A link to a stroy about innovation

 

I read a really great article today. 

 

"Recalling the Apgar Score's Namesake"

 

It's on WSJ.com. 

 

You could also send your search engine looking for results for "Virginia Apgar" and gather up a few more pieces on her life, her medical career, and a stamp.

 

I found the article great for many reasons. It framed the sexism that existed once in the medical community here in the United States. It reflected how the medical community, at one time, had a few priorities out of line. Most of all it showed how innovation, the kind that can save lives, can happen in the smallest time frame. 

 

People tend to think the greatest ideas came from scientists or other researchers putting in long frustrating hours in dark cramped development centers. Or maybe they come from a garage or built in the basement by some tinkerer who has devoted years to building a better toilet paper dispenser. Some world changing ideas do come from these places. Others, just sort of show up in a second of opportunity. Those are the stories I appreciate. 

Happy Memorial Day to you!

I don’t work the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Let me tell you why.

 

Back in 2000, I was working on Long Island, living in Queens, and dating a girl from New Jersey, who, of course, liked to spend the Memorial Day weekend with her friends on the Jersey Shore. SO of course, being the great boyfriend that I was, I committed to getting to her house on Friday night to go to the shore.

 

First, it took two hours for me to get home from work, thanks to a trucking expert who was able to jack-knife a tractor trailer truck right in the middle of the Long Island Expressway. My usually trip home was about 30 minutes.

 

Second, the normal one hour trip to New Jersey became a three hour stand still. At the time I had no cell phone, so it was a most unproductive three hours. This was also before GPS systems were popular, so at least I didn’t have to

 

After arriving in New Jersey, I became the passenger for a two hour ride to the Jersey Shore. At least I wasn’t diving for that part and I wasn’t alone.

 

Total car time – seven hours. Yuck.

 

Since that year, I’ve taken the Friday of Memorial Day weekend off from work. I live in New Jersey, and I make the trip to the Jersey Shore long before the rest of the world. Total trip time 2009 – one hour. Yes, it’s with the same girl. Things change, but they stay the same.

 

Enjoy, and stay safe this weekend.