Diary Prequel Package — page 456

Xipley Center of Elijah Cummings - Congressman from Baltimore gave very moving comments (in his wonderful preacher fashion) about the recent riots in Baltimore related to the police killing of Freddie Gray. He spoke of his own growing up and still living in the neighborhood where the riots took place. Leon Fleisher - world renowned concert pianist. He was wonderful and they showed a clip of his playing the piano. He gave words of wisdom. "Listen and do not be afraid of silence." Also, "Procrastination saves time" Edwin Catmull, the CEO of Pixar Animation Studio. Produced the first computer animated film "Toy Story" and also "Frozen". Has won 5 Academy Awards. May 21, 2015 - Received the Special Recognition Award for Science and Medicine at the Sons of Italy Foundation Gala at the National Building Museum. Phil Piccigallo gave a very nice and warm laudation of me with many old photos of me in different "historic" situations. Also, met at the dinner; Anita McBride (former chief-of-Staff to Laura Bush), General Ray Odierno and his wounded warrior son Anthony (arm blown off by an IED in IraQ). May 26, 2015 - Gave an "Interview" talk with Joe Palca (NPR) at the Ripley Center of the Smithsonian. Good crowd, good questions. May 27, 2015 - Hosted 30 Staff members from the Senate Appropriations and Oversight committees at the Special Clinical Studies Unit (SCSU) at the Clinical Center where we took care of and I did for them the complete donning and doffing procedure, which they absolutely loved. Many questions. Did a telebriefing for the release of the START study data (DSMB recommended stopping the study due to highly positive results). Clearly starting ARVs at greater than 500 CD4+ T cell count was much more beneficial (p <0.001) than waiting until counts drop to 350. Got much attention. Front page of NY Times with my picture in ONLINE version of Times. Also the next night (May 28), I appeared with Judy Woodruff on the NewsHour. May 28, 2015 - Went to UN to participate in Panel at ECOSOC Council (Economic and Social Council), chaired by Paul Farmer to discuss sustainable health systems in light of the Ebola outbreak. Bill Clinton gave the Keynote and we shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. On the panel with me was the actor Jeffrey Wright ("Angels in America" "Boardwalk Empire". He has won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Tony. Very nice man. Says that he has been a fan of mine for years. He is working to improve the conditions of miners in Sierra Leone. June 1, 2015 - Gave lecture at the Sulgrave Club on Dupont Circle. Upper Crust old women's club. Quite charming and elegant Building between P and Massachusetts Ave, right on DuPont Circle. Spoke on Ebola. Adoring crowd. Met John Quinnan with