In Short: Torture.
When I was diagnosed with migraine headaches, the doctor told me the typical sufferer was creative, intelligent …and female. “Two out of three ain’t bad,” I replied.
Not that it was a difficult diagnosis: my parents also had migraines, and my siblings. But it did open up treatment options. At the time the options were opioids (pain relief) and ergotamine, an alkaloid. The doctor prescribed both.
Neither was ideal: migraines often cause nausea. Opioids too. And ergotamine! …
In Short: Memorable.
I was an ALS medic in rural northern California, and there’s one call I think of often — even though it was 38 years ago. We were dispatched to a possible drowning in the Mad River, which reaches the Pacific just north of the town of Arcata, where we were based.
We arrived just as the bystander who went into the river for the boy found him, pulled him out, and ran him to us. My partner and I got him onto the gurney and got to work. …
In Short: A touching honor.
I heard the ambulance paged out for a severe accident. Out of my response area, but hearing details I alerted my wife, a deputy coroner, that her services may be needed.
One of the problems of working EMS in a rural area: sometimes you know the patient. The man killed was Scott Mills, the sergeant at the police department in our county seat. My wife had worked a case with him the night before, and had said that with his long experience, she always learns things when she works with him. …
In Short: Normal People.
I’ve had the good fortune to meet many famous people, including Star Wars creator George Lucas (long before he was famous), magician and skeptic James “The Amazing” Randi, original Star Trek’s “Scotty” Jimmy Doohan (and “Chekov” Walter Koenig — and “Trouble with Tribbles” writer David Gerrold), Science Fiction Grand Master Larry Niven, magicians Penn & Teller, America’s first female astronaut (and physicist) Sally Ride, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, and quite a few others.
How? Lucas was a tenant at a ranch my father co-owned — and where, I’d like to believe, he fell in love with ranches, leading to…
In Short: Accountable.
I was a reserve sheriff’s deputy in rural northern California. At least at the time, a reserve at the level I was didn’t automatically have the right to carry a gun off-duty, but the sheriff was a practical sort: the more responsible citizens that could help, he figured, the better, so he wanted any who went through the academy to get concealed carry permits.
Filling out the application I left one slot blank: the “good reason” to want the permit. I asked the sheriff, Was “reserve deputy” a good reason? He said I should put in that slot, “To comply…
In Short: Fulfilling.
Even though I’m not a doctor or a nurse, as a volunteer medic in my rural community I do sometimes give people shots (jabs for you Brits). Our county has one full-time public health nurse, and as you can imagine with the pandemic, she’s awfully busy.
One nurse is usually plenty for giving the occasional flu vaccine, but when you’re trying to vaccinate the entire county as rapidly as doses come in, and it takes two doses to get everyone immunized, it’s going to take more than one person for the job! …
In Short: Awesome.
My wife and I are volunteer medics in our rural community, and were awakened by my pager on a Sunday morning at 1:04 a.m. The report: a 50-year-old man, unconscious, about 5 miles away from our house.
As the garage door rolled up, an update came from dispatch: “CPR in progress.”
As we rolled we discussed our plan: Kit would go in first and take over CPR — whoever was doing it would be tired! — while I got equipment. Based on his location it would take 10 minutes to get there …and the ambulance would be about 20 minutes…
She brought more than 200 new foods to the U.S.
Frieda Rapoport Caplan was determined to break into a business that, especially at the time, was completely male dominated. Caplan didn’t think the way to break in was to try to be like the men.
“I couldn’t compete with all the boys on the big items,” she told a reporter from the Pasadena, California, Star-News in 2003, “so I built the business selling things that were different.”
What was she selling? Produce, to supermarkets. It’s a tough, cutthroat business. But let me tell you how she got there.
Born in Los Angeles to Russian immigrants in 1923, Frieda Rapoport was…
“Let the public decide”? For large companies, it’s a bad idea.
People think the McNaming trend started in 2016, when the National Environment Research Council of the United Kingdom, which was planning to launch a 128m-long research vessel, let The Public suggest names for the vessel.
“It’s a brilliant name,” James Hand said of his own suggestion: Boaty McBoatface. Though, he said, “I’ve tweeted the organizers and said I’m terribly sorry; a lot of people have replied to me and said that’s the most British thing ever.”
Because the suggestion quickly jumped into first place — and won with more than 124,000 votes, far surpassing the runner-up with less than 40,000…
What you need instead.
You really don’t need willpower, and relying on it for change is a recipe for failure. So how can you succeed at the things you want to change without it being so danged hard? Well, a psychologist who has studied willpower says there’s a much, much, better, and easier, way.
I got a chuckle when I read the American Psychological Association’s page about willpower. Right up top it says, “With more self-control would we all eat right, exercise regularly, avoid drugs and alcohol, save for retirement, stop procrastinating, and achieve all sorts of noble goals” — and the part that…
