Thee Interesting Things

1. I always like to see stories about the internet bring positive change. This story about a non-surgical solution for clubfoot that hadn't only gotten minimal support from the medical community despite it's success ratio until parents on the internet were able to share is a great example of that. 

2. The storm that smacked parts of the south this week has been much discussed, but I want to take a moment to send appreciation for neighbors who checked on pets whose owners were stuck somewhere else; teachers and school staff who waited for the last kid to get picked up, even if that wasn't until after school the next day; stores who offered stranded travelers a place to nap, even if it was on the floor next to the hair products; and medical staff who walked to work so that patients could be attended to.  And those are just the stories that made the news or social media that I watch.  I'm sure there are many more acts of kindness. 

3. And speaking of stories I love, a nine year-old girl who is hearing-impaired wrote a fan letter to Seattle Seahawk Derrick Coleman about how seeing the ad about the people who doubted he could become an NFL player since he is hearing-impaired (which - this is one of my favorite bits of football trivia, but let me just point out the huddle is widely believed to have originated at Galludet so that deaf players could conceal their signing from the opposing team).  Well, not only did her dad's tweeting the letter bring it wide attention, but she and her twin got a chance to meet Coleman, and he may have offered the whole family tickets to the Superbowl.  

7 Things About Frozen Precipitation in Unaccustomed Places

I know.  People in Alaska never close their schools.  People in Wisconsin go to football games and sit outside for hours in weather that closes schools and sometimes governments here.  I know.  Let me explain. 

1.  Sometimes we get snow. And when I say sometimes I mean erratically, often in small amounts, and we just broke a long snow "drought" where we hadn't had an official more than two inches in the city (even though for city we apparently mean Reagan Airport which is actually not in the city) for two years.  (Also, check the chart in that link our snow accumulation is crazy erratic.) 

2. Anytime budgets get crunched people look at things we didn't use last year.  So money for things like salt, plows, snow melters get cut.  Trimmed.  Rumor has it one year, one local school district took out the snow day padding entirely.  Guess what happened that year? 

3.  It's usually not just snow.  It's sleet.  Or it is snow but the ground is warm when it falls so it melts which is fine until the temperature drops and you get ice.  All this I learned to drive in snow when I was knee high to a tractor stuff is fine if we were just talking about snow.  You can't really drive on ice.  You can try, but tree. 

4. I see people in puffy coats the second the temperature dips below fifty.  Now, they may be from a more tropical locale, but more likely they have one winter coat.  Some people don't have that much.  Just like cities drop things they need less from their budgets people and especially parents are more likely to make hard choices about boots and coats if you only need it for a few weeks a year.  Standing at the bus stop at five am in a sweatshirt is not fun when the temperature has gone negative. 

5. County and city growth is strange. As a result, schools often find an influx.  Especially some counties that allow things like language and technology transfers out of the school you are zoned for.  So, schools make up for this using extension trailers which tend not to heat up as well.  Also, know what else gets cut when budgets get tight, money for education, particularly school construction. 

6. Bad weather always impacts traffic. It's a trickle down effect too.  During the thundersnow storm we had here, one friend took about three hours to go seven miles.  He was almost home when he ran into an abandoned mail truck blocking the road so he ended up backtracking, finding a good parking lot to leave his car and then walking home.  But he was lucky enough to be close enough to home to do that.  That's less of an option if you're on a major highway.  I was the queen of having just enough gas to get home.  In bad weather you may be stuck in a traffic jam nowhere near an exit by the time you realize crap this is not enough gas for a commute that just quintupled in time. And even if you did realize sooner, the gas stations may have sent their employees home early. 

7. We know.  You that get more snow are better at snow.  I believe you. 

Morning (or time of your choice giggle)

I feel to explain this too much would be to give away the fun so I will just suggest you should click, but with the caveat that it does lead to a website that will talk to you, so, be somewhere that watching talking videos isn't a problem.  Alright then. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Because I always like it when I can point to proof that I was good for my siblings, (and sure, vice versa, somewhat) I enjoyed this article showing that having sisters can make you happier. 

2. Is your country experiencing a crime surge.  It might be all those soap operas.  At least, that's what the Venezuelan president said.  It's probably a miracle I haven't turned to trying to sell my sister on the black market.  (Points if you remember that storyline.) 

3. A neighbor of mine had mentioned that one of our building employees had told her that generally, when the alarm goes off, if you can't see smoke in your immediate area, you probably don't need to evacuate, because it's a sturdy building and he'd never seen the fire spread.  (To say nothing of a brief period of lots of false alarms.)  Well, it turns out that was pretty good advice.  There are obviously exceptions, but generally, tall buildings are often designed to prevent fire spread and you may run to the fire in trying to evacuate. 

Under the Gunn

Given my love of Tim Gunn and "Project Runway" I checked out the first episode of "Under the Gunn" last week.  It was interesting, although at this point all they did was make the first selections, so it's hard to tell how this will work going forward.  I'm certainly interested to see how it goes, so there's that.  The basic premise is that there are three mentors (all former "Project Runway" contestants) and 15 contestants.  They were divided in half and then the first half did a challenge.  The mentors visited the workroom partway through and also looked through the contestants portfolios.  There was a runway show, and then the mentors went in order making selections.  If another mentor also wanted a contestant the mentor who's turn it was selected, they could also make a case, and then the designer could decide.  This was pretty interesting.  A lot of the deisgners who had a choice went for Anya or Mondo over Nick.  I'd be curious to know if it was age (nick is a smidge older), the contestants had only watched more recent seasons, or design aesthetic. Admittedly, all these folks are unproven as far as being mentors in this show, but I was surprised given Nick's background that more people didn't seem excited about that.  Of course, given the division, it may just be that the second batch is more his type.  (They may have to be given Anya filled 3/4 of her roster already.)