Two Grandkids Having a Good Week

3/18/2015

This is a good week for the Pennsylvania part of the family.

Our oldest grandchild, George, forgot to check his email Monday, until 2 o’clock in the morning. Then he sent the above text message to his parents, down the hall.

I keep telling George he reminds me of me, a late bloomer. He fell in love with the state university at Bloomsburg, where he has some family history, along the Susquehanna River, two hours from his home.

He’s had a pretty good year – made himself into a reliable wrestler, holds a job in a nice supermarket chain, got his license and a car, but was sweating out college, until he discovered the email from Admissions.

George’s enthusiasm at getting into the college he wanted reminded me how I felt at home the first time I walked onto the nice little campus of Hofstra College a long time ago.

There are many right colleges for people, as Frank Bruni is saying in his latest book, “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be,” aimed at people facing the elite-college-admissions rat race. All colleges have good teachers, good courses, a mix of students. We think he’s going to thrive.

George's sister is also having a good week. Lulu and her dad Peter (and later her mom Corinna) are flying to Las Vegas for the Players College Showcase soccer tournament, attended by many college coaches.

Lulu plays for the FC Pennsylvania Strikers, currently rated fourth nationally in the 15-and-Under class, coached by Jim McLoughlin, a former Canadian Olympian and member of the old New York Arrows.

Lulu travels from Harrisburg to the Philadelphia suburbs once or twice a week for practice, competes with very good players for playing time, and also plays for the high school team with her friends from home. She’s an A student and is thinking about becoming a doctor.

There are no guarantees, plenty of work ahead, day by day. For the moment, George and Lulu are having a good week.

Lulu Can Pass -- and Lately She's Been Scoring

Thor A. Larsen

3/18/2015 10:12:53 am

Wonderful stories! These are the reasons grandparents like us are so excited for the future of our grandchildren! Very best wishes to them both.

Altenir Silva

3/18/2015 02:54:40 pm

Dear George,

It's great news, my friend. Beautiful, beautiful family! Congratulations!

Best wishes for all the family - Altenir Silva

Alan Rubin link

3/19/2015 09:05:32 am

George

What an exciting time for both your PA grandchildren.

I thought that George’s text was a bit long.

Frank Bruni and Joe Nocea's recent Sunday NYT’s article, have put the college scene into the proper perspective.

Lulu’s soccer career seems to be progressing nicely since her team played at Randall’s Island a few years ago. A four hour round trip twice a week is quite a commitment.

If any of her team’s goalkeepers are up for the trip, there is a Just4Keepers goalkeeping academy in eastern PA. http://just4keepers.com/eastpa/ . One of their training venues might even be a slightly shorter trip.

I've been mentored by Simon Robinson, J4K EastPA's owner/coach, since I started my academy in western MA several months ago. He started the first J4K in the U.S. four years ago and is an excellent GK coach.

Considering the distance, he would probably work out a lower rate. Worst case, their keepers could buy quality GK gloves at less than half the going retail rate.

I could sell the gloves through my site, but let the business stay local. Just mention my name to Simon.

George Vecsey

3/19/2015 12:23:40 pm

Alan, thanks, actually she was with a different team a few years ago. This one travels all over the region...and the country...and is run first class, with attention to studies and social niceties.
I don't have any input to their procedures -- coaching, equipment, etc. Their coach is a cool guy who was friends with Shep Messing and other NY stars of the time.
It is hard to keep up....but as with classical music and science and math studies, there are no short cuts. People have to want it....
It's why I respect athletes at the top in any sport. They have already worked hard, just to get there. These girls work....but I believe the discipline lasts. GV

Alan Rubin link

3/19/2015 11:55:46 pm

George

Sounds like a good program with balanced values. If young players aspire to play at higher and higher levels, they will balance their time.

All too often, they are pushed to play at levels that their parents want.

J4K emphasizes developing leadership and self-confidence in addition to technical skills.

J4K and Lulu's team's players will have useful skill long after they have finished playing, which is as it should be.

Thor A. Larsem

3/21/2015 08:13:41 am

Dear George,
Seems your grandson’s attitude and hard work, should enable him to thrive at the local college. From our experiences with our daughter at SUNY Binghamton and our son at local community college and then, SUNY Binghamton, I continue to recommend state colleges as a path to a meaningful career within a reasonable education budget. I am particularly excited about President Obama’s suggestion to make community colleges free, a modest start in the direction of Norway, Germany and other European countries that provide free college education to their students.

George Vecsey

3/21/2015 11:11:44 am

Thor, I absolutely agree. The prices of "elite" colleges are out of sight. We have a friend whose daughter is going to Binghamton -- a very good school, not easy to get into, and she is thriving, and not breaking the bank. No matter what school, there will be challenging courses and teachers who want to teach. Thanks, see you soon, GV

KL Bob

3/24/2015 12:36:46 am

What a great piece, really heartwarming. A "late bloomer!" I'm going to sleep better tonight knowing I really don't have to fret myself too death about my 5th and 7th graders (yet!).

Thanks for writing this!

George Vecsey

3/25/2015 07:47:06 am

Bob, thanks. Kids grow at different rates, boys slower, I think. (Certainly me.) Did I make my parents fret. Best, GV

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

Two Grandkids Having a Good Week

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