David Buchholz

Phil, I too thank you  for your thorough and informative contributions to the Forum.  I also appreciate and acknowledge the time and effort that you've put into these essays.  But before you can bring us Part IV, just as you do what you do, so do I.  Mine are informative, too, I hope, but in a very visual sense.  It's March 10th in California, and our springs tend to get a head start on those in other parts of the country.  I have taken upon myself to document spring this year with a macro lens, trying to examine the flowers in my yard (and a few in a nearby botannical garden) in a way that most of us don't see with the naked eye.  I love abstracts, out of focus images, and the interplay of colors in a photograph that often can only be seen after close examination.  So look at this as a quiz, (if you haven't skipped over my post entirely).  I have twenty-four images on my website without any identification.  For the botanists in the class I'm sure that all twenty-four can be identified.  I know many of them, but I'd love to identify them all on my website. ) Anyone who wants to trash a rainy spring day can private message me with the names, if you are so inclined).

These, and twenty-one more, are at...

http://www.davidkbuchholz.com/spring-2020

Philip Spiess

Dave, I highly admire your photographs, and I'm glad you're continuing to share new ones.  As you said when you first posted some (several years ago now) that we should share visual art as well as verbal art -- well, as a cultural historian, I absolutely agree.  (By the way, when you recently said that you did not graduate with us in 1964, I was stunned -- as a significant presence in our class, I could have sworn that you did!)

Paul Simons

You all are amazingly talented and hard working. What can I add? Something I hope nobody needs - about Vitamin D and the immune system

https://world.wng.org/2020/03/the_vitamin_d_factor

Thanks Senator D. Buchholz(D, CA) for help with the HTML mechanics

David Buchholz

https://world.wng.org/2020/03/the_vitamin_d_factor

Si, I can show you how to do it.

Nancy Messer

Thanks Paul for the Vitamin D info.  The article (which I got to with Dave's help!) indicates Vitamin D helps protect against common respiratory infections.  For people over 70 the recommended dose is 800 IU.  I take the Walmart generic of Centrum Silver Women 50+ which privides 1000 IU of Vitamin D.  I would guess that anyone who is taking a daily multivitamin is getting sufficient Vitamin D.

Dave - your photos are spectacular.

Phil - your lessons astound me.  They are so educational in a way that's easy and fun to read.

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

Being on full scholarship at the University of Phil is AWESOME!

And I don't even have to show up for early class.

Gene Stern

Just got this. Let’s add it to the prevention steps:

The new Coronavirus may not show sign of infection for many days. How can you know if you are infected? 

Taiwan experts provide a simple self-check that we can do every morning:  Take a deep breath and hold it for more than 10 seconds. If you do this successfully without coughing, without discomfort, stiffness or tightness, there is no fibrosis in the lungs; it basically indicates no infection. In critical times, please self-check every morning in an environment with clean air. 

Serious excellent advice by Japanese doctors treating COVID-19 cases: Everyone should ensure your mouth & throat are moist, never dry. Take a few sips of water every 15 minutes at least. Why?  Even if the virus gets into your mouth, drinking water or other liquids will wash them down through your throat and into the stomach. Once there, your stomach acid will kill all the virus. If you don't drink enough water regularly, the virus can enter your windpipe and then the lungs. That's very dangerous.

Please send and share this with family and friends. Take care everyone and may the world recover from this Coronavirus soon. 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - CORONAVIRUS:

1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold.

2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose. 

3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees C.  (About 77 degrees F.)  It hates the Sun. 

4. If someone sneezes with it, it goes about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne. 

5. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface, wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap. 

6. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it. 

7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice. 

8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes, but - a lot can happen during that time - you can rub your eyes, pick your nose unwittingly and so on. 

9. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice. 

10. Can't emphasis enough - drink plenty of water! 

THE SYMPTOMS:

1. It will first infect the throat, so you'll have a sore throat lasting 3/4 days 

2. The virus then blends into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs,

causing pneumonia. This takes about 5/6 days further. 

3. With the pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty in breathing. 

4. The nasal congestion is not like the normal kind. You feel like you're drowning. It's imperative you then seek immediate attention.

This was sent to me by Saul Simon of Iselin NJ and seems to bear out some of the symptoms I and my attorney had when we returned from China on November 5. My attorney had to go into Intensive Care and the docs never knew what the cause was-but the term Coronavirus had not been coined yet on Nov 5.

Paul Simons

WOW Gene you had it and are here to talk about it!! Congratulations!

Yep, I saw the list you put up, the one that came to me had a header saying it originated at Stanford. A place with a good reputation. Very good to have some info with some actual numbers in there.

But looking into it I found this https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/3/12/21177262/coronavirus-tip-fake-list-stanford-hoax-covid-19  so you might want to take a look.

FYI you can make your own hand sanitizer with Aloe Vera Gel and Rubbing Alcohol

Nancy Messer

I need some computer help.  I saved Gene's entry on my WordPerfect (I don't use Microsoft Word).  I want to send it as an email to myself so I can then forward it to others.  I get the message that there's no email program associated and I need to create an association in the Default Programs control panel.  I tried that but nothing happens.  I asked for help and what they provide is part of Microsoft Word.

Is there a different way to save Gene's entry (and only his) so I can email it to others?

I have Windows 10 and use Firefox.

Just send me a private message on how to do this.  There may be others in the group who may want to do this.  Thanks to all for your help.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Thank you Phil, I was able to find #1 Underground RR.  I have been babysitting long hours so I'm saving this and will look forward to reading it.  

Since all sports, events and whatever else is cancelled there's not a whole lot to do but read.  I'm glad I have that because I'm never bored as long as I've got something good to read.  The kids were high maintenance today so looking forward to the weekend.  

Jeff Daum

Nancy, try pasting the original into WordPerfect using the option for no font etc. or keep text only option.  I  also work primarilly in WordPerfect and find it doesn't do well when you try to import/past directly from Word.

Jerry Ochs

More inspiration for washing your hands.

Philip Spiess

Nancy:  I'm happy that you find my writing easy and fun to read; I try to make it that way.

Stephen:  As I recall, you always had class, whether it was early or not.

And to you Christians among us:  Easter's coming!  Pontius Pilate says, "Wash your hands!"

Paul Simons

Thanks for the Gloria Gaynor video Jerry!! Looking for a longer version on Youtube

Gene Stern

The Coronavirus has certainly received a lot of attention and we are all a bit stressed with not knowing what is happening.  One of my money managers, the CEO of Captital Group,  has just written a very insightful piece that I hope relieves you of some of the stress we are all feeling.

https://www.capitalgroup.com/advisor/insights/articles/protecting-portfolios-coronavirus.html

Stephen Collett

Thank you Gene for this helpful summary. Hope you are well.

I just cancelled a trip to cental Africa, or they cancelled on me. Many there connect the AIDS outbreak on vacination under the colonial regime. This will certainly confirm their worst. 

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I've been taking a Vitamin D supplement for over one year. My doctor added a test along with routine lab tests during my annual physical. The result was slightly below normal. Even though two dexascans (bone scan) over the years show no osteoporosis, she recommended a supplement. It's good to know it may help lung function. 
Much to my dismay, the hospital where I volunteer has suspended the volunteer program for volunteers age 60 and older until further notice.  
Since I will be "holed up" at home with my dog until who knows when, I dropped by the supermarket to get a few things on Thursday mid morning, a time when there are normally few people in the store. The parking lot was as full as a payday Friday on the first of the month. All of the check out lines snaked to the back of the store. I decided I already had enough toilet paper and disinfectant wipes, turned around and went home. If I run out of TP I guess I'll go into that glitter tissue I use to wrap holiday presents!

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Today, I received this email from classmate Jack Malott:

"I regret to inform you that my cousin Richard Montague passed away early this year after a brief illness. I really have no other information because his wife has been incredibly distraught and cannot talk about her loss. Rick led a very private life and although we kept in contact with each other he enjoyed his privacy living on a river in Inglis Florida. His death came as a shock to me and his remaining relatives in Cincinnati. I had spoken to him the week before his death and he said that he had found his little paradise in Inglis. We grew up together and his death has been very sad to me and my sister. We both miss him."

RIP dear classmate Rick Montague.

Gene Stern

I just read Gail's post on Richard Montague,one of the few members of our class I hardly knew. RIP 

Hey Steve,I just cancelled a trip to Peru for a medical mission with some of my Rotary Club members and some physicians from Cuba.  The Cuban government forbade their travel so the mission had to be scrubbed. Dave Schneider and I are to take a VIKING river cruise from Sr. Petersburg to Moscow from June 21-July 5  We have agreed to wait until April 15 to either cancel or confirm Viking has ageed to no cancellation penalties and the ability to rebook within 3 years.  Stay well Steverino, Genja

Stephen Collett

Hey Geneo,  The daughter of a friend of mine just returned from St Pete two weeks ago. One person on the trip seems to have picked up Covid-19. I think the stats on infection in Russia look pretty good, but I am just saying. Of course she could have gotten it anywhere along the way. They and their families are all quarantined. A Nordic Quaker gathering that I was going to attend in Sweden in late June is cancelled. I get the feeling that maybe none of us are going anywhere anytime soon.

Paul Simons

Another web page about the immune system. I WANT to think that one can stand next to a person who has Covid-19 in a grocery store and NOT NECESSARILY get the virus:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/well/live/can-i-boost-my-immune-system.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

A full, complete analysis of Covid-19 including time lines and comparisons with other respiratory diseases:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/asia/china-coronavirus-contain.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show&region=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&context=storyline_guide?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storyline_menu#transmission
 

Stephen Collett

David M. Schneider, Was it the Scandanavian Star boat disaster that you got hooked into as a doctor in 1990 in the Baltic? They are just commemorating the 30th anniversary here. They know the fire was set but still don´t have leads.

Philip Spiess

Although I did not know Richard Montague very well at Walnut Hills, I did know his good friend, Eddie Siddens; we were in Boy Scouts together.  However, back in 2017 I had some lengthy written conversations with Richard in these pages, both on "The Forum" and in private messages we exchanged (which mildly surprised me, because, as noted, Richard was a rather silent individual).

What connected the two of us at that time was our mutual interest in, and discussion of, Cincinnati's industrial archeology, specifically, the Cincinnati Waterworks, for which, I believe, Richard worked for some time.  Richard expressed a great interest in his WHHS classmates' hobbies (although he never asked them directly about them on "The Forum"):  What were they?  Were there "any artists, sculptors, woodworkers, machinists" in our class?  He himself, he said, was a collector; anything mechanical got his juices flowing.  He started out by collecting pocket watches after reading a book on the search for longitude; he now (2017) had 75-100.  That led to the collecting of antique watch tools, and eventually he started collecting and restoring old outboard motors (I guess because he was in Florida?).  But -- as he pointed out -- in order to restore old machines, you need old machine tools, so he started collecting various historic lathes.  Apparently, the pride of his collection was a Goyen lathe (from Germany) and what he called his "MYSTERY MOTOR," an outboard, I take it, which no one, even worldwide, could identify, not even him, though he researched it extensively.

He enjoyed, at least at one time, motorcycling, which he discussed briefly on "The Forum" in 2017 with Lee Max and Jeff Daum.  As a museum professional, I would have liked to have discussed his collecting more with Richard, but he chose what he wanted to say and he chose when he wanted to say it.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Paul, What did the NYT article say?  I'm blocked from reading because I don't pay for it.  Can we still go to the grocery store?

My kids don't want me to leave the house and even suspended my babysitting duties. 

Paul Simons

Barbara I subscribe to the NYT and WaPo but some of their Coronavirus info is free.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/coronavirus-live.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/15/coronavirus-latest-news/

Also The New Yorker which has been publishing clearest writing about matters of fact, the finest fiction, poetry and reviews, and the funniest cartoon in this country for about 100 years has made its Coronavirus info free. You can sign up for newsletters:

https://www.newyorker.com/newsletters

The gist of the immune system stuff is to try to reduce stress, stay healthy, get enough sleep, lay off things like booze and tobacco, and that Vitamin D seems to help. It says people our age need something like 800 units per day. I know people who take more to combat osteoporosis - Vitamin D is part of what allows us to process and use calcium. That's why you'll often see the two sold together in a single pill.

Please bear in mind that although I have seen actors play doctors on TV I am not a doctor. There are some bona fide doctors on this site who will have plenty of info. And Google - it's the biggest library ever.