"One of his teachers told him what you said--there's a growing
engineering shortage."
"I thought he wanted to be an astronaut."
"You know Larry. That was last week. His teacher said we're not going
to start up the space program again. It's too expensive. We just don't
have the technical man-power and materials to spare."
"We are in.... But these kids, young kids they're turning out--they
aren't getting the education today. And if anything, I sometimes think
it almost makes our jobs even worse, correcting their mistakes. I
sometimes wonder where it's all going to stop."
There was more news from the fire front.
Fire fighters were having a very difficult time. Two water mains had
broken and the pressure was dropping. The fire was reported to have
been caused by the explosion of a gas main. Rising winds did not
promise to abate until dawn.
[Illustration]
"I sure wish I could get through to Beck," Lois said. "Oh, I guess I
told you, did I? Her sister has hypoglycemia, they found out. That's
why she's been tired all the time."
"Never heard of it."
"Low blood sugar. It's caused by an overactive gland on the pancreas.
And treatment is just the opposite of what you'd think, too. I'll bet
you'd never guess. If you increase the amount of sugar in the diet,
the gland becomes just that much more active to get rid of it and the
hypoglycemia gets worse. It's what I'll bet you engineers call a
feedback. Isn't that what you call it? Well ... the way doctors treat
it is to _reduce_ the amount of sugar you eat. And after a little bit,
the pancreas gets back its normal function, and the patient gets well.
I told you you'd never guess!"