Bayer must pay more than $2 billion in suit linking Roundup herbicide to cancer, jury says

A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto's parent company to pay more than $2 billion in a suit linking a pesticide to cancer.

According to an Associated Press story by Wyatt Grantham-Philips that recently appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, penalties awarded "to a man who says the company's Roundup weed killer caused his cancer" include $65 million in compensatory damages, $2 billion in punitive damages.

Bayer AG, the agrochemical giant, intends to appeal the decision that sent its stock plunging 8% immediately after the verdict.

That recent verdict is "the latest in a long-running series of court battles Monsanto has faced over its Roundup herbicide," the article says, and "marks one of the the largest verdicts in a Roundup-related case to date."

John Barnes

The piece goes on to say that the plaintiff, John Barnes, filed the suit in 2021, seeking damages because of his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It quotes his attorney, Kyle Findley of Arnold & Itkin LLP, as calling the verdict "an important milestone [because it illuminates] another example of Monsanto's refusal to accept responsibility for poisoning people with this toxic product."

Findley also charged that the Barnes case showed "many years of cover-ups [and] backroom dealings."  

Bayer, a German-based company that acquired Monsanto in 2018 and "has been hit with more than 177,000 lawsuits involving the weed killer and set aside $16 billion to settle cases," according to Wyatt Grantham-Philips, will continue"to stand fully behind the safety" of the Roundup product line.

In the meantime, Bayer, reports an environmental website, The New Lede, is hopeful that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, will soon sign controversial legislation recently passed by state lawmakers to bar people from suing pesticide manufacturers for failing to warn them of health risks, as long as the product labels are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Opponents say the legislation will rob farmers and others who use pesticides from holding companies accountable in court if their pesticide products cause disease or injury."

Additional information on Monsanto and its herbicides can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6 to 10-year-olds.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner; new MysteryDates® book can make it zing

Hey, have I got the perfect Valentine's Day gift, one that can make the holiday zing, for you or a loved one.

It's MysteryDates®, my brand new memoir/travel guide that offers hundreds of ways to help you retain, resuscitate, or refresh the sizzle and joy that flared when sparks first sparked between you and your partner.

 

The lighthearted 282-page book — now available in paperback and e-book editions (the hardcover will be coming soon) — provides countless tips on what to do, how to do it, and where to go (locally, nationally, globally). 

 

Its personal anecdotes were culled from 35 years of dates that either I or my wife have concocted; the other tips emerged from endless hours of research.

 

To buy a copy of MysteryDates, just visit https://woodyweingarten.com and push a button for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, or another of your favorite booksellers.

 

My latest book, sprinkled with humor, explains how you can surprise your partner with a spontaneous lunch or a flight to a weeklong visit to a best friend in another state, how to eliminate the expected spasms of Valentine's Day or other special occasions and substitute a non-stressful and loving event, and where to go in your own 'hood — or across the ocean — to easily find delight. 

 

It can delight you just to read about free food or a $30 million gown, about beer-bathing or the International Spy Museum, about the annual testicle festival or the time when Nancy Fox, my three decades-long partner, and I helped turn each other into San Francisco clowns.

 

As the old television food commercial suggests, "Try it — you'll like it."

 

Pre-publication readers agree with that idea.

 

For example, Toby Adelman, PhD, RN, from Mars Hill, Maine, says, "What a delight. This is a book that, using the exciting concepts of creativity, spontaneity, and trust, is destined to be one of the best ‘relationship' books a couple might receive for a wedding present. Not to mention the incredible overview of interesting activities and places available for MysteryDates close to home and around the world. In a category of its own. Love it!" 

 

And Roberta Bienenfeld, an editor and translator from Raat Beit Shemesh, Israel, writes that "Woody Weingarten’s new book, MysteryDates, offers hundreds of ideas — as well as personal anecdotes — to get you out of your house and into a world filled with possibilities. A MysteryDate can be almost anything, from something simple — taking out the time to watch a sunset in your own backyard garden — to boarding a plane to Hawaii to visit a volcano."

 

Remember, all you need to do is click on woodyweingarten.com and then push your favorite "buy" button. You can check out my three other books on that same website, by the way. In fact, for a limited time, Amazon is selling the handover edition of The Roving I, the collection of 70 of my newspaper columns, at a major discount ($5.44) and, similarly, Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, the children’s book I wrote with my granddaughter, is being discounted to $6.95.

Reader of ‘The Roving I’ compares collection of columns to Mark Twain’s pithy humor, seriousness

My latest book, The Roving I, has drawn an endorsement that absolutely blows me away.

Mark Twain

Fiona Quinn of Chicago, after writing that my “collection of essays is brilliant,” has also written that I have “the rare capacity to connect with readers through humor and thoughtful analysis simultaneously. That is no small feat, and this collection can be compared to Mark Twain’s pithy humor, which camouflages the depth and seriousness of his subject matter.”

That amazing comparison, to my way of thinking, is as flattering as any might be.
 
Quinn, whom I thank profusely for her commendation, gives a specific example of why she’s come to her conclusion: “For example, writing about the death of a dear friend named David, the writer says: ‘On his deathbed, my psychologist/consultant pal, still boyishly good-looking despite being sixty-something, and still a pig-headed St. Louis Cardinals fanatic, revisited his spiritual feelings.’
 
“The author’s reference to David’s fanaticism about the Cardinals expresses more about the jokey, intimate nature of their friendship than any narrative could. And it also poignantly clarifies how much David’s absence will be felt.”
 
Quinn closes with a direct appeal for readers who especially enjoy good writing to buy The Roving I: “Every essay in this collection is spiced with jokes, puns, hilarious observations, deep compassion, and eternal truths. Get this book! It’s deeply satisfying on every level.”
 
Anyone who wants to follow her advice, or to check out my two previous books, can do so by clicking on my website, https://woodyweingarten.com.

East Coast readers join with West Coast readers in praising 'The Roving I' collection of columns

Readers on both coasts have applauded The Roving I, with praise that ranges from “warm, witty, thoughtful, and charming” to “insightful, entertaining, and informative." 

Arlene Miller of Tampa Florida, for example, says the book is “beautifully written with cleverness and empathy. The Roving I exhibits a wide array of very readable stories taken from real life — from celebrations to births to deaths to pets and everything in between. You will chuckle, you might cry, but you will definitely relate to these enjoyable bite-sized essays.”

 

Dan Pine of Albany, California, meanwhile, declares that “Woody Weingarten brings the sharpest of eyes and keenest of ears to this bracing collection of his newspaper columns. No subject, large or small, escapes his powers of observation and instinct for getting to the heart of the matter. Whether recounting the simple joys of grandparenting, a harrowing Holocaust survivor's tale, or cataloguing the best of eavesdropped conversations in the mall, he remains first and foremost a reporter of unflinching honesty and inerrant lyrical style.” 

 

Lance Woodruff of Philadelphia notes that I, Woody Weingarten, the book's author, raise his spirit when I write "of the varieties of human experience: A refugee from Cambodia’s Maoist Khymer Rouge, a school janitor, a bus driver, the homeless, and the hungry. The Roving I is ecumenical, sometimes as personal as his lifelong adoration of his wife — as well as his lifelong appreciation of other women who catch his eye.”

 

Michael Rosenthal of Fairfax, California, simultaneously flatters and humbles me by saying that my “columns are warm, witty, thoughtful, and charming, much like the man himself.”

 

Ann Israel of Hudson, New York, says, “Like my experience with The Squid Game, which I binge-watched in one weekend, I just binge-read all the columns in The Roving I and loved every single one. The author makes words — and his observations — come alive.”

 

And Gloria Dunn-Violin of Novato, California, writes that “Woody Weingarten uses his amazing writing talent to tell unique stories that are inciteful, entertaining, and informative.”

To learn more about this book, to buy it, or to check out my two earlier books, click on https://woodyweingarten.com.

New book provides ‘wit, wisdom, self-exposure’ of Woody Weingarten, author of its 70 columns

The Roving I can be a holiday gift for you, your family, and your friends — and that purchase can also act as a present of sorts for me, its author, since it coincides with my 85th birthday.

Woody Weingarten enjoys his new hardcover.

The new anthology — available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook versions — delivers what its subtitle promises, to supply "the wit, wisdom, and self-exposure of Woody Weingarten." Inside are 70 of my favorite columns, including those about my wife earning a slot in my Little Black Book, a woman carrying her sister's "miracle baby" inside her for nine months, and Robin Williams transforming himself into a talking vagina.

Another good present — for your kids or grandkids — would be Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy co-written by my 8-year-old granddaughter and aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds.

A this gift book can benefit anyone who knows someone with a life-threatening disease, Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, which details how my wife and I learned to cope.

More information about all three can be found at my new website, woodyweingarten.com.

Master artist Joe Marciniak strikes again — with whimsical cover for new book, “The Roving I”

Joe Marciniak, master artist who designed cover and inside illustrations for "Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates,” has followed up with an incredibly lighthearted front cover for “The Roving I.”

Marciniak self-portrait

The cover features a walking cartoon body of the author, Woody Weingarten, replete with an à-propos pot belly — and uses a real photo for the head, replete with elongated, cartoonish nose. The whimsical illustration represents the tone of many of the 70 favorite columns the writer has selected for the anthology (which he, for fun, refers to as florilegium, a word he admits he’d never heard of until a few weeks ago).

BAIPA, the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, voted Marciniak’s “Grampy” cover best in the 2021 children’s book category. The fantasy, not incidentally, was co-authored by Weingarten’s granddaughter, who was eight at the time it was written, 70 years different in age.

“The Roving I” contains scores of the writer’s memories — including his partner earning a slot in his Little Black Book, a woman carrying her sister’s “miracle baby” inside her for nine months, and Robin Williams transforming himself into a talking vagina.

Weingarten also wrote a third book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer." Details of all three are available on his website, https://woodyweingarten.com.

“The Roving I,” a compilation of 70 essays by author Woody Weingarten, out in paperback

"The Roving I," containing more than 300 pages of Woody Weingarten's favorite essays (his own), has just been published — mere hours before the author's 85th birthday.

Author Woody Weingarten

A paperback version is now available on Amazon; it will be ready for prime time within days on the Apple and Barnes & Noble sites and many others. That will be followed shortly by a hardcover and an ebook.

The new book includes scores of Weingarten’s memories — including his partner earning a slot in his Little Black Book, a woman carrying her sister’s “miracle baby” inside her for nine months, and Robin Williams transforming himself into a talking vagina. 

Many of the 70 first-person newspaper columns are lighthearted; a handful are weighty.

“The Roving I” is Weingarten’s third book. His first, “Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer,” detailed how he and his wife successfully coped with the life-threatening disease decades ago. 

The author’s second, “Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates,” is a fantasy aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds and was his collaboration with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.

Details on all his books are available on Weingarten’s other website, https://woodyweingarten.com.