FAREWELL CAPTAIN AMERICA - WE’LL MISS YOU!

March 2007

Steve Rogers is dead like a doornail, finished, bought the farm, screwed the pooch. Who is Steve Rogers? He is better known to most of us as Captain America. You know the comic book superhero. For more than 67 years, we have been treated to the adventures of Captain America, and now Marvel Comics has pulled the plug on him, literally.

According to the Daily Bugle, Captain America’s hometown newspaper, the fatal attack took place on the steps of the Federal Courthouse. The Captain was taken to Mercy Hospital where he succumbed to gunshot wounds in the shoulder, chest and stomach. Really, you can’t make this stuff up.

You couldn’t find a superhero more patriotic than Captain America. In fact he was created in 1941 to foster patriotism during World War II. It obviously caught on because more than 210 million Captain America comics have been sold in more than 70 countries since he first broke onto the scene.

Now the good news is that death comes and goes in comic book land. Don’t be surprised if the good Captain is resurrected sometime in the future. As I recall Superman has been killed a few times and always made it back.

Why should we care about the passing of a member of the Justice League? It’s not so much the Captain, but more of what the Captain stands for. During the war years he represented all that was good about our country. From his red white and blue uniform to good triumphing over evil Captain America, was the real deal to many. To many he was what America was all about.

Captain America triumphed over the Nazis during WW II. He beat back the communistic threat during the fifties and early sixties and flattened other super villains (now known as terrorists) in his spare time. It’s almost ironic that he would be snuffed out by a sniper’s bullet.

With everything that is going on in the world and in our country today, it would seem to me that we should have a guy like Captain America around to help get us through these rough and unsettling times.

One of Cap’s creators, Joe Simon who is now 93 told the Associated Press that “We really need him now.” Marvel Comic’s Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada told reporters that there are many unanswered questions following the Captain’s untimely demise.

“What happens with the costume? And what happens to the characters that are friends and enemies of Cap?" Quesada said with a smile. "You're going to have to read the books to find out." Now there’s marketing in action!

Not to worry too much. You probably won’t be too surprised to learn that a Captain America movie is already in the works. He was a real American hero and will be sorely missed by many. This news along with the death of Anna Nicole Smith is really more than I can take.


Lee Degenstein has covered the financial markets for print and broadcast media for more than 15 years. Mr. Degenstein was also the news director and morning anchor at two major radio stations in New Jersey. He has been a reporter/contributor to United Press International, The Associated Press, The Mutual Broadcasting System and New York 1 News. A winner of the Associated Press award for 'best business story' he lives and works in New York City. Mr. Degenstein can be reached by email at: lee723@verizon.net
© Copyright 2007,
Lee Degenstein.
All rights reserved
www.leereports.blogspot.com

SPRING FORWARD FALL BACK - JUST DO IT SOONER

March 2007

Spring forward fall back, we have been told that since we were kids. We put the phrase neatly into the storage area of our brain as we only need it twice a year. This year, unless you have been too busy watching the Anna Nicole Smith saga, you’ve probably heard that Daylight Saving Time is starting three weeks earlier than in years passed.

This year Daylight Saving Time will begin at 2:00 AM on Sunday March 11th. On the other end, Daylight Saving Time will be extended one month, and will begin at 2:00 AM on Sunday November 4th. By the way as long as we are talking about the time we may as well be precise about DST and how we say it. The correct phrase, is Daylight Saving Time not “Daylight Saving(s) time”. A Government web site reminds us that we are “saving daylight” and therefore the word “saving” should not be plural. I never knew that.

Believe it or not, the original idea for Daylight Saving Time was thought up by none other than Benjamin Franklin back in April of 1784, while he was the U.S. Ambassador to France. Like most useful ideas it was put on the back burner for a while, a long while.

It only took 134 years for us to listen to Franklin. In 1918, in order to conserve resources for the war effort, the U.S. Congress placed the country on Daylight Saving Time for the remainder of WW I. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular that it was later repealed. Didn’t they say the same thing about prohibition?

When America went to war again, Congress reinstated Daylight Saving Time on February 9, 1942. It remained advanced one hour forward year-round until September 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, there was no U.S. law about Daylight Saving Time. States and localities were free to observe Daylight Saving Time or not. Suffice it to say that the Government has been monkeying around with the starting date ever since.

For you history buffs out there, our British friends beat us to the punch with the introduction of “British Summer Time” by an Act of Parliament in 1916. Clocks were put one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) during the summer. Today more than 70 countries worldwide make use of Daylight Saving Time.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed by Congress and then signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005. If you don’t like the idea of it being changed, you can direct your comments to Congressman Edward Markie (D) MA, who was the original author of the bill. I would suggest calling him really late at night.

The idea behind the law is that Daylight Saving Time saves energy, prevents traffic injuries and fatalities and also prevents crime. Your actual results may vary as these claims remain challenged by many.

All this week you will see, hear and read warnings from our friends in the media about computers, and how this time change may affect PCs. In fact many in the media already say we could have a repeat scare similar to the one they caused for Y2K, albeit on a smaller level. The media, whose main job is to sell more papers and get more viewers and listeners, must have already forgotten that all the hype about Y2K for the most part turned out to be a big nothing. Daylight Saving Time will be even less of an event for the average computer user. Here’s what to do as far as your PC is concerned.

First of all if you bought your computer in 2005 or later, your operating system has already been updated with the change, you need to do nothing. If you purchased your computer before 2005 and get regular updates from Microsoft or Apple (over the internet), chances are that your machine has already been updated and you probably didn’t even know it. Again in this case you need to do nothing.

If you are not sure if your computer has been updated and you use some version of the Windows operating system you can go www.microsoft.com. Not to worry, if you download this update and install it and your machine has already been updated your computer will not be harmed in any way. You could also chose to ignore this entire event but you might not be on time again for the next six months or so.

Just to play it safe the Food and Drug Administration has sent the following notice to doctors and hospitals nationwide: “If a medical device or medical device network is adversely affected by the new DST date changes, a patient treatment or diagnostic result could be:
incorrectly prescribed
provided at the wrong time
missed
given more than once
given for longer or shorter durations than intended
incorrectly recorded

Any of these unpredictable events could harm patients and not be obvious to clinicians responsible for their care.”

Now I don't know about you but I would hate to be hooked up to a heart lung machine that was running an hour or so off schedule. I guess we have all been appropriately been warned all we have to do now is to just be on time and hope others do the same. Finally if you have to manually reset the time on your VCR, and your machine flashes 12:00 for the next six months don’t call me!

Lee Degenstein has covered the financial markets for print and broadcast media for more than 15 years. Mr. Degenstein was also the news director and morning anchor at two major radio stations in New Jersey. He has been a reporter/contributor to United Press International, The Associated Press, The Mutual Broadcasting System and New York 1 News. A winner of the Associated Press award for 'best business story' he lives and works in New York City. Mr. Degenstein can be reached by email at: lee723@verizon.net www.leereports.blogspot.com
© Copyright 2007,
Lee Degenstein.
All rights reserved