Watercooler Stories

FIRM TESTING ANTI-AIDS VACCINE

Two clinical trials are about to come to an end involving the production of a possible vaccine against AIDS. One of the tests is here in the United States, one in Thailand. The results, when run through the computer and released next year, might show whether the VaxGen company has made the breakthrough that has been so long awaited.

The San Francisco Chronicle says that VaxGen is a "child" of Genentech Inc., based in the Bay Area.

VaxGen recruited nearly 8,000 volunteers from groups that are considered to be at "high risk" for catching AIDS. In the United States the test was carried out among gay men.

During the test period, volunteers got injections. None knew if he was getting the proposed vaccine or a placebo solution.

Special counseling was given to all the "patients" because since half were not getting the possibly effective vaccine, all needed to know about the behavioral risks involved.

To further authenticate the tests, even VaxGen wasn't told which patients got what.

VIGILANTE GROUPS TARGET BORDER-CROSSERS

The word is out on the Mexican side of that country's border with Arizona: "Forget about the U.S. Border Patrol ... look out for heavily armed vigilantes!" New militia groups have sprung up in southern Arizona and they are, according to the Arizona Republic, taking aim at Mexicans sneaking into this country, particularly at night.

The publication says that the people who take money from would-be immigrants to smuggle them across the border have been making light of the militia groups.

The smugglers, called "coyotes," have often told their customers to ignore the warnings of civilian vigilantes. But, these are the same "businessmen" who have left so many to fend for themselves -- and too often to die of thirst and exposure.

Now radio and TV stations in Mexico have begun to warn those who would sneak into this country that the threat of being caught by American gangs in a very real one.

One pastor in southern Arizona confirmed for the publication that the groups have struck terror into many, including those who have already made it safely across.

Additionally, a taxi driver said: "They (the militia members) are looking at us like Mexican animals. The border is becoming an increasingly dangerous place."

SOME PEOPLE CAN'T READ ... OR WON'T

The folks who run the sanitation department in rural DeSoto County, Tennessee, must be wondering whether a lot of people in that region never learned to read. Or maybe a better question might be, whether they "care to read."

It seems, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, that a lot of prohibited trash is being dumped in all the wrong places.

The publication says that one specific site, earmarked with a huge sign as being "For Appliances Only," is being used as a dumping ground for every manner of trash.

The site was intended as a drop-off point for large electronic items, such as refrigerators and air conditioners, but refuse officials find it hard to extract the proper items from the tons of junk that's been thrown in with the appliances.

The temptation to cast aspersions at the educational level of people using the dumps by saying they are "from the wrong side of the tracks" won't work in DeSoto County. It is bounded on both sides by major railroads.

TINY TEXAS TOWN AWASH IN POINSETTIAS

When American Joel Roberts Poinsett brought the first of a species of colorful shrub back home with him from his travels in Mexico in the 1820s, he likely had no idea how large a business selling the beautiful plants at Christmastime would become. But for the residents of New Summerfield, Texas, there is no question about the importance of the plant that bears the name of the former American ambassdor to Mexico.

The American-Statesman in Austin says that New Summerfield has a bumper crop of poinsettias this year. Millions are grown in the rich soil around the town. The fields blaze with the red and green of the hardy wintertime plants.

Greenhouses in the area are shaped as Quonset huts, giving the entire area the appearance of a military camp.

Although many of the greenhouses are "mom and pop" operations, some of the largest flower-growing companies in the country have fields and hothouses in Cherokee County.

Most of the poinsettias from that region go to the rest of Texas and to Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.