ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Hey, Lou.  It's me, Mark.  I know you've been gone more than 70 years now and we've never really met.  But I've been thinking about you.  In your famously courageous speech, you considered yourself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.  If you thought you were lucky then, you should see the progress people are making towards your disease in 2014.  Is it cured?  Well, no.  Not exactly.  Well, not at all.  But, uh, they don't name it after you anymore.  So that's a start, right?  You mean you like it being called Lou Gehrig's Disease?  Hear me out though.  There's something amazing happening.  There are a handful of brilliant and dedicated people working really hard to find a cure.  Then, just these last few weeks, there have been people who are pouring ice water over themselves in the name of ALS.  That's what they call it now.  Does the ice water help the disease?  Real good question, Lou.  Of course not.  You would have figured that out yourself.  You probably want to know why they're doing it then.  As I understand it, if you pour a bucket of ice water on yourself, you relieve yourself of the moral obligation to donate money towards a cure.  Then you challenge 3 friends to do the same thing.  Isn't that great?  Aren't you thrilled at the progress we've made in 73 years?  I certainly know I am.  You lucky bastard.