If only Lou Gehrig knew

Lou Gehrig bids farewell to Yankee fans in 1939

It seems everyone is dumping a bucket of ice water on their heads these days in the name of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or more simply ALS. The origins of this challenge are debated, but it evolved into the ALS challenge earlier this summer when golfer Chris Kennedy challenged his cousin, Jeanette Senerchia, whose husband has ALS, and was immediately picked up by the social media and television media in turn, and has quickly spread around the world with the mayor of Vilnius recently taking the challenge.

Instagrams make it easy for just about anyone to film and instantly download their ice cold bath, which has become a big hit among teenagers, sometimes with disastrous results. Celebrities try to one-up each other in the name of charity, but the arty poses look more like self-promotionals. Lost in all this is the serious nature of the disease, which was first called to the public eye when ALS ended Lou Gehrig's baseball career in 1939. As a result, it was known as Lou Gehrig's Disease for many years.

Given its very low prevalence, it had pretty much gone under the radar, although it was first recorded in the late 19th century by French and British doctors. It is a motor neuron disease which over time leaves its victims unable to move or speak, but with their mind fully intact. Stephen Hawking has a motor neuron disease similar to ALS.

Stephen Hawking enjoying a lighter moment

Funny enough, marijuana not only provides much needed relief for ALS patients but if used in early stages of the disease can stave off the effects for a longer time. Cathy Jordan helped popularize the use of medical marijuana for ALS patients and has far exceeded the 3-5 years she was given to live by her neurologist in 1985. Lou Gehrig had died within two years of being diagnosed with the disease.

Maybe persons should be lighting up a joint for ALS instead of dumping ice cold water on their head.

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud. -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!

Dispatches from Vilnius

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