Rekha Basu: Trendiness aside, ice bucket challenge a triumph for
those who have suffered  Des Moines Register Published:  My son
explained the gig this way: People are dumping buckets of ice
water over themselves, filming it and posting the videos online.
Then they tag three others, who have 24 hours to do the same or
pay up. They're doing this in the name of ALS.  I wasn't
tracking. What do ice water and selfies have to do with ALS?
Are participants doing penance for something? How would throwing
water on yourself, or watching someone else get doused, help
fight a deadly disease?  I was overthinking it. There's nothing,
necessarily, to connect each of those pieces to Lou Gehrig's
disease, the informal name of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
It's a hideous motor-neuron illness for which there is no cure
and which, as recently as 10 years ago, few people seemed to
know about. This is just an offbeat fundraiser that caught fire,
and by Tuesday had raised nearly $88.5 million for the ALS
Association.  Instead of