Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 15, 2014

AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 15, 2014 5 AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 15, 2014 5 
DR. JAMES LIN TO REIGN AS METHODIST 
HOSPITAL’S KING OF MARDI GRAS 2014 


ARCADIA – Former Methodist Hospital Chief 
of Staff James Y. Lin, MD, will be honored at the 
19th Annual Mardi Gras 6-10 p.m. Tuesday, 
March 4, at Sirona’s, Santa Anita Park. 

 Recognized for his longtime support of 
Methodist Hospital and the outstanding 
clinical care he has provided to thousands of 
patients, Dr. Lin will reign as king over the 
event, with proceeds going to support the 
hospital’s highly successful cancer program. 

 “I feel extremely honored, considering all 
the fine people who have served as king 
before me,” Dr. Lin said of the honor. “I 
want to continue helping the foundation 
raise funds for the cancer program, which is 
one of the clinical areas the hospital strives 
diligently to expand and strengthen. It’s a 
great thrill to be honored by an event I have 
supported for many, many years.”

 For information on how you can help 
support your community through a table 
sponsorship and/or ticket purchase for 
this worthy cause, please contact the 
event organizers at Methodist Hospital 
Foundation, 626-898-8888 or mardigras@
methodisthospital.org.

 For the second time in a row, event co-
chairs are Sherry Wang, a Methodist Hospital 
Foundation board member and two-time 
chair; longtime hospital supporter Patty 
Soldo, who also chaired for the second time; and four-time chair/co-chair Lindburgh McPherson. 

“Aside from being a wonderful physician, Dr. Lin has been extremely helpful in many important 
areas around the hospital – fundraising, recruiting donors and assisting with our very successful 
Asian Health Fair, to name a few,” Wang said. “He never turns anyone down and always says, ‘Let me 
see what I can do.’”

 Born in Taiwan, Dr. Lin came to the U.S. in 1975, graduating from the St. Louis University School of 
Medicine in 1985. He completed his residency at Huntington Memorial Hospital in 1989, started his 
medical practice in 1992 and opened his private practice in Arcadia in 2000. He and his wife, Rachel, 
have two sons, Eric and Nicholas.

 Through the years Dr. Lin has served as chief of staff at Methodist Hospital in 2013 and chair of the 
Medicine Department in 2006. He also has served on the hospital foundation board since 2006 and 
co-chaired the physician capital campaign that raised an estimated $2 million in support of the North 
Tower. He has served on several foundation committees, including the Crystal Ball, Mardi Gras and 
Asian Outreach committees. The Lin family has graciously supported the hospital and Mardi Gras 
for years.

 “I think I’ve been involved with the Mardi Gras in one way or another for about a decade,” Dr. Lin 
said. “This is one of the hospital’s more prominent fundraising efforts, and one that Methodist Hospital 
employees and the medical staff really enjoy. Not only is it a fun evening, but it’s an opportunity for 
Methodist Hospital to expand into our neighboring communities.” 
One of Methodist Hospital’s highest profile and most successful fundraising events, Mardi Gras each 
year attracts hundreds of attendees and dozens restaurants. This year’s “beads and boas” event is 
expected to be one of the most successful ever.

 The 80z All Stars, a California 1980s tribute band, will provide lively music for dancing and 
entertainment. Other fun activities will include a Mardi Gras parade, silent auction, dancing and 
mouth-watering food prepared by more than 30 of the area’s most successful restaurants. 
Dr. Lin hopes this year’s event will provide a huge boost to the hospital’s growing cancer program. 
“We’ve always had a strong cancer program, and the community definitely wants it to remain an 
integral part of the hospital’s litany of services,” Dr. Lin said. “It’s important that we remain competitive 
and on the cutting edge, and Mardi Gras helps us do just that.” 
Tickets are $100 each. To reserve yours, contact the foundation at 626-898-8888 or mardigras@
methodisthospital.org. 

About Methodist Hospital

Founded in 1903, Methodist Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital licensed for 596 beds serving 
Arcadia and surrounding communities. Services include comprehensive acute care such as medical, 
surgical, perinatal, oncology, intensive care and complete cardiovascular services, including open-
heart surgery. Methodist Hospital is an approved STEMI cardiac center, a certified stroke center and 
a center of excellence in bariatric services. 
The hospital’s cancer center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on 
Cancer. Methodist Hospital is accredited by The Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies 
more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. For more information, 
visit methodisthospital.org. 

This year’s Mardi Gras king, Dr. James Y. Lin, 
2013 Methodist Hospital chief of staff 


SPACE CREATURES PEEKING IN THE 
WINDOWS By Christoper Nyerges 

[Nyerges is the author of two novels on Kindle about an underground civilization, 
Tunnel 16 and Sinkhole 102. He can be contacted at School of Self-reliance, Box 
41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or www.ChristopherNyerges.com.] 


My mother would 
read bedtime stories 
from a few old picture 
books. I think one of 
them was the Grimm’s 
book. The stories 
were scary, and I was 
often afraid to look 

at the pictures, but I never tired of hearing the 
same stories over and over. For some reason, she 
told the stories in the front bedroom, the one we 
called “Peggy’s bedroom,” the one which Thomas 
took over when Peggy moved away to England.

 This must have been around 1959 or so, since I 
was very young, and not yet in school. 
I remember my dreams about outer space aliens 
who were already on earth. Was this the result 
of watching The Twilight Zone, or The Alfred 
Hitchcock Hour on Friday nights? Who knows? 
I do recall that during this period, I would often 
have mental images of lots of small beings who 
were just tall enough to be looking into the windows 
of the front bedroom. If the drapes were 
open, I could seen just the tops of their heads 
and eyes looking into the window, and these were 
smallish humanoid-type beings. They seemed to 
be ragged and desperate, like the mobs who were 
outside the protected zones in the movie Zardoz 

– which, of course, I did not see until some 20 to 
25 years later. 
When it got dark, I would often have a fear that 
the space aliens might try to get into the house, 
and I would go from room to room closing all 
the drapes. Somehow, if they could see inside, I 
was more vulnerable. If I could close the drapes, 
I would be more protected. If there was just a 
crack of the drape open, where someone might 
peek in, I would be concerned, even frightened. I 
would go close that drape. I remember my father 
once asking me what I was doing, and all I could 
say was that the drape had not been closed properly. 
He shrugged it off.

 Then one night I dreamed of another space 
alien. I don’t even think this one was related to 
the little guys who looked in the windows. This 
one had a large and block-like body, with a round 
somewhat metallic head, almost bird-like. I drew 
several pictures of the space alien. He was a leader, 
I assumed, and he spoke to me. I remember 
showing the drawing to my parents who probably 
thought it was funny. I tried to emphasize that he 
was real, and that he spoke to me, and I think 
they found it all very amusing. I believed he was 
trying to reach me for some important reason.

 This space being came to me in my dreams for a 
very short period of time, maybe over the course 
of a month. He had a very specific character, 
and didn’t really speak as we speak, but he did 

communicate some messages, which became increasingly 
vague as I would wake up each of those 
days.

I remember showing my best friend from that 
age, Lloyd Fugiwara, the picture of the space being. 
I was very excited about it, and had a bit of a 
letdown in how underwhelmed my parents were 
upon seeing the drawing. So I tried to impress 
upon Lloyd that this was something important. 
We stood in the Yamada’s driveway –that was the 
house between mine and the Fugiwara’s – and I 
showed him the drawing, which had been done 
on a supermarket brown bag. Lloyd merely commented 
on how well I drew the picture but had no 
comment about the space being as a real entity.

 For at least another year I closed the drapes 
nightly, and I often looked for the large metallic 
space being in my dreams. Gradually, my thought 
and interests moved to the more pragmatic of 
getting along in school, and meeting new friends, 
and wondering what my life was for and all about. 
I sometimes thought about “what will I be when I 
grow up,” but didn’t dwell on it much since being 
“grown up” was so far into the distant future that 
it had no practical meaning in my day to day life. 
But my day to day thinking and acting in those 
very early years had to have had a profound effect 
on the way my mind works to this day. 

 Had I been my parents, I believe I would have 
made the time to spend far more time with my 
children, to explore their dreams, to guide them 
to the future, to looks for the facts buried within 
their dream-time fantasies. That opportunity is 
over. Now is now. I look to the past to see how 
it formed me, and this is why each of us should 
look to the past. There is no value in dwelling 
in the past, only from learning the lessons that 
still lie there, and in resolving old obstacles which 
were formed there. Only by so doing can we 
move forward, day by day, fulfilling our destiny, 
and finding the meaning and purpose of life – our 
individual life and life in general.

 But I digress….

 I still wonder if the little beings looking in the 
front bedroom window were just figments of 
my imagination, or symbols of things I needed 
to be cautious about. Aren’t our dreams one of 
the ways in which our Higher Self tries to communicate 
with us? And I wonder who was the 
metallic space being who I drew, and who tried 
to communicate to me “something special.” Did 
he consider me a waste of time and move on to 
another human to share the special message? 
Was he too just a figment of a youthful mind? Or 
was he too a symbol of Evil, of God, of sidetracks, 
or deadends? Who can say? It may not matter 
any longer, but it certainly mattered then, in that 
moment. 


You are invited to:
THE ARCADIA WOMEN’S REPUBLICAN CLUB MEETING 
On Thursday, February 20th at 11:00 am at the Sunset Room - Santa Anita Golf Course, 405 S. 
Santa Anita Avenue, Arcadia 91006 
Our speaker will be Loren Spivack. Loren devotes his time to teaching conservative groups 
about free market economics. He conducts “economic literacy” seminars across the United 
States. He is funny and interesting. This would be a good meeting to bring young people to 
so they might gain an understanding of conservative economics. Gentlemen are also welcome.
You can stay for lunch if you wish at the cost of $17. Please call Michelle for a reservation at 
626-614-9290.