130 Columns in Taxon

Six times a year it still thrills as I scroll through each RevNot for the first time and see the excellent formatting of text and its juxtapositioning with color pictures by Franz Stadler, the superb production editor of IAPT. However, achieving that thrill has become increasingly difficult and challenging. 

I had hoped to finish my 30th year as RevNot editor with a flourish. Fortunately, two faithful reviewers, Ian Jackson and Hans Walter Lack, saved it from turning into an implosive dud. After 30 years, 130 RevNot columns, 2645 pages, and 1006 reviews and commentaries, 2015 undoubtedly must be my last full editorial year. 

My health has deteriorated considerably in recent years, particularly my vision: entering visual acuity (uncorrected) is 20/80 right eye and 20/50 left eye, with very frequent double and blurred vision. Because of my ocular problems I have become increasingly dysfunctional, with reading and typing requiring increased time and energy. I was hoping that giving up RevNot and its concomitant time demands and stresses six times a year would allow me to work on various other projects, ones bibliographical, biographical (Emily Gregory, Norma 

Pfeiffer, Agnes Arber, and other woman botanists) and actual anatomical and field research (Thismia americana and Sequoiadendron giganteum). However, now even that goal is appreciably in doubt. 

Most of my health decline is due to Parkinson’s Disease (PD); I was diagnosed with PD in autumn 2005. I mentioned PD only once in my RevNot column (Taxon 60: 302, Feb. 2011): 

In Jan. 2004 I took early retirement from UC Berkeley, anticipating a more active travel schedule on par with those of my botanical brothers Dennis Stevenson and Peter Endress— we were all born in Aug. 1942. However, a simple twist of fate intervened. 

The rumor ’tis true. In fall 2005 I met the legacy of English physician James Parkinson (1755–1824), namely Parkinson’s Disease (1817), aka PD, alas not a meeting with the legume Parkinsonia L. (1753) honoring English apothecary and bota- nist John Parkinson (1567–1650). My PD is … 

Medications for PD become less effective over time. One option for improved quality of life (alas not a cure for PD) is DBS (deep brain stimulation), After a year’s evaluation I was deemed to be an excellent candidate for DBS. 

Hence in March 2014 I had two brain operations for bipolar DBS: on the 6th (inpatient two days) to implant two electrodes, and on the 27th (outpatient) to implant the lead along the left side of my neck, beneath the collarbone, and to the battery-powered neurostimulator implanted by my left armpit. 

My initial reaction to DBS was spectacularly fine, but by 2 May 2014 double vision (“conversion insufficiency”), a side effect of DBS, was becoming irksome, and more recently blurred or low vision (optic nerves are affected by dopamine—its declining production in the brain characterizes PD). 

With my present low vision even reading eyeglasses plus hand magnifying glasses are inadequate. There are alternatives such as video camera magnifiers (“CCTV” devices; for an excellent article see www.allaboutvision.com/buysmart/magnifiers.htm and for a comprehensive website on vision see www.allaboutvision.com) 

and voice recognition (Dragon). Yet thus far I have found nothing conducive to my RevNot-editing work-style. 

This “frustration inefficiency” results in many typos, some even comical, to wit: “Fesmx” for “Franz”; “noy” for “not”; “yuor” or “tgpe” for “type”; “xan;t” for “can’t”; “vlibisd” for “clivias”; etc. Particularly hellish are logins (especially passwords) and poison-key combinations sometimes crashing programs. All of this has slowed me down considerably. My vision problems have also affected my e-mail correspondence—usually brief, or totally ignored. 

In short, reading, writing, editing, and arithmetic—hallmarks of an academic—have become frustratingly difficult. There is no deus-ex-machina solution or resolution! 

It has been an honor and immense pleasure doing the RevNot column for Taxon these past three decades. I greatly regret that James Parkinson’s legacy will not allow a fourth decade. 

I will close by slightly modifying two remarks by Marlene Dietrich (as Tanya, a clairvoyant madam) to and about Orson Welles (as corrupt police chief Hank Quinlan) in one of my favorite film- noir flicks, Touch of evil (1958): “Your future is all used up [by PD]” and “He was some kind of [editor]!” 

Endnote: For earlier confessions see regarding 40 columns Taxon 45: 188–190, 440 (Feb., May 1996), 50 columns Taxon 47: 1020 (Nov. 1998), and 100 columns Taxon 60: 301–304 (Feb. 2011). On 7 September 2015 (Labor Day in the United States) I sent to Vicki Funk (President of IAPT) and several other persons an e-mail titled “2015 the last (30th) year as RevNot editor.” The information therein was modified into these “final confessions.” 

Acknowledgements: Back in 1985 Frans Stafleu launched me on this path, whereas from 2007 on Franz Stadler guided each RevNot to a “precision landing.” I am indebted to numerous other persons for the success of my RevNot column. The aforecited pages of Taxon acknowledge them, but I must single out my daughter Mena and my best friend Steve Ruzin. “What about me?” say the eyes of Fleur, my faithful dachshund mix. “Of course,” I replied, “myriad inspirations—and distractions.”