One of my biggest fears in running a healthcare facility is a fast moving virus. Around ten years ago I was working in a facility in Iowa, where the the week after Christmas we wre hit with a respiratory virus. We lost 13 patients in 10 days.Patients that were up, walking an talking in the morning, had raging fevers of over 104 and difficulty breathing by bedtime. The ones most severely stricken were dead within 48 hours. The healthier patients and staff were just down and out…quickly. No investigators were sent in even though the hospitals in our communities were over run. No one ever knew what virus the community was dealing with.So when I read this article this morning about a nursing home hit with a virus in Vancouver I get this nauseated feeling.Two-thirds of the patients, and one-third of the staff was hit. The virus is genetically identical to the SARs virus. The article is a little unclear of the deaths, they mention 7 dead in “recent weeks”. It’s easy to see they are being very careful of what is being released. Yes, seven deaths in few weeks is alot. My facility doesn’t lose that many to respiratory infections in two years. A WHO investigator has been called in but it could take weeks to find the answers.Keep your fingers crossed, that this just fades away…and SARs is actually a thing of the past. I’ll take a 2 day power outage anytime over this.

He returned to Earth after adventurous journey of seven years the Japanese spacecraft Chagiampousa which explored a small asteroid and transferred, if all went well, a sample of dirt and stones. The mother ship was burned in the Earth’s atmosphere. As planned a small capsule was released three hours before returning in which samples are few grams at best-of asteroid Itokaoua which explored the Chagiampousa (“Falcon” in Japanese). The capsule crashed in the desert with a parachute around Australia at around 5:00 p.m. (CET, late at night in Australia). Scientists have identified a marker on the capsule and the digging until dawn. Then be transferred to a laboratory in Japan where they examined samples. It will take weeks before we know if the capsule actually contains samples of rock or dust from the asteroid. The Chagiampousa began its journey in 2003 and two years later came the Itokaoua and explored for several weeks. The mission had to face many technical problems in engines and communication with Earth delayed his return for three years. However, the Japanese engineers were able to overcome all the problems that threatened the mission in failure.

Since I didn’t want to go back and edit my post on manners, I do want to say that these findings are for caucasian men. Ethnic groups vastly differ:

Indian men will never hold a door or say “thank you” if I hold the door. I could be naked, the door will slam in my face.Arabic men will go through a door I am holding and will always say “thank you”. They always offer to take the door first..at any age. Doesn’t matter what I’m wearing and usually the most friendly of any group.Koreans, Phillipinos, Chinese etc, will hold the door open at any age – men and women. They always speak, never initiate any conversation. They have a tendency to look visibly uncomfortable to have someone hold a door open for them.Black men of any age will hold the door open, acknowledge a “thank you” and will always say “thank you” for a door held open. Black men over 50 will usually not go in first but will insist they take the door. Clothes doesn’t seem to be a factor here either.

I love to people watch and one of my favorite things to watch for is manners. Attack of the Pig People an article on CBS News is entertaining especially when he shares his encounter with Pig Man.A few years ago I dated a “southern gentleman”. This guy was the big on manners…way too big. On stairwells going up, he had to be behind, going down, he had to be in front. He would actually get irritated if I touched a door we were going through. On the street of course he had to walk curbside. All of this was very touching and cute at first…until you chastise me for not following your rules. Dear Daniel didn’t last long.So Daniel is the one that actually started to peek my interest with some manners. So being the stubborn Sicilian that I am…during this relationship I started on a mission to open doors for men. Why not?This is a practice I’ve not given up…I’ve had way too much fun with it. Here is some of my unscientific research findings and the findings differ on how I am dressed. This is my findings if I’m wearing slacks or jeans:

Men approximately over 50 will not let me hold the door open for them, they will hold the door until I go through. These men will hold the door open and wait for me, even if I’m still 10-15′ away. They always acknowledge my “thank you”.Men approximately 30-50 will go through the open and door and say “thank you”. These men will hold the door open for me if they approach it first and I’m close by. They acknowledge my “thank you” maybe 50% of the time.

Men 25 and younger will not hold a door and almost seem to expect if you are there first you hold the door, but not if it’s them. Never a “thank you”.

If I’m wearing a dress or short skirt:

Men over 50 will hold the door, will not enter first. Always acknowledge my “thank you” and will initiate small talk.Men 30-50 will offer to take the door I’m holding and will say “thank you” if I encourage them to go on in. Some will actually just stand there like they are waiting to recall some important bit of information, but it’s not quite processing. They usually always look at my legs as they pass through, wondering what they might have forgotten.Men 25 and younger will always breeze on through and I might get a “thanks” half of the time.Of course everything is subjective to the length of the dress. Shorts for some reason ellicits the same response as pants. Any men have any ideas on why?