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WITandWISDOM(tm) - March 28, 2007 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down but the staying down. - Mary Pickford Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://home.comcast.net/~mrs.carol/ ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: My 9 year-old daughter and I were flying from our home in Charlotte, North Carolina to spend a week with my husband in Miami, Florida. Mike had been in Florida for five months working for an Internet start-up company. We were excited about the trip because we had seen him only five times in five months and Kallie missed her dad terribly. As usual on the Charlotte-to-Miami flight, the plane was totally full. I had noticed a troop of Boy Scouts at the gate and commented to my daughter that if anything happened, we would be okay with all those Scouts on our flight! Little did I know... Because we did not get our boarding passes until we arrived at the gate, Kallie and I could not get seats together and were separated by the aisle. That wasn't such a big deal, except that Kallie was nervous about the trip and had counted on my reading to her the whole way. Trying to read across the aisle would be a challenge. When the two passengers who shared my row boarded the plane, I asked if they would switch places with Kallie and me so that we could be together and so that she could sit next to the window. They refused, saying they thought they should stay in their assigned seats. Meanwhile, a mother and her three children were in a panic several rows ahead of us. There had been a mistake in their boarding passes; the whole family had been split up. The passengers in her row also refused to move elsewhere. The mother could hold her baby, but her 6 year-old son and his older brother had been scattered around the plane. She was very concerned about the younger boy sitting with strangers. She was in tears, yet nobody offered to help her. Suddenly the Scout leader stood up and said, "Ma'am, I think we can help you." He then spent five minutes rearranging his group so that adequate space was available for the family. The boys followed his directions cheerfully and without complaint, and the mother's relief was obvious. Kallie, however, was beginning to panic at the thought of not being next to a window or her mother. I told her that there wasn't anything I could do; we would have to sit where we were. Amazingly, the man sitting next to the Scoutmaster (not a Scout himself), turned around to me and asked, "Would you and your daughter like our seats?" referring to himself and the Scoutmaster. He said he was cramped in the window seat and would really prefer the aisle. We traded seats and continued our trip, very much relieved to be together and watch the scenery from Kallie's window seat. Would that man have offered us his seat if the Scouts hadn't done so for the mom and her children? I don't know. But I do know that kindness is contagious, and good deeds beget good deeds! By Phyllis Yearick who now lives in Iowa. Source: Marcella's Inspiring Collection http://tinyurl.com/w9nb9 ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: NEWTON REGIS, England (UPI) -- Maggie the Magpie is back in the English village of Newton Regis after being exiled by an angry resident for the theft of a two pence coin. Rhona Oxford apologized for her part in Maggie's disappearance, The Daily Mail reports. Maggie was one of Newton Regis's best-known residents, showing up at the school, at retirees' morning coffees and at Sunday soccer matches. After she stopped appearing, children put up missing posters and wrote elegies to her. Roz Afford, who handles school lunches, heard a rumor that Maggie had been spotted about 6 miles away. She also heard rumors that Oxford knew more than she was letting on about the bird's change of venue. Afford and a delegation of village women confronted Oxford. Oxford was reportedly fed up because Maggie, living up to the magpie reputation, had taken one of the coins she puts aside to give to charity. "I am just sorry I upset so many people," Oxford said. "I have apologized profusely. I explained to the ladies who questioned me that I am a member of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and I have been for over 20 years. I love birds." Copyright 2007 by United Press International, http://upi.com/ Source: ArcaMax - Trivia, http://tinyurl.com/9kf44 ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: One day we were boating with a few friends and my husband decided to try out our new water skis. When he asked who would spot for him, we all assured him, “Don't worry, there are three adults here.” Soon we were roaring down the bay, chatting away at full speed. When my six-year-old son broke in with, “Where's Daddy?” we looked back, but my husband was nowhere to be seen. Now he only lets the kids spot for him. Submitted by Lorraine ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: According to Peter Kendall in the Chicago Tribune, Ruben Brown, age sixty-one, was known on the south and west sides of Chicago, as the friendly neighborhood cockroach exterminator with "the Mississippi stuff." The Mississippi stuff was a pesticide Brown had bought hundreds of gallons of in the South, and it really did the trick on roaches. Brown went from door to door with his hand sprayer, and his business grew as satisfied customers recommended the remarkably effective exterminator to others. In the process however, Brown is alleged to have single-handedly created an environmental catastrophe. The can-do pesticide-methyl parathion-is outlawed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in homes. Southern farmers use it on boll weevils in their cotton fields, and within days the pesticide chemically breaks down into harmless elements. Not so in the home. There the pesticide persists as a toxic chemical that can harm the human neurological system with effects similar to lead poisoning. The EPA was called into Chicago for the cleanup. Drywall, carpeting, and furniture sprayed with the pesticide had to be torn out and hauled to a hazardous materials dump. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the total cost of the cleanup would be some $20 million, ranking this as one of the worst environmental nightmares in Illinois history. Submitted by Malladi Murthy