Peripatetic Pete, Looking for a Volunteer

Greetings Parkinspeople and those who love them, I'm looking for a volunteer to host our next two support group meetings as I will be away visiting family far, far from Alaska. If you can attend the meetings, greet newcomers and help foster a discussion about Parkinson's Disease, this is the volunteer opportunity you have been waiting for. Well wait no longer! Take that first step into the Parkinson's limelight! To quote that well-known philospher Dr. Ferris Bueller "Life moves pretty fast you don't host a Parkinson's support group meeting, you could miss it." So who wants this once-in-a-lifetime chance? Please contact me if it's you. Bueller?... Bueller?....

​In other news the  PD and speech group led by our intrepid  Ann Ver Hoef  will meet soon. here is Anne's message about that: ​

I hope this finds you all well.  The summer is flying by, as usual.  Never enough time to get outdoors….but I am heading out for a backpack trip in the Wind River Range in WY and be gone Aug 2-12. 

We have our next PD Communication Group on Monday, 8/13/2018 from 3:30-5:00.

We will meet in the Ivy Room, downstairs on the First Floor at AK Regional Hospital.  This is in the downstairs of the regular hospital building.  If you park in the “back” of the building, and come in the tall atrium entrance, you head to the left down the hallway and there are the Ivy rooms.

Be prepared to share some of your summer experiences! WOOOHOOOO!

And this just in... Alan Alda says he was diagnosed with PD three and a half years ago, and that he is doing fine.

Pete out (way out!)

Please Call Stella, If She can't Understand You, Maybe This Will Help

I recently stumbled over the following paragraph:

Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

What is the point of this strange shopping list? According to Steven Weinberg of George Mason University's Speech accent archive, "The paragraph is written in English, and uses common English words, but contains a variety of difficult English sounds and sound sequences. The paragraph contains practically all of the sounds of English." It was composed to study people's accents (fun game based on this here). But it occurred to me that it might be useful to those of us with PD who have trouble enunciating.

If you are like me and have trouble in making any kind of speech clear, this could be the most efficient string of practice phrases ever devised. If you use it in combination with "Speak up for Parkinson's" a  free app from the Northwest Parkinson's Foundation, or as part of your LSVT drill, you should have the most difficult sounds covered, no matter what your accent.