting back some functions in patients with dementia and other diseases of the aging brain.

He also said that treatment forms which resemble what in past would have been called “tripping” may diminish because depressed patients now seem to be more secure in carefully monitored medical settings.

When Rasmussen suggested possibly rebranding the field–that is, ” don’t call it psychedics,” Silverstone quipped, “That won’t happen.”

Life Science and the Gun Violence Epidemic

I next attended “The Life Sciences Industry: Taking a Public Health Approach to Ending the Gun Violence Epidemic,” moderated by Steve Usdin, Washington Editor and Head of Policy and Regulation at BioCentury.

The panelists included (left to right) Paul Hastings, President and CEO of Nkarta, a clinical stage biotechnology company in California; Juan Carter, outreach manager at the Giffords Center for Violence Intervention, headquartered in San Francisco and Washington, DC. [moderator Steve Usdin] ; Angus Mcquilken, co-founder of Life Sciences to End Gun Violence Epidemic and Industry Relationship Executive for Life Sciences at Boston Law Firm McDermott Will and Emery; Sharon Barber-Lui, a life sciences leader and BIO board member; and BIO CEO Rachel King.

All of the panelists said they strongly believe in gun control; King and Barber-Lui both said they had attended the Million Mom March to call for stricter gun control some twenty years ago. But most agreed that corporate lobbying for what has become a volatile political issue presents difficulties–and that individual commitment is called for.

King said that though she personally supports ending gun violence, she must adhere to the BIO directors’ decision to limit activities to those directly concerning the biotechnology industry.

Mcquilken urged attendees to join the organization he cofounded– “Life Sciences to End the Violence Epidemic”–which lobbies for stronger gun control laws. He pointed out that biotech seeks evidence-based solutions to problems–and that there is strong evidence that Massachusetts’ strict gun control laws, which require considerable training before guns may be purchased, account for the commonwealth’s relatively low rate of shooting deaths.

Hastings said that as a CE0 he has held events supporting gun control measures–but that he has been reticent to publicize photos of participants due to the negative backlash he would expect.

Carter said that it is important for health care and other professionals who work with victims of gun violence and their families to be supportive and accepting of them, lest they become dejected and hopeless when they return to troubled communities, and do not return for needed help.

Also suggested was that companies seeking to recruit youthful employees find ways to encourage activism.

An audience member who did not give his name pointed out that the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which grants certain rights to bear arms , was meant to prevent imperialism but it is now being used to promote terrorism.

Targeting Success: 3 MIT Thought Leaders on Innovation

At my third panel discussion of the afternoon, MIT’s Angela Koehler, associate professor of biological engineering; Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, and Giovanni Traverso, associate professor, delved into questions and challenges for scientists in academic and research institutions who seek to bring their innovations to market.

In a discussion moderated by Joshua Fox of the Mintz law firm, Langer [second from left]–who is well- known as a co-founder of Moderna pharmaceuticals and has more than 400 patents licensed or sub-licensed by a myriad of companies–said that spinning a successful company out of academe requires a “breakthrough technology platform”; a really good CE0; and raising enough money. (Full disclosure: Bob is a personal friend of mine).

Koehler [left] emphasized the importance of building “connections” to raise funds and recruit a great team–and that a CEO has to be willing to “plug in a fridge”–that is, be willing to do everything.

According to Travers [second from right], ” it’s important to have a management team as outstanding as the scientific team.” When Langer’s warned not to try to leave the academic setting too early lest you wind up in “the valley of death” (unable to raise enough money), Travers recommended seeking grants and non-traditional investors such as insurance companies to take the science through clinical trials. Koehler suggested looking for disease-oriented foundations for funding.

All-in-all, BIO 2023 a fascinating convention; next time I’ll try to go to everything–which is, of course, impossible.

—Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant. She has authored three non-fiction books.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a PR and digital media firm based in Cambridge, Mass.

The other day I was half way down a narrow path leading down to fresh pond when a gray-haired guy in no face mask started up the path in the opposite direction. I motioned to him to wait until I got to the bottom–but he kept going, moving closer and closer to me. “Sir!” I shouted. “Please social distance.” He ignored me (well, he was wearing earphones but he looked right at me) and kept on walking. I pulled as close I could to the opposite fence and turned away from him as he went by, feeling frightened, and, then, shaken. After I’d quarantined for three months, worn a mask and stayed six feet away from folks in supermarkets, on streets and near my condo, had some arrogant middle-aged guy given me a death sentence?

On Saturday, I decided to avoid Fresh Pond and run on the river, in Allston, many people were wearing face masks, but a group of people stood, chatting, on either side of the path. One of them–again, middle aged–wore no mask. A runner coming toward them from the other direction–stopped to ask them which side he should run on to get six feet away…The maskless guy said, “You’re fine.” I said. “You’re not wearing a mask.” He said, “I don’t need a mask, I’m outside.

Two days later, I was in the parking lot at Target, in Watertown, on my way to pick up some coffee, curbside. A young woman stood near me, mask-less. “Where’s your mask?” I asked. She replied, “I’m outdoors, I don’t need a mask.”

I then headed from there to Home Depot, across the street, hoping to pick up some flowers and cherry tomatoes to plant on my balcony. It was my third try.

The first time, heading in–had to go inside; asked the person monitoring the door if there were any rules; he said no. Walking through the store, I heard the occasional loudspeaker announcement to stay six feet away from the next person….but no one was doing that. I made it to the outdoor shop, getting increasingly tense; there were no shopping carts; to get one, I would have had to go back out, then back in again through the store. I decided to check the prices, instead, and come back another time, but shoppers were standing shoulder to shoulder, so I left.

The second time, the same thing thing happened. I picked up small fuschia and seedling lettuce plants. But I needed potting soil; the bags were too heavy for me to carry and, again, there were no shopping carts available. I was afraid to walk through the main store again, as folks had been going every which way, with carriages; so put down my goods, walked out, and asked the guard if I could speak with a manager. I wanted to tell him I thought this was a dangerous situation and ask if would be possible for them to mark floors with direction signals and six-foot distancing, like they do in food stores. The guard called and asked a manager to speak with me, I waited for a few minutes, but no manager ever came.

On Sunday, I tried one last time, but, again, though folks were wearing masks, there was no social distancing. I gave up–and drove to two different farm stands. They were less crowded…but were sold out of medium sized pots of cherry tomatoes, and had no lettuce. Oh, well. I did pick up some flower and basil plants at my local supermarket.

Today, on Fresh Pond, between 7:30 and 8 am I went by at least 7 people without masks–including three, old enough to know better, who were not even carrying masks. Two of them walked side by side in the center of the path, making it difficult for anyone stay far enough away from them; the third was smoking a cigarillo.

As a communications consultant, I’m willing to concede that the rules and restrictions are not entirely clear. Early on, the advice was that masks were ineffective; when it changed to say while they don’t protect those wearing them from catching the virus, they will protect others if mask-wearers are carriers. It’s possible that some people are not aware that that the advice has changed, are unclear about the meaning of changing statewide rules, or don’t realize that many localities, including Cambridge and Watertown have stricter regulations.

Statewide:
Governor Baker’s statewide order-–  effective Wednesday, May 6 requires face masks or cloth face coverings in public places where it is not possible to be six feet away from other people. This applies to both indoor and outdoor spaces. It does not mean HAVING a mask–holding onto it at waist level or wearing it around your neck; it means wearing the mask, even outdoors, if you are less than six feet away from someone.

City of Cambridge:
As of April 29, 2020, Cambridge requires that face coverings be worn in all public places, businesses and common areas of residential buildings. The order took effective at Wednesday, April 29, and applies to everyone over the age of five years old, with exceptions in alignment with guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control or Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Violations may be punishable by a $300 fine. It applies to: sidewalks, streets, parks, plazas, bus stoops, non-residential parking lots and garages, and any other outdoor area…which is open and accessible to the general public.

Watertown:
As of May 4, 2020 any individual who is age five (5) years or older, and not otherwise exempt per CDC guidelines, shall be required to cover their nose and mouth with a clean mask or face covering
(e.g. disposable mask, cloth mask, face shield, bandana, scarf) when in or at any location open to the general public including all indoor locations open to the public, outdoor premises of private locations open to the
public, and all public outdoor locations (e.g., parks, playgrounds, athletic facilities, sidewalks, streets, public squares, paths, and all Town property).

Regulations in many other communities across the state.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/coronavirus/these-cities-and-towns-in-massachusetts-are-requiring-masks-and-face-coverings/2115307/

Please help everyone–and yourself– stay safe.

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

Much enjoyed last week’s opening of the Koch Institute’s 2017 Image Awards Exhibition. The exhibit, dubbed “with/in/sight”  includes 10 scientific images chosen as best-in-class from among some 120 entries from MIT life scientists and their collaborators across the country–and one from Ireland.

The display, in the public galleries at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, is the Koch’s seventh in as many years. Its goal is to celebrate “the diversity of biomedical research at MIT and offers insight into the important role that science and engineering play in our complex and ever-changing world,” according to a Koch brochure.

The images are printed on t-shirt material stretched across frames back lit with LEDs. They are striking artwork in themselves– and showcase some of the most exciting work under way in the cancer research arena.

“Making Waves” conveys research on non-invasive sound waves that carry genetic material through protective layers of skin, transferring genes to cells whose genetic clocks have been turned back by the nucleic acids they have received– in order to reverse skin-aging. Credits go to Carl Schoellhammer, Denitsa Milanova, Hamberto Trevino, Cody Cleveland, Jeffrey Wyckoff, Anna Mandinova, Giovanni Traverso, Robert Langer, and George Church.

 

 

 

 

At the Whitehead Institute, Samuel LoCascio, Kutay Deniz Atabay and Peter Reddien are studying planarian flatworms to learn more about how they regerate. Each color in their image represents a different layer of neurons in the flatworm’s head.

 

Dahlia Perez and Jacqueline A. Lees are studying zebrafish to provide insight into melanoma. This image shows the organization of zebrafish cells in their normal state. Next, biologists will mutate a single gene known to initiate a certain melanoma in order to determine its “downstream” effects.

 

Steffen RIckelt and Richard Hynes of the Koch Institute are studying not the clusters of brownish colon cancer metasteses shown in the image, screen, but, rather, the “seeming neutral” tissue matrix around them. The goal is determine how the matrix impacts the progression of tumor cells navigating a complex network of cells and proteins.

Langliang Hao, Srivatsan Raghavan, Emilia Pulver, Jeffrey Wyckoff and Sangeeta Bhatia of the Koch Institute are using  biocompatible nanoparticles (yellow) to target and penetrate clusters of cancer cells (pink) with the goal of delivering treatment.

 

 

Colin Edington, Iris Lee and Linda Griffith of MIT are involved in the Griffith lab’s “Human on a Chip,” project, in which many different”mini organs”, developed from stem cells in matrix, are linked together in a bioreactor platform. The researchers are studying interactions of multiple organs and the cross between them in order to develop new disease treatments. Shown here are neurons (green) and astrocytes (red).

 

 

Selim Olcum, Nathan Cermak and Scott Manalis are using microfluidics to measure the response of cell masses to drugs. Their image shows fluid filled channels (bottom) connected to tiny mass sensors shaped like hollow diving boards (top); the sensors’ whose  vibrations precisely reveal the mass of individual cells passing through them. As treated cells flow across the array of sensors, each cell is weighed multiple times, thereby revealing how quickly the mass of individual cells is changing. Researchers are beginning to use this method to predict optimal treatment strategies for individual patients.

 

My favorite image does not show cells, nor was it submitted by an MIT lab. Rather, it visualizes twitter conversations about breast cancer carried out by a network of connected cancer patients and their loved ones, patient advocates, health care professionals, and researchers. The image, by Erie Clarke, Richard Arnett and Jane Burns of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,  represents 92, 915 tweets posted over an eight-week period. It is from the Wellcome Images collection.

 

Other images not included here display pathways taken by metatastic lung cancer cells over time and  ovarian cancer cells as they break through the abdominal wall.

I’m the first to admit that these photos do not do justice to the real images–nor do they adequately convey the amazing convergent technologies –including imaging–used to carry out the research.

The gallery,  at street level in the Koch Institute, 500 Main Street, in Cambridge, is open to the public at no charge from 8-6 Monday-Thursday, and until 4 pm on Friday. The images are also visible from the sidewalk, outside.

Through March 2018.

 

Anita Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and market development firm located in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Yesterday, the news from DC was not good, nor was the weather, nor was my writing! So I quit work at 3:30 and headed for the Kendall Square T. where I came upon the delightful Keytar bear, who immediately raised my spirits. I’ve long wanted to share the work of Boston area street musicians– Keytar said it would fine to post a video. I’m hoping this will be the first of many–and would welcome your contributions!

Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.
New Cambridge Observer is ia publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and market development firm baswed in Cambridge, MA.

Originally posted by Mark Orton http://currentmatters.markorton.com/2016/11/election-results-the-next-ten-years/ on November 9, 2016

On Friday, July 11, my friend Andrew Kreig spoke at the National Press Club in Washington about his new book Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters, which tackles intelligence agency influence on politics and the media.

Presidential Puppetry, is “a non-partisan exposé of the intelligence sector influence in the Obama administration’s second term,” he said.  Drawing from a century of history that includes the Romney and Bush family dynasties, it  argues that failures in news reporting will continue because both traditional and social media are heavily influenced by revenue sources little understood by the public, including most journalists and academics. Link to book preview video

In his talk, Kreig noted  that before the Washington Post was sold to Amazon CEO Jeffery Bezos last summer, the paper had, for many years, received just 4 percent of its revenue from circulation and 14-15 percent from advertising. Approximately 60 percent of Post revenue has come from an education subsidiary, Kaplan, which profits from lucrative but little-reported government relationships.

Similarly, Amazon.com, Bezos’ source of wealth, last fall obtained a $600 million contract to handle advanced computing needs for the CIA, Kreig said. The contract dwarfed the $250 million Bezos purchase price for the Post and further illustrates certain seldom-reported institutional ties between news-making agencies and news organizations.

In another example of close ties between government and the news media, Kreig noted that the president of CBS News is Andrew Rhodes. Rhodes brother, Ben, is Obama’s speechwriter, deputy national intelligence director and, as described by insider columnist David Ignatius in the July 11 Washington’s Post, “the closest thing he [Obama] has to a chief strategist.”

Earlier this month, Kreig pointed out, Ray McGovern, a CIA-analyst-turned peace activist, warned a separate audience at the Press Club that the mainstream media are suppressing vital news stories. According to McGovern, who spent 27 years as a CIA analyst with responsibility for daily briefings of two presidents, “Never has it been so bad in the 50 years I’ve been in this town” and “there’s one change that dwarfs all the others.”  What is that change? “We no longer have a free media,” McGovern said. “That’s big. It does not get any bigger than that.”

McGovern was first quoted in report published by the Justice Integrity Project, an organization Kreig founded in 2010 to probe courts, politics and media coverage (http://wwwow.ly/yT2Rw)

In Presidential Puppetry  Kreig documents how deep-pocketed corporations and other institutions have, for more than a century, shaped the public agenda with increasingly little scrutiny from watchdogs. The book draws on Kreig’s  two decades as an investigative reporter, lawyer and high-tech advocate based in Washington, DC.

In the book, Kreig alleges that what he calls “puppet masters” wield enormous influence over intelligence agencies, elected officials, and both traditional and social media. For example, he describes a pattern whereby many prominent elected leaders secretly served as CIA or FBI informants before they entered politics, thereby establishing relationships unknown to the public.

Such allegations are endorsed by an array of experts (www.presidentialpuppetry.com), including McGovern and former CIA analyst and retired journalist John Kelly, who is a board member of the Justice Integrity Project (http://www.justice-integrity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=188&Itemid=153. Kelly is the last surviving reporter to have covered the 1960 JFK election victory party in Hyannis Port. He went on to work for CBS and NBC before becoming a CIA officer in Indochina during the Vietnam War era. In organizing and introducing last week’s dinner lecture, Kelly said the news media have become far too timid and institutionally compromised.

The “Puppetry” message is documented with 1,100 endnotes to help other researchers and reformers, Kreig said.  Its conclusion is that any reform must begin with an understanding of our hidden history. That is the theme of a 50-second preview video, entitled “Knowledge Empowers You.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KV8Mt2nV_A)

I knew Kreig when he reported  for the Cornell Daily Sun in the late 1960s.  He’s since worked in journalism, technology, and  law. His Boston background iincludes coverage of the Celtics in the 1980s and a clerkship with Boston-based federal judge Mark Wolf, who is best known for presiding over the Patriarca mob case and exposing the Whitey Bulger scandal(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_L._Wolf). Kreig holds law degrees from both Yale and the University of Chicago. From 2009 to 2011, he researched controversial Bush administration federal prosecutions as a Washington-based senior fellow for the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

 

SHANAHAN NAMED VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

—One of the newest international companies to expand into Cambridge is Ariana (R)  Pharma–a 2003 spin-out of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.  Its  subsidiary, Ariana Data Intelligence, Inc., located in the Cambridge Innovation Center at 1 Broadway,  will provide novel non-statistical clinical data analysis technology to pharma and the FDA,  Ariana announced today.

The technology,  “Knowledge Extraction and Management Technology (KEM)” is aimed at reducing cost, bias, and risk in clinical trials.

“The US pharma and biotech markets tend  to be early technology adopters and are searching for better data analytics tools to advance personalized medicine using all the new biomarker, genomic, proteomic and metabolomic data now being generated,” said  Dr. Mohammad Afshar, Ariana’s President and CEO.

KEM   “is the only FDA-tested technology that  can simultaneously analyze all these variables and pull out patient responder sub-groups, optimize biomarker signatures and remove bias from clinical trials,” Afshar said.

A “unique” association rules-based (non-statistical) analytical technology, KEM  finds patient responder sub-populations and biomarker signatures that statistical methods are unable to detect, according to Afshar.  KEM thus optimizes clinical trial inclusion/exclusion criteria, thereby lowering the number of patients needed to reach clinical endpoints and saving sponsors both time and cash, and reducing clinical drug development risk.

In conjunction with the opening, Ariana has appointed James M. Shanahan as Vice President  of Business Development.  Shanahan was previously a co-founder and is currently a  board member of SynDevRx, Inc., an oncology-focused biotech company. He was also a co-founder and VP Corporate Development of JAM Technologies, Inc.

Ariana offers something “special and desperately needed “by the pharmaceutical industry, Shanahan said.   “Companies spend tens of millions generating data.  Now, it’s all about making sense of that data.  KEM identifies useful, complex biological relationships that statistics routinely miss.”

More information is available at  http://www.arianapharma.com/  .

–Anita M. Harris

 



This morning, I ran into this fellow  on the Cambridge Common.  When he tried to pick me up,  I gave him the cold shoulder, which he seemed to enjoy. Oh, well.

It was cool to come upon the whimsical snowpersons  that seemed to guide my way  along the paths covered in deep snow by yesterday’s fierce blizzard …especially after President Barack Obama’s thoughtful talk, last night, about the importance of civility, the American national family and the need  to move forward in a positive way after  the horrific shootings in Tuscon. [ Here’s a link to the speech, in case you missed it: http://pol.moveon.org/azobamaspeech.html?id=25807-6209466-EecNh0x&t=3]

In fact, despite all the awful things going on the world–or maybe because of them–I’m finding that my neighbors–like whoever made the snowman–seem to be more considerate these days. After the last big storm, I ran into someone from the building next door (who asked me not to use his name) who was clearing snow, water and ice at a crosswalk so that people would not have to wade through deep water to reach the curb. And my downstairs neighbor, who doesn’t have a car, sometimes just shovels out other peoples’ cars for the fun (and exercise) of it.

Actually, I’ve felt that many people have been more neighborly, nicer, since 9/11…tho this group does not include certain Republicans and pundits who seem to get nastier as time goes on. I was shocked to learn that Ben Quayle, Vice President Dan Quayle’s son, who is now, unfortunately, a Congressman, actually said in a campaign ad that Barack Obama is the worst president this country has ever had..and don’t get me started on Sarah Palin’s trigger-happy “mean girl” rhetoric.  Rather than engage in namecalling and derision,  I’ll quit now –and simply  thank whomever built Mr. Snowman for your neighborliness and sense of fun. You really brightened my day!

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is president of  the Harris Communications Group, a public relations and marketing firm in Cambridge, MA.