Lesser-known heroes...

Often when I see stories of success or good news in sports, it relates to a game won or a professional athlete receiving word that his shoulder/back/knee/big toe is not as injured as previously thought. Maybe I'm cynical, but that kind of news about a person who is most likely going to get paid an absurdly large amount of money to play a child's game regardless of whether he is on the field or the bench does not warrant my attention.

However, I do love me some sports stories with unexpected protagonists. A lot has been made of the Oregon-Boise State nonsense, where the Ducks proceeded to punctuate a disastrous game with one of its players punching a member of the other team. Oregon head coach Chip Kelly's less-than-stellar debut was played over and over and over again on all the major networks. As Yahoo! points out, part of being a fan is taking the good with the bad, but sometimes it's so bad, it's not fair. Ducks fan Tony Seminary decided he wasn't going to go quietly into the night and fired off an angry but composed email to Kelly with an invoice for his travel expenses from the game. Much to Seminary's surprise, a few days later he received a personal check from the coach.

Boise State and Oregon's nascent rivalry has nothing on the drama going on between Puma and adidas. The two sportswear companies began as a single venture between two German brothers - Adolf and Rudolph Dassler. But shortly after World War II, the siblings had a falling out and formed two separate companies. The chasm between adidas and Puma was so bad, the town in which they were both headquartered literally divided itself in two; there were separate shops and schools depending on who you supported. According to WBUR, this past Monday employees from both companies temporarily buried the hatchet in honor of World Peace Day. They played soccer on mixed teams, and the team that had both CEOs on it won.

Staying in world news for a second, as reported by the AP on September 9, 64 year-old retiree Ruth Day shot two holes-in-one in one round, besting what some are calling 67 million to one odds. She made her first shot on the 149-yard third hole and duplicated the feat 10 holes later on the 161-yard 13th hole. Day, a former showroom manager in northern England, has now done something even Tiger Woods has not yet managed.

For perhaps the sweetest story of the day, we come back to the States. Imagine for a second being told your two year-old daughter has autism and may never speak. Now fast-forward five years and behold that same little girl standing in front of tens of thousands of people and belting out the National Anthem. Gina Marie Incandela's parents decided early on to aggressive treat her autism, enrolling her in occupational and intensive speech therapy. Progress was slow until Gina began music therapy; she connected with it, and not only her speech but her grades and social skills began improving. After seeing someone sing the National Anthem on TV, the little girl declared she wanted to sing at a ballgame. God bless her mother, but Michelle Incandela found a try-out for a Mets' spring training game. Gina aced the try-out, and her little career took off. Considered the good luck charm for the Orlando Magic last year, she sang at nine playoff games - including three Finals games - hockey arenas, conventions and the US Open tennis tournament, according to CBS News. Gina's performance at a Mets game, linked from CBS News, is darling, and her dress is adorable.

Tuesday morning roundup...

It's been a while since I've done a roundup post (that and I don't have a theme for today!). So without further ado, here are three cool stories I found on the world-wide Interweb recently.

As if The Happiest Place on Earth wasn't enough of a draw to visit the Sunshine State, Universal Studios, via Yahoo! Travel, has revealed plans for "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," a new theme park area. Visitors to the park area enter through an archway designed to block out all signs of the Muggle world they just left behind, and the WWoHP will include rides like "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey," which takes guests through scenes from the movies and inside a Hogwarts Castle made to look 700 feet tall. Every shop is Harry Potter-themed, meaning Ollivanders will sell wands, Zonko's will sell Sneakoscopes, and Honeydukes will sell Chocolate Frogs. Visitors can send mail with a Hogsmeade postmark from the Owl Post and take a pull on a draft of butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.

CNN.com contributes my other two stories of the day. The first article features Susan Jacobs and her "Wheels of Success" program. Born out of personal experience in how hard it can be to get to a job without reliable transportation, Jacobs started the foundation to provide cars to low-income workers in Florida. The program refurbishes donated cars before offering them to qualified full-time workers. Since 2003, Wheels of Success has provided 280 cars to clients and helped another 280 people with vehicle-related services.

The second article relates to Maria Toor Pakay. The 18 year-old Pakistani girl is the No. 10-ranked squash player for her home country and stands 91st in the world. But the really remarkable thing is she originally hails from South Waziristan - a stronghold of the Taliban. In her hometown, girls are punished for attending school, much less playing sports. But Maria's father recognized her talent and moved the family to Peshawar, so his daughter could reach her full potential.

Listmania...

I have no actual proof of this, but I suspect one of the first things out of prior employers' mouths when called for a reference on me is, "She's very organized." At my first job, I completely organized the server on which we kept our shared files. At the second job, I ordered a filing cabinet to control the chaos that was our rainbow of copy paper colors. I'm telling you, Skittles had nothing on us. At my last job, I helped organize the photo folders on our server which is no mean feat, considering we had six to seven years worth of digital photos of 23 varsity sports.

While falling short of OCD, my devotion to lists extends far beyond any normal person, I'm sure. I actually have a little steno pad containing all sorts of lists - songs to download on iTunes, books I want to read, etc. So you can imagine how pleased I was to read a post at Very Good Taste on the Omnivore's 100. Andrew listed 100 foods - from the odd to the ordinary - that any good omnivore should eat at least once in his/her life.

England's Guardian newspaper did something similar, gathering together the 50 best foods in the world and where to eat them. Columnist Killian Fox collaborated with other foodies to track down regional specialties as well as foods commonly hailed as terrific and the best places to consume them. As with the list on Very Good Taste, some of the foods on the Guardian's slate are out-of-the-ordinary (read: I will not be traveling to Cebu to eat Filipino cuisine), but I can totally see myself stopping off at Laduree for macarons or Fosselman's for a milkshake on a future trip.

Prevention Magazine posted a partial inventory of mood-altering foods on its website. If you can get past the unfortunate choice to make the entirety of the text italic (at least on PCs), there's some interesting stuff on there. Chocolate is my self-medication of choice to treat a bad day; however, I could totally see myself happily scarfing down an English muffin with fruit jam plopped on top. Colleen Pierre, RD, also gives hints on how to improve sleeping, avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and stop stress in its tracks simply by changing your diet.

The following story on the New York Times' Caucus Blog definitely altered my mood for the better. This past Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama helped launch a new farmer's market near the White House. Despite a steady drizzle, Mrs. Obama led a crowd of area residents and employees in the market area after some opening remarks. Her appearance was part of an ongoing campaign to help Americans make healthier choices when it comes to preparing meals.

Shana Tova Umetukah...

This evening at sundown marks the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Not being Jewish, I did need to Wikipedia it to learn more. Rosh Hashanah marks the start of the Jewish civil year; it is the new year for people, animals and legal contracts. The first of the High Holidays - days set aside to focus on repentance and which conclude with Yom Kippur - Rosh Hashanah is a day of rest and reflection to cleanse oneself of his/her sins before the end of the year.

Me being me, I spent particular time reading the section on meals and traditional foods. Apples and honey are often included to symbolize a sweet start to the new year. Foods eaten vary with the community, but typical additions to the meal include dates, black-eyed beans, leek, spinach, gourd, pomegranates and challah.

By the way, my blog title is a Rosh Hashanah greeting that means, "a good and sweet year."

In a nice confluence of events (I would make a terrible journalist as I usually find out about things after the fact), I saw a story in the New York Times today about the cantor of the then-first Jewish religious ceremony in Germany since Hitler's rise. In late October, 1944, NBC radio broadcast a short service conducted by Sidney Lefkowitz, a rabbi and unit leader. His cantor that day was Pfc. Art Fuchs, then 22 years old. Typical of WWII veterans, Fuchs was reticent about his service and only admitted to playing a part in the historic service when questioned directly by his daughter 65 years after the fact.

The NYT story linked to the YouTube video of the mini-documentary the American Jewish Committees commissioned after one of its staffers, Charlotte Bonelli, found the original sound recording of the service in the Library of Congress. Below is that documentary.

R-E-S, er, C-U-E (my apologies, Aretha)...

A lot of people have weighed in on Michael Vick and the fallout from his prison sentence and subsequent reinstatement to the NFL. As a football fan, an animal lover and inveterate believer that people are basically good, I don't know what to think. On one hand, his actions were despicable and disgusting. But on the other, I do agree with what a Phildelphia woman told the Philly Inquirer - if you don't allow someone a second chance, why should they try to better themselves? I wish he'd apologized more directly and seemed truly committed to animal welfare, but I guess I'm just going to wait and see with that one.

However, my moral quandary did not keep me from laughing out loud at a story on FoxSports on MSN. The Main Line Animal Rescue League (based in DC and just outside Philadelphia) has begun placing ads in the newspapers of each of the cities the Philadelphia Eagles play, offering to donate five bags of food to animal shelters for every time Vick is tackled. Bill Smith, founder and CEO of the shelter, did say that since Vick is hard to catch, a minimum donation will be made even if the new Philly QB is not tackled.

Another major news network, ABC News, featured an initiative by the organization Pilots N Paws. This week, the rescue group aims to transport 5000 homeless animals from death row at their respective shelters to other shelters or foster homes across the country. Founded in 2008, Pilots N Paws helps alleviate the problem of transporting shelter animals long distances. When an animal is transferred from a shelter in one state to another, the journey by car or truck is long and requires frequent stops and vehicle changes, all of which is traumatizing to a group of animals who have enough to deal with. Volunteer pilots are giving their time, and some flight schools are donating their planes so the organization can fulfill its goal by Sept. 20.

PetSmart Charities has a similar mission to Pilots N Paws - the Rescue Waggin'. How cute is that?? According to The Canadian Press (via Google Hosted News), the tricked out trucks (specially constructed with air conditioning, piped in music and video cameras so the dogs can be monitored) have transported over 29,000 animals from communities with high euthanasia rates to ones with high adoption rates since 2004. The animals are moved from shelters all across the US to the Washington Animal Rescue League in DC, where they receive medical examination, social and behavioral training and, hopefully, new homes. The facility sounds like doggy Eden - a full service hospital, behavior school and cageless facility complete with cascading waterfall.

(Photo courtesy of doggienews.com)

Odd little ends...

It's not terribly often I can say I was inspired by a pink grasshopper. No, I'm not talking about an "adult beverage" or a character in a children's book. Daniel Tate, an English schoolboy on an outing with his great-grandfather, spotted a common grasshopper who was born a little special. The 11 year-old boy was looking for grasshoppers at a wildlife event last week at Seaton Marshes Local Nature Reserve and at first thought he spotted a flower. He changed his tune when that flower hopped. The Yahoo! article also has photos of other pink insects found in nature. I'm not a bug-lover, but the pics are pretty cool.

Today's "weird but true" theme pretty much unspooled from there.

MSNBC.com posted a feature on its green technology page about the Chevrolet Equinox. I know absolutely nothing about cars. I can tell you the make and model of my car, but when one of my male friends pause in mid-sentence to drool over a passing vehicle, I'm at a loss. However, Chevy's hydrogen-fueled test car recently reached its 1,000,000th mile driven. Nearly 5000 everyday people have driven more than 100 pollution-free Equinoxes in the past 25 months, and many report they cannot tell a fuel cell car from a gas-fueled one. The only thing emitted from these "green" cars is a wisp of water vapor out the tailpipe. Once they start putting hydrogen fuel stations in more than 70 places in the US, sign me up.

Anything that helps shelter dogs I'm in favor of, as I'm sure you've all glommed onto through this blog if not by impassioned soap box speeches by yours truly. The San Francisco Chronicle's City Brights blog by Ken White highlighted the organization Working Dogs for Conservation, a Montana-based group utilizing some of nature's best sniffers in conservation efforts. Many dogs are turned over to shelters because they are too active for families (doing research on breeds before adopting or buying would be the smart option here, but do not even get me started...). Dr. Megan Parker and her research team find uber-focused dogs in shelters and train them to help her and her team in conservation efforts. The dogs are minimally invasive to nature and excellent and exuberant trackers. Seven of the nine dogs working for the WDC are rescues, and mind you, these are the dogs that are usually unadoptable, labeled "out of control," "obsessively active," and "crazy."

(Photo courtesy of APEX and Yahoo!)

In memoriam...

Patrick Swayze, Crystal Lee Sutton and Norman Borlaug are three names which do not have much in common at first glance. Swayze is best known for taking Baby out of the corner, Sutton for agitating for labor rights and Borlaug for keeping millions from starving to death.

However, all three made a significant impact on the world.

Swayze was, by all accounts, one of the few truly decent men in Hollywood. He and his wife married young and stayed together for 34 years. He stayed out of the tabloids until the very end and kept working because that was what he knew how to do. Swayze may have been typecast, but always playing the man who stepped up when others wouldn't isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Los Angeles Times has a very nice article looking back on Swayze's contributions to Hollywood.

Sutton, the inspiration for the movie "Norma Rae," catalyzed the union movement in the North Carolina. Just 17 when she started working at a textile mill in the mid-1950s, she met labor organizer Eli Zifkovitch when he visited her plant after helping organize the coal workers in West Virginia. Sutton was making $2.65 an hour at JP Stevens' plant in 1973 when Zifkovitch inspired her to take up the cause of workers' rights. Later in life she also advocated for women's rights, racial equality, the poor and equal access to medical treatment, according to the Columbia Ledger-Enquirer.

The City Journal has an excellent blog post on all of Borlaug's many contributions to sustainability. He grew up on an Iowa farm during rough times, an experience which propelled him into the study of plants and hybridization. Borlaug's efforts in Mexico in the 1950s helped make Mexican wheat fungus-free and allowed the farmers to not only feed themselves but sell the surplus. He traveled to India next, creating a strain of large-headed short wheat whose high yield reversed the Indian trend toward famine. The 1970 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize continued to train others throughout his life, so his important work could live on.