On The CBS Evening News a while back, Robert Costa referred to the aged presidential candidates as belonging to the Baby Boom generation. NO! Definitely no for Biden, and also no for Trump. Biden’s father was born in 1915, and Trump’s in 1905.
I am proclaiming a new qualification for the start of the Baby Boom, that better defines what actually drove the trend: People whose parents had their first child after WWII.
This implies young couples in their 20’s, as my parents were. Not someone whose father was born before America entered WWI, and certainly not a post-WWII baby with a father who was my grandfather’s age.
I flew on 737 Max 8 planes for some of my trips to Arizona after my father’s stroke and subsequent death. I remember my first flight on a Max, taking my seat and looking out the window. The engine was much bigger and closer to the ground than I’d seen before on 737’s. The first overseas 737 Max crash, Lion Air Flight 610, happened just one month after my final return flight from Phoenix.
The recent near-disaster on a Max 9 highlights that Boeing has yet to put its house in order. I’ve been waiting for the main story from last Sunday’s Last Week Tonight to be posted. It popped up on YouTube this morning.
John Oliver notes the poor safety record of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, with its triple engines. During my busiest business travel years I flew on DC-10’s. Even more frequently I found myself on another triple-engine plane, that Oliver doesn’t mention, the Lockheed L-1011. Fortunately, I never had a scare on either aircraft, but overall I preferred the L-1011 because it was quieter at cruising altitude, which gets back to my recent comment about tinnitus.
If he does win, we can expect every single day will be like this happening on every single flight, and even if he loses there will be a lot turbulence.
Carney Hospital is in the Dorchester section of Boston. I first heard about Carney from Felicia, who was one of the first people I met when starting college. We had clicked immediately, like an instant couple. From the get-go Felicia called me Dougie, and I adored her.
Felicia was very smart, very pretty, and very Roman Catholic. I can still easily bring her Boston-accented voice to mind. Felicia was from Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood, and with the intention of becoming a nurse she was a volunteer at Carney. Back then the girls who volunteered were called “Candy Stripers” because of their distinctive uniforms. Felicia was gifted at learning languages, and she was reasonably fluent in Spanish, which made her especially useful as a volunteer.
At night we’d walk to a park near campus, sit on the swing sets, and talk. Felicia would joke about getting married to a handsome, rich doctor, and I’d say, “For now you’ll have to settle for me.” I had two roommates in my all-male dorm, but Felicia had a single room in her all-female dorm. After our evening walks we’d go to her room to do less talking. (The dorms went co-ed by senior year, when my roommates and I were living in an apartment.)
I heard a lot about Carney Hospital from Felicia. She was going to continue volunteering there during Christmas break, and I was hoping she’d return to campus with a photo of herself wearing her cute candy striper uniform. Felicia did return to Carney Hospital, but not as a volunteer.
During Christmas break I had an extremely bad experience with the abusive stepfather of my girlfriend back home. I couldn’t deal with him anymore, I walked out, and that was that. As I told her decades later, “Technically, I didn’t walk out on you, I walked out on your stepfather.” I convinced myself it was for the best, because I’d be seeing Felicia again. But Felicia didn’t return to campus.
At the start of second semester, freshman year, over the hallway PA I was told there was a call for me in the dorm mother’s office. (No room phones in those days and, yes, there was a “dorm mother.”) It was Felicia’s mother, who said she was pleased to speak with me, because Felicia had been talking about me non-stop since getting home. She wanted me to know, however, that Felicia was a patient at Carney Hospital.
Over Christmas, during a snowstorm Felicia had been in a serious car accident. She was lucky to be alive, and she would likely be in the hospital for months. I was devastated, and I started looking into getting to Boston to see her. Then I received a letter from Felicia, saying she had a long road to recovery ahead of her, her life was on hold, and whatever it was we had hoped to have together, it was no longer a realistic possibility. What was I going to do? For the second time in a month I decided to convince myself that letting go was “for the best.” There are movies with stories like this one.
A couple of years before retiring, I finally visited Carney Hospital. I thought of Felicia each time I was at Carney to do some work in the hospital’s data center. When I knew Felicia, Carney was an independent Catholic hospital. It later became part of the Caritas Christi Health Care system. When Caritus ran into financial trouble a private equity firm took it over, and created Steward Health Care. Steward is a customer of my former employer, in which I continue to hold a financial stake that is sizeable only on a personal basis.
That’s my very long introduction to this item from last night’s CBS Evening News, where you will see a brief view of Carney.
Felicia did become a nurse. She left Boston proper and lives a couple of towns away. Instead of marrying a doctor, she married a state trooper.
Drew Carey’s Friday Night Freak-Out on SiriusXM is always a fun listen, and Drew often says how much fun it is for him hosting The Price is Right. Today I put the show on while paying bills. Here’s Drew having fun helping somebody pay their bills.