Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Finding My Religion

A recent 88 Rewound on WMBR featured a playlist from May, 1971. I hadn’t heard this song in many years.

Honestly, I’d forgotten how much of an effect the song had on me. Life was changing fast, and I felt extremely unsettled. Six months later, entirely on my own, I started attending a Lutheran church I passed on the way home from my after-school job.

church

So began my religious period. It lasted until I was in my senior year of college.

Some years ago I attended my nephew’s wedding in the Midwest. My sister mentioned to her mother-in-law that she never knew how she and her husband were given permission to marry in the Lutheran church near our parents’ house. They lived out of state, and their church was in a different Synod. My sister’s mother-in-law smirked and said, “I know how.” My sister seemed surprised that, after so many years, this was the first she’d heard of it. “You do? How?” Her mother-in-law looked at me and said, “You were dating the minister’s daughter.” My mother must have told her. The minister’s daughter was Lori, and she got her dad to perform the ceremony.

Lori

Management Lessons from 2011

Netflix has two movies I watched yesterday, almost back-to-back. What a fascinating contrast these selected scenes provide.

This one is about Major League Baseball.

This one is about Mortgage-Backed Securities.

Brad Pitt, playing the real life Billy Beane, sees the future and is scrambling to get ahead of it. Jeremy Irons, playing a fictional CEO, is doing likewise. In each scene, a whiz kid is called upon to share his insights.

Mass General Retreat

Following up on an earlier post, Massachusetts General Hospital has withdrawn its expansion plans for suburban outpatient facilities. Boston’s best in TV news, Katie Brace, has the details.

Katie, a Massachusetts native, is a Boston Marathon runner, and she has participated in Reach the Beach. When I ran the 200-mile event, I was one of twelve team runners. Katie was on an ultra team, with only six runners covering the distance from Mount Washington to the New Hampshire coast.

“I love telling a good story, animals & running.” – Katie Brace on Facebook

For a long time, Katie was with WBZ-TV, Boston’s CBS affiliate. After Covid hit, the station slashed its news department and Katie was one of the staff who was let go. Katie’s many fans (2,200 Facebook followers, 4,200 on Twitter) were glad when she announced she’d be staying in Boston, at NBC10.

Katie Brace with co-anchor Kent MacLeod at WBZ-TV

Who Checks the Checkr?

I have learned that my former employer has, with only one day’s notice, announced background checks on all employees. Is management exempting itself? I’m still a shareholder. Maybe I should ask them.

The company has never had an HR department. A firm I’ve never heard of, Checkr, has been hired to conduct the background checks.

A quick check shows Checkr having a good reputation overall. But being right 9 out of 10 times isn’t good enough when someone’s livelihood is at stake.

https://www.protocol.com/checkr-gig-economy-lawsuits

The Road to Healthcare

Over a period of fifteen years I traveled to many rural American hospitals. Some of them were a long drive from a large airport. Others had a connecting flight aboard a twin-prop plane to a small regional airport.

In the years since then, some of those hospitals have closed. The crisis in rural healthcare continues to worsen.

Some hospitals here in greater Boston have closed, but for a very different reason. There were too many of them. Competitive pressures are ongoing, with Massachusetts General Hospital pursuing what some see as aggressive expansion plans.

Every six months I drive into downtown Boston for an appointment with an eye specialist. In late 1999, after suffering a spontaneous retinal detachment, I was left for blind by an incompetent eye surgeon in Worcester. I was referred to him by a optometrist in a neighboring town, who delayed seeing me after doubting my claim of a detached retina.

My sight was saved by a specialist at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear infirmary, who I found only because my boss’ wife worked there. Based on my own experience, the closer you get to Boston the better the medical care is.

P.S. This ad happened to pop up on Facebook. An ad for the place where my botched eye surgery was done.