A video from the Tameron Hall show earlier this year must rank as a top contender for a chuckling out loud moment.

The video first posted two years ago, went viral with more than 10 million views. It’s a revealing look at understanding one’s personality likes and dislikes at an early age.  Vital information many others never learn while growing up.

Based on the mom’s description of her son’s carving out alone time, he may grow up to prefer an independent or solo work career path as opposed to one in which activities or engagement with a large group would be required.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aTunO43CxU?start=220&feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

Starts at points 0: 36-42 and 3:36 – 5:00  

As February comes to an end, an article written last year by Joel A Johnson’s One-Track Mind Storytelling comes to mind. He stressed the need to look for uplifting stories rather than repeating the narratives about often-heard heroes, and depressing subject matter; year after year…after year.

60 Minutes aired a story segment recently about a middle school social studies teacher who uses an approach like the suggestion in Johnson’s article.

Three students were interviewed and confirmed that from kindergarten to the sixth grade they learned about the same historic people over and over including, entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker.

The students’ present social studies teacher includes in her curriculum a vast, diverse digital library titled The HistoryMakers: Documenting untold stories of African American achievement. Established in 1999 and archived in the Library of Congress it catalogs the oral stories of notable African Americans. For instance, Barak Obama, a Tuskegee Airman, famous sports figures, entrepreneurs, writers, musicians, academics, and countless others.

Students are introduced to Black history achievements they never knew about. And the students pick and study people who overcame adversity and succeeded.

Cheers!

Sources

New Content for Black History Month: A solution to what society often overlooks. February 22, 2022, Dee Adams.
https://medium.com/illumination/black-history-re-imaging-content-77d4fdb39979

The History Makers: Documenting untold stories of African American achievement, February 19, 2023, Bill Whitaker. Student comments 10:15-11:09.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/historymakers-black-history-60-minutes-2023-02-19/

When Black Women Used Hair Braids to Escape Slavery: A history lesson in brilliance and resilience, January 5, 2022.
https://jeffreykass.medium.com/when-black-women-used-hair-braids-to-escape-slavery-6855d65100c

If superheroes danced, they might use the moves performed by the late Fayard and Harold Nicholas in the 1940s film Stormy Weather. Today, some believe Computer Generated Imagery may be the only way to duplicate their filmed dance sequences.

Many people including, Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Gregory Hines were fans. According to Fred Astaire, the dance sequence in Stormy Weather was the finest film sequence he had ever seen.

The Nicholas Brothers were honored by the Kennedy Center in 1991 for their body of work spanning six decades.

Back Story

What is also so incredible about the dance sequence in Stormy Weather is that it all started with a little boy, Fayard Nicholas, watching famous Black entertainers perform in theatres, imitating their performances and teaching himself then his siblings how to dance.

The color movie clip below featuring Fayard, and his younger brother Harold, seven years his junior, showcases two performers who had no formal training: no film rehearsal, one take.

Starting in infancy, baby Fayard accompanied his parents, college educated musicians to their theatre jobs where he learned a lot about show business in his early youth (youth-ling?). The black and white video clip below underscores his childhood progress and that of his pupil, his younger brother Harold.

Exposing a toddler to a creative environment had jaw dropping results in this case. Both brothers were talented. But Fayard Nicholas in addition to the natural ability of a dancer, exhibited creative ability and teaching skill in the genius range.

In the film, Cab Calloway is the host and singer, crooning “Jumpin Jive” with his orchestra. Calloway, the first African American musician to sell one million records introduces the Nicholas brothers and then humorously bops out of the scene.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoMbeDhG9fU?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=900]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IBteauWsHA?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

Sources

How Hollywood Hid the Nicholas Brothers | ILLUMINATION (medium.com)

Mean feet: the tap-dancing duo who were Fred Astaire’s heroes | Dance | The Guardian

Dancing Joy: The Story of the Nicholas Brothers | by Charlene DeKalb | Fanfare | Medium
The brothers appear at about 4:57 of the official YouTube Video for Janet Jackson’s Alright released in 1989.

The Unbelievable Fact About The Nicholas Brothers’ Stormy Weather Dance Routine (grunge.com)

Nicholas Brothers | Biographies, Movies, & Facts | Britannica

Kennedy Center Honors – 1991 | Winners & Nominees (awardsandwinners.com)

Nicholas Brothers – The Official Licensing Website of Nicholas Brothers (cmgww.com)

Selected Reactions on Youtube

What in the World! First Time Hearing Jumpin Jive – Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers
Rob Squad, Jay and Amber Robinson. Includes hysterical coach comments. Black and white movie clip, 10:44.

Cartier Family: Jumpin Jive – Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers.
Five African American male college students uploaded a YouTube video three days ago.  Color movie clip.  Very funny reaction. Includes some adult language content, 9:43.

First Time Hearing Jumpin Jive Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers.
Rome Life Reactions, 9:14. Includes large size black and white video.

Twins the New Trend

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_ZrMpfDXFo?start=22&feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

Husband and wife coach and teachers, Jay and Amber Robinson of the Rob Squad YouTube channel responded to a suggestion from their diverse subscriber base to react to a video by KC and the Sunshine Band from the 1970s.

So, early one morning they listened to a song they had never heard before; music, 2.5 of them did not expect to hear given the odd sounding song title.

Fun memorable video.

Back Story 

Rarely does one see a musical group with a lead White singer, front man Harry Casey, in which, except for Casey’s producer also a band member, all the other members are African American.

KC and the Sunshine band (KC&SB) formed in the mid-1970s in Florida, 11 miles from Miami Beach, would in time become internationally known. And the band’s music crossed color lines, past and present as the second video below underscores. 

Without video, many people today regardless of color, believe Harry Casey, aka KC, was an African American singer.

For instance, check out the husband-and-wife team, Shawn and Mel as they watch the suggested video “That’s the Way I like It”, then their astonishment as it slowly dawns on them, they can’t initially pick out which musician in the mixed group is KC.

Harry Casey and the Sunshine Band are credited with practicing diversity long before it was a buzzword.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2CoZFRtqxk?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z9vToNBGbU?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkxf02S63Jw?feature=oembed&w=1200&h=675]

             Peace and Good Cheer

This a heartwarming and tearful reminder about the importance of gratitude from a formerly homeless 12-year-old boy from Sierra Leone. Abraham, who with his blood brother were adopted lives with his new family in the US.

Abraham experienced his first ever birthday cake, a concept which he was not familiar and offers an original point of view about the deeper meaning of his cake and gratitude.

His point of view is well worth remembering year-round.

Source

CBSnews.com Steve Hartman on the road, July 1, 2022: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-hartman-on-the-road-abraham-birthday-celebration-adoption-sierra-leone/

Updated June 22, 2023

If the eyes are windows to the soul, the adorable toddler featured in a recent viral ABC7 Twitter video is reacting in silence with a clear message.

Get me out of here!

I suspect the reason the video went viral is not only the humor but many, many viewers regardless of age can relate.

Shouldn’t these centers consider playing soothing music or a selection of appealing tranquil sounds in the background?

Calling all daycare providers: the toddler below is a consumer and is giving you invaluable advice about your service.

Take a look and get inspiration from my latest post about a baby listening to Pavarotti.  No tears there. Just a suggestion.

NO WORDS 😩🤣 A toddler seemed to wonder what she had gotten herself into as she stood in a room full of screaming kids on her first day of day care in Syracuse, New York. pic.twitter.com/GDtvI1cRdQ

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) September 29, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Finding Your Niche: Discover a Profitable Idea for a Business at Home – or Elsewhere is now available in EPUB format from independent booksellers, Kobe, and Ingram.

Selected seller links are included below.

Sources

Kobo.com
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/finding-your-niche-3
ISBN 978-1-7365342-6-7

Book brochure and bonus download see para.3, and para. 11: Finding Your Niche eBook | Finding Your Niche (nichecreativity.com)

Samuel A. Cartwright, a renowned Southern physician, created the medical terms Drapetomania and Dysaesthesia Aethiopica in the 1850s. Dr. Cartwright’s findings were published in medical journals.

According to the New York Times, the good doctor’s conclusions were accepted by some legal authorities, such as the Louisiana courts and their civil code. And the term Drapetomania was listed in a practical medical dictionary in 1914.

What do the terms mean?  Drapetomania is part of two Greek words meaning runaway and crazy. It was Cartwright’s medical opinion of the behavior and symptoms of the enslaved. And when the enslaved held work strikes and broke work tools, that was classified as another mental illness called Dysaesthesia Aethiopica.

Today, the World Health Organization borrows from the Cartwright methodology by using its medical authority to proclaim multiple chemical sensitivity as a psychological disease. Even renaming MCS with the not too subtle name idiopathic environmental illness.

Publications such as The Wall Street Journal have reported on the health issues of tiny doses of common industrial chemicals in everyday products in homes and offices. According to the LA Times, California is ushering in a new law banning natural gas in new residential construction and restaurants for health and environmental reasons. Yet the internet is awash with contradictions on the subject. Biased, generalized misleading language on the subject of MCS is included on some reputable sites as many medical authorities try to stereotype all patients into the same category.

Some experts believe MCS is a physical disease and other authorities claim it is psychological. Even the physician who first identified MCS as a physical disease, Theron G. Randolph, M.D., was ostracized, not unlike Ignaz Semmelweis, the physician who suggested a controversial change in practice: that his colleagues wash their hands. Both doctors lost their reputations and their professional standings.

Selected facts about multiple chemical sensitivity, also known as chemical sensitivity, environmental illness, and chemical injury, among other names

• Countries such as Germany have recognized chemical sensitivity since 1998 as a debilitating illness. For example, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Luxemburg, and Austria.
• Government agencies in the U.S recognize MCS, such as the EPA, the CDC, OSHA, and the Labor Department, among many others. In the mid-1980, Social Security began approving disability applications for applicants with multiple chemical sensitivity without a mental health component. (California newsletter The Reactor)
• Senator Bernie Sander presented a comprehensive report to Congress detailing the primary medical conditions of returning soldiers from Iran exposed to pits of burning chemicals (Toxic Induced Loss of Tolerance). But senator Sanders also documented the physical health issues of comprised American consumers exposed to chemicals in their environment in the late 1990s.

In a medical marketplace riddled with gender bias, implicit bias, and racism, the WHO and other medical authorities have placed a target on the backs of patients with documented observable symptoms of MCS who do not have a history of mental health issues.

Too many health professionals don’t believe a patient who presents MCS documentation. Instead, for starters, buzz words are placed in the patients’ medical records underscoring bias and ignorance. Too many burdened patients are treated like a fire hydrant at the Westminster Dog Show.

First, Do No Harm.

Seriously?

Sources

Congress.gov: https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/1998/10/20/extensions-of-remarks-section/article/e2244-2

A concise, unbiased summary of MCS from John Hopkins University: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/multiple-chemical-sensitivity

Harvard Repository of Archives: https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/14/resources/6532

Black People Resisting Slavery Was Presumed to Be a Sign of Mental Illness: https://historyofyesterday.com/black-people-resisting-slavery-was-presumed-to-be-a-sign-of-mental-illness-f1c3e25e770c

Different Truths: https://www.differenttruths.com/opinion/drapetomania-a-history-of-psychiatrys-acquiescence-of-racist-abuse

Clash of the kitchens: California leads the way in a new climate battleground:
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-12-16/clash-of-the-kitchens-california-leads-the-way-in-a-new-climate-battleground

Women and people of color often face bias and racism when seeking medical care. And even celebrities are not protected.

According to Dayna Bowen Matthew JD, Ph.D. author of Just Medicine, more than 83,000 people of color lose their lives annually because of implicit basis and unintentional racism while seeking health care.

Factor in statistics from John Hopkins University studies, including other sources of medical mistakes and potential exposure to non-fatal but costly life-changing errors. The figures increase from 250,000 to more than 400,000, depending on which study is cited.

Due diligence? Self-advocacy? Take responsibility? However fully one follows these ideals, the actions may not produce the expected results.

This little multicultural medical notebook is written from a consumer viewpoint, unlike many books for consumers written by doctors and other professionals.

Inspector Squirrel’s Multicultural Medical Notebook includes valuable information you won’t find in traditional personal health journals, such as …

1. An eye-opening article about people of color and prescription drugs.
2. Tips about fact-gathering information from medical experts.
3. Better anatomy illustrations that helps you show medical personnel where you are feeling pain.
4. What you should know but probably do not know about red flags and your health records.

Take the following true story. When a new patient repeatedly complained of lower arm pain, the health care provider noted the issue with a little minus sign added to the notation in the patient’s medical records. Meaning the healthcare provider made an error or did not believe the patient; because the dash was a minus sign indicating the injury was resolving.

Although the patient checked the medical records, the meaning of the little minus sign was unknown to the patient. But the sign would not be unknown to the other medical professional reading the patient’s records. The patient’s continued complaints were wrongly categorized as emotional.

Inspector Squirrel’s Multicultural Medical Notebook is inspired by firsthand experience and research with conventional and alternative care providers.

Use this multicultural medical notebook in three ways:

1. As a timesaving inside look at often overlooked issues while navigating the medical marketplace for even a seemingly superficial injury.
2. As a fact-gathering and record-keeping tool
3. As a supplementary lesson for independent health educators teaching adult or teen students.
   

   

Source

Kobo.com
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/inspector-squirrel-s-multicultural-medical-notebook