In Remembrance

"I was drawing a cartoon for my window cleaning cartoons series…Watching every thing unfold as if I was there…The act of terror was not what bothered me the most.  It was this anonymous Woman’s face in the window that did the most damage…So much that even now at 9:59 a.m. 2012 I still can’t get her face out of my memory!" Chato Stewart.

My brother was hanging on the outside of Tower One at 4:30 AM the morning of 9/11/01. He was washing the windows outside the building on scaffolding at the 100th floor.  He was with a team on 7 in addition to him. At 8:30 AM he went down stairs to get more supplies. By the time he arrived down stairs (it was moments from the time of the planes impact), he felt the impact of the plane. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he felt something enormous, like an earth quake or something. He said he was standing in the lobby, and the plane hit the building. He witnessed the girl who was seen standing under the falling jet fuel who died later at the hospital. At that point nobody was allowed back up stairs, or out of the building. They were forced to stay in the lobby. He was unable to reach his window washing crew. He later learned that the crew was on the floor that was directly hit by the plane, and everyone was vaporized. He was the only one left from his crew. When the building began making noises (prior to collapsing) they were able to exit the lobby to the outside. He made it out just in time before the building collapsed, and ran for his life.

Read Jan Demczur’s World Trade Center escape story here.

The Window Cleaners Escape - A 9/11 Story

A stunning tale of escape traps its hero in replay: JERSEY CITY, N.J.

Sunlight seeps through the translucent curtains on his living room window, making the lacquered matrioshka dolls on the wall case gleam. Sitting on the sofa, Jan Demczur leafs through a thick binder of news clippings about his heroic Sept. 11 escape, still in a daze at the story they tell. He stays home often now, speaking more Ukrainian than English, a language still difficult for him. When he does venture out, he's sometimes overcome with a sense of fear, his head dizzy and heavy, like a big ball of lead. It's been almost a year, but Mr. Demczur has still not returned to his job as one of the workers who wash the endless sheets of glass stacked to the sky in Manhattan.

Uniform donation:
Jan Demczur poses with his uniform and squeegee handle as he donates them to the National Museum of American History.

It's become a safe new routine, sitting here amid pillows adorned with his wife's cross stitchings, telling how he survived. His ordeal was compelling he was trapped in an elevator with five others after the first plane struck Tower 1, and barely escaped by clawing through the walls with only his squeegee and media from around the world have since flocked to him, reporting his story of survival, and the tiny tool that saved him.

Before, he'd wake up at 4:45 a.m., five days a week, jump on the train to the city, and do his job. Like the thousands of lunch-pail workers who pass each day through the tunnels to the island, Demczur wasn't part of the Manhattan clichés: the vaunting ambition, the ceaseless pace, the glare of art and commerce. Instead, like the steel frames within a skyscraper's facade, he was one of the people behind the city's glamour, those who built, maintained, and ultimately removed piece-by-piece the twisted wreckage of the World Trade Center.

National Museum of American History press conference. Surrounded by news media, Jan Demczur recounts his story as he donates his squeegee handle and uniform to the National Museum of American History.

"Window cleaners have been much like the glass they clean: transparent," says Richard Fabry, publisher of an industry magazine. But Jan Demczur [pronounced John DEMshur] was never a guy to seek attention. Small and demure, he spoke little, and except for occasional mirth in his pale blue eyes, he revealed few emotions.

Content with a predictable routine, he rarely missed a day at work, was honest and industrious,paid his mortgage, and spent time with his wife and kids. His Jersey City house, which had a view of the Twin Towers, was just minutes from the PATH train that took him straight to the sprawling Trade Center, a place he liked to call his second home.

Demczur grew up in Poland and was a plumber by trade. He found himself in the middle of the Solidarity movement in the late 1970s and the turmoil that would begin communism's demise. Even in his 20s, his sense of duty made him keep his distance from the radicals, and he just tried to do his job He came to the US in 1980 to visit his aunt in Queens. He stayed, illegally, and worked as a plumber, making $2.50 an hour. In 1987, he married Nadia, who says she fell in love with his calm, his stability, and the fact that he could do everything around the house. Her father helped Demczur get a union window-cleaning job, with better wages and benefits. In 1991, he started his routine, working at the World Trade Center.

The squeegee handle that saved 6 lives.

"He's not the most vocal person," says Gerard McEneaney, a colleague of Demczur at Union Local 32 BJ. "You wouldn't characterize him as outspoken he's a very soft-spoken, unassuming man." Now, bewildering change. After living through the attacks, his routine shattered, Demczur has been swept into a vortex of publicity, and he finds himself speaking more than he ever has. Suddenly, he's a celebrity. In February, the manufacturer of the squeegee flew him to Reno, Nev., for the annual meeting of the International Window Cleaners Association. There, he spoke in front of hundreds of people.

Those who heard his speech recall a rapt audience. Even though his broken English was difficult to follow, Demczur's presence alone had a powerful effect. "It was just a few months after 9/11," says Mr. Fabry, "and, in some ways, it was an emotional outlet for us to feel connected." To Demczur's astonishment, people came up to shake his hand, take pictures with him, and even get his autograph. Flying to Reno wasn't easy. Planes still make him nervous, but the trip was an accomplishment, he thinks. Although he doesn't say it, all the attention is kind of fun at times. Acquaintances say he's basking in the well-deserved glory, even as he says he'd rather move on.

Squeegee handle underside:
A coating of white drywall debris is still visible on the underside of the squeegee handle Jan Demczur used to dig a hole through a wall in his escape from the World Trade Center.

But the phone keeps ringing three TV requests came during interviews for this story alone and Demczur rarely says no to an interview. "If I answer the phone, I'll say, 'no,' " says his wife Nadia, exasperated. "He can never say no. He wants to please everyone." After enduring their dad's endless interviews, his two children, too, are getting upset, and they ask him why he has to keep talking about the ordeal. When interviewers come now, Nadia is cordial and polite, but has little to say. The children leave the room.

There are other alienating moments. Demczur rarely drives now, because he feels dizzy behind the wheel, afraid to change lanes. On a recent trip to Canada, when he wanted to take a shift driving, his daughter became scared, and refused to sit near him. He gave it a try anyway, but had to stop after five minutes. He says he felt guilty and useless when his wife did all the driving.

Window washer's uniform:
Jan Demczur, a World Trade Center window washer, wore this uniform (shirt, pants, and shoes) on September 11.

The outer rhythms of Demczur's work routines and family life have abruptly changed this past year. And the hero's role others have thrust upon him masks an inner life in turmoil. "For me, when I come home, I'm never thinking about the media or something," Demczur reflects. "I [was] just, whew, whoa I said, I'm lucky. God helped me out. I'm coming home, I'm staying home with my children. I know it's over, it's behind me, but the life's all changed. "I can't sleep. I'm shaking. So many of my friends died, and I think, my God! You don't want to cry, but tears are coming by itself."

After months of psychotherapy and medication, he still wakes in the night, remembering faces: the guard at the Japanese bank on 93; the receptionist at Carr Futures on 92; a new employee who'd asked him where to go that morning. He was working with them the morning of Sept. 11. That Tuesday, he punched in at 6 a.m. and spent most of the morning cleaning glass doors and partitions on floors 90 to 95 in the North Tower, the impact zone. He worked through his 8 a.m. break so he could finish those top floors early otherwise he'd be there until 9. He finished at 8:20 and took the elevator down to the 43rd-floor cafeteria.

Window Cleaner magazine: The November/December 2001 issue of Window Cleaner magazine featured Jan Demczur’s World Trade Center escape story with a cover image of Mr. Demczur as Superman with a squeegee.

At about 8:45, finishing his coffee and danish, he left the cafeteria, and dashed to make an express elevator about to run up to the 77th floor. At 8:48, as he and five others zipped up the shaft, they felt a jolt and then the building sway. The elevator dropped before the emergency brakes ground it to a halt. Later, when smoke started seeping into the car, they knew they had to try to get out. Demczur quietly took charge. After they pried open the elevator doors, he saw the surface was drywall. "Does anyone have a knife?" he asked. No, nothing. So Demczur started chopping at the wall with the 18-inch blade of the squeegee. When the blade broke and fell down the shaft, he used the handle. It took over an hour, but the six men took turns scraping and poking, and finally burst through to a men's bathroom on the 50th floor. Startled firefighters guided them in different directions. Demczur went down the stairs.

The other tower collapsed at 9:59, when he was at the 11th floor. Soon engulfed in darkness, dust, and confusion, he put his hand on the shoulder of the stranger ahead, continuing down. Seeing him in a maintenance uniform, firefighters screamed to him, "How do we get out?" Demczur had them pan the smoke and dust-filled hallways on the third floor with their flashlights, and he spotted an exit to another stairwell. He instinctively held it open as others went through first, until a fireman grabbed him by the arm and led him out.

Window Cleaner magazine: The March/April 2002 issue of Window Cleaner magazine featured Jan Demczur’s donation to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. March-April edition 2002, Issue #90.

Outside, emergency workers gave him oxygen, and water to rinse his eyes. He made his way to the West Side Highway, just a few blocks away, and was finally able to see the sky. "When I look up, and see the tower burning, I turned like ice," Demczur recalls. "Everything was freezing in me." Then, the antennas of Tower 1 start to teeter. "I start to run. I kept looking back, saw the building banging down like a pancake." As he ran, his eyes were burning, his head was pounding, the dust was choking him, and then his body felt numb. A few more blocks away, he noticed how beautiful the day was and, sheepishly admits he began to touch himself to see if he was really alive, like a scene from a silly cartoon.

Demczur couldn't have imagined he'd tell this story to so many, or that his squeegee handle and uniform would become a part of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He'll relive a lot of it again this week, when he attends ceremonies in New York and Washington, D.C. But by the end of the year, he hopes to be able to get back to work. "It is a different kind of life. But I prefer the way it was, when people were alive," Demzcur says.

David Shayt (pictured) September 11 Collecting Curator - Museum Specialist, Division of Cultural History. "...asked him the big question: Do you still have that squeegee handle?"
When September 11 happened, I thought of the window cleaners of the World Trade Center. I'd read about them, I knew they were a heroic bunch because of the sheer challenge of the job. So they were on my mind. When I was tasked with the job of building a collection, however, I went to one window cleaner in particular who I had read about: Jan Demczur, of Jersey City, a man who did a really big thing on September 11. He used his window-cleaning squeegee to cut his way out of an elevator on the 50th floor of the World Trade Center after it had jammed and stopped.

He was with five other men. They crawled through the hole he had made with this squeegee handle and escaped from the building just minutes before it came down. I called Jan in December after some difficulties, I found him in Jersey City, met with him and asked him the big question: Did you hang onto the handle, do you still have that squeegee handle? He left the room and came back with something wrapped in a red handkerchief. Turned out to be the handle. He had kept the handle without realizing it. In his blind escape, he had somehow stuffed it in his pocket rather than put it in the bucket that he dropped later. His wife found it, rolled up in his dirty uniform, weeks later. He has donated that squeegee handle to us, that squeegee handle in a supreme act of generosity, together with his dirty uniform and the shoes he was wearing that day.

Window Cleaning News

University of Sheffield get new window cleaners: With effect from 1st September 2011, the Universities window cleaning service provision for all Buildings on Campus will lie within the Campus Services Department. Following the Universities tendering process I am happy to announce that a cleaning company, namely Cinderella Ltd were successful in securing the contract. Cinderella Ltd was founded in 1993 and are the current holders of similar contracts with a variety of Universities, including some of those in the Russell Group. The agreed window cleaning schedule allows each internal window to be cleaned a minimum of once a year. External windows be cleaned twice a year with certain entrances and doors cleaned on a monthly basis. There is an adhoc provision whereas an extra clean can be arranged in the event of high profile occasions such as Graduation and Open Days. The cleaning methods available from Cinderella Ltd range greatly and are dictated by building/department use. The most commonly used will be reach and wash, the use of hydraulic platforms, abseiling and cradles along with traditional methods. This schedule is subject to change and following feedback and suggestions from staff, can be tailored to each building/department or to suit the needs of the business.

Cleaning company took franchise fees illegally, SJC rules: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that Coverall North America Inc. illegally collected franchise fees from a worker, clearing the way for hundreds of workers involved in a class-action lawsuit against the cleaning company to be awarded millions of dollars in damages. The ruling could have a significant impact on similar cases pending against five other cleaning companies in the state. The decision follows a US District Court of Massachusetts ruling in March of 2010 that found that Coverall had misclassified the workers, the majority of them immigrants, charging them thousands of dollars apiece in franchise fees to establish their own cleaning companies, but treating them like regular employees.

“It’s a perverse system in which the workers are paying to do the work,’’ said lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is representing the Coverall workers and hundreds of others suing Jani-King International Inc., Jan-Pro Franchising International Inc., System4 Commercial Cleaning, CleanNet USA, and Westborough-based All Pro Cleaning Systems. She is also involved in cases against cleaning companies in California and Pennsylvania.

The SJC ruling could lead those cleaning companies, which use the same franchising model Coverall does, to settle their cases, leave the state, or change the way they operate, Liss-Riordan said. “The commercial cleaning industry has been plagued by companies such as Coverall that make their money by profiting off of their own workers,’’ Liss-Riordan said. “The ruling will have huge ramifications on the commercial cleaning industry, as well as the trucking industry, adult entertainment industry, and other industries that exploit their workers by misclassifying them as independent contractors.’’

What is your necessary extravagance? Maybe you have a professional house cleaner, gardener or window-washer. Maybe you spend $4 a day on a cup of coffee from your favorite java joint. Or maybe you buy designer clothes, Sex-in-the-City caliber shoes or $100 jars of night-cream. Maybe you can afford these luxuries–or maybe not. But most of us splurge on our personal must-haves, no? Even if we’re on budget. And we should. We’re moms after all. Most of us put our families first and ourselves last. So scrimping elsewhere to allow for some personal pampering shows we’re taking care of ourselves, which makes us better moms.

Woman is saved from blazing room: Two men dramatically rescued a woman from a burning home in Scarborough. Ryan Burns, 27, and Jim Murphy, 58, both leapt into action after they saw smoke pouring out of a top-floor window in Northstead Flats, Long Walk, Northstead. They had to kick down a door. Mr Burns, who lives nearby, went to get a set of ladders, which he uses for his window cleaning job, and he and Mr Murphy climbed through an open window adjacent to the burning flat. After battling their way through smoke, they found the resident. Mr Burns said: “After we kicked the door down, we then found the woman.” The two men then assisted fire officers in carrying the woman to safety, before officers extinguished the fire.

Life in the tank - Jane Price -- armed with cucumbers, shrimp, peas and a toilet brush -- jumps in with both feet. The Mansfield woman has been volunteering at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium for 20 years, diving among sharks and rays to feed the animals and clean the glass at Discovery Reef. "I became certified in scuba diving 21 years ago specifically so I could dive at the zoo," Price said. "When Discovery Reef opened, I became one of the senior divers and helped train the others." Price dives into the 100,000-gallon saltwater tank to swim with 250 fish representing 23 species. The tank includes two white tip sharks, a nurse shark and a woebegone carpet shark.

By his own admission, artist Anthony Couri isn't an easy man to frighten. Once he took a job washing windows on skyscrapers just because he was afraid of heights. He became so good at his job that his boss offered him promotion. He used to be afraid of death, but decided to explore his feelings by collecting bleached bones he found out in the Colorado wilderness. Couri later assembled those bones into a three dimensional piece of art now on exhibit at Art Show on Jefferson, just across the street from the Civic Center. "One of my fears as a child was death, and I really conquered that fear," Couri said. "To many people it's shocking - that it's morbid. No, everyone dies. There are bones underneath, that's what carries us around. Just the dichotomy of life and death. I made the dead dance again in a different form. I created a new animal. He's alive again. It's not dead any more. It's not forbidden."

9/11- beyond words: The 9/11 attacks may be impossible to quantify, but key words and figures help to explain their magnitude. 45 Feature films that were postponed or re-edited after the attacks. A Jackie Chan movie called Nosebleed, about a window-washer at the World Trade Centre who foils a terrorist plot, was cancelled. "The World Trade Centre is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace... a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men and, through cooperation, his ability to find greatness." Minoru Yamasaki, architect of the twin towers, in a speech at the opening ceremony for the World Trade Centre in 1973.

Robert Stewart, who has turned Crown evidence against the alleged Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) commander and 13 other men facing paramilitary-linked charges, said Haddock directed the plan to kill Ulster Defence Association (UDA) boss Tommy English 11 years ago. “Haddock – he was running the whole thing,” Stewart told Belfast Crown Court. English, 40, was gunned down in his house in front of his wife and three young children just after 6pm on Halloween night in 2000 during a bloody feud between the UDA and UVF.The 14 face a litany of paramilitary charges, with most facing counts linked to the murder of English, in one of the largest trials in the North in decades. They all deny the charges. Stewart and his brother David Ian Stewart have both turned state’s evidence. The two window cleaners pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the murder and membership of the UVF and received a reduced sentence in return for their co-operation with the authorities in the case against the 14 accused.

More FISH awards - does everyone get one? Steve and Renee Brown, owners of Fish Window Cleaning, of Kalamazoo, received the Rising Star Award at the 11th annual Fish Window Cleaning Convention held July 28-30 in St. Louis. The award was given in recognition of the franchise’s outstanding sales, production, management and good neighbor relations with other franchisees during 2010. Also, the Browns’ franchise was one of seven franchises named to the Pinnacle Club for leading the organization in sales growth. The business has been in operation since September 2009.

For many, job loss led to reinvention: Greg Fletcher, a semiconductor technician/engineer for nearly 25 years, lost his job with Qimonda in eastern Henrico when the chipmaker went bankrupt and closed in 2009. "I tried for two years to find another job in my field with no luck," said Fletcher, 47. His father retired as an engineer, and Fletcher said he assumed he would do the same. Fletcher, father of four children, recently opened a window-cleaning franchise called Window Genie. "This has been a complete job and career change not only for me, but also my family. I went from working in clean-room environments … and working on high-tech equipment to climbing ladders and getting downright dirty." The experience has been emotionally, physically and financially draining, he said. "You learn quickly what things you can live without. "I try to keep a positive outlook and service my customers as I would want to be treated. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — The local owner of a national window cleaning company was awarded top seller during the 11th annual Fish Window Cleaning Convention. Jon Mittleman, owner of Fish Window Cleaning in Alpharetta received the top sales award and the Navigator Award in St. Louis, Mo., where the company is based. Mittleman added about 500 new customers during 2010. The Navigator Award was presented to Mittleman for his work with prospective new franchisees. Pictured: Jon Mittleman, owner of Fish Window Cleaning in Alpharetta.

Window Genie Window Cleaning Franchise Comes to Savannah, Georgia: Window Genie®, a national franchisor of window cleaning and other home services, has granted a new franchise territory to Benjamin Francis, who runs his franchise from his home office in Savannah, Georgia. Francis’ franchise services Savannah, Wilmington Island, Whitemarsh Island, Tybee Island, Skidaway Island, Isle of Hope, Thunderbolt, and Sandfly, Georgia, and surrounding areas. Francis, originally from the South Coast of England, is a yacht captain and engineer by trade, and spent 10 years at sea before moving to America a year and a half ago. He “met a girl from Georgia” on his travels whom he married, and moved to Savannah, Georgia. When he started looking for a job in the States, he thought it would be pretty difficult with no college degree to find a job at which he could move up the ladder. He considered starting a business, but admitted, “I was a pretty good candidate to becoming a statistic doing it on my own, so a franchise was a good middle ground.” He researched his options and decided that a Window Genie franchise would be the ideal way to reach his goal of being his own boss. “The potential is there. There is no glass ceiling. I become master of my own destiny.”

Villagers rally round popular character Skip: A community is rallying around one of its much-loved elderly residents to help him get better. The village of Kelvedon has seen people come and go but Skip the town crier, lollipop man, Scout leader, window cleaner, chorister, caretaker and proud holder of an MBE for his community work, has lived there for all 80 years of his life. Now the pensioner, who lives by himself and is in desperate need of a hip replacement, has to put his feet up while he waits for the operation. Just last month he fell out of bed and it took him 45 minutes to haul himself into the lounge to call his doctor, who rushed round at 3am to help him. Skip, whose real name is John Papworth, said: "I was quite scared. I just lay there until someone came. Those ten minutes felt like an hour."

Window Cleaning People & News

Va governor warns worst of Irene yet to come - saving the windows! Missy Seavey, employee for Kohr Bros. on Atlantic Avenue near 22nd Street, looks down an largely empty sidewalk at the Virginia Beach, VA, oceanfront area on Friday afternoon, Aug. 26, 2011. Hurricane Irene has the potential to cause billions of dollars in damage all along a densely populated arc that includes Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and beyond. At least 65 million people could be affected. In Virginia Beach, souvenir shops and other businesses along the resort strip were protected by sandbags and plywood nailed over windows. The usually bustling oceanfront was virtually abandoned as waves lashed the beach. The city had several shelters open, including one at an elementary school that housed about 100 people — most of them homeless.

Within weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Smithsonian Institution began collecting a wide range of artifacts recovered from the three sites where the hijacked planes went down. “There are some everyday moments in the midst of destruction. There are things we all recognize. They help people understand it happened to all of us,” Yeh said. Some are ordinary objects — a window shade and seat belt from the wreckage of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville. Some are ordinary but became extraordinary. Jan Demczur, a window washer at the World Trade Center, donated his squeegee handle to the museum. On Sept. 11, he was stuck in an elevator with five other men in one of the towers. He used the handle to force open the elevator door and then dig through the wall. All six were saved.

LONDON — Frederick A. Goodwin, the disgraced former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, used to lose his temper because of biscuits and sent the bank’s staff into “panic mode” because of a broken model airplane, according to a new book. When a window cleaner fell off a ladder in Mr. Goodwin’s office and broke a small model airplane, some people at the bank worried more about the broken toy than about the window cleaner, according to the book written by two British Conservative politicians and scheduled for publication next month. A short excerpt from the book was published in Prospect magazine on Thursday. The two politicians, Matthew Hancock, a former chief of staff of the chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and Nadhim Zahawi, disclose these details about Mr. Goodwin, who was widely blamed for the downfall of Royal Bank of Scotland, in “Masters of Nothing: The Crash and How It Will Happen Again,” a book about how human behavior made the financial crisis worse.

Window Cleaning Warehouse - The Tune! Did you know Window Cleaning Warehouse have started a record label? Here is the first offering - expect a whole album of window cleaning based tracks soon!

When the Bronx was burning 40 years ago, Angel Cruz was setting borough basketball courts on fire with dazzling slam dunks and dribble drives. He dominated the concrete playgrounds at the Patterson Houses in Mott Haven, wowed street ball crowds in Harlem, and then turned pro and played for Puerto Rico at the Olympic Games. But then the human grasshopper known as "Monchito" - perhaps the greatest Nuyorican player of all time - vanished. No friends or family have laid eyes on Cruz for more than a decade. "We don't know what happened to Angel," said Noemi Cruz-Lymon, the star point guard's sister. "No one knows." Cruz's heartbroken family will host a charity basketball game in his name tomorrow at the Patterson Houses, where he grew up. Angel Cruz Jr., 34, Monchito's eldest son, feels the same way. "With my father, you never knew what to expect," said the Bronx window cleaner. "He would pop up out of nowhere and act like nothing was wrong."Angel Cruz Jr. holds photo of his dad, Angel (Monchito) Cruz, who has been missing since 1998.

‘Little Elvis’ death – man arrested. A man has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the death of a well-known Morpeth karaoke star. Michael Marshall, who was known locally as Little Elvis, died on Tuesday, two hours after an altercation at Sanderson Arcade in the town centre. A 55-year-old man was arrested and released with no further action and a 49-year-old man has been released on police bail after he was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Mr Marshall, 52, died following an incident outside the Corbridge Larder at about 3.30pm on Tuesday. Police say there was a “verbal altercation”, before he was assaulted. It is not thought that any weapon was used. Staff from Sanderson Arcade rushed to help and an off-duty nurse and lifeguard administered first aid before paramedics arrived. An assistant from the Corbridge Larder is also believed to have helped. Another resident said: “Everyone knew him, he used to be a window cleaner. He loved the karaoke and he always introduced himself as ‘Little Elvis’.

"That's what's great about disc golf," he said. "Someone my age can compete. And someone 100 times my age can play." With that, the father and son stood to announce this year's regular-season rankings and the night's pairings. The guy to beat this year was Luis Nava (pictured). Though the 25-year-old only made one ace -- that's disc golf lingo for hole-in-one -- he still had the best score of the season. "I'm a birdie person," he said. Though some Tuesday Twos competitors have been playing for a decade or more, Nava only began throwing three years ago. "But when I first started, I played four to five hours after work every day," he said as he warmed up for the finals. "I just couldn't stop. I fell in love with this game." He still plays nearly obsessively. By day, he's a skyscraper window washer. Come 5 o'clock, he heads to Orchard or another Metro-area disc golf park. His two brothers and his sister often play, too. That constant playing will come to a temporary end soon. Nava and his wife, Carla, are expecting their first child -- a girl --in December, and he promised to take a six-month hiatus once the baby comes.

Dirty Jobs That Nobody Wants: With 14 million Americans out of work, long  grim lines at job fairs, and employment agencies jammed with the hopeful, there are still jobs that go begging. Despite the desperate measures some are taking to find employment, a handful of positions remain stubbornly vacant. Last month the ratings firm Fitch reported that even with high unemployment, some businesses can’t fill their openings. Window washer: Almost all window washing jobs involve scary heights and exposure to the elements. Injury rates are high—about eight window washers in New York City are involved in accidents each year, and 75 died on the job there between 1983 and 2008. Finding people comfortable both on a scaffold and with a squeegee is tough. Leonard Malray of Contract Services Group, based in California’s Orange County, says that of six open window-cleaning jobs he’s had open since the beginning of the year, he’s filled only two.

Southfields dad committed suicide after housing benefit cut: A desperate man who lined up three kitchen knives before stabbing himself twice in the heart, blamed cuts in housing benefit. Unemployed Richard Sanderson took his own life after writing three suicide notes which were laid out neatly on a bed in a meticulously planned act. In one to his wife he wrote: “Don’t come into the bathroom, this time I will most certainly be deceased”. Mr Sanderson, who said he could not face the thought of his family being homeless, stabbed himself twice in the heart with a kitchen knife on May 29 at home in Augustus Road, Southfields, after years of being unable to find work finally took its toll, an inquest heard. The 44-year-old former helicopter pilot wrote three suicide notes – two for his wife, Petra, and one for the police – after carefully planning the suicide over several days. Mr Sanderson, who was also a window cleaner, met his wife while travelling in South Africa in 1995 before the pair eventually settled in Wimbledon in 2007 to find better work prospects in London.

Japan faces costly, unprecedented radiation cleanup: Pictured, a worker decontaminating radiated particles on a window of an elementary school in Fukushima, northern Japan. Nearly six months after the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan faces the task of cleaning up a sprawling area of radioactivity that could cost tens of billions of dollars, and thousands may not be able to return home for years, if ever. Fuel core meltdowns at the facility in March, triggered by a huge earthquake and tsunami, released radioactive material into the air which mixed with rain and snow and covered dozens of towns as well as farmland and woods, mainly along the northeast coast of Honshu. Tokyo has been slow to provide a plan for rehabilitation, leading some residents near the plant, who have been exposed to high levels of radioactive caesium in homes and food, to start their own cleanup instead of waiting for the government to act.

Aldar's desert disc is simply unique: ABU DHABI // "Simple" is not the word that jumps to one's mind when driving into Abu Dhabi and seeing the gigantic disc standing on its side in the desert. But that is the word Randall Heinrich, the senior project manager at Aldar, uses to describe the property developer's new headquarters at Al Raha Beach. "People see the shape from the outside and you get people commenting that it's an inefficient building, but it's not," Mr Heinrich says. "It's great. It's a very simple building. It has two poles coming up the middle of the building and the structure built around it. "Yes, you've got larger floors in the centre but all the floors are very open, beautiful spaces. Everyone expected it to be a wonderful building but it's also practical." The slim, circular building on a concrete plinth is the result of slightly less than three years of work and has more than 3,000 panes of glass. Apart from the empty moat, the vision of Aldar's offices is complete. Twenty-three storeys tall with three underground parking levels, the building is one of a kind, says Tony Abi Gebrayel, the area manager of the designer, MZ Architects.

Addict's £1000 theft 'has wrecked family business' - The mother of a drug addict who posed as a window cleaner to con residents into paying for work not carried out has spoken of her fears his actions have ruined her husband's business. Steven Walton (pictured), whose father David owns a window cleaning business, targeted regular city customers to fund his heroin addiction.

His victims included an 82-year old woman, from whose bank card he stole £1000 after she entrusted it to him. Yesterday, at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, the 36-year-old was placed on a drug treatment and testing order for 18 months. Walton, who has been a heroin addict since he was at school, was recently released from custody in Saughton.

Today his mother Ann Walton, from Sighthill, said: "Steven used to work for my husband. People are going to read this and not want my husband's services. This being in the open will really affect our business and my husband's business." She said the family have stayed clear of him for some time. She said: "I've had really nothing to do with him much, because of what happened."

Yesterday, Sheriff Alistair Noble heard Walton had previously pleaded guilty to stealing £1000 between March 13 and March 21 this year; to obtaining £5, £10 and £20 by fraud on April 18; and stealing £15 from a house on the same day. Fiscal depute John Kirk told the court that Walton was estranged from his family but his father allowed him to sleep in his van from time to time and he had helped him with cleaning in the past.

On this occasion he went to the 82-year old woman's home and asked for money, but she had no money on her and gave him her bank card and the pin number, which he then used on a number of occasions. The prosecutor added that Walton had two minor previous convictions. Walton's defence solicitor, Angus McLennan, said the woman had become suspicious and contacted the police, while another customer raised the alarm when the real cleaner turned up looking for his money. The defence agent said Walton knew that cleaners often returned for payment at a later stage and had come across the 82-year-old victim while helping his father. He added: "It was an opportunistic theft. The temptation proved too much for him".

As for going round other houses, Mr McLennan said Walton had been "simply chancing his luck by knocking on doors of homes he knew his father had cleaned windows". Mr McLennan said Walton's father David was very disappointed by his son's actions, which had caused a great deal of embarrassment and impacted on his business. The solicitor said his father had refunded the money taken from people on his round, but that he had not known about the £1000 card theft.

Walton's mother added that her son had been clean of heroin for two months. She said: "He's been on drugs for nearly 20 years, since he was at school. There's not a lot of people outside the family that know about it. "Now that he has been proven to be clear of drugs for two months I'm starting to, not to warm towards him, but accept him and learn to trust him a little bit more. "He's been in the gutter and this has been his wake-up call."

Window cleaner turns author: A transition from washing windows to author is most unusual, but Jamie Robison of Margaret River is not your usual window cleaner, and has made the literary jump. In 1994, Mr Robison decided to write a book after a tragic car accident involving a young boarder living with him. Seventeen years and 15 drafts later, Robison has completed the book. Titled Charlie’s Dream, the book is about a teenager stuck between real and imaginary worlds after a serious car accident puts him in a coma. “It was amazing to finally finish writing the book,” he said.

Although this was Robison’s first foray into the world of novel writing, he has been involved in the media before. Prior to moving to Margaret River, Robison owned a production company in Sydney which made shorts for TV. Along with his other duties, Robison would help out with scripts. After deciding to move to Margaret River over a decade ago, he has been cleaning windows for local businesses. “I’ve been doing window cleaning for about 10 years – through my work I know most of the people in Margaret River.”

Since completing his book, Robison now has the writing bug and plans to continue with other projects. “It is the first part of a trilogy. I’m currently halfway through writing the second part. “I love writing – it keeps me sane. I also just finished a book of short stories and a screenplay,” he said.

Billy's still in the running - MAUCHLINE runner Billy White is gearing up for his ninth Great Scottish Run - and he's looking for your help to make it his biggest, most successful year yet. The pensioner, who just turned 65, should be putting his feet up and enjoying his retirement. But he's still working as a window cleaner and putting in the miles as he embarks on his latest half-marathon charity run. Just last Saturday he ran 20 miles along the River Ayr to his hometown in preparation for his latest attempt.

Texas Rangers learn new signs at Southwest Airlines - Mitch Moreland needed some help marshaling an airplane into a jetway. He had no issues cleaning the pilot's windows on it, though. The Texas Rangers first baseman did both jobs as part of an event where players traded places with Southwest Airlines employees on Tuesday afternoon at Dallas Love Field. "Cleaning the windows is something I'm a little more capable of," Moreland said. "The window washing was a good job for me. Guiding the plane in is a little different. It's nice to know all the different hand signals now."

BATMAN, Turkey - Suicide, murder debated in Turkish deaths. Some women choose to attempt suicide a result of being victimized by their families, Batman Women Rights Commission head Hatice Yilmaz said. "There was a girl who was forced to wear a headscarf and her family withdrew her from school," a woman who asked to remain anonymous told the Women's Foundation Center. "According to reports, she fell from a window while cleaning it, but the doorman saw that she fell backward from the window." Women are battling stress and harassment and the situation was the same for every woman in Batman regardless of age, she said.

A university education should be about mind over money: The value of going to university was questioned in a recent Guardian Money article. Student journalist of the year Simon Murphy replies. My mum is still the only person from her immediate family to go to university, and few of my cousins have stayed in education after their GCSEs; they are now builders, decorators, labourers, plumbers, window cleaners, etc – the kind of jobs where you don't have to worry about feigning interest in post-feminist literature to fill a few lines on your Ucas form.

Fishy Stories... seems everyone wins top awards at Fish..

Jerry and Juice Jenson, owners of Fish Window Cleaning in Colorado Springs, received the Top Sales Award at the 11th annual Fish Window Cleaning Convention held in July in St. Louis. The Jensons were presented with their award for adding more than 500 new customers during 2010. Their business provides window cleaning services for commercial and residential customers in the greater Colorado Springs area.

Tony and Wendy Espeseth, owners and operators of Fish Window Cleaning in Stillwater and Eau Claire and Appleton, Wis., received more awards at the company's annual convention this year than any of the other 200 FISH franchisees. Last year, the Espeseths were named "Franchisee of the Year," and this year, the couple received five awards for their business. They were the Top Producer Award for leading the country in sales; Small Market Star Performer Award for their Eau Claire location and the Multi-Office Star Performer Award for the 2010 performance of the three offices they run. In addition, the Espeseths earned membership in the 500 Club for opening more than 500 new accounts during the past year and they received the Navigator Award in recognition of their work with prospective new franchisees. Tony and Wendy Espeseth, operators of Fish Window Cleaning in Stillwater and Eau Clarie and Appleton, Wis., took home five awards at the company's recent annual convention, more than any of the 200 other Fish franchises.

Fish Window Cleaning of Manchester received the Top Sales Award at the recent Fish Window Cleaning Convention in St. Louis. The award was presented to the franchise for adding more than 500 new customers during 2010. In addition, Rick Petry, sales manager for the franchise, was recognized as the top sales person among all Fish Window Cleaning franchises and received the Top Sales Person Award for 2010.

Another Window Cleaning Robot - Windoro

But first - a remembrance of 9/11..

Window-cleaning robots and other household products: New household products including a coffee machine that remembers how you like your drinks and a robot that will clean your windows have been unveiled at consumer electronics and appliances trade show IFA 2010. The chore of cleaning windows could soon be a thing of the past with the "world's first automated window cleaner" - Windoro. Manufactured by Ilshim Global Co. - the robot can clean a square meter of windows in ten minutes. Windoro is equipped with bumpers in order to negotiate window frames and is programmed to return to its original location once its task is complete. IFA took place in Frankfurt September 3-8, other innovative household products will be exhibited at Grand Designs Live October 8-10 in Birmingham, UK.

Every year more and more stuff is automated, which first started with the fully automatic washing machine & now leads down the path of other administrative tasks that we no longer want to do because they are either boring or sometimes just very difficult. Wandering around the home appliances department at the IFA in Berlin was a 'window robot' ISG Micro seen here.

This ingenious device works on both sides of a window from the top where the window opens. The Windoro consists of two separate elements, one element contains the brushes and the other element works by four magnets that keeps 'Windoro' on the window. The Windoro only works on one side of the window at a time, so therefore cleaning must take place twice. The Windoro lasts for 60 minutes on one charge - & can be used after 180 minutes after it has been fully charged. There is 10ml per 1m2 detergent used and the brushing parts work at a rate of 20cm/sec.

When Windoro has finished cleaning the windows it goes back to the start position and can easily be removed. Frames are detected by means of pulse sensors and a remote control allows you to have conrol over the device. The people behind Windoro say the device is most applicable for large shop windows - the staff place the Windoro and one can then get on with over work. Also it is made for people who have hard to reach windows such as in a high apartment building.

After a brief demonstration - Harold put the question, "But what if you can't reach either side of the window, like you demonstrate here?" This problem has already been refuted by the seller as not a problem & there is a tool that allows you to put Windoro on a window with suction cups in the right place. We found here that this same company sees no problems & solutions do more.

What we did notice was that the newly cleaned window showed lines, this was caused by the use of rubber. This of course is currently being investigated and resolved before the market is conquered by Windoro! ...

(Editors note) Perhaps this could be in evidence here as the first 'Windoro' test took place. The rest of the videos show the Windoro in action in different parts of the world. Check out the Windoro site here.