The "'Nibi Is Searching For A New Home" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Opened my morning newspaper and there on page A2 was a photo of this handsome young....BEAVER.  Not the guy that used to be on "Leave It To Beaver," but the beaver known as "Nibi".  Her story read.... Whether a 2-year-old beaver named Nibi gets to stay with the rescuers she was known since she was a baby or must be released into the wild as winter approaches in Massachusetts has ended up in court - and caused such an uproar that even the governor has weighed in.  "To literally see people from around the world come together to protect this beaver is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life," said Adam Teper, an attorney representing Nibi's rescuers.  A judge on Tuesday said that for now, Nibi will be allowed to stay in her home at Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford, located northwest of Boston.  A hearing has been set for Friday in the case the rescuers filed against Mass-Wildlife, the state's division of fisheries and wildlife, to stop the release.  Nibi has been a hit on the rescue group's social media since she was a baby, and posts about her impending release garnered thousands of comments.  An online petition to save Nibi from being released has received over 25,000 signatures, lawmakers have weighed in, and this week Gov. Maura Healey pledged to make sure Nibi is protected.  Jane Newhouse, the rescue group's founder and president, said that after Nibi was found on the side of the road, they tried to reunite her with very beavers who could have been her parents but were unsuccessful.  After that, attempts to get her to bond with other beavers also didn't work.  "It's very difficult to consider releasing her when she only seems to like people and seems to have no interest in being wild or bonding with any of her own species," Newhouse said.  Nibi has a large enclosure with a pool at the rescue operation and will also wander in its yard in a rehabilitation space, Newhouse said.  "She pretty much has full run of the place.  Everybody on my team is in love with her," she said.  Newhouse said she has asked MassWildlife if she could get a permit for Nibi to become an educational beaver to schools, libraries and town halls. But, she said, with the recent denial of that permission came the ordered release of Nibi.  MassWildlife said Thursday that it is "committed to protecting the well-being of all wildlife, including Nibi the beaver."  It added that Nibi "will remain in place at this time" as agency officials 'work with Newhouse Wildlife Rescue on the best steps forward."  Newhouse said her fear is that a release would mean certified death for her beloved "diva" beaver, who doesn't know how to live in the wild.  "It doesn't give her much time to figure out how to build a lodge for the first time, how to build dams for the first time, how to store all of her food before winter sets in," she said.  Newhouse said that beavers usually leave their parents between the ages of 2 and 3, so it's possible that over the next year Nibi will show more interest in wanting to be in the wild.  But unless that happens, she wants to keep her safe.  "She loves her life here," Newhouse said.  "She's spoiled rotten, and she's got lots of room to run around and her own little pond, all the food, fruit, veggies, nuts, berries she wants."  What do you think?  I could keep her in my Villa at Woodcrest Villas, but...I'm not quite sure they would go for that.  Than again...I could try it and not say anything to anyone about it!  As long as she's quiet...it might work.  Perhaps my two cats, Snickerdoodle and The Gray Lady might like to have a new friend....a beaver!  Nah!  That would never work!  Oh well!  Here's hoping that Nibi will find a good home and get a chance to live out her life in the company of friends in her own little pond with all the food, fruit, veggies, nuts and berries she wants!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

"Nibi" The Beaver

 

"Pennsylvania Starts Disbursing Millions To Student Teachers" Story

It was an ordinary day.  The proverbial check is in the mail for more than 2,000 future educators seeking support from Pennsylvania's high-demand stipend program to support student teachers.  The commonwealth allocated $30 million this year to fund the second go-round of the Student Teacher Support Program introduced by the Shapiro administration.  After an initial $10 million allocation in 2023, lawmakers in the General Assembly agreed to raise the program's funding by an additional $20 million in this year's budget;  The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency is tasked with administering the program.  According to PHEAA, 2,052 applicants were selected to receive $10,000 stipends.  A total of 4,125 applications were received as of Wednesday.  "Disbursements will be done on a rolling basis. We anticipate that we will be scheduling them weekly as we start out and then eventually they will run as needed," said Bethany Coleman, PHEAA's vice president of public relations, communications and marketing.  The Shapiro administration has prioritized reinvigorating varied labor pools of what they view as critical workers including nurses, police officers and classroom teachers.  One way is through supporting student teachers who are required by law to work a 12-week, unpaid placement in schools toward obtaining certification;  Most applicants to the stipend program will receive $10,000.  Some are eligible for $15,000 for working in schools with high needs or a high rate of classroom vacancies.  Classroom mentors are eligible for up to $2,500 for supporting the student teachers.  To receive a stipend, recipients must commit to teaching in Pennsylvania for three years after they've been certified.   About 700 applicants shared the initial $10 million allocated to the program last year.  It wasn't nearly enough.  The Pennsylvania State Education Association said 3,500 student teachers applied within the first three hours, indicating heavy interest and need.  Some advocates estimated  the program would need as much as $75 million to fully fund all requests.  PHEAA has put that figure at $445 million.  "There is a real need to invest in our student teachers.  We saw how many people applied last year when we made these stipends avaiable for the first time ever," Gov. Josh Shapiro said.  "So in the bipartisan budget I signed into law this Summer, we doubled the amount of funding available for student-teacher stipends in Pennsylvania.  "This is a commonsense  investment to make sure student teachers are fairly compensated for their work - and it will help lower the barriers that keep Pennsylvanians from pursuing a teaching degree, so we can get more dedicated, qualified teachers into our classrooms," he said.  As for me, I student taught in a high school in York County, Pennsylvania in 1966 in the wood shop.  I had over a half-hour drive to reach the school.  I had to supply my own lunch and the clothes that I needed for my student teaching.  I received "ZERO" for any of my expenses.  But, I wasn't expecting to be paid, since I wasn't a full-fledged teacher....yet!  Why student teachers who are in the classroom now need to receive a stipend...well, I'm not sure why they get the money.  They knew when they chose to be a teacher that they would need to do student teaching, so I believe they didn't need to be paid.  But, that's my thought on the subject.  Anyway...It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

The Story Of "Issei Noodle!"

It was an ordinary day.  Standing in front of Issei Noodle in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania admiring the colorful painting that graces the wall in front of me.  An especially colorful example of how art and Asian cuisine are colliding and can be found on a brick wall in downtown Lancaster.  Camp Hill-based artist Aron Rook painted a massive ramen mural last year on Issei Noodle.  The restaurant has been creating some recent buzz with the opening of Hi-Fi Izakaya in the back.  Izakaya is a term for a Japanese, typically after-work establishment in the vein of what many would call a pub.  Rook says she was given broad artistic freedom for the mural, within the general directives to include ramen, bignata fabric patterns (a traditional Ikinawan dying technique) and an homage to Andre's parents, Robert and Naomi Pham, who created the original Issei Noodle in Carlisle, PA.  Two birds at the top of the mural are meant to represent the parents.  They're holding up fish cakes.  Rook learned while developing the mural that the ubiquitous pink swirls on the latter are said to represent the whirlpools in Japan's Naruto Straight, which show up every six hours due to changing tides in a narrow body of water with some unusual underwater geography.  Rook was left as a baby on the doorstep of an orphanage in Seoul, Korea, and raised in Pennsylvania by her adoptive family.  "I've not felt a need to search for my biological parents because I am 100% them and continue our ancestry," she says.  "I feel my ancestors have always been with me since a young age and feel fortunate to have been the daughter and granddaughter of a family who supported my connection to the arts and therefor allowed me to experience creativity, which I believe was hereditary."  In recent weeks, she's been working with some students from Lancaster Art Vault on a mural involving boxing gloves for the Bench Mark Program, founded in 2014 at a gym to work with underserved youth.  As for the ramen mural, Rook says a good time to view it this time of the year is between 6 and 7:30 p.m., as there's a moment when the light of autumn's golden hour falls over it completely.  "I hope that the mural makes people hungry for Issei and fills their eyes with glorious vibrant colors that saturate their spirit and all their senses feel warmed and joyful," she says.  The mural was painted by artist Aron Rook on the side of Issei Noodle in downtown Lancaster and is a colorful reminder of how art and Asian food are colliding.  I photographed the mural at approximately noon when there was no sun, but the sky was bright!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

  

Telltale Telomeres: What Do Yours Say About Your Aging Process? Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about telomeres, the protective tail end of your DNA chromosomes which tell the tale of your life.  Every time a cell divides, a tiny bit of the telomere attached to its DNA is lost.  Over time, when those ends become too short to protect the cell, your stem cells stop dividing and "die."  When that natural cell-aging process is sped up by chronic stress, smoking, poor nutrition, lack of exercise and/or exposure to toxins in the environment, you end up with prematurely shortened telomeres.  That increases your risk for premature aging, cancer, and chronic conditions, like diabetes, dementia and heart disease.  Fortunately, research shows you can do a great deal tp preserve your telomeres - and slow down cellular aging - so you achieve a RealAge that's younger than your chronological years.  The top four steps you can take are to: 

1. Add polyphenols to your diet from fiber, soy protein and healthy fats found in avocados, olives, nuts and fatty fish. 

2. Eat seeds such as chia, sesame, and fix for snacks and with veggies.

3. Indulge in foods rich in vitamins E and C such as kiwi, blackberries, broccoli, sprouts, and tomatoes.

4. Reduce stress and increase exercise with daily physical activity (at least 30 minutes a day) and meditation - we like 10 minutes in the morning and before bed.  The good news?  Soon there may be a drug that helps lengthen your telomeres - two are now in large animal trials.  For more info, check out "The Anti-Aging Advice for Every Decade" at iHerb.com/blog.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "I Know A Story...Knowing Everyone's Business On Town Party Line

It was an ordinary day.  About 5 miles north of Lancaster lies this little town of Oregon, with a dozen houses - including two very attractive Victorian houses - a church that seats about a hundred people, a hotel that originally was a stagecoach inn, a two-room schoolhouse, and a stone mill powered by a dam and millrace.  This is the town from which Oregon Pike got its name.  Telephone communications were somewhat crude in those days, and most telephone customers had a "party line."  In Oregon, the party line could handle up to eight customers, although most didn't have more than six.  That means that six customers could hear what any of the other five customers were saying.  To identify which customer a phone call was for, there were different rings.  The phone could give a long followed by a short ring and pause and then refer the same signal.  Or it could be a short followed by a long, or any combination that could be recognized.      The customer was supposed to answer only those calls that were intended for him or her.  Other customers who were not quite certain might answer to determine if it was for them.  When any customer picked up the receiver, anyone on the line could hear a click and could also hear a click when the phone was hung up again.  Telephone customers could buy a private line if one was available.  Or they could get a line with only two or four other customers, if available.  These all cost more.  And some people loved their party lines; they would sit and listen to the news and gossip of Oregon.  My mother-in-law lived in Oregon and knew of one customer, in particular, who was famous for listening in to the conversations of others.  Everybody on the line knew her by name and actions.  One day my mother-in-law was talking on the phone and heard the "click," which was not followed by the hang-up click.  She knew.  After a while, she said, 'Mrs. ***, it's for me.  Please hang up."  Nothing happened after several repeat of the request.  Finally, a voice said: "Ach, sit net Mich."  "Oh it's not me.").  The author of this story lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Hit King Dead At Age 83. Learned His Lesson The Hard Way!!"

It was an ordinary day.  And then I opened my morning newspaper to the sports section and read the headline..."Hit King Dead At Age 83."  One of my all-time favorite baseball players for many years, Pete Rose, had died.  Pete was baseball's career hits leader, but a fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game that he loved so much and once embodied.

Pete, stealing a base!

Pete died this past Monday, but the cause of death has yet to be determined.  Perhaps a "Broken Heart!"    Over the weekend he had appeared at an autograph show in Nashville with former teammates Tony Perez, George Foster and Dave Concepcion.  For most of his fans who came of age in the '60s and '70s,  no player was more exciting than the Cincinnati Red's #14.  Known to most as "Charlie Hustle," the superstar with the shaggy hair and muscular forearms.  At the dawn of artificial surfaces, divisional play and free agency, Pete was old school, a conscious throw-back to baseball's early days.  Millions could never forget him crouched and scowling at the plate, running full speed to first base even after drawing a walk, or sprinting for the ncxt base and diving headfirst into the bag.  It was in 1989 that Major League banished him and issued a brief statement expressing condolences and noting his "greatness, grit and determination on the field of play."  Cincinnati Reds principle owner and managing partner Bob Castellini said that Rose was "one of the fiercest competitors  the game has ever seen" and added: "We must never forget what he accomplished."  Pete was a 17-time All-Star!!   The switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners, including the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies....Go Phils!  He was the National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later.  He holds the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890) and the National League record for the longest hitting streak (44 games).   I know you should never say "Never," but what are the chances of someone matching those records?  He was the lead-off man for one of baseball's most formidable lineups with the Reds' Championship teams of 1975 and 1976, with teammates that included Hall of Famers Bench, Perez and Morgan.  But, no milestone approached his 4,256 hits, breaking Ty Cobb's 4,191 hits.  It was a total so extraordinary that you could average 200 hits for 20 years and still come up short.  Rose's secret was consistency, and longevity.  Over 24 seasons, all but six played for the Reds, Rose had 200 hits or more 10 times, and more than 180 four other times.  He batted .303 overall, even while switching from second base to outfield to third to first, and he led the league in hits seven times!  He also played for the Montreal Expos in 1984.  "Every summer, three things are going to happen,..." Rose liked to say, "the grass is going to get green, the weather is going to get hot, and Pete Rose is going to get 200 hits and bat .300."  He caught up with Ty Cobb on September 8, 1985, and surpassed him three days later in Cincinnati, with his mother and teenage son, Pete Jr., among those in attendance.  Rose was 44 and the team's player-manager.  Batting left-handed against the San Diego Padres' Eric Show in the first inning, he smacked a 2-1 slider into left field for a single.  Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, watching from New York, declared that Rose had "reserved a prominent spot in Cooperstown."  After the game, a 2-0 win for the Reds in which Rose scored both runs, he received a phone call from President Ronald Reagan.  On March 20, 1989, Ueberroth (who would soon be succeeded by A. Bartlett Giamatti) announced that his office was conducting a 'full inquiry into serious allegations about Rose.  Reports emerged that he had been relying on a network of bookies and friends and others in the gambling world to place bets on baseball games, including some on the Reds.  Rose denied any wrongdoing, but the investigation found that the "accummulated testimony of witnesses, together with the documentary evidence, betting activity by Pete Rose in connection with professional baseball and, in particular, Cincinnati Reds games, during the 1985, 1986, an 1987 baseball seasons."  In August 1989, at a New York press conference, Giamatti announced that Rose had agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball, a decision that the Hall of Fame ruled in 1991 left him ineligible for induction.  Can you imagine how Pete must have felt.  Hey...it was his own fault, but it must have been the end of the world to Pete.  I only hope that those that followed in Pete's shoes, learn the lesson that Pete learned....before they make the same mistakes.  Only time will tell!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy,      

"Short Corn" Could Replace The Majestic Fields Story

It was an ordinary day. Reading in my morning newspaper about taking a late-summer country drive in the Midwest.  Along the way you will more than likely see row after row after row of 12-foot-tall green, leafy walls that seem to block out everything other than the sun and an occasional water tower.  The skyscraper-like corn is a part of rural America's scenery as much as red barns and cows.  But soon, the towering corn will be a thing of the past, replaced by stalks only half as tall as the green giants that have dominated the fields for so long.  "As you drive across the Midwest, in perhaps the next 10 years, you will see a lot of corn that is half sized developed by Bayer Crop Science, developed to prevent the 12-foot high corn from being destroyed in the powerful windstorms that now roam the landscape.  The corn is being tested on about 30,000 acres in the midwest with the promise of offering farmers a variety that can withstand powerful wiindstorms that could become more frequent due to climate change.  The corn's smaller stature and sturdier base enable it to withstand winds of up to 50 mph - researchers hover over fields with a helicopter to see how the plants handle the wind.  The smaller plants also let farmers plant at greater density, so they can grow more corn on the same amount of land, increasing their profits.  The smaller stalks could also lead to less water use at a time of growing drought concerns.  U.S. farmers grow corn on about 90 million acres each year, usually making it the nation's largest crop.  So it's hard to overstate the importance of a potential large-scale shift to smaller-stature corn, said Dior Kelley, an assistant  professor at Iowa State University who is researching different paths for growing shorter corn.  "It's huge. It's a big, fundamental shift," Kelley said.  Researchers have long focused on developing plants that could grow the most corn, but recently there has been equal emphasis on other traits, such as making the plant more dought-tolerant or able to withstand high temperatures.  Although there already were efforts to grow shorter corn, the demand for innovations soared after an intense windstorm - called a derecho - plowed through the Midwest in August of 2020.  The storm killed four people and caused $11 billion in damage, with the greatest destruction in a wide strip of eastern Iowa, where winds exceeded 100 mph.  In Cedar Rapids, the wind toppled thousands of trees, but the damage to the corn crop only weeks from harvest, was especially stunning.  "It looked like someone had come through with a machete and cut all of our corn down," Kelley said.  Although Kelley is excited about the potential of short corn, she said farmers need to be aware that cobs that grow closer to the ground could be more vulnerable to diseases or mold.  Short plants also cold be susceptible to a  problem called lodging, when the corn tilts over after something like a heavy rain and then grows along the ground.  Bayer expects to ramp up its production in 2027, and Leake said he hopes that by later in this decade, farmers will be growing short corn everywhere.  "We see the opportunity of this being the new normal across both the U.S. and other parts of the world," he said.  I only hope they can create the new variety while I am still around to see it and perhaps have a chance to eat some of it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The old style corn on the left with the new, short corn on the right.

Did We Squish Out Lanternflies? Story

It was a ordinary day.  Reading about the spotted laternflies which seem to have gone AWOL.  Just a year ago, New York City's flashiest new insects were impossible to miss.  This year, the insects have all but vanished.  Although there is no official count of the insects, spotted lantern flies have been more difficult to spot in the city this past summer, experts said.  If 2020 was the year the invasive insects took New York City, 2024 might be remembered as the year New Yorkers got their city back.  "They're still out there," said Brian Eshenaur, an invasive species specialist at Cornell University.  "But, we're just not seeing them at the numbers we have in the past couple of years."  Could it be that New Yorkers' fancy footwork has kept the bugs' population at bay?  "We like to think that we're making a difference by stomping on the spotted lantern fly," Eshenaur said, noting that a single female can lay more than 100 eggs in a season.  "So if we're doing that, yeah, we might be making somewhat of an impact."  But he and several other experts noted that factors other than squishing the bugs may have more to do with their decline.  "You'll notice I mentioned that one last," Eshenaur said in an interview.  Scientists still have a lot to learn about the dynamics of the lantern flies' American invasion, and it is too soon to say whether this year presents the new normal.  The lantern fly is also continuing to spread.  "It's still on the move," Ehenaur said.  "We'll be living with the spotted lanternfly in the foreseeable future."  Spotted laternflies, which are native to parts of Asia, were first detected in the United States in 2014 in eastern Pennsylvania.  The insects pose no danger to humans, but they are agricultural pests, feeding on the sap of grape vines, fruit trees and other plants.  They are also hardy travelers.  Officials urged members of the public to report lanternfly sightings and to stamp or squash the insects - a challenge that many (thought not all) New Yorkers took up with enthusiasm.  But this past summer. has felt different.  The lantern flies are still blanketing some neighborhoods, including parts of Staten Island.  But overall, the insect population appears to have stabilized or even, in some places, declined.  "The invasion wave, as we call it, has dissipated somewhat," said José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University.  The same pattern has played out in Philadelphia, experts said, and is not uncommon with biological invasions.  "First you see really rapid population increases, which is what we experienced in 2020 and 2021," Ramirez-Garofalo said.  "And eventually you do see that spotted lantern flies and other invasive spies eventually get what we call natural enemies."  Over the last few years, some birds, spiders and wasps might have learned that lantern flies could make a tasty meal; these predators might now be helping to keep the lanternfly population in check, establishing a new ecological equilibrium.  "Think they're just integrating into our ecosystem," Moore said of the lanternflies.  In some places. the masses of lanternflies might also simply have moved on after chewing through their favorite foods.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

Getting ready to squish a lanternfly!