Friday Finishers March 7, 2008

Friday, March 7, 2008 8:19 PM CST

Hunger and homelessness were the targets last weekend as area folks turned out for Thoughts for Food and then Monday’s Empty Bowls soup fund-raiser, having fun and filling up the shelves at food pantries.

This week it’s the fight for literacy that takes center stage for community causes. Celtic Night for Literacy, a fund-raiser to benefit the Racine Literacy Council Adult Tutoring Program, is slated for Saturday night at Memorial Hall. Celtic dancers, Irish food, a little Stout, some fiddlin’ and a jig or two will set the stage for St. Patrick’s Day and raise money for a good cause. Advance tickets are $18 for auditorium seating and $20 for table seats. At the door the cost is $3 higher.

People looking to gamble apparently got more than their money’s worth out of Las Vegas over the past four years _ they may have been risking their health as well. News broke this week of a scandal at a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic which was reusing syringes and vials of medication, putting some 40,000 people at risk of potentially fatal hepatitis C or exposure to AIDS. Clinic staff told inspectors the unwritten policy was a cost-cutting measure and said they had been ordered to re-use vials and syringes by management. The clinic’s majority owner, Dipak Desai, a political contributor to the governor and a member of his health commission, insisted that needles had not been reused and said the chances of contracting an infection at the clinic were low. We still don’t like the odds. The surgical center and five affiliated clinics have been closed. We would hope prosecutors are following the news as well. Such a directive from management should merit prison time _ and we’re still baffled that over four years time no health care employee stepped up to blow the whistle.

You’ve come a long way, baby. That old Virginia Slims cigarette ad could have been applied this week to .... men. A report by the Council on Contemporary Families this week found that men’s contribution to housework has doubled over the past four decades. Even more impressive, American males have tripled their time spent on child care. But wait, step away from the Barcalounger, the downside is that men’s contribution to housework still stands at only 30 percent of the total housework load.

“I love the game. I want to find a home, somewhere to play. I don’t want to be done yet.” No, that’s not Brett Favre recanting his decision to retire. The words came this week from UW-Whitewater football standout Justin Beaver who is hoping for a chance to get on an NFL roster. At 5 feet 8 inches tall and 192 pounds, those odds are a little long, despite Beaver’s on-field performance leading Whitewater to a national Division III title and garnering the Division III player of the year. The odds got a little better this week when he wowed NFL scouts with an impressive workout at Madison this week - posting a 40-yard dash time that would have put him in the top ten running back tested at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and a 20-yard dash time that was better than any posted there. Plus he bench-pressed 225 pounds 24 times. We hope that’s good enough for the NFL to call his number and give Beaver a shot at his lifelong dream.

Name manglers make us cringe and there were a couple of notable ones in the news this week. The lesser oops came from State Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, who took to the floor this week to give the Senate tribute to Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre after his retirement announcement. Except she adjourned the Senate in honor of Bart Starr. That’s a forgiveable oops. Less forgiveable was the performance of defense attorney Frederick Cohn in the murder trial of the accused killer of Kenosha County Deputy Frank Fabiano Jr. Cohn repeatedly mispronounced Fabiano’s name — calling him Fabino and Fabio and once forgetting his name completely. That’s hardly respectful to the memory of the slain deputy.

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