I saw this in the October 19, 2015 issue of The Weekly Standard; written by Cita and Irwin Stelzer. It has to do with the civilized behavior of Arizonans (my home state) as compared to where they moved from.

” We never thought we would find ourselves stocking a pantry in Arizona.  But now that Phoenix is our winter base, there we were, on line at the deli counter of a supermarket…..  After waiting awhile, we realized we were a take-a-number queue.  We … got number 61.  … a customer who’d arrived after us, but taken a number promptly, was called, she nodded toward us and told the clerk, “These people were here before me.  They just forgot to take a number. So serve them first.”

This reminded them of a trip 40 years earlier to Phoenix and Mr. Stelzer had taken his 10 year old son to a Phoenix Suns game.  When Adam came back from getting a hot dog, he said, in amazement: “no one pushed me!”

As they’ve stayed in Phoenix, they’ve encountered “have a nice day”, “have a blessed day” from store clersk and waitresses.

“Disconcerting as it was to us East Coast types, we decided that what we were encountering was civility, and we were noticing it because we were accustomed to its absence in Washington, (DC),  a place we had recently fled.”

the ….. are where I shortened their original sentences to make for a shorter post. Where I have quote marks is where I quote their article directly.

Spotted this bumper sticker on the back of a truck in Yuma, AZ.  It reads: Black Rifles Matter

I imagine many of you have seen the movie The Sound of Music.  Well, at least people within 10 years of my age certainly have.  It was based on a true story of Georg von Trapp.  I was recently reading the book “Dead Wake” by Erik Larson about World War I and the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, a British oceanliner in 1915.  This event helped bring the USA into World War I.

I like history and in reading this book, I found it interesting to see a paragraph with a quote from Captain von Trapp.  As you recall from The Sound of Music, he was an Austrian Naval officer who the Nazis were demanding he join the German Navy.  Here’s the section which talks about Captain von Trapp:

Off the southeast tip of Italy a young Austrian U-boat commander named Georg von Trapp, later to gain eternal renown when played by Christopher Plummer in the film The Sound of Music, fired two torpedoes into a large French cruiser, the Leon Gambetta.  The ship sank in nine minutes, killing 684 sailors.  “So that’s what war looks like!” von Trapp wrote in a later memoir.  He told his chief officer, “We are like highway men, sneaking up on an unsuspecting ship in such a cowardly fashion.” Fighting in a trench or aboard a torpedo boat would have been better, he said.  “There you hear shooting, hear your comrades fall, you hear the wounded groaning-you become filled with rage and can shoot men in self-defense or fear; at an assault you can even yell! But we! Simply cold-blooded to drown a mass of men in an ambush!”

Wreaths Across America places Christmas Wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery and around the country to honor our Armed Forces Veterans.  It is a charitable organization that does its work through donations from the public.  I contributed for 2 wreaths.

Wreaths Across America Donation Page

While watching a segment on the news about the tragic murder of Amanda Blackburn, they showed the blurry picture from a nearby residential security camera.  In it, the person is walking away and wearing a hoodie sweatshirt.  Then when they were showing pictures of Amanda and her husband Davey, I was rather startled to see that in the pictures they showed Davey was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt.

So there I was – sitting in an airport bar – nothing unusual about that.  Having recently read Porter Gale’s book: Your Network Is Your Net Worth in which she mentions a future book she’s working on. That one will be titled something like: Conversations with the person in seat 4A.  In her travels, she made a point to talk to the person next to her and it has created interesting opportunities.

So, not shy about talking to people, I ask the guy next to me where he’s going and where he’s coming from.  Turns out he does sound and light production at concerts and has been doing so for 30+ years and was returning from a large multiple performer event.

Interesting insight into two performers: Lady Gaga and Drake.

Nothing but compliments for Lady Gaga, tireless rehearser, respectful and considerate to the crews.

Drake, on the other hand, a complete jackass – shows up late, demands big changes to things he’d insisted on prior to arriving, rude to the crews.

So keep this in mind when buying music.

So, I recently read the fascinating book “In the Kingdom of Ice” by Hampton Sides.  It was about the attempt by the USS Jeannette to reach the North Pole in 1879.  One moment in history which I found very interesting is captured in the beginning of Chapter 6.  The chapter starts out describing the events of the first week of July 1876 in Philadelphia.  It was America’s 100th birthday and Philadelphia was hosting a world’s fair, called the Centennial Exhibition.  For those of you familiar with the Philadelphia area, it took place on nearly 400 acres in Fairmount Park, across the Schuylkill River.  It was the first time America hosted a world expo and it was attended by nearly ten million people over that summer.

Some of the new inventions were: the Remington Typewriter, a complicated stringed device called a Calculating Machine and “a curious gizmo that a bearded Scotsman named Alexander Graham Bell was calling his “telephone””.   Bell read from a Shakespeare play at one end of the hall and people at the other end could hear Bells’ voice.  Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil said, “My God, it talks!”.

Also present were young inventors, George Westinghouse, George Eastman and Thomas Edison.  At the Japanese Pavilion they featured a fast growing pea plant called Kudzu.  This was also where Americans were first introduced to Heinz Ketchup, Hires Root Beer and bananas.  The bananas were served in foil with a fork.

I like reading historical novels that involve adventure and the human struggle against the odds and I highly recommend “In the Kingdom of Ice”.  It is an amazing struggle against virtually impossible odds.

My first job out of college was for the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome Co.  The company was owned by a charitable trust, The Wellcome Foundation.  When they sold the company to Glaxo in 1995, it provided the Wellcome Trust with significant amounts of money, which they continue to use to fund research all over the world.  One such study is described below.  I also found it interesting because, as a twin, it is interesting to see research done on twins because one serves as the control for the other.

Previous studies on a smaller scale have attempted to identify mole count on certain body sites as a proxy to accurately estimate the number on the body as a whole and found that the arm was the most predictive.

This study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, used a much larger sample of participants to identify the most useful ‘proxy’ site for a full body mole count as well as the ‘cut off’ number of moles that can be used to predict those at the highest risk of developing skin cancer.

The researchers used data from 3594 female Caucasian twins between January 1995 and December 2003 as part of the TwinsUK study protocol. Twins underwent a skin examination including recording skin type, hair and eye colour and freckles as well as mole count on 17 body sites performed by trained nurses. This was then replicated in a wider sample of male and female participants from a UK melanoma case control study published previously.

Scientists found that the count of moles on the right arm was most predictive of the total number on the whole body. Females with more than seven moles on their right arm had nine times the risk of having more than 50 on the whole body and those with more than 11 on their right arm were more likely to have over 100 on their body in total, meaning they were at a higher risk of developing a melanoma.

These findings could help GPs to more easily identify those at the highest risk of developing a melanoma (skin cancer).

Scientists also found that the area above the right elbow was particularly predictive of the total body count of moles. The legs were also strongly associated with the total count as well as the back area in males.

Lead author, Simone Ribero of the Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology said: “This study follows on from previous work to identify the best proxy site for measuring the number of moles on the body as a whole. The difference here is that it has been done on a much larger scale in a healthy Caucasian population without any selection bias and subsequently replicated in a case control study from a similar healthy UK population, making the results more useful and relevant for GPs.

“The findings could have a significant impact for primary care, allowing GPs to more accurately estimate the total number of moles in a patient extremely quickly via an easily accessible body part. This would mean that more patients at risk of melanoma can be identified and monitored.”

The study is being published in the British Journal of Dermatology.

So the company that makes HonestTea did an interesting study.  In 27 cities, HonestTea stands were set out in public with a collection box and a sign $1/bottle honor system.  Atlanta was the most honest with 100% of bottles taken and a $ left.  It was nice to see that the national average was 94%.  The least honest cities are shown below: Providence, RI; Boston, MA and Tampa, FL take the top 3 spots.  In only one city was money missing and that was Washington, DC

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/08/24/honest-tea-atlanta-cities/32260581/

Over the last few years, I’ve increasingly lost interest in watching NBA games.  First, I don’t think they should start in October when I’m more interested in football.  Second, 1/2 of the teams make the playoffs, so I feel like the teams play just hard enough to make it to the playoffs and then play hard.  I’ve continued to watch the semi-finals and finals, until this year.  So last night I decide to watch game 2 of the finals, the first playoff game I’ve watched this year.  I was rather shocked – it appeared to be more like a pre-season game with the sloppy play and poor shooting decisions. It seemed very undisciplined and this is the Finals!  We should be seeing the best.  Was last night’s game typical for this year’s playoffs and pro basketball in general?