Your rapid tests may have a longer expiration date than listed on the box

Posted on June 17, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary M.

Click here for the NYT article that lists new longer expiration dates for most brands.

The F.D.A. regularly updates the life span of at-home coronavirus tests online
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Glorious insults

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

These glorious insults are from an era “before” the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words .
 
A member of Parliament to Disraeli:   “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.”
“That depends, Sir, “   said Disraeli,   “whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”
 
 
“He had delusions of adequacy   .”
Walter Kerr
 
 
“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
Winston Churchill
 
 
“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”
Clarence Darrow
 
 
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
 
 
“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.”
Moses Hadas
 
 
“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”
Mark Twain
 
 
“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”
Oscar Wilde
 
 
“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one. “
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.”
Winston Churchill, in response
 
 
“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.”
Stephen Bishop
 
 
“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.”
John Bright
 
 
“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.”
Irvin S. Cobb
 
 
“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.”
Samuel Johnson
 
 
“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”
Paul Keating
 
 
“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.”
Charles, Count Talleyrand
 
 
“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.”
Forrest Tucker
 
 
“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”
Mark Twain
 
 
“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”
Mae West
 
 
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”
Oscar Wilde
 
 
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination. “
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
 
 
“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.”
Billy Wilder
 
 
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But I’m afraid this wasn’t it.”
Groucho Marx

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The Tobacco Wars’ Lessons for the Vaccination Wars

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Ed note: This essay in the New England Journal of Medicine is an interesting comparison of the public health imperatives in both tobacco abuse and vaccine denial. It outlines some possible strategies to improve vaccination rates going forward–by looking back.

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Entrances to Yellowstone Park Are Closed After Heavy Rain and Floods

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Visitors were evacuated after record rainfall washed away roads at the national park, the authorities said. It was unclear when the park would reopen. Click here for the article and videos in the NYT.

Parts of the highway between Gardiner and Mammoth in Montana were washed out on Monday.
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A quiet hero

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

From Wiki: Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE (born Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British humanitarian who helped to rescue children who were at risk of oppression by Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia he helped compile a list of children needing rescue and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them.[1] This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for “children’s transport”).

His humanitarian accomplishments went unnoticed by the world for nearly 50 years until 1988 when he was invited to the BBC television programme That’s Life!, where he was reunited with dozens of the children he had helped come to Britain and was introduced to many of their children and grandchildren. The British press celebrated him and dubbed him the “British Schindler“.[2] In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia”.[3] On 28 October 2014, he was awarded the highest honour of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion (1st class), by Czech President Miloš Zeman. He died in his sleep, in 2015, at the age of 106.

Notable people saved

Of the 669 children saved from the Holocaust through Winton’s efforts, more than 370 have never been traced. BBC News suggested in 2015 that they may not know the full story of how they survived the war.[38][47]

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Advancing the Science: The Latest in Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research – at Town Hall 7:30 PM Wednesday both in person and streaming

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary M.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Alzheimer’s Association WA State Chapter
Dr. Maria Carrillo with Denise Whitaker

Join Dr. Maria Carrillo to learn more about:
●      The landscape of Alzheimer’s and dementia science
●      Risk factors for Alzheimer’s and all other dementia
●      Highlights in early detection and diagnosis
●      Latest advances in clinical trials, treatments and lifestyle intervention

Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., is the chief science officer for the Alzheimer’s Association where she sets the strategic vision for their global research program. Under her leadership, the Association is the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer’s research — currently investing $167 million — and an internationally recognized pioneer in convening the dementia science community. Dr. Carrillo uses her platform as a noted public speaker to play an instrumental role in the Association’s efforts to lobby for increased funding for the disease. Dr. Carrillo earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University’s Institute for Neuroscience and completed a postdoctoral fellowship focused on Alzheimer’s brain imaging and risk factors at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Wednesday, June 15 at 7:30pm
IN-PERSON & LIVESTREAM 

$5
 
GET TICKETS
Posted in Dementia, Health | 1 Comment

A little info about this this blog

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Below are two screen shots of stats from 2022. Interesting that the Ukraine flag post beat out Sex after 70! Also, we get occasional views from all over the world, 92 countries in all — such is the internet. Please note that the blog is searchable by word via the search icon in the upper R hand corner of the page; and it can be searched by category on the R hand side, such as “humor” or “climate.” 128 of you are listed as “followers.” The modest costs of the blog domain name and WordPress are covered by the Skyline Residents Association.

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Yes, you can still smile at the paradoxes of aging

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

“To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” – Oscar Wilde 
  
“The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.” – Will Rogers 
  
“Old age comes at a bad time.” – San Banducci “
  
“Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.” – Jennifer Yane
  
“Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do about it.” – Golda Meir 
  
“I’m so old that my blood type is discontinued.” – Bill Dane 
  
“The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened. – Mark Twain 
  
“Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes, age just shows up all by itself.” – Tom Wilson  
  
“Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your retirement home.”- Phyllis Diller  
  
“I don’t plan to grow old gracefully. I plan to have face-lifts until my ears meet.” – Rita Rudner  
  
“I’m at that age where my back goes out more than I do.” – Phyllis Diller 
  
“Nice to be here? At my age it’s nice to be anywhere.” – George Burns 
  
“Don’t let aging get you down. It’s too hard to get back up.” – John Wagner 
  
“First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down.” – Leo Rosenberg 
  
“Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long life.” – Kitty O’Neill Collins 
  
“Old people shouldn’t eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get.” – Robert Orben 
  
“It’s important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle.” – Unknown 
  
“At my age, flowers scare me.” – George Burns 
  
“I have successfully completed the thirty-year transition from wanting to stay up late to just wanting to go to bed.” – Unknown 
  
“Nobody expects to trust his body much after the age of fifty.” – Alexander Hamilton 
  
“The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.” – T.S. Elliot 
  
“At age 20, we worry about what others think of us… at age 40, we don’t care what they think of us… at age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” – Ann Landers 
  
“When I was young, I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties, I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then, and I’m labeled senile.” – George Burns 
  
“The important thing to remember is that I’m probably going to forget.” – Unknown 
  
“As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can’t remember the other two.” – Sir Norman Wisdom 
  
“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.” – Andy Rooney  
  
“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.” – Larry Lorenzon 
  
“The older I get, the better I used to be.” – Lee Trevino

Posted in Aging Sites, Humor | Comments Off on Yes, you can still smile at the paradoxes of aging

Giuliani Demands Recount of His Blood-Alcohol Level

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

By Andy BorowitzJ une 14, 2022

Close up shot of Rudolph Giuliani conducting a news conference at the Republican National Committee.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—An irate Rudy Giuliani has demanded an immediate recount of his blood-alcohol level on Election Night of 2020.

Witnesses to Giuliani’s behavior that night have pegged his blood-alcohol level at .20, well above the recognized limit for conspiring to overturn an election.

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Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine

About the authors: Judith Enck is a former EPA regional administrator, the president of Beyond Plastics, and a visiting professor at Bennington College. Jan Dell is a chemical engineer and the founder of the Last Beach Cleanup.

From The Atlantic

Americans support recycling. We do too. But although some materials can be effectively recycled and safely made from recycled content, plastics cannot. Plastic recycling does not work and will never work. The United States in 2021 had a dismal recycling rate of about 5 percent for post-consumer plastic waste, down from a high of 9.5 percent in 2014, when the U.S. exported millions of tons of plastic waste to China and counted it as recycled—even though much of it wasn’t.

Recycling in general can be an effective way to reclaim natural material resources. The U.S.’s high recycling rate of paper, 68 percent, proves this point. The problem with recycling plastic lies not with the concept or process but with the material itself.

The first problem is that there are thousands of different plastics, each with its own composition and characteristics. They all include different chemical additives and colorants that cannot be recycled together, making it impossible to sort the trillions of pieces of plastics into separate types for processing. For example, polyethylene terephthalate (PET#1) bottles cannot be recycled with PET#1 clamshells, which are a different PET#1 material, and green PET#1 bottles cannot be recycled with clear PET#1 bottles (which is why South Korea has outlawed colored PET#1 bottles.) High-density polyethylene (HDPE#2), polyvinyl chloride (PVC#3), low-density polyethylene (LDPE#4), polypropylene (PP#5), and polystyrene (PS#6) all must be separated for recycling.

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Posted in environment | 2 Comments

Having dysgeusia–the disgusting problem of Paxlovid Mouth

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Ed note: They didn’t warn me that ingesting Paxlovid (the antiviral medication for COVID) would make me feel like I’d licked a lamp post or swirled some nickels in my mouth. But this under-reported side effect is real and quite annoying. So much so, that The Atlantic has published this article by Rachel Gutman. I learned that ironically we can taste more bitter than sweet!

Paxlovid Mouth Is Real—And Gross from The Atlantic

More than two years into this pandemic, we finally have an antiviral treatment that works pretty darn well. Paxlovid cuts a vulnerable adult’s chances of hospitalization or death from COVID by nearly 90 percent if taken in the first few days of an infection. For adults without risk-heightening factors, it reduces that likelihood by 70 percent. Also, it might make your mouth taste like absolute garbage the whole time you’re taking the pills.

In Pfizer’s clinical trials, about 5.6 percent of patients reported an “altered sense of taste,” called dysgeusia in the medical literature. A Pfizer spokesperson assured me that “most events were mild” and “very few patients discontinued study as a result”; the outer packaging of the drug doesn’t mention it at all, and the patient fact sheet breezes past it. But Paxlovid-takers told me it’s absolutely dysgeusting.

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Time for a COVID cruise?

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine
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Weight Loss Tied to a Dramatic Drop in Cancer Risk, New Study Shows

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Click here for the full article in the NYT

A large new study found that people who lost significant amounts of weight through bariatric surgery gained a striking benefit: Their likelihood of developing cancer fell sharply.

The study, published on Friday in JAMA, followed more than 30,000 adults with obesity for about a decade. It found that those who underwent weight loss surgery had a 32 percent lower risk of developing cancer and a 48 percent lower risk of dying from the disease, compared with a similar group of people who did not have the surgery. On average, the people who had weight loss surgery lost about 55 pounds more than those who did not over the course of the study. The researchers found that the more weight people lost, the more their cancer risk fell.

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Gun Buyback Is Far More Likely to Work

Posted on June 13, 2022 by William Calvin

Discouraged by the bipartisan proposal, I tried again. WHC

Why are we so easily misled by gun solutions that would make some sense in other countries? But the US, having more guns than people, is special. And so, the bipartisan proposal will take centuries to make a dent on the number of active shooters (no newscast is complete without one). While it is worth taking rapid fire weapons off the market, remember that their problem buyers are people who already have guns and are trading up for making a spectacle, their very own fifteen minutes of fame that inspires copycats.

The proposed measures seem unlikely to reduce the number of active shooter incidents. A useful exercise for any gun proposal is to ask: How long will this fix take to reduce gun deaths by half? Years, decades, centuries, forever? Compare to the time-to-half for an alternative Plan B.

· Plan A gun control intervenes at the point of gun sales. It mostly interferes with trading up to greater firepower when turning angry, suicidal, or terminally harassed (some may call them “crazy”, but psychosis is not one of the major crisis setups). Beware that trying to regulate individuals will just be exploited again for polarizing political recruitment.

· Plan B decreases easy access when the crisis strikes; it focuses on those guns already in US homes. Unlike Plan A, a buyback program also reduces gun access for ordinary murder, solo suicide, and children’s play. Gun buybacks draw down the stockpile by providing a $200 bank-issued gift card that can be used to convert to greenbacks or hand over with the rent. One might need to offer two cash cards for an assault rifle.

With the gift card transaction, no record needs to be kept of the gun seller. One can even avoid having to carry an old rifle down the street to a police station. Imagine a neighborhood merchant, busy making house calls near the end of every month, summoned by phone or text message. To avoid this merchant having to carry around anything worth stealing, suppose that each gift card has a detachable ID tag with a hole big enough to clear the screw shaft.

A long self-tapping screw with a hex head, manufactured in sizes to fit the various calibers, driven by a hex socket on an electric screwdriver, then ruins the barrel beyond repair, instantly reducing the gun’s value to that of scrap metal. The cash card is detached from the affixed tag and handed over.

When the merchant delivers the ruined gun with tag to a “Gun Disposal Center” the next day, the matching gift card is activated once it is verified that the gun is not a look-alike toy. The merchant is paid a $50 commission.

Civic groups might compete with the freelance merchants to raise money for community projects. Most of their volunteers would already be familiar with guns and electric screwdrivers. Centers would need to register them for getting paid, give them some initial supplies, show videos about how to detect toy guns, others on how to assure guns are unloaded, how to select the right self-tapping screw for the barrel’s caliber (start with the largest and stick with the first one to drop in an inch before jamming), and how to hold the gun flat against a hard flat surface while its barrel is then ruined by torquing in the jammed self-tapping screw. Some buyers will carry around a vacuum-footed bench vise to keep the gun from rotating. Still, it is a remarkably small toolkit to carry; cargo pants would suffice.

So, it appears to be easy to reduce easy gun availability over a few years. To buy up half of the four hundred million guns might cost $50b over a few years but some of the commissions would find their way into civic projects.

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Firearms: What You Can Do Now

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Ed M.

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Wine Tasting – Wednesday June 15th at 3:30 PM

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Jim deMaine

The wine tasting on Wednesday, June 15, at 3:30, is being hosted by Skyline resident Berta Beveridge’s son Paul and his winery, Wilridge Winery. Berta hopes everyone will come to the delicious wine tasting, and enjoy wines her son Paul has made from grapes he has grown in his Naches Heights vineyard, near Yakima.

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Why CDC Shortened Isolation and Quarantine for the General Population

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Ed note: The Omicron variant and its variants are upon us. The CDC in this updated Feb. 2022 publication explains the need to balance isolation with the need to get on with life. Masking is very important (high quality N95 or KN95 masks are best) as the shortening of isolation has been implemented. Since we will continue to have COVID infections for the indefinite future, please MASK UP!

COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant have increased along with seasonal increases in influenza and other respiratory virus infections. The potential for a large number of cases raises serious concerns about societal impact due to illness, as well as isolation and quarantine requirements [1]. CDC has been monitoring the emerging science on when and for how long a person is maximally infectious with Omicron, as well as the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and booster doses against Omicron infection. Data related to the mental health effects of the pandemic and adherence to prevention interventions have also been considered.

Data, including a review of 113 studies from 17 countries, show that most SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of infection [2,3]. Infectiousness peaks around one day before symptom onset and declines within a week of symptom onset, with an average period of infectiousness and risk of transmission between 2-3 days before and 8 days after symptom onset [2,3]. These data are from studies of prior SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Delta. The science is evolving, particularly for the Omicron variant, and some reports suggest that compared with previous variants, Omicron has a shorter incubation period (2-4 days), defined as the time between becoming infected and symptom onset [4-6]. Hospitalization and death rates are much lower for vaccinated people for all SARS-CoV-2 variants; preliminary data from South Africa suggest that hospitalization and death rates are lower for people infected with Omicron compared with other variants[7-9].  Early estimates of lower vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic infection and disease due to Omicron after the Pfizer-BioNTech primary series and improved VE after booster doses suggest that booster doses are important to improve protection from hospitalization and death due to infection with the Omicron variant [10-14].  Spread of the Omicron variant has the potential to worsen staffing shortages and increase supply chain challenges, which jeopardize industry, education, and other systems that are essential to maintain a functioning society and economy. The pandemic has also had a negative impact on the mental health of adults in the United States [15], largely due to economic and social concerns [16]. Although many people have intentions to self-isolate, both isolation and quarantine are challenging; especially in the context that many infections are asymptomatic [17]. Studies suggest that only a small percentage of people (25-30%) isolate for a full 10 days [18,19].

On January 4, CDC updated COVID-19 isolation and quarantine recommendations with shorter isolation (for asymptomatic and mildly ill people) and quarantine periods of 5 days to focus on the period when a person is most infectious, followed by continued masking for an additional 5 days. These updated recommendations also facilitate individual social and well-being needs, return to work, and maintenance of critical infrastructure. Preliminary data suggest that the Omicron variant is up to three times more infectious than the Delta variant [20]. With the recommended shorter isolation and quarantine periods, it is critical that people continue to wear well-fitting masks and take additional precautions for 5 days after leaving isolation or quarantine [21]. In addition, isolation should only end if a person has been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and other symptoms have resolved. Modeling data from the United Kingdom reinforce the importance of mask use; after the 5th day after a positive test, an estimated 31% of persons remain infectious [22]. Mask use and layered prevention strategies, such as receiving all recommended vaccination and booster doses, physical distancing, screening testing, and improved ventilation, are key to preventing COVID-19 and decreasing transmission.

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The Shredder

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Al MacR

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Does your pet need a shrink?

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Bob P.

Lawyer is happier and better paid after quitting her job to become a pet psychic

BY DEBRA CASSENS WEISS from a report in the ABA Journal

Nikki Vasconez pet psychic

Nikki Vasconez offers psychic readings, as well as training for people who want to learn how to communicate with their pets. Photo courtesy of Nikki Vasconez.

A Philadelphia lawyer who was “miserable” with her $75,000-per-year job as a real estate lawyer couldn’t be happier after switching careers.

Nikki Vasconez is now pursuing her passion full time as a pet psychic, report the New York Post and the Daily Mail. She charges $350 per hour and makes more money than she did as a lawyer.

Vasconez offers psychic readings, as well as training for people who want to learn how to communicate with their pets, the articles report.

Vasconez asks for a photo of the animal before the reading, along with information on its name, gender and the names of the people the animal lives with. During the reading, Vasconez studies the animal’s photo and telepathically asks a series of questions. She records her questions and what she learns during the session to allow the animal’s owners to hear.

“When I’m communicating with the animals, sometimes I see images flash across my eyes or I’ll hear particular phrases,” she said. “I don’t hear their accents or tone of voice, but I can always sense their personality.”

Vasconez was able to pinpoint why a cat was in pain—its tooth was hurting. An X-ray showed that the cat had an abscess that required the tooth to be pulled. She also correctly discerned that a horse named Cruse didn’t like his owner’s boyfriend and knew that the boyfriend didn’t like him. The horse owner confirmed that it was true. She also spoke with a dog who reported that a door in the kitchen was sticking, driving the woman of the house mad. The owners said the dog’s report was completely accurate.shutterstock_group of petsImage from Shutterstock.

Vasconez typically uses her talents to communicate with household pets, such as dogs and cats. But she has also worked with geckos, horses, cows, pigs, birds, donkeys and deceased animals.

“Of the animals I’ve spoken to that have passed, they are never upset, angry or hold a grudge,” Vasconez said. “In my experience, they’ve only ever been happy and free and talk about how parts of their body have been restored and ailments that have gone away.”

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Amazing remembrances in pictures

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

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TWELVE COMMANDMENTS FOR SENIORS

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F.

#1 – Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice.
#2 – In Style are the clothes that still fit
#3 – You don’t need anger management. You need people to stop making you mad.
#4 – Your people skills are just fine. It is your tolerance for idiots that needs work.
#5 – The biggest lie you tell yourself is, ‘I don’t need to write that down. I’ll remember it.’
#6 – On time is when you get there.
#7 – Even duct tape can’t fix stupid – but it sure does muffle the sound.
#8 – It would be wonderful if we could put ourselves in the dryer for ten minutes, then come out wrinkle-free and three sizes smaller.
#9 – Lately, You’ve noticed people your age are so much older than you.
#10 – Growing old should have taken longer.
#11 – Aging has slowed you down, but it hasn’t shut you up.
#12 – You still haven’t learned to act your age, and hope you never will!!

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Chemist talks about the At-Home Covid Tests

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Ed note: Well, a lot of us have acquired the free at-home COVID antigen tests. If you have any flu-like symptoms (stuffy nose, congestion, cough or fever), please check yourself ASAP and wear a mask. If the test is negative and you are symptomatic, get a PCR lab test , which is the gold standard. There is a lot of COVID around now. Let’s protect ourselves by wearing a mask and testing if symptomatic. But it’s not just ourselves, we are protecting others using the precautions. Our co-residents with immune deficiency problems will thank us for our care.

Posted in Health | 1 Comment

The Good Old Days

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann (and fact checking by Ed M’s son and others–see below)

The year is 1922, One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for Year 1922.

The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

Fuel for cars was sold in drug stores only.

Only 14 percent of homes had a bathtub.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Only 8 percent of homes had a telephone.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.

The average US wage in 1922 was 22 cents per hour.

The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year.

A dentist earned $2,500 per year.

A veterinarian between $1,500 and 4,000 per year.

And, a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at home

Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND in the government as “substandard.”

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women washed their hair once a month . and, used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed law prohibiting poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

The Five leading causes of death were:

1 Pneumonia and influenza

2 Tuberculosis

3 Diarrhea

4 Heart disease

5 Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars

The population of Las Vegas , Nevada was only 30.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented yet.

There was neither a Mother’s Day nor Father’s Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write And, only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were available over the counter at local drugstores. Back then pharmacists said: “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach, bowels, and is a perfect guardian of health!” (Shocking?)

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE US.A.

Now to fact check this, Ed M. sent it along to his son with this reply:

.  For example a quick Google search shows there were 48 stars on the US flag in 1922, not 45 (only HI and AK left to go).  And a website indicates at least 15,000 gas stations or roadside pumps nationwide.  And the reported 1920 population of Las Vegas was over 2,300 and it was over 5,000 by 1930.   I doubt it dropped to 30 in between.

Also the “reported” murder rate is highly suspect because a lot of racial and gendered violence did not get reported or was severely underreported back in the day (think lynchings, or Tulsa race riot in 1921).

(The canned-beer-not-invented-yet claim seems to be true! Not till 1935.  Good thing they had bottles before that!  :). )

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Paris protesters celebrate saving trees around the Eiffel Tower

Posted on June 7, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

City abandons €72m scheme to develop area and create huge garden in time for 2024 Olympics

Thomas Brail (right) was on hunger strike attached to a plane tree bordering the Eiffel Tower
Thomas Brail (right) was on hunger strike attached to a plane tree bordering the Eiffel Tower. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

Kim Willsher in Paris

Protesters in Paris are celebrating having saved more than 40 trees – one of them over 200 years old – from being chopped down or threatened with damage around the Eiffel Tower as part of a €72m scheme to create a huge garden.

Paris’s city hall has been forced to row back on plans to clear the area around the structure on the Champ-de-Mars to improve access to the tower and make the traffic-clogged area greener in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

After weeks of protest including a hunger strike, Paris officials initially said they would consider the fate of the trees on a “case by case” basis. Now they have conceded that the “extreme sensitivity” of cutting the trees down has persuaded them to abandon the idea altogether.

The plan to redevelop the area round the Eiffel Tower, a plank of mayor Anne Hidalgo’s re-election campaign in 2020, was drawn up by American architect Kathryn Gustafson, of the London-based firm Gustafson Porter and Bowman, who won the planning bid.

The Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters

It involved banning vehicles except public transport from the nearby Pont d’Iéna, as well as creating paths, cycle routes and a series of parks to restore the area to visitors.

However, critics were outraged to discover it also meant cutting down 42 well-established trees and threatening the root system of a magnificent plane tree near the foot of the Eiffel Tower, one of hundreds planted all over France in 1814 on Napoleon Bonaparte’s instructions.

For the last week, protestor Thomas Brail, founder of the National Group for the Surveillance of Trees (GNSA), has been attached to the 208-year-old plane on a hunger strike over threats to the trees.

Pierre Deladonchamps, Emma Mackey and Romain Duris at the Eiffel film premiere in Paris.

Planners and architects have now told officials it will be impossible to install a proposed new ticket office for the estimated 21 million annual visitors to the Eiffel Tower, as well as two buildings containing lavatories, souvenir shops and food takeaways, while respecting the regulatory minimum 6-metre distance from the trees.

Emmanuel Grégoire, Paris’s deputy mayor in charge of urban planning and architecture, said the whole plan would now have to be completely revised to avoid impacting on the trees.

Opponents and campaigners said they would go ahead and lodge formal opposition to any building permits this week “as a precaution”.

Pierre Lamalattie, a member of the Friends of the Champ-de-Mars, said Bonaparte ordered the trees to be planted across France to shade marching soldiers from the sun, and the oldest one threatened is thought to be the last of two rows of plane trees to have survived over the centuries.

“Unfortunately, the only way to know its precise age would be to cut it down,” Lamalattie said.

 

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