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NOVEMBER 18, 2021 | The Jewish Home
setts last week and confirmed that Conrad had lived the rest of his life out in Boston. Conrad died of lung cancer in May of this year, in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. He was 71.
Flying A-fowl
found hundreds of miles from home. Eventually, though, after receiving TLC from the hospital, the waddling fowl was released in the Banks Peninsula in the hopes that it could find its way back home. Locals nicknamed the penguin “Pingu.” David Ainley, an ecologist and expert on Adelie penguins, noted members of the species are known to travel far when they are outside of their breeding season, but it was unusual for one of the birds to show up in New Zealand. Must have taken it a waddle to get there.
PhD at 89 A penguin flew a bit off course when it was found 1,800 miles from its home. This week, an Adelie penguin was found on a New Zealand beach – the third member of its species in history to be found so far from its homeland. The Kaikoura Wildlife Hospital said the young penguin, native to Antarctica, was fatigued and reluctant to return to the sea when it was
Want to retire? Nah, there’s so much more to do. Take the case of Manfred Steiner, who is celebrating earning his doctorate in physics at the young age of 89.
Steiner, who previously earned a medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry, said his attention turned back to physics after he retired at age 70 from working as a hematologist at Brown University. He had always wanted to study physics, but went into medicine instead at his family’s urging. He said retirement allowed him to start taking physics classes at Brown. “It’s an old dream that starts in my childhood,” Steiner related. “I always wanted to become a physicist.” Steiner took it slow but steady – taking one or two classes a week until he had earned a degree. “So, I went to all the classes and eventually, I made it on to graduate school and I thought, ‘Why not continue now? I might as well get a Ph.D.,’” he told WPRI-TV. His passion for physics is driven by the field’s “precision.” “In medicine, I always felt there were so many variables,” he said. “In physics, there are some variables, a lot of them actually, but you can go to a precision that is unmatched anywhere in the other scientific world.” Steiner and his wife, Sheila, who is 93, have been married since 1960. They have two children and six grandchildren. He’ll celebrate his 90th birthday this month. He is hoping to continue to work in research and doesn’t plan on retiring any time soon. “I always tried to keep my brain sharp. Physics certainly helped me do that.” And that’s the heart of the matter.
Young and On the Run
Jocelyn Rivas is now the youngest person to have completed 100 marathons. The 24-year-old runner crossed the finish line at the Los Angeles Marathon and clinched the title. Rivas is originally from El Salvador. She became interested in running marathons after attending the Los Angeles Marathon as a spectator in 2013; she ran the race the following
year. Rivas decided after running a few more marathons that she wanted to pursue the Guinness World Record for the youngest person to complete 100 of the races. Finally, on Sunday, Rivas, nicknamed “The Warrior,” reached her goal at the finish line of the Los Angeles Marathon. The previous record was set in 2011 by British runner Elizabeth Tunna, who was only a few months older than Rivas when she completed her 100th marathon. I guess that should serve as an inspiration for me – who has been marathoning on my couch for many years.
95 Marathons, 95 Days
Speaking of marathons, Alyssa Clark is pretty cool, too. She is the record holder for running 95 marathon distances in 95 days. Clark, who is originally from Vermont, decided to pursue her goal while she was living in Italy in March 2020 while under the stay-at-home order. She soon discovered the summer marathons she had been training for were canceled. Instead of throwing in the towel, Clark decided to run the distance of a marathon during every day of lockdown, expecting the project to last for about 15 days. But Clark kept going – even finding time to run while moving to Naples, Florida. Clark, who used a treadmill some days and ran outside when possible, ended up running 95 marathon distances in 95 days. She had started a 96th marathon run but decided to stop partway through when she felt ill. She eventually learned that she had fallen sick with Covid. Clark recently received word from Guinness World Records that she was the record holder for most consecutive days to run a marathon distance. “I was and am definitely proud to have the record, but I hope someone will go out and break it one day soon,” she said. She’s on the run.
