Richard B the EMT

Reopening the string, as there is an update... Health Department Unveils Five Finalists in NYC Condom Package Design Contest New Yorkers can now pick the design for a special-edition condom wrapper by casting votes online After assessing hundreds of possible package designs for a special limited-edition NYC Condom, a panel of judges has selected five finalists. The Health Department has received nearly 600 entries since December 15, when it invited New Yorkers to design a wrapper that would “capture the city’s distinctive culture while promoting safer sex.” Designs have flooded in from all five boroughs, and as far away as Perm, Russia. New Yorkers can vote for their favorites starting Thursday, February 11 through Sunday, February 28. Learn more

Youse guyz just reminded me of a former partner from an IFT company I used to work for, over 25 years ago. Jim was an excellent EMT and vehicle operator at the now defunct Nassau Ambulance/Ambulette Service (Nassau County, NY). When he was accepted to the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) EMS, he actually advanced to Paramedic. Then, someone at HHC EMS found out he had been hired despite having a prosthetic eye. I actually didn't know about it, until the story made the newspapers. Anyway, "They" placed him on medical leave, "Until the condition could be corrected". Did they think he was Claire Bennett, from "Heroes" (the "indestructible cheerleader"), and was going to grow a new eye? Anyway, when he ran out of banked sick and other leave times, and the eye hadn't regrown, they fired him. He took them to court, and eventually won, getting any and all back pay due, worked the traditional one day, and quit. Here was a guy who they knew only had one eye, hired, invested in the advanced training, and discharged from the service. Perhaps the OP still has hope.

LS, Momma B stated she'd never heard that one before. With the snow dumped on us this midweek, closing down Washington DC, and causing the first closing of NYC public schools from BEFORE the snow started falling locally within memory, I jumped on this one during a weather report: Snow on Islip (I slip?).

Somebody is talking in "Technical-ese", and I ask for a translation and clarification. I understand Tanker trucks, for water supply without a hydrant, Hazmat for hazardous materials decontamination, PAs being Physician Assistants, and RRTs being Registered Respiratory Therapists (If I am in error on that, correct me). However, What is a TROT supply truck? FDNY EMS Command runs 5 "Logistics" units, basically supply units for field replacement of some supplies and equipment on an extended operation, using a bunch of Long Backboards, and tents for command post type deals, and the like. Is the TROT something similar, and what do the initials stand for? Canteen trucks, I think I follow. They have coffee, tea, lemonade, and possibly cookies or other sweets, for personnel at these extended ops. FDNY calls them RACs, but I never knew what the initials stood for. Now, rehab trailers? Is this one of those setups where personnel are sent to, say, after using up 2 SCBA tanks, for some rest on the scene, and verification they have not gotten too high a BP from doing the fire fighting, and in some cases, actually soak the fire fighters in limited ice baths to bring their temperatures down? FDNY doesn't have any equivelant, that I am aware of.

The fool, as a child, thought he was a lot brighter than he actually was, because everyone called him "Sunny".

Not for anything, but Puerto Rico, while not a state (yet, stay tuned), is most definitely a part of the United States of America. It is NOT some Caribbean foreign country.

OK, obviously a movie quote, but I don't recognize it, nor what it is supposed to mean. Movie/TV show? Translation?

My dog got into the equipment in my kit, and swallowed one of my extra penlights.He immediately coughed it up, and was De-Lighted. The fool actually named my dog for me. His theory was, so the other dogs could call him by name, I should name him "Ralph!" The story goes, that dogs used to have removable tails. They'd take them off when they went swimming. One day, someone swept up all the tails, and from that day on, that is why dogs sniff each others rears, looking for their own tails. Some went to a retail store for replacements. You know the T-Shirt that says "Never do anything you don't want to explain to the EMTs or Paramedics"? It's because of both dogs and cats. After all, both are known for carrying tails (tales). This one is true. My associates from the Broad Channel VFD/VAS have a store in their neighborhood, that sells bagels and assorted fillings for them. Broad Channel is in the middle of Jamaica Bay, to the southwest of JFK Airport, and south of the Jamaica Bay Bird Sanctuary unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area. This is perhaps why the bagel store calls themselves the "Bay-Gull".

As a start, put up a suggestion box, and/or bring in employees to ask what they think might work. Initial "award" could be as inexpensive as a US Savings Bond, although the members themselves might have better ideas.

The TASER barbs are like the barbs of a small fishing hook, on an inch long "harpoon". Actually, two of them, both attached to a small diameter wire. The LEO using them has to be closer than 25-30 feet from the target, or they are too far for the wire to reach. For more on the TASER, go to their home page at http://www.taser.com/pages/default.aspx

Two items to get some documentation on: 1) Yogurt, or Baby Shampoo, for reduction of pain from pepper spray to the eyes, and 2) Meat tenderizer, like Adolph's (brand) for reduction of pain from jellyfish stings (exclusive of Portugese Man-o-War, which can kill.)

Sorry to hear that LACFD no longer has single role Paramedics. The duo from their Station 61, that I visited in 1980, seemed to be good folks. (Please note that there is a difference between LACFD, the City of Los Angeles, and LACoFD, the County of Los Angeles where "Johnny and Roy" "worked" at "Station 51".

I must be one of the most unique people here, as I have neither a Paypal account, and don't have a cellphone, either.

Nice "Calico Jack" flag. FYI: John Rackham (December 21, 1682 – November 18, 1720[2] in Jamaica) (often spelled Rackam or Rackum in contemporary documentation), known also as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain during the early 18th century. His nickname was derived from the calico clothing he wore.[3] John "Calico Jack" Rackham is most remembered for two things: (1) the design of his Jolly Roger flag, seen to the left, which contributed to the popularization of the design and its association with piracy in popular culture; and (2) employing two of the most notorious female pirates of the age as part of his crew – Mary Read and Anne Bonny (the latter of whom he had whisked away from her husband). Rackham originally sailed as a crewman for Charles Vane, an English pirate captain. During 1718, Vane refused to attack a French man-of-war, to the dismay of his crew. The crew voted for Rackham (at the time the ship's quartermaster) to depose Vane for cowardice. Vane was cast off in a smaller sloop with a handful of crewmen who had voted against Rackham[5] He met Bonny as a wife on "vacation". She always wanted to be a pirate of importance. When Read became a crew member, Jack thought that she was a man and because she was spending a lot of time with Bonny, Jack threatened to shoot her as he thought Read wanted Bonny as a girlfriend or wife. However Read told her secret, was spared and became crew. Once gaining the captaincy, "Calico Jack" made a career of plundering small vessels close to shore. This boldness proved to be his undoing. During the autumn of 1720 he cruised near Jamaica, capturing numerous small fishing vessels, and terrorizing fishermen and women along the northern coastline. During November 1720, he came across a small vessel filled with nine English pirates. Soon after, Rackham's ship was attacked by an armed sloop sent by Governor Nicholas Lawes, and was captured. Rackham and his crew were brought to Jamaica, where he and nearly all of his crew members were sentenced to hang. Rackham and his crew were captured October 1720 by Captain Jonathan Barnet, then they were tried and convicted in St. Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town), Jamaica, November 16–17, 1720. Rackham was hanged at Gallows-Point in Port Royal on November 18, 1720. Rackham's body was then tarred, hanged in a cage, and gibbeted on display on a very small islet at a main entrance to Port Royal, Jamaica as a warning to other pirates (now known as Rackham's Cay). Of the two female members of the crew, Mary died before execution and the fate of Anne, who was not executed, is unknown. The others of the crew (comprising nine men) were executed by hanging. [6] Justice was not always so swift. When, in October 1720, Rackham and his captured crew were brought to the Port Royal jail, Rackham's old captain, Charles Vane, was in a nearby cell. Vane was captured nearly two years prior, but was not tried & convicted until the March following Rackham's demise.[7] Anne Bonny and Mary Read were not executed, because at their trial a week after Rackham's execution they both said they were quick with child. They were given a temporary stay until the claim was proved, and the plan was to hang them after childbirth. However, Read died during April 1721 of fever related to childbirth, while Bonny was spared execution and disappeared from all historical records, leaving much legend and speculation regarding her fate (and that of her child). The day after Rackham's trial, two men, listed with Rackham's crew in the title page of the printed "tryal," were tried & convicted separately. John "Old Dad the Cooper" Fenwick, was tried with Tom Brown (alias Bourn) for offenses committed in mid-June 1720 off Hispaniola. During January 1721, Fenwick was later mentioned posthumously (and surely would have been convicted if tried) in a mutiny trial of four men (only two were convicted citing insufficient evidence for the other two), for their mutiny in Africa in late June, only two weeks after the piracy which led to Brown and Fenwick's trial & conviction. It is clarified in a later trial (of the nine men who happened to be caught with Rackham's crew) that Fenwick & Brown were not part of Rackham's 9-man, 2-woman crew, though they very likely would have all known each other. All of the nine men from the other crew who were captured with Rackham's crew were tried and convicted (based on highly suspect testimony and charges) during January 1720, then hanged February 1720. The reason there may be confusion is that their trials were consecutive, their names listed together, and their executions consecutive, hinting that they all offended one particular person. Thomas Spenlow testified at three separate trials from 1720 to 1721. All of these accounts are verified in The Tryals of Captain John Rackam and other Pirates, published 1720 in Jamaica, accepted as the only surviving records of the trials taking place from November 1720 to March 1721. Jack Sparrow Calico Jack has some interesting connections to Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. Besides also having the moniker, Jack, the Black Pearl, originally Sparrow's ship, flies the Jolly Roger that was designed by Calico Jack. Since Sparrow stole and sunk the similarly named Jolly Mon from Anamaria, he offers her Interceptor in return for her joining his crew. Sparrow is the only pirate willing to bear the "bad luck" of allowing a woman on board (e.g., Calypso)—let alone in his crew (e.g., Anamaria and Elizabeth). In reality both of the only female pirates convicted in the peak of the Golden Age of Piracy (early eighteenth century) and possible namesakes of Anamaria, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, cross-dressed and worked for Calico Jack, breaking male seafaring tradition. Just as Elizabeth, who also cross-dressed, stole away from her bridegroom, Commodore Norrington, to go pirating with Sparrow, Bonny stole away from her husband to go pirating with Calico Jack. All information from the Wickipedia, and the ID on the flag from the BuyPiratesFlag.com website. As I met a Fire Fighter who might be a decendant, I link to a different flag: http://www.flagline.com/id01RA019?cs=1 OK, History lesson over, back the PunDemonium! I guess that there is a flag on the play? Why do we drive on the Parkway, but park on the Driveway?

USPS (United States Postal Service) mail is in, but UPS, DHL, and FedEx can deliver as late as 630 PM (Time now almost 4PM local). Not arrived yet.

Sounds like you're fishing for a compliment. I was talking to the fool again, and he has no idea what is going on in this world. I mentioned the pirates working in the waters off Somalia, and he thought I was referring to bakery workers (Pie Rates).

Gee, don't you seem crabby tonight.

A friend of mine is a fisherman. He always communicates with the fish, because he drops them a line. I said that for the Halibut. I also said that on Porpoise. Fish are actually musical. They always have scales. You can tune a radio, but can you tuna fish? Did I just flounder? Actually, all the jokes in this posting are a type fish: Smelt! Mom was listening to me read the jokes before I sent them, and asks if I have them "on the hook?" Isn't this a Whale of a tail? Or am I just spouting? I guess this is just Squid pro quo.

The fool had a brother who was a glass blower. One day at work, he hiccuped, and inhaled. Now he has a pane (pain) in his stomach. He used to have a sister. She fell, accidentally, into the eyeglass making machine, and made a spectacle of herself. Godzilla, on one of his rampages, swallowed a nuclear plant, now he has Atomic Ache (a tummy ache). (Going back to the late 1950s, here) If Mrs. Ippi stole her brand New Jersey, what would Della wear? I don't know, but I'll ask her. (Mississippi, New Jersey, Delaware, Alaska) I almost forgot. The fool, although not a blond, was found staring at a container of Orange Juice, because he had read the label, which said "Concentrate".

...What C-Magnet said!

It just dawned on me: Why are your 12 leads of a larger size? lol. Playing with you.

The fool also was found staring at some fruit in the bowl on the table. He was waiting to see an apple turnover. On a separate string, one on EMS Chiefs bringing department members up on charges for wearing socks with cartoon images on them, we went off topic, mentioning for folks with foot conditions, some socks come with white on the bottoms, but black tops visible where not covered by shoes or boots. Someone else brought it up, and I posted both my and his comments, saying it was covered. Double entendre (spelling?)? Sign at Kennedy Space Center: Out to Launch. Sign at KKK meeting hall: Out to Lynch. Sign at the residence of Shirlock Holmes: Out on Hunch. Sign on Banana Picker's Union: Out to Bunch. ****************************************************** Some years ago, a foreign born man got drunk, somehow got into the bear cage at the zoo, and eaten by one of the bears. After euthanizing the animals, the Medical Examiner opened up the stomachs of the beasts, turned to the lead investigator, and said "the Czech is in the male". ____________________________________________________________ "Tommy, where is your sister? The parade is almost in front of the house!" "She's still upstairs, waiving her hair." "Why? Can't we afford a flag?"

I thought I had covered it, pun unintended.

No matter what the call is, it is not YOUR emergency. You have to balance the "Need for Speed" against the "Ride that's a Glide" In inclement weather, the road is going to be slippery. I don't care what tire type you have, or snow chains, or all wheel drive, they just help you start moving. They rarely help you stop when you're already skidding. Try not to get into a skid in the first place.

I was going to wisecrack on Pamela Anderson in the bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium, but decided against it.