You know how there are some little snippets from your past that you never, ever forget?  Those little inconsequential events that don’t mean anything, but for some reason they made some kind of impression on your cranial databank and just stay with you all your life.

For me, one of those memories is when I saw the original “Uh-oh Squad” cartoon.  It occurred back when I was a teenager, long before I had any inkling about getting involved in fire department stuff.  I don’t remember what magazine it was, either.  I read a lot of magazines in those days like Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post, and True.  But I can still picture it in my mind.

Artistically it was one of those simple line drawings with no color, just basic shapes of things.  It was a 4-pane drawing starting out with a car smacking a pedestrian.  2nd pane has a bunch of bystanders gathered around the ailing pedestrian and one of them is shouting out, “Somebody call the Uh-Oh squad!”

Pane three has the ambulance screeching to a halt at the accident scene and the final view shows 3 or 4 guys in doctor-style white coats standing around the victim, looking down at him and going, “uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.”

I’ll bet that by now you’ve already thought of a situation that you’ve been on where this scene fits perfectly.  Usually it’s an inexperienced ambulance crew, but not always, suffering from a brain-lock when they get into an unusual challenge.  When I was OIC I was always sure to make certain that some sort of activity was taking place while we tried to find a solution to our problem, just because I had been impressed with that cartoon decades earlier.

Even though I never, to my knowledge, described that cartoon and its funny message to my colleagues, there were times when I would spontaneously say something like, “This looks like a case for the Uh-oh Squad.”  And you know what?  Everybody else would comprehend what I was talking about.

We’d better get the equipment checked now.  Sunday breakfast will be ready soon and I have to get a couple more pots of coffee going.

While I am always willing to accept and use new technology, so far I haven’t gotten consumed by it to the point where I’m surrounded by “the latest” and filling my closets with gadgets that I’ll never use.

Maybe that’s why I don’t understand the giddiness and excitement that the techies have this week after hearing the announcement that starting in 2012 all the cell phone makers will be using a universal battery charger and plug.  The chargers will be utilizing a micro-USB plug identical to one that is now being used on BlackBerrys.

The announcement was made earlier this week at the annual convention of the GSMA in Spain.  Now don’t ask me what “GSMA” stands for, because I don’t really care, therefore I won’t look it up just now.  In their press release about this earth-shaking confluence of competitors they say:

The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers today announced that they are committed to implementing a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. The aim of the initiative, led by the GSMA, is to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers resulting in an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption, the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers and the enhancement of the customer experience by simplifying the charging of mobile phones.

Getting rid of 50 thousand tons of lost battery chargers sounds good, but you just can’t imagine  the joy of this coming “enhancement of the customer experience.”  I can hardly wait.  You can read the full press release HERE.

As usual, Apple says that they’re not going along with the rest of the gang.  They have their own idea on how they want to get their charges and are using some lame excuse about how the micro-USB just doesn’t fit with some of their planned gadgets that aren’t on the market yet and yada, yada, yada.  This time, the rest of the phone makers are saying Hasta la vista, Baby and leaving Apple out in front of the Circuit City warehouse.

After we catch our collective breaths, let’s get this equipment checked out.  I need to make some more coffee.  We’ll meet back in the day room.

The cable-tv station The Discovery Channel has a series called “How It’s Made.”  Have you seen it?  It’s a 30-minute program that features about 3 segments that take you inside factories and show you how different things are made and the unusual oddities associated with them.  Currently they are running back-to-back episodes at 7:00 and 7:30 pm Eastern on weekdays.

Last night they took a visit to the MSA/Cairns plant that makes leather fire helmets.  I found it quite interesting because there are a lot more steps in the production process than you realize.  And there is so much handwork involved that you can readily see why they don’t come cheap.

A couple of things that impressed me were, first the sharpness of the knives that they use to trim the excess leather after pieces have been sewn together.  They just slice along like a hot knife through butter and that’s impressive in itself.  It was to me, anyway.  The other was the production step that they take to harden the leather after the helmet pieces have been sewn together and shaped.  The shells are mechanically dipped in a vat of hot tree sap for 55 minutes (not 50, not 60, but 55) and then they are hung to dry out slowly for eight weeks.

There’s some more neat stuff there.  These programs are mostly repeats that are recycled every few months in different combinations, so if you watch regularly then you will eventually catch the helmet segment again.  The show is interesting anyway, so give it a try.

Update:  One of our loyal readers Jon M. in Kuwait found the video story online for us.  Here it is (runs about 5 minutes):

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Wednesday morning we were having some fun using a recent security study as a prop (HERE).  You remember the computerized solution on where to find Osama Bin Laden?  Well, that same day Bill Gabbert who publishes Wildfire Today took a more serious look into the study and has written a more thorough description of what all they have concluded HERE.  It’s worth taking a look at.

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Firefighter Nation continues to roll along and the membership roster seems to be snowballing now.  It just went over the 32,000-member mark the other day.

It’s time to get this equipment checked out now.  When you’re done, scroll on down the page because FossilMedic beat me to the posting button this morning and has some news for us already.  He’s out in the Central time zone today and I’m puzzled how he got his update done already.  I suspect he’s just getting back from wherever he was last night.  Better check it out.  I’ll go make some more coffee.

That old “character” issue keeps coming up.  Yesterday we reported (HERE) on still another Cincinnati firefighter being arrested, this time for stealing department equipment to be sold on eBay.  Personnel arrests are literally a monthly adventure in the CFD.  After last month’s nabbing we talked in our Lineup (HERE) about hiring standards, and in the case of volunteers, membership standards.  If you missed it, click on the link and read it because I’m not going to repeat it all here.

It’s obvious that Cincinnati is in terrible shape and will remain that way as long as the city retains the same city manager along with the incompetent fire chief.  But I want to at least keep the topic up front where you don’t let it slip away.  Vigilance is necessary here to keep this kind of stuff from permeating your department.  Especially the volunteers who are having a difficult time as it is recruiting new members.  Raising and maintaining high standards of conduct and character are imperative.

But how can you prevent something like that weird case in St. Lucie County, Florida?  I’m referring to the former paramedic, Cynthia Economou, who took the amputated foot of the auto accident victim not to the hospital, but to her house so she could train her cadaver dog with it.  I’m sure you recall that one.  We covered it HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.  This was a case where no real criminal intent was there.  In fact, everybody who knew her were floored and spoke nothing but good words of her dedication and caring for the patients as well as others.

But seated down inside was a desire to put her own needs of the moment ahead of her patient’s and she decided to keep the man’s foot for herself even though it wasn’t hers to take.  Short of utilizing very expensive psychiatric testing on all new applicants, I don’t see where it’s possible to catch that sort of character flaw.  Should we try?  I certainly think so.  Keep in mind that our members are given license to (a) put their hands on medical victims’ bodies in an unsupervised area, and (b) roam freely through people’s houses where they are able to paw through cabinets and personal effects.

Speaking of Economou, she is back in the news today.  She was scheduled for a preliminary hearing this morning but it was canceled because her lawyer waived arraignment and entered a written plea of not guilty.  She will now face trial by jury on March 30.

St. Lucie County Fire and Rescue is still in the news, too.  Tuesday morning two of the department’s firefighters were arrested and charged following a 3-month investigation into a major marijuana-growing project.  You can read that story HERE.  The warehouse they were renting is “a sophisticated marijuana grow house containing 80 plants valued at $400,000″ according to the sheriff’s office.  The St. Lucie County chief must be pulling his hair out by now.

And that brings us right back where we started.  Even though people are doing a good job and have a great perfomance record, too many of them are exhibiting behaviors and decisions that are not compatible with our responsibilities to the people we are supposed to be protecting.  Stay alert.

Now let’s get this equipment checked out.  I need to make some more coffee.  See you in the day room