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IN THIS ISSUE

VOL. XXIV, NO. 41, OCTOBER 13, 2018

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Christopher Lion writes about being a customer service provider
• Catherine Nesbitt sends a story about an Irish priest
• Here is a warning about osteoporosis and poor balance
• Carol Hansen and Tony Lewis forward an article about lost words
• The editor sends her thanks for all the kind words of encouragement
• An interesting site is suggested by Carol Hansen

In this Heroic Story, Christopher Lion of San Jose, California, writes about

COMING ATTRACTIONS

I worked for a large theater company that was just completing a massive motion picture complex in Northern California. With construction scheduled to be completed by the weekend we got ready to open our doors. Due to rain delays, the theater was not ready to open on time. However, the print ads announcing the Grand Opening had gone to press the week before, so the newspaper ads were telling the locals that our theater was open.

My job was to stand out in the pouring rain telling people that the theater opening was delayed a week. People screamed and yelled and generally treated me as if I wanted to be standing out in the freezing rain disappointing people.

I gave out free movie passes and told them they were good at other theaters in the area. At one point, I was so cold I could barely hold onto to the pad of passes.

I was getting disappointed in people as some made a point of coming around a second time to try and get more passes. Along about 9:00, after four hours of standing in the cold, a car pulled up. I prepared to give my speech when the girl stopped me, saying, "We felt sorry for you standing out in the cold all night, so we brought you some coffee."

After nearly 10 years in customer service in movie theaters, I almost never ran into anyone who remotely appreciated any efforts we went through for them. People were always trying to get passes out of us, but never seemed to care about the effort we were putting forth for them. I was dumbfounded.

I tried to offer them some passes, but they said they were here earlier and got some. When I told them to take some more, they thought that wasn´t very fair. I thanked them for their kindness and they drove off.

I learned a lot that night. People aren´t so bad, and by doing just a little thing, you can make someone´s worst shift at work their best. Since then, when I walk into a place and find them in a state of chaos (usually because they are understaffed), I´ll ask the manager if they need any help for a little while. Many times they say no, but just as often they say yes, and I´ve cooked burgers, emptied trash, or helped customers for as little as 20 minutes to almost three hours. Then I just say "thanks for letting me help" and head on out.

Customer service is a demanding and unappreciated field. I like to think that each time I help someone, I´m inspiring someone else to take up the cause to help others. And maybe, in some small way, I´m helping to make this world a better place.

As for the people that night out in the rain, I want them to know that they gave me the best cup of coffee I´ve ever had.

E-mail subscriptions to HeroicStories are free. Sign up here: HeroicStories.org.

Catherine Nesbitt forwards this story about

THE IRISH PRIEST

An Irish priest named Father O´Malley was transferred to Texas.

Father O´Malley rose from his bed one morning. It was a fine spring day in his new west Texas mission parish. He walked to the window of his bedroom to get a deep breath of the beautiful day outside. He then noticed there was a jackass lying dead in the middle of his front lawn. He promptly called the local police station. The conversation went like this:

"Good morning. This is Sergeant Jones. How might I help you?"

"And the best of the day te yerself. This is Father O´Malley at St. Ann´s Catholic Church. There´s a jackass lying dead in me front lawn and would ye be so kind as to send a couple o´yer lads to take care of the matter?"

Sergeant Jones, considering himself to be quite a wit and recognizing the foreign accent, thought he would have a little fun with the good father, replied, "Well now, Father, it was always my impression that you people took care of the last rites!"

There was dead silence on the line for a long moment....

Father O´Malley then replied: "Aye, ´tis certainly true; but we are also obliged to notify the next of kin first, which is the reason for me call."

From the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, here is a warning:

A TOXIC TRIP - POOR BALANCE, A FALL, AND A FRACTURED HIP

Each year, more than 300,000 Americans ages 65 and older are hospitalized after a hip fracture - a break in the top of the thighbone (the femur) below the hip joint - according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly all the fractures happen from a fall and are usually a sign of osteoporosis, or low bone mass.

The year after a hip fracture is a critical time - it´s estimated that 12 to 37 percent of patients don´t survive during that period. Most deaths occur in the first three to six months after sustaining a fracture. Only about one-third of people who break a hip ever fully regain the independence they had before their fracture.

Experts say that maintaining good balance is an important way to help prevent falls, and consequently, reduce the risk of hip fracture.

Older people often have poor balance due to loss of muscle strength and joint flexibility, as well as reduced vision and reaction time. And the risk of inner ear dysfunction, which can throw you off balance, increases with age.

Risk factors for poor balance, regardless of age, include lack of exercise, alcohol use, obesity, neuropathy (nerve damage) in the lower legs, certain drugs, or even wearing the wrong eyeglasses.

If you notice that you´re having trouble maintaining your balance, talk to your doctor. She or he can check your sense of balance and try to pinpoint the cause of your problem. If vision or inner ear issues are suspected, the doctor can refer you to an ophthalmologist or an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist.

Carol Hansen and Tony Lewis send this piece about lost vocabulary:

MURGATROYD

Murgatroyd - remember that word? Would you believe the e-mail spell checker did not recognize the word Murgatroyd?

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

Lost words from our childhood: Words gone as fast as the buggy whip! Sad really!

The other day a not-so-elderly lady said something to her son about driving a jalopy, and he looked at her quizzically and said, "What the heck is a jalopy?"

OMG (new phrase!) He had never heard of the word jalopy! She knew she was old ... but not that old.

Well, I hope you are hunky dory after you read this and chuckle.

Recently, I illuminated some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology. These phrases included "Don´t touch that dial," "Carbon copy," "You sound like a broken record," and "Hung out to dry."

Back in the olden days we had a lot of "moxie." We´d put on our "best bib and tucker" to "straighten up and fly right."

Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping Jehoshaphat! Holy moley!

We were "in like Flynn" and "living the life of Riley." Even a regular guy couldn´t accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop, or a pill. Not for all the tea in China!

Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but when´s the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys, and spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, penny loafers, and pedal pushers.

Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn´t anymore.

We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "Well, I´ll be a monkey´s uncle!" or "This is a fine kettle of fish!" we discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards.

Poof! go the words of our youth, the words we´ve left behind. We blink, and they´re gone. Where have all those great phrases gone?

Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It´s your nickel. Don´t forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I´ll see you in the funny papers. Don´t take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses.

It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! ("Carter´s Little Liver Pills" are gone too!)

We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable times. For a child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy that has no age. We at the other end of the chronological arc have the advantage of remembering there are words that once existed ... and there were words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no more, except in our collective memory.

It´s one of the greatest advantages of aging.

See ya later, alligator!

FROM THE EDITOR´S DESKTOP

Many thanks for all the kind wishes I have received since my unplanned visit to the emergency ward last week! I am still rather shaky and tired, and I sleep a lot, but my condition has not worsened, and whatever caused it has not returned.

My thanks go especially to readers who wrote notes of encouragement, including Ann Hogan, Barbara Wear, Carol Hansen, Catherine Nesbitt, Geoff Goodship, Irene Harvalias, Jean Sterling, Kate Brookfield, Norma Patterson, and Rafiki!

Have you noticed how hard it is to type with your fingers crossed? ;)

SUGGESTED SITES

Carol Hansen sends the URL for new crossword puzzles by The Atlantic. See if you can solve your way through a week of ever more challenging puzzles:

A Halifax surgeon sewed up an eight-year-old patient´s teddy bear at the boy´s request:

From the Good News Network, here is the story of a street musician offering his earnings to homeless vets, and is stunned by how they pay it forward:

From the Sunday Family Humour, here is a video about insane animals:

The world´s first farming, according to archeologists, was in the Middle East. When farming began, civilizations thrived:

Here are the top 10 animal encounters on the PGA tour:

In this TED talk, Ray Anderson, an industrialist, explains how his company has become a lucrative business without having an impact on the environment or creating waste: