Good Morning All & Happy Wednesday!
Happy Birthday to actor George Hamilton, who turns 81 today and to tennis star Pete Sampras, who is 49 today! Here’s to you!
My condolences to the family of Chuck Monson, who recently died of liver cancer. This was a shock to me, as Judy & I sat next to Chuck at the memorial service for our mutual friend Lee Wynne prior to the coronavirus outbreak. I enjoyed my professional association with Chuck, as I worked with him on the employee benefits for the National Association of Credit Management office here in Spokane. He was the General Manager there for a number of years. We also worked on various projects connected to the East Spokane Kiwanis Club and I enjoyed his friendship over the years. Chuck certainly helped make our community a better place for all. He will be missed!
Speaking of great people, here’s to our friend Julie from Reno who is celebrating her “semi-retirement” from the business she built from the ground up, Superior Dental Lab. The lab now employs some 24 people and Julie is truly one of the most generous employers I’ve ever known. She certainly “walks the talk” in caring for others and has built a very successful dental lab business, one of the biggest in Nevada, for sure. Julie was able to spend some time with us the past few weeks and it was great to help her celebrate this milestone. Here’s to you, Julie! Congrats on a great career!
While I was out with my mother, Chris, looking for values at various thrift stores the other day, I came across the most recent edition of “The Current,” a monthly newspaper published for the Greater Spokane Valley. It’s a great publication, full of human interest stories and helpful information about happenings in the Spokane Valley. One of the articles in this edition featured a gentleman by the name of John Guarisco, a lifelong Spokane Valley resident. Although I have never had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, I felt I knew him well through the article. He has certainly been a difference maker for the Spokane Valley. John has led a distinguished career in radio, the restaurant/hospitality industry, owning an advertising agency and of late as a real estate broker. He also has served as past chair of the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce. He is a fifth generation resident of the Spokane area, his great-grandfather having been known for growing the Spokane Valley’s signature crop — “Hearts of Gold” cantaloupe — that, many years later, would become the namesake for the Valleyfest Parade. Of his time in the restaurant business, John said: “It was basically like earning a master’s degree without paying for one…If you can run a restaurant, you can run any business.” He is the consummate volunteer…as he says: “I realized I had eight hourts to work, eight hours to sleep and another eight hours to myself…I didn’t want those other eight hours to just be work or zoning in front of the T.V.. There may be some heavy lifting with volunteering, but you gotta care.” Of his time serving his community as the chair of the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, John says: “I think bringing community leaders together in any organization is a good thing. I see the Chamber already stepping up and educating small business about different avenues they can do to stay afloat. They are also working with local and state elected officials to problem solve and see how they can come alongside their members to help. I think an active chamber wins for the community and most importantly its members.” On why giving back is important, John says: “I think we all need to look in the mirror and ask what value we have for helping our neighbors. How can people not worry about those in their own backyard that are less fortunate or just need some help? This is our community and if anyone has the means to help, they should. I am not saying write a check every time but actually get out and be a part of your own community. This is important to me because I want to see our community grow stronger and be a great place for future generations to be.” Here’s to John Guarisco and all who are dedicated to helping make our community a better place to live! People like John make our country great.
—“Mr. Personality — Guarisco brings enthusiasm to civic roles”, “The Current,” August, 2020, pp. 2 & 5.
I came across a collectible card from the late 1950s that featured the Douglas DC-7 “Seven Seas”. It was a transport aircraft that was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. The collectible card says that the DC-7 could carry up to 95 passengers in “this new luxury airliner, “Seven Seas. This improved design of the DC-7B has a greater wingspan than its predecessor, which allows for larger fuel tanks in the wing-roots. In addition there is an increase in stowage space to a total area of 650 ft. and tail surfaces have been heightened 2 ft.. You’ll probably be seeing a lot of this new plane.” It was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earliest jet airliner—the de Havilland Comet—entered service and only a few years before the jet-powered Douglas DC-8 first flew. The DC-7 came to be after a request by American Airlines for an aircraft that could fly the USA coast-to-coast non-stoop in about eight hours (Civil Air Regulations then limited domestic flight crews to 8 hours’ flight time in any 24-hour period). Douglas was reluctant to build the aircraft until American Airlines president C.R. Smith ordered 25 at a price of $40 million, thus covering Douglas’ development costs. The “Seven Seas” version of the DC-7 was introduced in 1956 (a year after I was born…that makes it 64 years old…wow!). The DC-7’s Duplex-Cyclone engines frequently experienced inflight engine failures, causing many flights to be diverted. The DC-7s were phased out of service when the Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8 jets arrived in late 1958. DC-7s experienced 79 incidents and 714 fatalities during its length of commercial service. Seventeen DC-7s remained on the U.S. registry in 2010, used mainly for cargo and as aerial firefighting airtankers…”
Here’s the fact for the day:
The average raindrop falls at seven miles per hour.
Here’s the word definition for the day:
“Epoch” (Eh-pick): An early 17th century Latin word meaning “A period of time in history or a person’s life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics.” Certainly 9/11 could be seen as the beginning of an epoch in the war against terrorism, don’t you think?
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“We don’t seem to be able to even check crime. Why not legalize it and put a heavy tax on it? Make the tax for robbery so high that a bandit couldn’t afford to rob anyone unless he had a lot of dough. We have taxed other industries out of business…it might work here.”
—Will Rogers, American humorist, writer and native son of Oklahoma
“Lyrics are kind of the whole thing; it’s the message. Something might have a beautiful melody but if it’s not the truth coming out of your mouth; it’s not appealing.”
—Alison Krauss, American singer, songwriter & fiddler extraordinaire of “Alison Krauss & Union Station” fame
Here’s to a great Wednesday and lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)