Morning Metro: Atlanta Sewer Tax Vote Coming, Vintage Decatur, and the Effects of One Selfless Act
Decatur Metro | February 21, 2012 | 9:33 am
- Atlanta residents to vote March 6th on “important” water/sewer penny tax [ABC]
- 1960s vintage ad from Adam’s on Decatur Square [Next Stop]
- No.246 chef’s counter review [Atlanta Intown]
- MARTA officials push back at proposed legislative changes [AJC]
- Spending showdown in DeKalb…in other news, the sun came up today [AJC]
- Fine for smoking in Marietta parks: $500 [CL]
- One selfless act and a new communication chain save 30 lives [NYT]
Photo courtesy of Shnn via Flickr
Hmm– the link to the NYT article isn’t working…
The article is worth finding. I read that article yesterday and really enjoyed it. Complex issues. The take home message for me was to never ever be without excellent health insurance and be assertive if you ever need an organ transplant. Unfortunately, not everyone has those options, especially if you are already sick and overwhelmed.
Wow. What I took away from the article was quite different. (Probably in part because I’ve been for many years now without “excellent health insurance” and cannot comprehend ever having access to it again. And believe me, the whole world looks different.)
Anyway, what struck me was that it boils down to a leap of faith in human nature. Sure, I only need one kidney to be perfectly healthy….unless the one gets damaged, in an accident, say, and then I’ll be dependent on someone doing what I did. A directed donation to a loved one in need is one thing, but just sending a kidney out into the universe because of the good it can do is something else entirely. The opportunity to contemplate that is a kind of gift to all of us.
I shouldn’t have ignored the generosity and selflessness of the folks in the kidney donation chain. It is impressive. But it was also heart-wrenching to know that folks with Medicaid only or no insurance were ineligible to receive one of these kidneys. And how frustrating that people were dying from lack of organ donation coordination until a few enterprising and persistent folks figured out how to make donation chains work. Being nice and waiting your turn is often not sufficient when it comes to getting quality healthcare.
I sort of took away something similar. In another context, I realized I would describe the guy who gave the kidney and asked for nothing in return, as “flighty” based on many of his other attributes described in the article. But what seems “flighty” in one context is a powerful, life-chaining force in another.
That sort of contextual morphing is always fascinating to me and is always a great opportunity for reflection.
Just read the article, and although it’s very touching (and yes, inspiring), I took away something a little different from you, STG, and you, AHID– which was that I couldn’t stop wondering what makes someone willing to take such a risk to their health (the risks to donors are not insignificant, especially because it’s a MAJOR surgery, from which you don’t just bounce back up the next week) for a stranger. I think it’s wonderful to be able to be almost impulsively self-sacrificing (I’d probably think it was even more so if my one good kidney started to take a dive), but I also keep remembering the recent story about a donor who died giving a kidney to his brother (the brother lived, so I suppose it wasn’t all in vain). It’s not like giving blood, or skin cells, or even bone marrow (which I understand is very uncomfortable)– those things replenish themselves. I hope I’d be able to be that generous to a stranger, but I don’t know…it’s tragic that there are probably too many people like me, which is why there’s such a waiting list for donated organs.
Dang it. Should be fixed now.
If it’s Sunday’s article about the chain of kidney transplants, it’s here. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/health/lives-forever-linked-through-kidney-transplant-chain-124.html
So the phone number for Adam’s has a “DR8″ (378) exchange. Any oldtimers remember what mnemonic was used for “DR”?
Damn Republicans?
Drake
My old # was Drake 3 1974 That was in the early 1950′s
My guess would be that the DR is from DecatuR? And now that you have brought that up, it make a lot of sense – that is why all of our numbers are 37x-xxxx.
Graybeard is correct. It was Drake. My house has had the same phone number since 1955.
That’s also what I remember. BTW, long-time Atlantans would remember that “87″ was”TR” for TRinity. Let’s see which other ones people can recall.
Why Drake? It must be Drake if two folks remember it that way but Decatur or Trinity make more sense. Who or what was Drake?
It comes from AT&T’s “Notes on Nationwide Dialing, 1955″ Go to page 30 of the following, large pdf.
http://www.historyofphonephreaking.org/docs/nond1955.pdf
Probably wasn’t a Drake. Just needed a word that started with DR (3 7) and Drudge was dreary.
Weird because I thought that the telephone exchange letters usually came from the town name or that of a geographical subunit, e.g. MU7 for Murray Hill 7. “Druid” or “Decatur” would have made more sense than “Drake”. Unless there’s a “Drake” connection that most of us don’t know about. Maybe Commerce or Electric or Olympic used to be called “Drake”?
All I can tell you is that when I was taught my phone number at age 4 or 5 I was taught Drake 3 – 1974. Everyone else I knew had a Drake number as well. You would have to ask Ma Bell why.
Ask and you shall receive.
http://www.ourwebhome.com/TENP/Recommended.html
I think that it was nothing more than phonetic-based. Similar to the Alpha, Bravo Charlie phonetic alphabet from the military. But different for the two letters. Interesting connection with the DRuid, though. Could be why we got 37 instead of 33. But the word DRUID wasn’t actually ASSIGNED as the mnemonic for 37 – DRake was.
If one operator said “DRUIDr8 1974, instead of DRAKE8-1974″, that might cause the other operator to get mad at the new young operator who didn’t know her codes. If she said DEcatur8-1974, she would get mad then dial 338 1974 instead of 378-1974, because the person would decipher the DE as 33.
Further info can be found in Section III App. A of your handy North American Numbering Plan guide from 1955.
The names had nothing to do with anything. I grew up in a town with 25 as the prefix. CLifford had no relation to anything in the town.
There might be a link. Was your town any of these?
Alamo
Alapaha
Albany
Aldora
Allenhurst
Allentown
Alma
Alma
Alpharetta
Alston
Alto
or
Blackshear
Blairsville
Blakely
Bloomingdale
Blue Ridge
Bluffton
Blythe
or
Clarkesville
Clarkston
Claxton
Clayton
Clermont
Cleveland
Clyatteville
Clyo
Nope.
…hmmm….
(That all assumed Georgia…). VALdosta, DALton?
Looking for some combination of AL, BL, CL (or AJ,AK) in the town name or nearest major town over.
AtLanta?
MElrose was the 63 prefix for numbers outside the City. ADams and VIctory for family in south GA. And there is a fairly well known Decatur Drake family (Walt Drake was mayor) though the phone prefix may not be related.