Nutrition and Diversity Make for a 79% Gain Is This a Great Country, or What? January 14, 2011March 21, 2017 Understanding that you may not have had time yesterday, I offer again – for the weekend — Wednesday’s memorial service, a moving national experience. The President’s portion, and the tone it sets, is important to hear. It inspires hope. Another hopeful thing, I think, is the federal push to improve the nutrition of federally-subsidized school lunches. Fruit instead of Twinkies, to shorthand it. In Cambridge, where something like this has already been tried, 40% of the overweight kids slimmed down, according to last night’s CBS report. This is not a small thing. What better way to help build a better future? Healthy kids a healthy nation make. DIVERSITY Beyond good health, diversity – and a healthy respect for, if not outright celebration of, our differences – makes us strong. Marge Wright: ‘I’d love to see you write about the ethnic, religious, and orientation diversity of the people prominent in Rep. Giffords’ attack and aftermath. We have: Rep. Giffords, a female in high office, who is Jewish. Daniel Hernandez, the intern who held her upright and accompanied her to the hospital, credited by many as saving her life – a Latino and out gay. Dr. Rhee, her trauma chief, is Asian American . . . THIS is the new America! It seems to me that a lot of the hate / fear / violent rhetoric is old whites clinging to an idealized past when they held all the power – and I say that as an old white who is delighted that era is OVER.’ ☞ Hernandez rushed toward the gunfire when he heard it. I assumed he was Latino but hadn’t realized he was gay. This excellent column asks why under the law he is a second class citizen. DCTH John Connors: ‘Just wondering if you have any giddiness associated with DCTH?’ ☞ Coming up on the January 21 anniversary of its first mention here at $5.37 (thanks again, Guru), it closed last night at $9.65, up 79%. So far so good (though how I wish I had sold half when it first ran up to $16). Fingers tightly crossed the bulls prove to be right about what its valuation should be. I guess there is some risk they may not get the approval they expect and some risk that, even if they do, itheir procedure may not be received in the marketplace as well as hoped, or that the market may not expand to include other uses, as hoped. Then again, it may all work out very well. I have a good chunk of it, so I hope so. But I’m not buying it here. And, fortunately, you bought it only with money you can truly afford to lose.