Thursday’s thumbs

Fall means it’s nearly time for flu shots

It is, unfortunately, almost time to slip on some work gloves and get busy raking up and bagging all those leaves now looming over our heads. As homeowners, it’s the one downside to living around trees in a residential neighborhood. But that’s like griping about flowers; we’d rather live with those trees than without them, but remind us we said that when our backs are aching.

Before we slip on those gloves, though, it’s time to put our thumbs to work with a few mini-editorials.

It’s almost time to do shots, and no, we’re not talking about the kind sometimes associated with a late-night trip to Fayetteville’s Dickson Street. The shot this time of year refers to flu vaccinations, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for anyone 6 months of age or older, with rare exceptions. A good question, though, is exactly when to get the shot. According to the CDC, it takes about two weeks after a flu shot for the body to develop the antibodies necessary to provide a level of protection. The federal agency suggests getting the shot by the end of October so it’s timed to be most effective when flu season hits its stride. And if you forget in October, it’s really never too late for the shot to provide a benefit. Check out the CDC’s information about flu shots at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccinations.htm.

Speaking of the flu, the people who get it need to stay home to recover. We’ve seen our fair share of people who try to push through, showing up at school or work with coughing, sneezing, with runny noses and fevers, as though they’re doing anyone a favor by toughing it out and bringing that junk to school or the workplace. Trust us, you’re doing everyone a favor by keeping that stuff at home. If you just can’t stand to feel anything but indispensable at work, figure out a way to do business remotely. Last we checked, the flu can’t travel through the Internet, which can sometimes be affected by an entirely different kind of virus.

As they do each year after the motorcycle enthusiasts drawn to town by Bikes, Blues and BBQ have departed, the Fayetteville Police Department delivered their roundup of arrests, wrecks and incidents. As usual, of all the arrests made, most of them involve local folks who get a bit out of hand or run afoul of the law. It makes sense: Anyone traveling from distant places hardly wants to spend time in lock-up away from home and they’re generally looking for a great experience, not trouble. The way the police spokesman put it, the crowd on the busiest final day of the motorcycle rally produced fewer arrests than when fans gathered to see Arkansas’ football team play Colorado State at Razorback Stadium. Well … yeah … because the motorcycle lovers were probably a much happier bunch.

We applaud the Fayetteville School District for making a concerted effort to attract more students to take Advanced Placement classes, a more academically intense collection of courses. School officials say they hope to draw more students from diverse backgrounds so that AP class enrollments reflect the student population as a whole. The approach is a little perplexing in that intelligence isn’t really a demographic. Smart doesn’t have a gender. Smart doesn’t have an ethnicity? Intelligence is intelligence, and that certainly should be what drives the Advanced Placement program. But certainly, if the district believes smart people in certain groups are somehow being overlooked by the current approach, those shortcomings should be addressed so that all students have equal opportunities, even if nobody can promise equality of outcomes.

Congratulations to teachers Carrie Beach of Washington Junior High School in Springdale and Mary Hatch of Harrison Middle School in Bentonville for their status as science finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. The National Science Foundation, on behalf of The White House, oversees the program that recognizes outstanding teachers who have demonstrated a commitment to professional development, innovative teaching techniques, and technology use in their classrooms. A total of 58 Arkansas teachers were nominated and four, including Beach and Hatch, became finalists eligible for recognition by the national committee.

An acquaintance suggested to us the other day that the worst intersection in Fayetteville is one familiar to a lot of people in town and beyond: Razorback Road’s intersection with 15th street, right there where the University of Arkansas’ Baum-Walker Stadium sits. The intersection is massive and one of the biggest ones we’ve seen controlled by nothing more than stop signs on all four sides. The reality is there are too many lanes of vehicles there for anyone to feel comfortable with the “who’s got the right of way” exercise. Maybe the traffic count isn’t high enough, but when he suggested there has to be a better way, he didn’t get much of an argument out of us.