Hits and Misses
MISS: If you look at photos of people from the 1960s and 1970s, one thing stands out beyond the fluctuating fashions and hairstyles – folks were thinner back in those days. Some of this was the result of people heedlessly puffing away on appetite-suppressing cigarettes, which we no longer do nearly as much. But a whole constellation of other factors are also responsible for our greater heft nowadays, including eating out more, a knowledge-based economy that requires being seated at desks for long stretches, antidepressant consumption and gut bacteria. It turns out that we humans are not the only ones who have packed on some girth in recent times. An article this week in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review detailed how there are plenty of overweight dogs and cats out there. It cited statistics that found that 56% of dogs and 60% of cats in the United States are either obese or overweight. Nicole Milligan, a veterinarian who owns the Sarver Animal Hospital in Westmoreland County, told the Tribune-Review that pets are frequently sedentary and that some dogs and cats “just get too many calories,” and some don’t know how to stop chowing down. The additional pounds can lead to some of the same afflictions that can bedevil their human companions, such as an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. So, if you’re tempted to give your housebound feline friend a few more spoonfuls of yummy wet cat food, you might want to think twice.
MISS: The New York Times headline for Quincy Jones’ obituary called him, simply, a “giant of American music,” and it would be hard to argue with that assessment. In the 1980s, millions upon millions of music buyers purchased Michael Jackson’s megablockbuster “Thriller,” and the superstar-packed famine-relief single “We are the World,” both of which Jones produced. But there was more – a lot more – to Jones’ career than his extraordinarily fruitful association with Jackson. Jones, who died Sunday at age 91, was a trumpeter, arranger, composer and producer. He worked alongside giants like Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Steven Spielberg. All told, he was nominated for 80 Grammy Awards, and took home 28. Not bad for someone who grew up poor and discovered music when he broke into a recreation center looking for food and found a piano there. As his Times obituary said, Jones “took social and professional mobility to a new level in Black popular art, eventually creating the conditions for a great deal of music to flow between styles, outlets and markets.”
HIT: In the lead-up to every election, candidates, civic-minded officials and, yes, newspaper opinion pages, remind voters that they have a say in the process and that, indeed, every vote counts. And after every election, stories inevitably crop up about a contest decided in a village by a single vote, or a tied race that needed to be decided by a coin toss. We have a version of that here in Pennsylvania right now, except on a much larger scale. Though the trajectory of the presidential race was pretty clear a few hours after the polls closed Tuesday, as of Thursday morning there was still uncertainty about whether the incumbent, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, will be holding on to the seat he first won in 2006, or he will have to surrender it to Republican Dave McCormick. Twenty-four hours ago, the Associated Press had McCormick in the lead by a little less than 30,000 votes out of more than 6 million cast, McCormick was leading by just four-tenths of a percent. The Casey campaign maintained that they would ultimately prevail on the strength of provisional ballots, and the race could well go to a recount. No matter the outcome, though, this contest demonstrates that, yes, every vote really does count.