A friend of L's has been diagnosed with liver cancer. We feel badly for her; her life has been a struggle, and now this. She's not old, younger than me anyway. Perhaps it's not hopeless; we have another friend who had liver cancer a couple of years ago and who seems to be OK now, after treatment.
My brother returned home from Africa this week, where he had been working for a few months. His comment on airport security in Miami: "I don't think the security is any better, just more officious. At one of the screening points, everyone had to remove their shoes and put them through the x-ray machine!"