Home and Shopping

Margaret Cullison writes: Mom baked regularly, working at the much-used enamel table in the kitchen. When I came home from school in the afternoon to find her there, I'd sit at the table and watch her work, telling her the events of my day. She always made small cookies, dainty enough to serve her friends when they stopped by for impromptu coffee and a chat. Mom also offered cookies and coffee to anyone doing work in the house or yard, and they probably wished for larger cookies! more »

Ferida writes: This is strange autumn. Mother Nature seems confused. The temperature is bouncing up and down, sometimes zooming into the 90s. Our tulip tree, which usually loses all of its leaves by the end of August, still is partially green. The backyard normally is awash in leaves by now but the maple trees are only reluctantly shedding their foliage. If Mother Nature is confused, how are we to understand what is happening around us? We were up in the Alps not long ago and the temperature plus humidity soared to over 105 degrees! It’s hard not to take the concept of climate change seriously when the climate is changing all around us. more »

At the beginning of October, pharmacists at COG member institutions raised concerns about the ability to obtain vincristine. COG quickly contacted Pfizer/Hospira, now the sole supplier of vincristine in the United States, and was told that Pfizer/Hospira was experiencing a shortage of drug due to a manufacturing delay. (The other supplier of vincristine in the US, Teva Pharmaceuticals, made a “business decision” and stopped supplying drug to the US in July of 2019.) Captain Valerie Jensen, RPh, Associate Director of the Drug Shortages Staff at the FDA reported that FDA had been contacted by Pfizer/Hospira, were exploring the drug shortage and had started working on potential solutions. more »

The unemployment rate, at 3.5 percent, is at a half-century low, and wages are rising broadly in line with productivity growth and underlying inflation. There is no evidence to date that a strong labor market is putting excessive cost-push pressure on price inflation. But despite this favorable baseline outlook, the U.S. economy confronts some evident risks in this the 11th year of economic expansion. Business fixed investment has slowed notably since last year, exports are contracting on a year-over-year basis, and indicators of manufacturing activity are weakening. Global growth estimates continue to be marked down, and global disinflationary pressures cloud the outlook for U.S. inflation. more »