Today is Thursday, November 14th, 2013; Karen's Korner #2694

(Please note that there will be no Karen's Korner tomorrow, Friday, as I plan to be out of town! Look for the fifth of the week on either Saturday/Sunday!)
 
 
Here are a couple of short stories for your reading pleasure today:
 
"In 1980 the World Health Organization announced that vaccinations had finally wiped out the dreaded disease smallpox from the face of the earth. It had been almost three hundred years since a little known slave in Boston, Massachusetts, told a Puritan minister how Africans would take a drop of liquid from a smallpox sore and put it into a cut on a healthy person's arm. The person sometimes got slightly ill but seldom got smallpox. Modern inoculation was born."
 
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"During the depression, Charles Darrow could find no work. Although he was broke and his wife was expecting a baby, he wasn't discouraged. Every evening they played a game which he had devised. Remembering happy vacations in nearby Atlantic City, he laid out his own little boardwalk on a square piece of cardboard and pretended to be rich. On his 'properties' he put miniature houses and hotels he had carved out of small pieces of wood. The game, called 'Monopoly', was later marketed by Parker Brothers and ultimately made Darrow a millionaire."
 
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