Some Things You Do Not Need to Know About...

...Medford.

One of the largest bank heists in U.S. History was pulled off in 1980...by MEDFORD Police Officers!

New York's Mayor Bloomberg is from Medford.

James Pierpont of Medford wrote "Jingle Bells". Lydia Child of Medford wrote "Over the River and Through the Wood".

Leopold Trouvelot, late of 10 Myrtle Street (really late) was trying to breed a better brand of silk worm when, in 1868, a few of his moths got free. He, thus, is credited with unleashing the Gypsy Moth scourge that has troubled New England ever since.

Fannie Farmer and her recipes hail from Medford.

The poor girl who was cut up and deposited in a ditch in LA in the 1940's and is today known as the "Black Dahlia" was from Medford.

The Dog Days

I know the "Dog Days" have gone: the calendar has flipped and we turn our attention to the harvesting of the crops...stop me -- the closest thing to harvesting I do is picking through the grapes on sale (.99 a pound!!!) at the Star Market.

So what about the Dog Days?. Well, herein, they relate to the dogs on the road. You know, the cuddly ones -- off leash -- that "will never hurt anyone" as their moron owners will attest.

Kids are heading back to school and kids mean walking (not as much as before). Little bodies hop-skip-and-jumping their way to some round faced school marm waiting for her apple (wait a moment, that's "Little House on the Prairie"). The point is, however, kids are small, and to them dogs are big. According to stats found on the site, "dogbitelaw.com", the jaws and claws of "Fido the Friendly Dog" accounted for over 330,000 emergency visits in the most recent year of collected stats. That is second only to baseball/softball.

Each and every one of those 330k blood gushers was caused by a dog that "would not hurt a fly" as owners say so often. Well, I am sorry, but insects not withstanding, I am not interested in a dog's friendship with flies (or fleas for that matter).

When a neighbor allows a dog to stand free, a child is at risk, ans an astute child will be fearful for his safety. And a child fearful for his safety because some boorish owner considers his pooch to be a grand member of society worthy of free roaming is a child in a neighborhood that is diminished and small; made small by small minds of self serving louts.

So let the kids go to school assured in the safety of the streets. Leash and restain your animal. Give children the chance to be better than you. Live in a kennel if you must, but do not ask others to do it with you.

Labor Day Stats

Some info on how good we -- Americans -- I mean are doing. This from that Associated Press. All this is predicated on whether you believe the flaks at the United Nations. It must, I fear, have some sort of factoring to account for the real estate agents you see shopping at Target during the mid-day. At any rate, we are working hard and putting up the numbers. Now how about that house you were looking at? Just a short run from transportation, schools and shopping (Target).

GENEVA - American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.

They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity."

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.

The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.

Only part of the U.S. productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, can be explained by the longer hours Americans are putting in, the ILO said.

The U.S., according to the report, also beats all 27 nations in the European Union, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work — a second key measure of productivity.

Norway, which is not an EU member, generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country's billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The U.S. is second at $35.63, about a half dollar ahead of third-place France.

Seven years ago, French workers produced over a dollar more on average than their American counterparts. The country led the U.S. in hourly productivity from 1994 to 2003.

The U.S. employee put in an average 1,804 hours of work in 2006, the report said. That compared with 1,407.1 hours for the Norwegian worker and 1,564.4 for the French.

It pales, however, in comparison with the annual hours worked per person in Asia, where seven economies — South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Thailand — surpassed 2,200 average hours per worker. But those countries had lower productivity rates.

America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the U.S. organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad," said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment.

The ILO report warned that the widening of the gap between leaders such as the U.S. and poorer nations has been even more dramatic.

Laborers from regions such as southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have the potential to create more wealth but are being held back by a lack of investment in training, equipment and technology, the agency said.

In sub-Saharan Africa, workers are only about one-twelfth as productive as those in developed countries, the report said.

"The huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause for great concern," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said, adding that it was important to raise productivity levels of the lowest-paid workers in the world's poorest countries.

China and other East Asian countries are catching up quickest with Western countries. Productivity in the region has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else, the report said.

But they still have a long way to go: Workers in East Asia are still only about one-fifth as productive as laborers in industrialized countries.

The vast differences among China's sectors tell part of the story. Whereas a Chinese industrial worker produces $12,642 worth of output — almost eight times more than in 1980 — a laborer in the farm and fisheries sector contributes a paltry $910 to gross domestic product.

The difference is much less pronounced in the United States, where a manufacturing employee produced an unprecedented $104,606 of value in 2005. An American farm laborer, meanwhile, created $52,585 worth of output, down 10 percent from seven years ago, when U.S. agricultural productivity peaked.