It goes without saying the abstracts that comprise our Annual ARVO issue are a mere drop in the ocean of thousands on display online and in Ft. Lauderdale. Winnowing the hundreds we choose for review down to the number we finally publish makes for the hardest choices we face all year. With that in mind, once again, here are a select few that did not make the cut and that may interest only me (but, hey, this is my page).

InCHARGE, an eye-health education program tailored for older African Americans, shows promise in conveying the importance of eye exams to this underserved population and in removing barriers to receiving care (e.g., finding transportation, building trust/communication skills with the doctor). #629

Kentucky's controversial legislation requiring all children entering the public school system to have a mandatory eye examination, now eight years on the books, appears not to be uncovering amblyogenic risk factors to any greater degree than what is normally observed in current vision screening programs.  #634

Want an efficient, safe, cost-effective, useful alternative to standard paper draping? Try aluminum foil. In 300 outpatient oculoplastic surgical procedures at Brown University, there were no complications related to the draping, and the cost per procedure was significantly less than that of standard paper drapes. #637

Drive for show, putt for dough, but don't blame your bogies on foggy weather. When visually normal young adults were subjected to varying degrees of defocus, it was only at the highest levels of blur that their golf putting accuracy was significantly reduced. #760

Of all the things the Avastin/Lucentis experience can teach us, this tidbit reflects one interesting difference between American and English ophthalmology patients: Asked if drug A costs $35 dollars and drug B costs $2,000 per month and they both treat the same condition, which drug is likely to be better? The U.S. patients, by 16 to 5, chose the cheaper drug. English patients, by 17 to 7, chose the more expensive. #5213

Elevated serum copper is receiving increasing attention for its potential role in Alzheimer's, since free copper produces severe tissue destruction, especially in the brain. Alzheimer's patients may have abnormalities in their copper binding capacity. An Ann Arbor, Mich., company says it's developed an inexpensive, accurate method to measure unbound serum copper that may benefit future studies of Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases such as AMD and diabetes. #5218

What does it all mean? Darned if I know. But there's an awful lot of interesting stuff to be found at arvo.org.