Update 9-23-03


Hi,

Various letters and information, some more strenuous to read than others:

First, forwarded (which we've all learned by now means it's making the e-mail rounds) from Peggy Galinger Menaker, specifically dedicated to Toni Rea, Hy Rosov, et al.: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Something more serious, from Marc Fishman: I have recently become more involved with the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami. They are in the forefront of islet cell transplantation research, resulting in cure rates of 90% in recent studies. Hopefully, none of our classmates need this technology, but if anyone does, please feel free to contact me at 1. marclf47@aol.com. Regards to all.

Another forward, also thoughtful, from Zelda White Nichols: Do you remember sitting in a chatroom, watching people chat, or even chatting yourself? Do you remember receiving so many forwards that your mailbox was ready to explode? How about receiving an e-mail from someone just searching for a friend. Did you wonder who these people might be behind the keyboard?
Online, we meet new people from all around the world. Some, we chat with just once, then we go on. Others, we chat with time-and-time again, and a friendship is made. Still others become our e-mail buddies, and we look so forward to their messages each day. Sometimes, we even meet a friend in chat and stay up all night exchanging messages. Or we laugh so hard we cannot type, or cry, and our keyboards are stained from tears. We chat about our lives and help solve each other's problems. We lend a shoulder if we can.
Did you ever chat with someone who promised you the world, and pledged that your friendship would be forever, then they were gone? Do you forget about them and move on, or do you wonder who that person really was? Have you ever hid behind your keyboard, pretending to be something you are not, just to boost your ego? As you sat there and typed, have you ever lied, thinking "Who cares, that the person behind the other keyboard is only a fake person, too?" Did you ever hurt someone thinking, "It's only a game?"
Well, behind every keyboard is a very real person. Some might be heartless, cold people, not caring who they hurt. But there are also people who are caring, loyal, and honest, as well as all kinds of people hoping for some companionship. Behind the keyboard can be someone who is seriously depressed, and their only hope is to make a friend. Or maybe it's an aging person who once had a close family, but now they all live too far apart to see one another. Perhaps, there is someone who cannot walk anymore, or a person so ill that he or she is permanently housebound.
As we enter the world of the Internet, we should remember that it's a very real world, and behind each keyboard is a person with a heart. No one has a life that is pain-free, so as we go online, whether in chat or just e-mailing, we must remember to treat each person the way that we want to be treated, to respect each other's feelings, and to offer friendship. The truth is that we really do not know who is behind the keyboard, or what kind of hurt they may be feeling. The key to a good, honest life is to be the best to others that you can ever be.

Something lifted from the September 19th New York Times, written by reporter Virginia Heffernan, about one of the TV shows Barnet Kellman is directing: With colloquial racism deemed no longer noxious but rebellious and plain fun -- especially by comedy writers eager to forsake stale Seinfeldisms and show off their harsher material -- two sitcoms have cartwheeled into prime time to have a ball with race. WB calls its effortful "Like Family," which makes its debut tonight, a crossover comedy, suggesting there is a Jim Crow line running through television audiences that the network bravely plans to breach.
"Like Family" passes time in a New Jersey bathroom, a windowless mauve affair the size of an urban kitchen, with two slammable doors that ensure heavy traffic. Enter a chipper white lady, primping; a tenderhearted black boy, cavorting; a white underachiever, complaining; a fat black man, ambling. This last guy has a newspaper. It seems he plans to stay, and that's one big gag.
As the underachiever, Keith (J. Mack Slaughter), puts it on the second episode, "Good morning, my multigenerational, multiethnic family."
This madcap race-mixing happens because Tanya (Holly Robinson Peete), who is black, has unaccountably agreed to put up her best girlfriend, Maddie (Diane Farr), and her son, Keith. The chipper Maddie is an implausibly juvenile single mother, in the "Gilmore Girls" tradition, while Tanya is tough and hot, the kind of woman about whom other women might say, "I don't know how she does it."
What Tanya does, as it surfaces, is set up jokes for her husband, Ed (Kevin Michael Richardson), the man with the newspaper; Bobby (B. J. Mitchell), her sweet son; and Pop (J. Anthony Brown), Ed's father. As an old black man on a sitcom, Pop can naturally be identified by his fedora, pocket square and cigar.
In the show's first episode, Ed doesn't want to take in Maddie and Keith, but Tanya begs. "The boy needs a strong male influence," she says.
"Tell him to watch Dr. Phil," Ed replies, and it's clear that Maddie and Keith will be sent out, only to return to this house — and its bathroom, where they'll become like family.
Good thing, because the show depends on Keith, catnip for the Teen People set: he's a looker with a gunky thatch of hair. Seemingly on loan from an all-white show, Keith is here to be hazed. Tanya's daughter, Danika (Megalyn Echikunwoke), nicknames him Poopy. Ed has him test-drive a toilet seat. Little Bobby, who bunks above him, seems poised to soak him in urine. That's what he gets for crossing over.
WB, Friday at 8:30, Eastern and Pacific Times; 7:30, Central Time. Created and written by Dan Fogelman; directed by Barnet Kellman

Something from Mr. Kellman himself: I was driving in the car with my kids. My 15-year-old daughter had an oldies station on, and the Four Seasons were singing "Sherry." I bragged that we had driven into Queens to see the Four Seasons sing live, the night of our prom, then the Drifters' "Up on the Roof" came on, and I said (to the amazement of my wife, who's from Pennsylvania) that we saw the Drifters on Long Island, too (at the Shelborne Beach Club or something). Then, I suddenly had a recollection that Dion and the Belmonts actually once performed at a dance at South. Did I make this up? Is it an acid flashback, or did it happen? Help!

[Rich: I also remember Dion and the Belmonts being at South, but that's all I remember about it. If other people have more specific memories about that dance, it would be great to hear them.]

This week's news from our reporter in Florida, Ms. Blitfield Pech: Lord knows, I NEVER wanted to top my own story... but, amazing as it is, I have found, yet another Bambi in the vast and scary world of the retail apparel industry.
Again, as one of the many, many, many delightful "events" to look forward to in the daily fun fest that comprises marketing and client communication, I had occasion to continue follow-up contact with a very large, very well known, very upscale department store, encouraging them to write and send in their order (from the aforementioned ASR/San Diego trade show). I further suggested to "Bambi of the Week" that they needed to write and send the orders in by 12/30 to ensure first delivery.
She retorted with: "WHY? What's the rush? It isn't even NOON yet!"
Need I continue, or is it just enough that you know my bottom lip has officially been bitten, clenched, and clamped tightly shut to avoid my inevitable comment! But you (y'all) can laugh as loudly as you want. Trust me, I did as soon as I wiped the tears from my eyes!

Finally, the solution to last week's mind-reading, math website, unraveled by a mathematician, and sent by way of a psychologist. Be aware that this requires actual thought, and should not even be skimmed before breakfast: The puzzle tells you to choose a three or four digit number, but the trick will work with any number whose digits can be rearranged to form a new number. I don't think they wanted the player to choose a two digit number because the trick becomes a little more apparent. Say I choose a two digit number represented by "AB" where "A" is the tens digit and "B" is the ones digit. Now I am told to rearrange the number, which gives me only one choice "BA". Now I am told to subtract the numbers, so I subtract the tens digits and the ones digits separately.... "A-B" for the tens, "B-A" for the ones. Now I know "B-A" must be negative, so the ones digit of the answer to "AB-BA" is "B-A+10" and the tens digit is "A-B-1". Now let's sum up all the digits in the answer: "[A-B-1] - [B-A+10] = 9". As it turns out, the sum is always a multiple of 9 no matter if one starts with a number having three digits, four digits. five digits, etc!
What does this mean? Well, when the player chooses one of the digits and gives the computer what remains, the computer knows that the sum of all the digits must be a multiple of 9. So it can "predict" the chosen number by summing up the input and subtracting it from the next greater multiple of 9. (By the way, it doesn't allow you to choose a zero because it would arrive at the same answer as if you chose a nine.)
For example. Say I choose 153. After rearranging, I get 315. Taking the difference, I get 315-153=162. Summing the digits in the difference, I get 1+6+2=9! Now if I choose the number 6 and type in 12, the computer subtracts the sum (3) from the next highest multiple of 9 (9) and gets 9 - (1+2) = 6! If I choose 1, the computer gets 9 - (6+2) = 1, and so on.

The home page: http://hometown.aol.com/falcons1965a


Rich