Surely at least 50% of the population remembers the days before prescription drugs were marketed directly to the public.

Remember Wonderama in the 1970s, and all those kids singing, "Exercise, exercise, Come on ev'rybody, get your Ritalin!" Oh wait - that song didn't reference Ritalin.

Thinking back to the 1970s and even the early 1980s, who remembers taking what I like to call "maintenance meds"? Seriously, with the number of ads in magazines and on television, am I the only one suspicious?

Look at the new crop of ailments we have these days: Restless Leg Syndrome, chronic insomnia, the ever-popular ADD/ADHD (now in new adult flavor!), acid reflux disease, etcetera, etcetera, and so forth!

Why in the world would pharmaceutical companies market directly to end users on television and in magazines? Aren't our doctors supposed to know about the meds we might take for the ailments we might have? Since when are we supposed to go in and "ask our doctor or pharmacist" about different drugs that may or may not apply to us?

"Maintenance meds", to me, are drugs that we are supposed to take each day in order to live a life that we view as normal. If your great-grandparents are still alive, ask them what daily medications they took in their 40s. If you are in your 40s, like me, ask your parents.

Did you know that pharmaceutical companies shamelessly dole out incentives to doctors who prescribe their products? Vacations, dinners and the like. During my last visit to a doctor, a skimpily dressed young female pharmaceutical saleswoman was dropping off samples and promoting a golf event at one of the local resorts.

Why do pharmaceutical companies only advertise the types of medications that one would take daily for the long term: insulin, heartburn meds, weight loss aids, thyroid pills, ADHD meds, etc. Hrmmmm.... I guess that is where the long-term money is.

Have you read the story about Prilosec and its relationship to Nexium? Some health insurance companies no longer even cover Nexium. I'm not minimizing the value of these drugs, but we should be looking at what makes us "need" these drugs, why did we not need these drugs 25 years ago, and what can we do to avoid the diseases that we are bringing upon ourselves.

What are we doing different now? Is it fast food? Is it people thinking that Chili's is a smart place to eat on a daily basis? Is it that mom is working and everyone things they "deserve" some processed foods?

Is it that some parents can't comprehend that happiness comes from less, not more? Why do we even have a product such as "cereal straws"?

Just checking, since I can't delete all my spammy trackbacks at the moment.

While visiting California, I decided that I had to visit the Salton Sea.

I'd been there years ago (perhaps the 1970s) with my family. My father was a huge fan of the road trip so we had the pleasure of seeing all those places in between points A and B of any given trip.

Just before this trip, I had the good fortune to catch a Sundance Channel special, Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea. If you cannot catch this special on your local cable channel, catch a screening, or rent it, and I would go so far to say it is worth the $23 bucks to buy it from the website (if you are into such things). The link is a good resource to learn about the history of the sea, and why what happened, happened.

It has been a few days since visiting the sea, and I am still haunted by it. It is beautiful, yet hideous. Peaceful, yet horrifying. I expect it to be on my mind for quite a while.

As one drives through the subdivisions, complete with utilities, streets, and street signs, one notices that all that is missing is the homes. Block after block of homes that never happened sit and decay, or at least the streets do, lined by dead and broken palm trees, and the debris collects. Most of the lots were purchased as investments, so the homes that were meant to line these streets simply never happened. Now, some of the cheapest new construction in the state is taking place on these cracked, decaying streets. There is a moratorium on new homes connecting to the decades-old, failing sewer systems. New homes are going in next to old dumpy homes. There is a desperation about the area, with so many for sale signs and so much spray paint. It looks like a brand new Compton, only cheaper.

Yet for all the building, it doesn't seem like a boomtown. It seems like a huge crap shoot. Will these homes, under $200,000, be worth even that, or are the people building and buying digging themselves into a deep and scary hole?

We drove past a lot where busy construction workers were building a home. A mere few lots down, we stopped to photograph an abandoned and stripped 1970s motor home.

As I stepped around to photograph the back of the motorhome, I was stunned. Beyond the tagging on the motor home, the spray paint cans littered about, there was a very large dead animal arranged next to a pile of brush. It was almost as though a bonfire was planned. I felt an evilness in the area, so I didn't spend the time to take a better photograph.

We followed signage to the Vista Del Mar Estates Beach Club, in one of the neighborhoods where the new houses were popping up. The clubhouse was one of the older buildings, built prior to the demise of the area, complete with whimsical pastel lighting in the planters, and plenty of newish razor wire and chain link fence to protect the contents of the building. Someone had tried to add some modern day festive touches by wrapping the trees with Christmas light strings. Older vehicles and debris littered the parking lot and grounds.  "Fax us the details of your event and we'll take care of everything!", the Vista Del Mar Estates Beach Club advertises in a local paper.

With so many abandoned buildings in the area, I wonder what the status is for most of these abandoned lots. Someone, after all, owns these properties. Did the owners just walk away? Who owns this:

Yet with all this going on, there is an air of optimism in the area. New restaurants are opening. We ate at Johnson's Landing, which was impeccably clean, served good food, and was under new ownership. All 35 members of the West Shores High School Class of 2007 were featured in the community newspaper. There is a local chapter of the Red Hat Society, card clubs, food banks, and an Indian casino just opened up on the reservation land across the highway. There is much interest in the various proposals to "save the sea" and opinions can be found in the local papers as well as online.

So the Salton Sea is an interesting place. It is worth a google search, at a minimum, and definitely worth your time to explore if you are in the Imperial Valley area of California.