JIM'S CHAIR

     Thinking the other day about who were the finest people I ever met, I almost missed someone who ranks near the top of the list........Jim Murguia, gentleman barber, resident barber for Convair, San Diego, and later, General Dynamics Astronautics Division for most of his salaried career. I never met his wife, but she must be someone special too as together the couple raised four children who returned a level of pride most parents hope for.

     It was a banner day when promoted to a perk level where you were privileged to visit the company barber. And Jim was special because you knew intuitively that he was a sympathetic listener. You could unload on him and know that it would go no further. It didn’t matter if you were thrice married, divorced, had something going on the side, a raving conservative, a starry eyed liberal or someone being undermined in the various maneuverings that are always in play in the company hierarchy. Jim listened and commented just enough, always sympathetically so you walked away with a haircut good enough for a wedding and feeling as good as if you had visited the local shrink and plunked down fifty bucks for an hour on the couch.

     When Jim retired from the Astronautics over a quarter century ago he established a private practice, “Jim’s Chair,”that periodically got bumped from location to location in the Kearny Mesa Area. His clientele from Astronautics and Convair followed him, so he didn’t have to look for customers. Only as a special favor would he take on someone recommended to him.

     Jim is an avid golfer and Jim’s Chair got to be known as the only place in town where you could get a haircut and a golf lesson for ten bucks. 
     Still barbering well into his tenth decade and still a great listener, I must think to tell him: “Jim, its too bad you are not a writer. Your book would be a best seller.”

PUREES

Well, what do you know?  Today, June 17, 2015, New York Times:  ASTRONOMERS DETECT SIGNS OF EARLIEST STARS THAT ENRICHED THE COSMOS. Some months ago I posted here the theory that the Big Bang was a symmetrical event, producing  a number of identical stars which I called PUREES, their composition being mainly hydrogen and helium. Over their lifetimes they produced the material of the Universe, which got dispersed as they exploded. They no longer exist, but we and Earth around us are some of the remnants. Nice to see that others are thinking likewise.

LETTER TO TRILL

(Author’s note: Trill is a fictional female acquaintance who, with her questions, makes it possible for me to write in a style that is for me both different and comfortable.

My Dear Trill,
      It comes as no surprise to me that you would raise questions about religion, sooner or later. You are inquisitive about so many subjects. But in no way do you test my patience. As a decidedly non-religious person, I can only give you my views on the subject, to which, as it happens, I have given considerable thought, ranging from bitter personal experience to awareness of the horrors of World War II, when 70 million people, mostly innocent, lost their lives - and  an omnipotent, omni-present God didn’t seem to care.

     It may be useful to tell you about a revealing report that I read recently and leave it to you to do further reading and thinking on this subject.This is important, Trill. Important because your life might be better spent if not too occupied with thoughts that are laced with a considerable measure of skepticism. Even worse, you could become entrapped in any one of a number of ideologies that lay claim to a special place in the embrace of an as yet undetected God. I have in mind at the moment the machinations of a certain Evangelistic pastor in Atlanta who is fleecing his flock to purchase an eighty-five million dollar private jet for his personal use.

     But happily, things are always happening that lead to better understanding.You may be familiar with a charitable organization called Save The Children. They publish annually a report on the State of the World’s Mothers, The Urban Disadvantage Report, along with the Mother’s Index. A highlight of the report is identifying the ten best countries for maternal health and children’s well being. In the 2015 report, surprisingly. the United States did not appear in the top ten. In fact, it was ranked as 33rd.

     The top country in the ranking of ten is Norway. Other countries were Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Iceland, Germany, Spain and Australia. Striking is the is the clustering of most of the countries in one region, Northern and Western Europe. Of course, that immediately begs the question: Why?

      Searching for an explanation, I wondered if the top selections correlate in some manner with wealth, religion, or education, or all three. Upon examining a world map of the least religious nations, the countries listed above stand out, along with Ireland, France Switzerland and Czech. What is startling is that these countries are close together, in some cases bordering each other, are wealthy and well educated. You could conclude, then, that wealth and education trend to atheism and non-religion.
     Then what about the United States? The country is different in two respects. It is wealthy, but the wealth is concentrated in a few. Also, in education rankings the United States rates poorly among other advanced nations. You would expect, then, that the United States would have a lower percentage of atheists and non-religious, than the above listed nations and this, in fact, turns out to be true..

       A large population of poor people and poorly educated tends to be more religious. This is borne out across most of the world, according to the map. Poorer nations tend to be more religious. You could conclude, though not without caveats, from the above studies, that GDP per capita is a reasonable measure of how religious a country is. But a calculated GDP, where most of the wealth is in the hands of a few, such as Saudi Arabia, and an actual GDP per capita are two different things, and one should not confuse the one with the other.

     Who knows, Trill? It may well be that further growth in atheism and non-religion will resolve one of the most pressing problems facing humanity.....the clash between different religions, each believing itself to be the final word, often leading to war and brutality, a condition that has held true for thousands of years. It will be interesting to watch. This could happen as countries rise out of poverty and and are better educated, but it is increasingly unlikely due to a concurrent burgeoning of world population, especially in poorer nations, and scarcity of progressive leadership, worldwide. 

-Edward Hujsak

TRIALS OF A BIG PHARMA SALESMAN

      Up and coming Stanford MBA Joe Paskudnik arrived at his place of work, Good Pharma Headquarters, on a rainy day in April, only to learn that he had been fired. As the guards hustled him out of the building he recalled, ruefully, his boss one day muttering to him, while patting him on the back, “Joe, you’re going to go far.” Now, he thought, with a measure of bitterness,”Yeah, out the front door!” After all, he was not solely responsible for the failure of Good Pharma’s new drug, elixerfor, widely touted as a permanent cure for Uneasiness, that nearly brought the company to its knees.

      Joe was assigned to shepherd the progress of the drug through development, test and manufacturing, and herding it through fast-track approval by the Food and Drug Administration, astutely planned for year-end, when the atmosphere tended to be more jovial at the Agency.

      Upon receiving approval of the drug for distribution, Joe immediately put into effect
a plan that he had prepared in advance for a blow-out introduction of elixerfor to the public.  
      America’s premier drug pushers, MSNBC and CNN, were extremely cooperative in opening up prime time spots, sensing, no doubt, the million dollar opportunities that lay ahead. Television screens were filled with advertising, featuring a thinly clad girl with pretty lips reclining on a pink bed, though it was never clear what the connection was to the malady. The ads were always concluded with ass-covering litanies of call-your-doctor side effects, ranging from hair loss to kidney failure to impotence to fits of anger and desperation.

      Copious samples of the drug were sent to sales representatives to deliver to physicians in their respective territories. Joe himself hit the road to visit physicians of his acquaintance at their offices in California, carrying satchels filled with samples of elixerfor.

      It was a storybook introduction. Good Pharma was overwhelmed with the success of their product. Favorable comments poured in. Joe Paskudnik was promoted to Vice President, and moved to a top-floor office. A general feeling of well-being reigned far and wide. Good Pharma stock soared in value. Christians partied with Muslims.

       Then the debris hit the fan, as it were. Automobile drivers who had driven for some time were prone to severe attacks of vertigo, definitely an unsafe condition when driving at high speeds. The serial collisions and subsequent pileups were memorable. When the cause was finally traced to elixerfor, Good Pharma stock plummeted. The company found itself compelled to underwrite auto insurance companies, who were, naturally, besieged by claims.

       Disconsolate, Joe Paskudnik spent days brooding and draining six-packs in his Manhattan apartment, his girlfriend, Petunia Sidewinder, by his side.

      “What will you do?” Petunia asked.

      “Reboot, I guess. I don’t know anything else. Think I’ll head West. My sister lives in California. There’s a start-up in San Diego with a new drug that cures Apathy. I believe I can help them.” 

-Edward Hujsak