Ok, ok... I promised this post to you last November. Remember? Didn't think so... but that is no excuse... you have to read it anyhow: Part 2

Here is your Coronavirus Summer Reading List inspired by Albert Einstein's brain.

Remember my post, I saw Albert Einstein's brain & other fascinations of the human body: Part 1 ? No matter.

But I did promise you this fascinating reading list of books that would 'one-up' Gray's Anatomy, a technically marvelous tome but without a drop of humor or whimsey. All of this list is eminently readable and enjoyable for all of us non-surgeons and medical people, but alas, without pictures as if to make them feel more real.

If your interest is piqued, then THE BODY" A Guide for Occupants by my favorite author, Bill Bryson, is an excellent start. Chapter 1: How to Build a Human previews your journey most readably through most every facet of us humans, functions, facts, and the roll played in our every breath, good, bad and because. It's a 400-page read worth the effort.

Bill Bryson

As an aside, Bryson's wide range included A Walk in the Woods, A Short History of Nearly Everything, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words and The Mother Tongue, all favorites of mine. He has written more though that are worthy.

Then there is Mary Roach and her list of interesting, factually correct real stories that range from the basics to the bizarre. She will make you laugh... and perhaps blush but she is a good read.

Her first book was Stiff: The Curious Life of Cadavers. Then came Bonk: The

Mary Roach

Curious Coupling of Science, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Packing to Mars:The Curious Science of Space, and more, but these are her best. Roach is labeled America's funniest science writer... they got that right.


And if you are saying "More! More!," then I'd direct you to one of the several "live body" exhibits that may still be traveling the country. Last I heard, there was one permanently operating in Las Vegas. These were most prevalent half-dozen years ago and showcased human bodies that had been preserved through a process called plastination and dissected to show bodily systems. These were popular and controversial at the time (and probably still are) but it was explained that these bodies were actually willed for cash while the people lived so that families left behind would have some means. Most if not all of the exhibits were from Asian populations who lived meager lives. Having seen and been amazed by several of the most tasteful and respectully managed exhibits, I was amazed and somewhat conflicted at what I saw.

And if you are ever in Philadelphia, The Mutter Museum i one fantastic place to see almost everything medical, including Einstein's brain.

So there... I kept my promise. If this is your genre, good reading. Stay well.

Luke Workoff, 33, Huntington, N.Y., his relentless passion was for his family and friends . Bobby Lee Barber, 84, Buckley, Wash.,Seahawks season ticket-holder , June Beverly Hill, 85, Sacramento, no one made creamed potatoes or fried sweet corn the way she did... and continuing for 4 full pages like this one...

The New York Times is one of the finest--and one of the fewest--major newspapers left in the world.

It seems poised to win its 131 Pulitzer prize, more than any other newspaper, with its coverage of this pandemic. This Sunday, May 24th edition shows why.

Its continuing coverage this past Sunday features a modified obituary of 1,000 victims of Covid-19 from all over the United States. The listing represents just 1 percent of the 100,000 pandemic deaths with more certain to follow. And this is just the front page. There are  three more full pages of victims as you read on, all personalized with name, age and note of something they were known for in life.

Chianti Jackson Harpool. 51. Baltimore, social worker and then a political fundraiser . Robert Barghaan, 88, New York City, could fix almost anything . Gerald Glenn, 66, Richmond, Wa., police officer turned pastor . Louise Bennett, 91, Albany, Ga., sang her grandchildren a song on the first day of school each year . Roman Melendez, 49, New York, famous in family circles for his birria beef stew . Linda Villanueva Sun, 63, Newport News, Va., organized food programs for children in thePhilippines . Oscar Lopez Acosta, 42, Morrow County, Ohio, died after being released from ICE detention . Alexander Leon Lloyd, 76, attended every presidential inauguration from 1965 to 2012

It is sadly typical that when dealing with large numbers, that the person each number represents is not seen as a real person of individual value... something not easily grasped if it is not your own or some other notable. Death number 77 or number 2,254 or 96,538 or whatever is just a number as the volume of deaths seems to decrease the understanding of an individual, a real person like us.

This presentation personalizes those lost in a way that shows each number as someone who lived and breathed, has a grieving spouse, child, relative or friend who will miss them immeasurably.

"Now, for most of those who died in the past few months," says TheNYTimes, "there were no large gatherings of consolation and recited prayers for peaceful rest. The obituaries that filled our local newspapers and Facebook pages sometimes read like an unending roll all of the coronavirus dead.

"Why has this happened in the United States of 2020? Why has the virus claimed a disproportionately large numbers of black and Latino victims? Why were nursing homes so devastated? Those questions of why and how and whom will be asked for decades to come."

100,000 and counting!

Newspapers just don't happen anymore. Their time, as a group, has passed.

But as a best case scenario, good newspapers, usually in major markets for ad and reader support, tell a story far better and more complete with higher standards than any other medium. It's just that social media has made getting some news and information easier for today's masses... and less complete... and lazier... with less accountability... and more filled with bias. "So sad." as one has noted and proven. So sad.

Edna Salkhonen Alve, 92, Spencer, N.Y., worked beside her husband to transform a rundown dairy farm into a flourishing business . Jeffery Stanley Lin, 70, Middletown, N.J., tried to make everyone around him laugh . Willie Gene Whitaker, 85, Texas, longtime educator who was also a police officer . David Ford, 59, DeWitt Township, Mich., pastor who preached with a lot of strength and voice and sweat. Thomas Cotton, 54, Philadelphia, self-taught legal wiz. Ethel Hamburger, 92, Elkins Park, Pa., educator who said: "I didn't teach a subject, I taught children." . Bruce P. Beinsback Sr., 74, Albany, N.Y., only things he was more proud of than his military service were his children.

Want more? Here's The New York Times link to its story. Thank you The New York Times, for this remarkable humanization of those who didn't survive and their values. God help us all.

The real magic of Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins IS magic, but as the play goes out to youth theater groups everywhere, Mary Poppins Jr. offers a different kind of magic that sweeps you up... and up... and away.

It's the magic of performance, no matter the play, by groups of young people all over the country.

I am most fortunate because I have six of my grandchildren in about 25-plus Broadway-originating stage plays over the years, with more plays to come.

And as rich as that is for me, the magic I'm talking about isn't that my grandchildren 'tread the boards' which I love, but that these performances by all the casts everywhere give so much richness and experience to the young actors, and how that all happens. There's unseen magic in starting fresh on day 1 and ending with show stopping performances that dazzle the mind, encore after encore.

Now, thanks to two young cinematographers and their excellent documentary on the making of Mary Poppins Jr., I know what goes on behind the scenes. I had no idea and was blown away.

In Mary Poppins Jr. there are 62 young cast and crew--from 3rd grade to high school--together for a musical so joyfully filled with song and dance complexities, dialog to learn, technical needs to be resolved and 'blocking' positions on stage when and where. And that doesn't include props, costumes and quick changes to plan and position.

The Wellesley Theatre Project... (a nonprofit) Performance Art Theatre in Wellesley, MA offers weekly classes and performance opportunities year round for students Pre-K-12th grade plus summer camps where Mary Poppins Jr. came to life.

This documentary, Jolly Holiday,  was created by WTP students, freshman Louis and his 7th grade brother Nicholas Chiasson and gives you an inside look at one of WPT's largest production camps. In the Summer of 2019, WTP held a 3 week Summer Production camp to produce Disney's and Cameron Mackintosh's "Mary Poppins Jr." A cast of 62, a team of interns and the WTP staff brought this story to life! This is your chance to experience that from the inside!

Note: The documentary is 40 minutes long and if you are curious and more, it fascinated me and is very well done. You can feel the excitement grow as the whole play comes together and in the moments before the curtain goes up on opening night. I loved the table read by the whole cast. And if you are not blown away by Chim Chim Cher-ee I'd be surprised. OK, I admit, three of my grandchildren were in this play so my heart was involved as well as my intellect.

Go here for a 3-minute read on another production and the value of having a Wellesley Theatre Project and other really good theater organizations around the country for young people. The Arts are never, ever a waste of time or energy for the benefits gained by those involved and the audiences they captivate.

The wisdom of Michael Jordan

The king of basketball.

Does being the best basket- ball player ever make you smarter?


Best answer:  It can't hurt. But it really doesn't necessarily make you smarter. Richer? Yes. Smarter? That depends on what you start with.

Jerry Lucas

Take Jerry Lucas for example. (Jerry Who? Aha! you are too young.)

Lucas led the Ohio State Buckeyes to three successive  NCAA titles starting in 1960 and was on the USA Olympic basketball team that won the Gold Medal  gold medal in the 1960 Games. He had a spectacular NBA career and in 1980 he was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

But was he smart?

Wikipedia talks about "Lucas displaying a remarkable, if unusual intelligence. A straight-A student with a penchant for memorizing his school work, Lucas had started to develop memory games for himself as early as age nine. One trick he would be known for was his ability to take words apart and reassemble them quickly in alphabetical order. "Basketball" became "aabbekllst." He also applied his intelligence successfully to his later coaching in the game."

Bill Bradley

Then there was U.S. Senator Bill Bradley who played spectacularly for the New York Knicks winning NBA titles in 1970 and '73. He was a Rhodes Scholar. So basketball does have players with 'smarts."

There are others, of course, but I promised you the wisdom of Michael Jordan, so here it is:

If you have been watching ESPN's 10-part series, The Last Dance, featuring Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bull's fascinating trials and travails in their "six-peat" run to that final NBA Championship in 1999, you might have seen Michael's statement that so typifies where we, as the USA... as the world, sit today.

When faced with a potential career-ending broken foot injury in 1985-86 (his second year in the NBA), he was forced to sit out six weeks of the season. He was so competitive that he was willing to put his career on the line to play. It was then that Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, after consulting with doctors, conferred with Jordan.

"You're not understanding the risk-reward ratio," he told him. "If you had a terrible headache and I gave you a bottle of pills. And nine of the pills would cure you. And one would kill you, would you take the pill?"

Michael looked at him and said, "It depends on how bad the f---ing headache is."

So the take-away is that Michael understood the risk-reward ratio. The fabled wisdom I'm talking about is that he didn't choose to take the pill, which didn't leave him happier, but still playing out his career until he called it quits.

So America, same question: Are you willing to put your life on the coronavirus age line when one choice is NO and the other has a 10 percent chance of possibly killing you and/or loved ones you contact with?

It's anyone's guess on exactly what the odds are, but I'm thinking, that ratio doesn't sound too out of line. Problem is, if the ratio is absolutely correct, then the probability for guessing wrong grows exponentially beyond just you.

Final quiz question: Yes, the NBA does have smart players, but what is the number 1 statistic that is the most common to all players, not counting wealth?

Answer: Tattoos. About 53% of the players have tattoos.

Final Fun Fact: Think Michael Jordan isn't King Midas? A 1985 pair of his autographed Air Jordan shoes which he actually wore in a game go on auction this week. It is expected they will cost the lucky winner more than $160,000. My guess it will be a woman. I don't know many men who have more than a few pair of shoes, often bought for him by his wife who knows the value of shoes.