Two inspiring stories from the Reader's Digest's Best of America list.

QUOTE from Bill Maher: "The problem is that the people with the most ridiculous ideas are always the people who are most certain of them."

I LEARNED some interesting stuff from rhe May, 2011, edition of the Reader's Digest. The Digest had it's annual "BEST OF AMERICA" list. There were two stories that really caught my attention.

First, AMERICA'S BEST KNUCKLEBALLER. It is the story of Chelsea Baker, a girl from Plant City, Florida. She is 13, 5' 3" and weighs 117 lbs. In 2010 Chelsea pitched on the boys Little League team and was 12-0, had 127 strikeouts, pitched 60 innings, and had a batting average of .604. Chelsea is a great pitcher whose "signature pitch" is the knuckleball. The late, great pitcher Phil Niekro, taught Chelsea how to throw the knuckleball when she was seven years old. Since Niekro died in 2006, she has not lost a sanctioned Little League game. In fact, she has two perfect games, one against an all-star team in 2009. Last year, her jersey was placed in the Diamond Dreams Exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Chelsea hears taunts and catcalls once in a while. Opposing boys have hollered, "You should go play softball with the girls." Chelsea has an effective retort to the catcalls, although she doesn't do the talking - she just lets the umpire say, "Strike three."


The second story that caught my attention was "AMERICA"S BEST PLACE TO WORK." 
SAS, a software company in Cary, North Carolina, had more than 49,000 job applications for only 741 open positions. Why? Look at the perks:

A 35,000- square-foot health-care center.
A 66,000-square-foot fitness center.
On-site day care.
Car detailing.
Hair and nail salons.
Massage therapy.
Subsidized lunch daily, plus free snacks and beverages.
Dry cleaning.
Personal banking.
Racket stringing.
Wellness programs.
Comprehensive health insurance.

It is easy to see why SAS has been FORTUNE magazine's top-ranked U.S. company to work at for the past two years.
SAS CEO Jim Goodnight explains his company's lavish benefits this way: "Ninety-five percent of my assets drive out the front gate every night," he says. "My job is to bring them back the next morning."

HUMOR for today:
A boy was assigned a paper on childbirth and asked his mother, "How was I born?"
Mother says: :Well honey... the stork brought you to us."
Boy: "Oh... W ell, how did you and daddy get born?"
Mother: "The stork brought us too."
Boy: Well how did grandma and grandpa get born?"
Mother: :The stork brought them too."
Several days later, the boy handed in his paper to the teacher who read with confusion the opening sentence: "This report has been very difficult to write due to the fact that there hasn't been a natural childbirth in my family for three generations."