Greetings! Are you alarmed that the summer is now approximately 2/3 over??!? I will tell you that I am quite alarmed…yes quite. To make matters worse, our weather this summer has been unbelievably cool – we’re talking highs often only in the 60s and low 70s. It feels like we missed summer! I hate to complain…especially about things we can’t do anything about…but there it is. I’m complaining!
OK – on to the good news. Got some good ones this week!
Elite Athletes: They’re Quick,Competitive and Nearly 40
Conventional wisdom is that by the time athletes get to their mid 30s they are considered geriatric. Recently, older athletes have fought back against the tolls of aging, returned to competition and whizzed past their junior rivals.
Forties is the new 30s for physiological capacity. Look at Lance Armstrong (currently ranked third in the Tour De France at age 37), Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie (broke the world record for the fastest marathon at the age of 35), and Dara Torres (won three silver medals last summer in Beijing at age 41).
Maturity means a greater mental mastery of the sport.
Philanthropist Steps Up for Madoff Victims
A Massachusetts philanthropist who lost most of his money in the Bernard Madoff scandal has paid $5 million of his own money to restore the retirement savings of employees who were affected by the scam.
Ronald I. Lappin made up for the lost savings of all of the employees of his company (Shetland Properties Inc.) and of his charity (The Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation). These employees had retirement plans managed by Madoff.
Lappin says his net worth is now less than $10 million. This is a tenth of what it was before the scandal.
Strangers Save Life of Boy Trapped in Burning SUV
Two off-duty firefighters rushed into a burning SUV and cut a 4-year-old boy out of the seatbelt to save his life after first citizens responding to an accident smashed out the windshield and helped the mother and other child to safety.
D.J. Harper is in serious but stable condition with second- and third-degree burns over 30 percent of his body. He is expected to make a complete recovery.
Off-duty Milwaukee firefighters John Rechlitz and Joel Rechlitz and off-duty Milwaukee police Lt. Mark Wroblewski raced to the scene. Without gear, backup from emergency responders or any fire protection they went inside the burning vehicle to free the boy.
The three off-duty workers have been honored for their heroic actions.
