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.
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