In Our Community
Beginning in the 1920’s, Lux toilet soap used celebrities to endorse the product in magazine advertisements. By the latter part of the decade, the focus of the advertising was already on glamorous motion picture players (and it was in fact during this period that the slogan “nine out of ten screen stars use Lux toilet soap” was invented). Sometime in 1934, the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency was successful in persuading its client Lever Brothers to put up the money to record an audition of a proposed hour long dramatic radio program that would use stars from the stage and screen to perform in the leading roles.
In the Spring or early Summer of that year, an audition recording was made of William Archer’s The Green Goddess, with Claude Rains as the Rajah of Rukh. Lever Brothers, manufacturer of Lux products was intrigued with the idea and agreed to sponsor the new series, which was to be called The Lux Radio Theater. During its illustrious radio run, approximately 926 adaptations of plays and motion pictures were produced by the Lux Radio Theater. The run on radio started in 1934 with the production of Seventh Heaven and ended with Edward My Son on 6/7/55. Preparations for The Lux Radio Theater may well have been greater than for any radio dramatic hour that had preceded it to the air. Acquiring the rights to the plays and motion pictures was relatively simple in comparison to securing services of the starring players. Listening to AM1370 KDTH’s Big Broadcast on Sunday nights from 6 to midnight you will occationally hear “Lux presents Hollywood!” The records center has caught up
The National Personnel Records Center, part of the National Archives and Records Administration, has finally cleared up a huge, four-year backlog of work. Caused by the Covid pandemic, at one time they had a list of 600,000 requests for records.
From what we hear, it was a crazy time, with only a certain number of emergency personnel allowed to work in the building at once to take care of must-have requests for things like documents for funerals and medical emergencies. Now allowed back to work, they’ve dealt with longer hours for staff, working weekends, additional staff and shifts, new technology and much more. At this point they’ve caught up, and ideally any normal requests for separation records should be handled within a week or so, with other types of records taking approximately 20 days. Meanwhile, they receive over 4,000 new requests each day. That’s over a million per year. The vast majority of the records at the record center are paper copies that must be found by hand. They’ve been busy digitizing all the files they can find, including asking the VA to digitize all the military service records they hold. In addition, the eVetRecs portal has been upgraded to handle requests for files online, and there is now a phone line to check the status of orders. The fire of 1973 continues to impact efforts to produce records. With 16-18 million files reduced to ash, it’s been necessary over the years to reconstruct information from various sources and locations to produce the requested files, such as DD Form 214. Some of the alternate records they can search are final pay vouchers and medical/hospital records. Staff at the records center should be applauded for their work under less than ideal conditions. I personally wondered if they would ever catch up, even with their plan of action and status report one year ago, but they have. If you need to request service records, go to vetrecs.archives.gov/VeteranRequest/home.html and file your order online. © 2024 King Features Synd., Inc. Stonehill Promotes New Administrator
Stonehill Communities has promoted Matt Jahn, previously Director of Health Services, to Administrator of the Stonehill Health Center.
The Administrator provides leadership and operational oversight of the Health Center, which offers post-acute care, long-term care, and memory care. The role involves understanding industry trends and regulatory requirements, advocacy efforts, directing improvement initiatives, maintaining relationships with service partners, and working with residents and family members. Matt Jahn has been with Stonehill Communities since 2008. He began his career in healthcare at Stonehill at age 19 as a CNA and Activities Aide. While working as a CNA, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and became a registered nurse. After a year as a staff nurse, he became a part time supervisor and within another year had become the Assistant Director of Nursing. Jahn has served in the Director of Health Services/Director of Nursing role for the past 8 years. “Stonehill has supported me every step of the way along my healthcare journey. That support has been a driver in encouraging me to take on leadership roles. I am excited to broaden my impact on the organization and continue to work with our excellent team in serving residents and their families. I am committed to keeping Stonehill the premier provider of aging health and wellness services in our area,” said Jahn. The promotion was effective January 1. The mission of Stonehill is to, in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, provide a continuum of quality lifetime care services in a dignified atmosphere. Stonehill offers a full continuum of services including independent and assisted living, memory care, post-acute rehab, long term care, inpatient and outpatient therapy, palliative care and hospice care, non-medical home services, The Caregiver Resource Center, and a state-of-the-art wellness center open to the public. Stonehill is a local organization serving the Dubuque area since 1978. More information is available at www.stonehilldbq.com. |
Message from a Chiming IV Bag
Someone my wife Diann and I are close to is getting chemotherapy for cancer. On this particular morning, a day for a chemo treatment, she awoke with a hymn that kept going through her mind, “I’ve Got Peace Like a River.” In fact, she mentioned the musical loop she was hearing to her husband and to their adult son, who would be driving them to the treatment center.
At the treatment center the first bag of IV was nearly empty and it chimed to let the staff know that it needed changing. Being a life-long musician she immediately recognized the three notes of the IV chime as being the first three notes of the hymn “I’ve Got Peace Like a River!” It gave her a profound sense of comfort and strength from the Lord. If this had happened to me I doubt if I would have noticed that the three notes of the IV chime were the same as the first three notes of the hymn – that’s because I’m not a musician. God used a unique method of communicating His presence and peace to her that He knew she would recognize. Her experience was a powerful reminder to my wife and me (and it can be to you, that’s why I’m sharing it here) that God is not oblivious to our pain, problems, and struggles. He cares, is with us, and will help us in the midst of it all. The temptation that often comes in the midst of serious struggles is to think that God has abandoned us, that He doesn’t care. We can find ourselves grumbling about our situation, even complaining to God about it. We’re not putting ourselves into a very good position to receive any input from God. He feels far away or perhaps non-existent. A better way is to put mind over heart, focusing on what we know to be true about God and not going with our feelings at the moment. What’s true about God is that He’s all-loving and cares about us, all-wise and knows how to best deal with what we’re facing, and all- powerful and able to do what He wants done with our situation. What can help is to be open to any reminder that God sends our way that He’s with us. If He can use a chiming IV to communicate His presence and help, then He can use anything or anyone. We just have to be open to Him reaching out to us. “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him” (Psalm 28:7) America’s greatest assets are our children. A child in the home creates an avenue of learning. I mean, we can learn from them. Even though we are their teachers of life, they bring questions into our teaching lessons, and we learn from them how well we are doing at our job.
Recently, I asked my nine-year-old great grandson what his favorite animal was. He said the lion. I asked him why. By his quizzical gestures I think he was looking for the word majestic to describe the lion. The male lion with his mane, claws and teeth is indeed a majestic animal. I then asked his 6-year-old brother what his favorite animal was. He said straight out, a fox, and as Aesop’s fables tells it, a fox is crafty and cunning. But I don’t think my great grandson would know that at his young age. After all, the fox is cute. I usually ask a parent’s permission if I might ask their child a question or two about an interesting subject. Then a day after my great grandsons had come to visit me, the neighbor came over to visit with her two daughters. I asked her 6-year-old daughter what her favorite animal was. She said her cat. I asked her why do you love your pet? She said because it is orange. But then she added that her second best animal was the unicorn. Naturally, the unicorn is a mythical fabled beast, symbolic of holiness and chastity. But is also fun to visualize. The other daughter was not quite three and when she realized the subject was about cats, I am sure her answer would have been a cat. There were several in her home. So often when I ask a child a simple question, I get a lesson in how children think. They usually answer a question with the first thought that comes into their young mind. Now in case you are wondering why I say children are our country’s assets, just think about it! They will learn what we teach them. And it is important that we teach them about the world they will be part of as they grow into adulthood. As they grow up, we should be there to tell them about the wonderful things they can accomplish in a lifetime. Good things for one and all. Things that can be shared with all mankind. We can all be teachers to our children. Nowadays grandparents are so involved in rearing young children. Just think how much we can pass on to them. Those of us who learned from our parents and other loved ones can now pay back society with learned knowledge. Share and share alike. Right on! |