Why You Treat Me Like a Dog?

Not A Post

2006-11-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

Just in case you were wondering why we don't blog anymore. This is what we're up to around here:

And it sure is fun!

100th Post

2006-11-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

There. I was just flippin' through, for old time's sake and found out that this blog had 99 posts before it went on indefinite hiatus.

So there. Now there's one hundred.

Does anyone come here anymore?

Blogging is Hard

2006-06-21T23:10:00.000-07:00

My friend Doctor Bean introduced me to Blogger about a year and a half ago. It began with an email he sent me with the subject "bloggy goodness" and included a link to his group blog Kerckhoff Coffeehouse. I have to admit that his email was opened, quickly read, and then allowed to languish in the never-ending queue know as "The Inbox."

For some reason, a few months later, I came across his initial email, and finally clicked over to Kerckhoff and read a few posts. I liked what I saw, and thought, hey, what a great idea, I'll just set up a blog, send out an email to a few friends I regularly correspond with anyway inviting them to join, and put our rantings and ravings on the 'Net for all to see and partake in. What could be easier?

No dice. Of the half dozen friends I emailed to join, not one responded. Now mind you, these are people I email and talk to regularly anyway, but on the topic of starting a blog, the response was no response. A second round of cajoling resulted in my Manhattanite friend goldstone jumping on the bandwagon, and he even posted a few times in the early days. My darling wife of course did what she could being eight or nine months pregnant and then nursing and doing most of the raising of Baby Wanderer. She supported me as I tried to get this blog off the ground.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I must admit that I have been disappointed with the results. Sure I've had a few ok posts and so on. I've also acquired a handful of regulars who stop by and shoot the breeze with me, and I am indebted to them - I don't think I would have lasted this long without them. I am continuously in awe (and jealousy) of the real blogs out there. You know, the ones who get like more than 20 comments per post, nearly daily and actually have something interesting to say, nearly daily. I am particularly in awe of the solo bloggers, who despite having "day jobs" still manage to churn out good stuff on a regular basis, without the benefit of co-bloggers to take up the slack on those apathetic days, and its the good stuff that really keeps 'em coming. Their quality humbles me, and makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong here.

People have asked me what the name of the blog means. In truth, the title comes from an old demented patient of mine during my training days in the Bronx. He would lie in bed all day long saying "Why You Treat Me Like A Dog? Why You Treat Me Like A Dog? Why You Treat Me Like A Dog?" Many medical professionals develop a cynical sense of humor that this type of patient and his mantra can feed. His chant had an almost hypnotic cadence to it, and it belied on many levels how terrible his life really was. In any case, it stuck with me, and goldstone, who trained with me, knew about it, so I thought it could work as a title for the blog. Since most blogs in the J-Blogosphere tend to have a conservative slant to them, I thought that there might be room for a more Blue State take on things, and anticipated some flack, maybe even being treated like a dog sometimes. Bella, our family beagle, just seemed like a natural mascot...

I didn't set out on writing this post like it were an obituary for this blog, but am beginning to feel that it reads like one. Perhaps the fact that it hasn't taken off is emblematic of the political shift that has been occurring in the American Jewish community over the last two decades. I know I am assigning myself more importance than I deserve, particularly given the overall lack of political material here. The truth probably lies somewhere else - relating more to the overall quality of writing and perhaps the subject matter (or lack thereof). Just another voice in the wilderness.

In any case, I think I'll be taking a break from posting for a while. Perhaps I'll be back, perhaps I won't. Maybe I need to create a new blog that'll be my own, and designed that way. I don't know, but I like being called wanderer, so if you see my name somewhere, just click on it, you'll either be brought here, or directed somewhere new. In the meantime, I'll just keep reading everybody else's blogs, because that's just what I've enjoyed most about blogging. Thanks for stopping by.

Every Once in a While, There's A Patient

2006-06-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Miguel was born with a hole in his heart. He grew up in a small town in Mexico, with his poor, penniless parents always hoping that the hole would close on its own (as they often do). But every doctor who would listen to his young heart would invariably look up at his mother and shake his or her head, no.
By the time they crossed the border and moved to the L.A. area, Miguel was a teenager. He grew appropriately, meeting all his milestones and despite his "asthma" he was able to play soccer with his friends. His parents, illegal aliens, could not afford medical care for him and certainly didn't have medical insurance.
They brought him to the pediatric cardiology clinic at County Hospital, where again, the doctor would look up and say, "no, the hole is still there." Repair of the hole would require a pediatric heart surgeon, and the County didn't have one. His parents couldn't afford to pay for the surgery, and for some odd reason, no one ever helped them find other ways to get surgery for Miguel. He was lost to follow-up for a few years. Why bother, he and his parents thought.
I met Miguel in my first months as a training cardiologist at County Hospital. It was in the adult cardiology clinic, he was now 24 years old. He continued to play soccer, as long as his "asthma" wasn't too bad. He was married, had one son and had a part time job as, of all things, a luggage handler at LAX.
His was an exciting case for a training cardiologist. Putting a stethoscope on his chest was like listening to a veritable concerto of heart sounds, murmurs and gallops. We reviewed his records from the pediatric clinic and together with one of my mentors, I set out to work him up - completely.
An echocardiogram was arranged - the ultrasound images showed us the gaping hole between his two ventricles. One of his heart valves had been sucked into the hole with every beat for the last 24 years, and was beginning to collapse. He needed surgery.
His part time job did not provide him with insurance, though luckily by now he had obtained legal documentation and had a green card. Social workers were contacted and we began the process of obtaining adequate insurance coverage for what was now a very complex and unusual surgical procedure.
Two years passed – I continued to see him in clinic on a regular basis. In the mean time I was able to arrange for the necessary preliminary procedures to be done at County Hospital, and actually performed most of them myself. The social workers continued to work on arranging for surgery at Major University Medical Center.
Then one day in the fall of my last year of training, his insurance came through! By now his wife was seven months pregnant with their third child. The first two had been screened for heart disease and were spared; the third one’s fetal ultrasound was also encouraging. We arranged for Miguel’s surgery.
The heart surgeons at Major University Medical Center operated on Miguel and he did great! I visited him on the second day post-op. He had just finished vomiting his first meal. He had been given spaghetti and meatballs when all he should have had was jello and clear liquids… But he did fine.
I continued to see him in the clinic for the remainder of my training. He knew that I would soon be leaving County Hospital to enter private practice. On my last clinic visit with him, he asked me where I was going. I told him the name of the practice, and where it was. He said to me, “Doc, you have done so much for me and saved my life. I am going to get insurance, and I am going to come see you in your private office.”
Yesterday morning, five years almost to the day from that last visit, Miguel was waiting for me with a huge smile on his face in an exam room in my office. He had been promoted to a full time dispatcher, qualified for insurance and tracked me down. He now has two healthy sons and a healthy daughter. He still plays soccer, and even coaches his eldest son’s soccer team. His “asthma” is gone.

Hi, I'm Digger, the dermatophyte.

2006-05-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

"Remember me? Hello, I'm Digger, the dermatophyte, your naaaaiiiil infection." That's how the ad for Lamisil, a drug to treat a fungal infection of the toes begins. As a physician, I must say that I find most direct to consumer drug ads entertaining at best, possibly informative but generally useless. Worldwide, only the United States and New Zealand allow drug companies to advertise directly. The ads are more or less effective, otherwise the drug companies wouldn't spend the billions they cost. Most patients can now name at least two cholesterol medications, whether they have high cholesterol or not. I've had patients come in asking me for "the purple pill," when a little Tums or Mylanta would do the trick. Ah, Allegra! Live Claritin clear! No one has ever asked me for Valtrex to suppress their genital herpes, yet. Many, many patients have asked for Viagra, Cialis or Levitra for their E.D. (erectile dysfunction), which by the way is the medical term favored by Pfizer to make it easier for men with impotence to ask for Viagra. Either that's an effective ad technique or patients with heart disease have a lot of problems with impotence (they actually do) and that's why so many of them ask for the E.D. drugs. By the way, no one has ever complained about "erections lasting longer than four hours, a rare and serious side effect."

Lately, there's been a new line of ads for Mucinex, a cough medicine, where Mr. and Mrs. Mucus set up house in your airways:

Yuck. I don't like mucus (Mister or Missus). Then of course there are the old Raid ads where they show the bugs croaking.

But then I can't really complain about the drug companies when it has to do with Raid, and this post is about direct to consumer drug ads, so please forgive the digression.

To make a long story short, and all seriousness aside, I think Digger is the coolest. I love the way he flips up the nail like he's popping the hood on a car (that would kill!) and jumps into the nailbed where he and his friends scratch around like a kitty in a litterbox. Lamisil comes around, and, then they die! Not just "pass on," or even "buy the farm." They keel over, look really kind of ill, turn greener and then croak! Poof they disappear! And remember, Lamisil isn't for people with liver and kidney problems. No duh, its for people with nail infections!!! Ask your doctor!

By the way, stay tuned for full-length cartoons coming this summer!

Milestones

2006-05-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

Baby wanderer (BW) is nearing the 10 month old mark. It seems like in the last few weeks someone pressed fast forward, and he has just started hitting milestone after milestone in rapid succession:

1) He's crawling - in the forward direction. It seemed like for the longest time he would just lay there having "tummy time," or perhaps crawl backwards a few inches. But now he actually books across the room, follows Bella around everywhere and would probably follow her out into the yard if we didn't catch him.

2) He's consistently saying his first word - as would be expected, his first word was...Bella! Except it sounds more like Deda. Nonetheless he is consistent.

3) He waves and says hi - so effin' cute!

4) He claps. BW watched the American Idol finale with us last week (he just wouldn't go to bed, and we couldn't risk missing it). Everytime the audience applauded so did BW. He voted for Taylor.

5) He made his first phone call. Well, sort of. He must have pressed redial or something, but ended up calling my aunt in Seattle. Luckily, it was in front of us, so we were able to hear her saying "hello, hello" before the minutes started adding up...

6) He can pull himself up to a standing position. Very problematic. It used to be we would lay him down in his crib after rocking him to sleep. He might cry for a few seconds, but then would just fall asleep. Now he actually pulls himself up and stands there crying, which brings me to the milestone he has not yet reached:

He doesn't know how to sit down.

Yup. Not only does he not know how to sit down, he is so afraid to try (because of previous bad experiences), that he will just stand there and cry until we come and help him down. And then what does he do? He stands right back up and the cycle starts again. Oy.

I guess we'll just to wait until he hits that sitting down milestone... In the meantime, there isn't much sleep going on around here. Again. (Note that the yawning hippo is back!)

What Are Your Favorite Song Lyrics?

2006-05-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

Jack's Shack and Sweettooth both have posts about their favorite song lyrics. Coincidentally, I had been working on just such a post last week, but through the magic of me screwing up, it somehow got deleted before I could post it. Anyway, in no particular order, here's another go at some of my favorites:

Before you slip into unconsciousness
I'd like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss
- The Doors, The Crystal Ship

This song to me just kind of epitomizes the Doors and Jim Morrison. Sex, drugs and rock and roll! During my teenage, psychedelic phase, this just seemed so cool.

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
- Bruce Springsteen, The River

The Boss just has so many awesome lyrics that he's written. To me this one captures so beautifully the restlessness and desperation of the love story described in the song.

We stop for a while, she gives me a smile,
And snuggles her head on my chest.
We started to pet, and thats when I get
Her talcum all over my vest.
-Nat King Cole, Walkin' My Baby Back Home

A sweet, sweet song that I've always loved. My wife and I chose it to end our wedding video and it works so well!

I am the son and the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir of nothing in particular
You shut your mouth
How can you say I go about things the wrong way ?
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
-The Smiths, How Soon is Now?

High school. My awkward stage. Enough said.

The monkeys stand for honesty,
Giraffes are insincere,
And the elephants are kindly but they're dumb.
Orangutans are skeptical
Of changes in their cages,
And the zookeeper is very fond of rum.
- Simon & Garfunkel, At The Zoo

I could write post after post of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel lyrics. I love them all. It always cracks me up how Paul Simon assigned random human qualities to the animals at the zoo, and it just works! I've been enjoying singing this song to my son lately.

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
-Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here

This song brings back many memories. Discussing its meaning in eighth grade English class, singing along at camp, hearing it at a bar in Jerusalem. Who cares what it means?

I can make it through the rain
I can stand up once again on my own
And I know that I'm strong enough to mend
And everytime I feel afraid I hold tighter to my faith
And I live one more day and I make it through the rain
- Mariah Carey, Make It Through The Rain

This song was released by Mariah after she had a bout with severe depression. Some people might consider it (and her) cheesy, but its helped me get through some tough times myself.

I'm fixing a hole
where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wondering
- The Beatles, Fixing a Hole

Like Simon & Garfunkel, I could write post after post about Beatles lyrics. This one has always appealed to me, because I never understood how the rain gets in and stops his mind from wondering. But somehow it still makes sense that it did...

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
- Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower

No collection of lyrics could leave off the master poet, Bob Dylan. This song was probably made more popular by Jimi Hendrix, but Dylan's version tells it like it is.

And you can tell everybody this is your song
It may be quite simple but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind I hope you don't mind
that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world
- Elton John, Your Song

Like most classic Elton John songs, the lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin. I could well quote the whole song, it really holds together so well, and Elton does such a great job singing it.

So there you have it, ten of my favorites, and there's many many more. Music is just one of the things that makes life so great, no?

Boy, Am I Tired

2006-05-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

This is a tiring week for me, as it is every year. It's my wife's birthday this week, and it's Mother's Day tomorrow. Of course, I want them both to be special for her so I made a nice dinner for her on her birthday night, and tomorrow we are having about a dozen family members over for Mother's Day (including lots of moms).

So....yawn....I think instead of writing the long, glorious post I planned on posting tonight....big yawn...I'm going to sign off now....BIGGER YAWN.

Good night all!

German Court Sentences Cannibal to Life in Jail

2006-05-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

This story is amazing, and has been going on for several years. He apparently was initially sentenced to only 8 years in jail after being convicted of manslaughter by a lower court (lower in more ways than one...).

The victim had apparently traveled from Berlin after answering an Internet posting placed by the cannibal under the pseudonym “Franky” seeking a young man for “slaughter and consumption." The victim reportedly wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness. The cannibal therefore claimed that the killing was "consensual" because the victim wanted to be eaten. It was all captured on video.

“I wanted to eat him — I didn’t want to kill him,” he told the court.

A grizzlier version of the story can be found in the British paper The Guardian. He apparently first dined on the victim's "privates" together with the victim (!). He then proceeded to kill him, and had eaten 20 kg of the victim's flesh before he was arrested.

Aside from the obvious revulsion this story elicits, what's also amazing to me is that no mention is made in either linked article as to either the cannibal or the victim's mental health. I mean, come on, if anyone's crazy it's this guy, and the victim too. And is the victim really a victim? Sheesh...

At least the higher court recognized the folly of the lower court...

A Ziploc Bag Full of Super 8 Movies

2006-05-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

There's a scene at the end of one of my favorite films, Cinema Paradiso, where the main character, Toto, watches a reel of classic film love scenes, spliced together without sound by the old man who was the projectionist at the town's old cinema. It is accompanied by the film's beautiful musical score and is a wonderful, nostalgic expression of the old man's love for Toto from the time he was a young boy. It is guaranteed to turn me into a bawling, sobbing glob of jelly every time and I love it.

My uncle was visiting recently from out of town. Before he came down, he told me that when my grandmother died several years back, he had found a Ziploc bag full of reels of old Super 8 movies in a drawer in her apartment. He said most of them were labelled with my name, and he asked me if I wanted them. I said sure, bring them over.

A few days later, he stopped by, with the Ziploc bag in hand. It took me a day or so to find a Super 8 projector on eBay. Its a Honeywell Elmo, fully functional in its original box, apparently first purchased in 1968 and barely used. I won the auction for $17.50, shipping was $28.00 and a week later, it arrived.

That first evening, I set the projector up, and after a few minutes of looking it over and figuring out how it worked, I loaded up the first reel.

For the next hour, my wife and I watched eight two minute movies, all of them silent, of a time that I have no recollection of - basically, the second year of my life, as recorded on Super 8 film by my uncle.

At the time I was the only child in the family. My parents were in their early twenties, having left the Old Country to get an education. My uncle (my dad's brother) and my aunt (my dad's sister) were also here, and had not yet married their respective spouses. The films record a visit to the park above Santa Monica Beach, all of us in the rose garden outside the Griffith Park Observatory, and me riding a carousel at the amusement park that occupied the space where the Beverly Center and Cedar-Sinai Medical Center now stand. On another reel, I ride my little bike and pedal car in front of our first house. My mother dotes over me. I am a one year old surrounded by adults, all of whom clearly adore me.

Several things stand out immediately about the films. Of course everyone is dressed in that late 1960's-early 1970's slighty goofy kind of way. My mom's skirts are very short. My father has hair, and his own teeth, with a wide gap between the front two. My uncle drives a Volvo, a curvy one, not like the boxier ones that came later. My aunt, a nurse, is actually dressed like one, with the funny white hat and everything. She drives a cool red 1966 Mustang convertible. My parents have an orange Volkswagen. My dad and aunt are both smoking - you'd think they would have known that it wasn't a good thing to smoke around a one year old back then.

My paternal grandparents make an appearance on one reel - both of them have since passed on.

My wife and I watched the movies - we commented about how funny everyone looked and how much our son looks like I did in the movies.

After we finished watching the movies, we went about our business for the rest of the evening. When I finally lay down in bed, in those liminal pre-sleep moments, I felt a wave of sadness come over me. So much has changed since those movies were made. They are from a different time, so analog, and not just because of the non-digital Super 8 media. There was an innocence I saw in my toddling self, but more importantly I saw it in my parents, as well as in my aunt and uncle. They are the same people now as they were back then, but the years have taken their toll.

In those few minutes of film, I saw a vibrancy and happiness in my mother that I had not remembered seeing in many years. There was a love I saw she had for me that she has not been able to express to me for the longest time, and that I guess I miss on some level. I saw my aunt before she developed multiple sclerosis and its complications. My harsh and abrupt uncle was tender and loving to me. My father had his usual slightly cowboyish swagger, which he carries to this day, but now with an extra 50 lbs or so, less hair, dentures and he finally dumped the cigarettes a couple of years ago.

Watching the films made me sad I think also because I am witnessing my son enter the same age I was in those films. On the one hand I want to take him to the park in Santa Monica and to the Griffith Park Observatory and make a video of our family. But will he someday watch a film of my wife and I with him and also feel a sadness? Will he notice or feel that he was once loved more than he is now? Will there be people in the film who have changed or are no longer around? I don't want him to feel the same sadness I feel now. Or is it all inevitable?

I plan on transferring the films to digital media so that they can be preserved. They hold pieces of my life that I don't remember, and yet they are so much a part of me. I expected to feel nostalgic when I saw them, but not sad like I do. I don't know when I will watch them again, but for now, I am grateful that my uncle gave them to me.

Does Doctor Mengele Live On?

2006-04-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Another medical school interview story - this one relates to Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) which is today.

I was interviewing at Loyola Medical School in Chicago (not the same Jesuit school I have posted about previously). My interviewer was an elderly, white-haired physician, very nice, and very Jesuit (whatever that means...). After exchanging pleasantaries and going over my application, he told me he wanted to ask me an ethical question. It turned out that during World War II, this physician had been part of the U.S. Army force that liberated the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. One of the horrifying stories of the Shoah are the medical experiments conducted by the Nazi "doctors" on the concentration camp inmates.

The Loyola interviewer had a very simple question for me. He wanted to know what I thought should be done with the "research" conducted by the Nazi doctors. Should the data, which in typical Nazi form was carefully and judiciously acquired and recorded, now be used? From a purely detached scientific point of view, much of it was impeccable.

I paused for a moment and thought.

I replied that I didn't think the data should be used in any way, shape, or form as it was not acquired ethically and therefore not valid. To use it would be tantamount to accepting it,and thus validating the methods by which it was acquired. He seemed satisfied with my answer. A week later I was accepted to Loyola (but ended up going elsewhere).

Fast forward twenty years to a conversation I had last week. One of our employees, Jose, a twenty-something year old gentleman who is responsible for recruiting patients for some of the drug company studies we do, was joking with me about a protocol we were starting. We were trying to recruit a 53 year old patient for a study that has a minimum age of 55. I jokingly suggested that we lie about his age, and Jose said that it would be unethical to do so.

His response reminded me of my interview at Loyola, so I decided to pose the same question to him. He too paused and thought about it for a moment. His response was that we should in fact use the data, as it had already been acquired and maybe some good could come of it that way. I told him I disagreed with him, but that I understood his way of thinking.

Yesterday, Jose came to me and told me he had been thinking about the question I asked him. He told me that it bothered him over the weekend, and that he had posed the same question to some of his friends. He said they responded in the same way he did, but that they also understood where I was coming from.

I have always liked Jose, and in particular because he is thoughtful and smart. It has taken many years for many Jews to be able to bring themselves to visit Germany, to buy German products and to forgive in some ways. While I can understand a point of view that seeks to find good where all there is is evil, in my eyes, some things are just not forgiveable.

After World War II and the Nazi doctors' atrocities became clear, the World Medical Association issued the Declaration of Geneva. Recognizing the limitations of the Hippocratic oath, the Geneva Declaration specifically reminds physicians of their responsibilities to humanity:

I WILL NOT PERMIT considerations of age, disease or disability, creed,
ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual
orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty
and my patient;
I WILL MAINTAIN the utmost respect for human life;
I WILL NOT USE my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity, even under threat;

As I continue to think about Jose's response to the Loyola interviewer's question, I submit it to you my (few, but proud!) readers.

Google Jew Follow-Up

2006-04-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who think we cannot effect change by our actions I invite you to head over to Google.com, do a search for the word "Jew" and see what we've accomplished! Or, you could just click here.

As you can see, due to the efforts of many bloggers and internet users like you and me we have successfully knocked down the antisemitic site to number two (if only we could get it out of the search results period!).

Congrats to everyone who helped out for a job well-done!

A Happy Passover to All!

2006-04-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Top Five Things I Love About Passover:
1) Matzo ball soup
2) The Seders
3) Charoset
4) Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine (only on Passover!)

5) My dad's famous joke about why we eat eggs in salt water.

Top Five Things I Don't Like About Passover:
1) Matzah
2) Constipation related to #1
3) Not being able to eat alot of things I like.
4) Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine (gotta drink it on Passover)
5) My dad's famous joke about why we eat eggs in salt water.

So why do we eat eggs in salt water? Well, according to my father, and utilizing the Hebrew slang for a portion of the male anatomy known as "eggs", that's precisely how high the water came when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea...

No Movie This Week

2006-04-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

If you would like another hint about the significance of last week's movie title, look in the comments. (Don't look Cruisin' Mom, its a spoiler if you plan on seeing the film).

What They Don't Teach in Medical School

2006-04-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

The following is a note from an occupational therapist transcribed directly from a patient's chart I saw today:

Occupational Therapy (O.T.):

Patient's daughter vehemently refusing occupational therapy.
Daughter also concerned about texture of liquids on patient's tray.
Daughter stating she did not request O.T. and is more than willing to do
everything for her mother/the patient. O.T. off the case at this point in
order to protect patient's daughter from any further agitation. However,
O.T. remains available at any point in time should there be a need. J.Doe, O.T.R.

There are many things wrong with this note. Let's see how many we can find...

Doctors With Avatars

2006-04-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

Psychotoddler has posted a Yahoo! instant messenger conversation we had yesterday where we learned we had something in common...

Saving Healthcare Dollars

2006-04-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Doctor Bean over at Kerckhoff Coffeehouse posted about the National Health Service in the United Kingdom and how it isn't working. An interesting discussion about health care delivery in the United States then ensued. I left a comment there that I am proud of, and think it deserves further discussion and perhaps further political action if someone has the energy to make it happen. I decided to repost it here in the hopes that this could happen, and in the off chance that there are people out there who read this blog and not Kerckhoff... The comment follows:

One of my ICU professors when I was a medical resident proposed a relatively quick fix to Medicare which I haven't heard too much discussion of since. It is a known fact that the vast majority of health care expenditures in the U.S. is at the end of life, or in the few months preceding the end of life. We go to great heroic measures to prolong the lives of people who by all rights should be dead, and in fact, if they had a choice in the matter probably would be.

Therein lies the point, as my prof pointed out. It should be a requirement that anyone who enrolls in Medicare have an advanced directive, as well as a health care proxy who will make decisions for them should they become incapicitated. These should be kept on a centralized database, easily accessible in any emergency room (and changeable if the subscriber so desires).

Doctor Bean and Psychotoddler can tell you about the endless and very expensive days elderly, chronically ill, demented, unresponsive people, with no quality of life whatsoever spend languishing in our hospitals, ICUs and yes, nursing homes. They are kept alive because they never made their end-of-life wishes known.

The current assumption is that as health care professionals, we should be prolonging life at all costs. The same assumption applies to Medicare/Medicaid and that as a society we should continue to prolong life at all costs. That assumption needs to change. There is nothing wrong with dying, at the appropriate time.

A mandatory advance directive would be relatively easy to enact, simply becoming an integral part of the application for Medicare/Medicaid. I firmly believe that this would result in substantial savings to the health care system and slow the runaway train of ballooning health care costs.

Do those of you reading this have an advanced directive? Do your loved ones know what you would want done if you were terminally ill? Have you designated a person to be your health care proxy in that event?

I'll get off my soapbox now.

It's Saturday Night Again - Movie!

2006-04-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, this is the eighth installment of Flick of Da Week. It's getting tougher to find good movies to share. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up!

Anyway, the image pictured in the right column is from this week's film, which though excellent, interesting and well-done, wasn't widely released. It was an unusual role for Samuel L. Jackson, but nonetheless, he does a great job as always. Two questions to address:

1) What is the name of the film?
2) What is the significance of the title?

Good luck.

Previous weeks:

Saturday Night Movie I
Saturday Night Movie II
Saturday Night Movie III
Saturday Night Movie IV
Saturday Night Movie V
Saturday Night Movie VI
Saturday Night Movie VII

Jew GoogleBomber Jew

2006-03-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

As of March 20th, an antisemitic website, not to be named here and operated by a white power nationalist who is also not to be named, has again taken the top spot in the Google search results for the word, "Jew." In 2005, a campaign started by the blog Jewschool helped knock the antisemitic website down to the lowly second position by early 2006, and brought the Wikipedia description for Jew up to its rightful place at number one. Unfortunately, the antisemitic site is now back at number one. The technique used to rearrange the Google results is called Googlebombing.

As described in Wikipedia, due to the way that Google's PageRank algorithm works, a page will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page all use consistent anchor text. A Google bomb is created if a large number of sites link to the page in this manner.

So my friends, what we all need to do is link to that same Wikipedia description for Jew in the same manner and embed it in our blogs (for the correct way to do it look at the right hand column of this page under "Googlebomb"). The more we link to it, the higher it'll go in the Google results.

You can even do this: Jew, Jew, Jew!!! I'm not sure more than one link per blog makes a difference, but I don't think it hurts either!

Give it a try!

Hat tips: Jewschool and Life-of-Rubin.

A Film For a Saturday Night

2006-03-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

The main actor in this week's film is one of my favorites, and this film came out relatively early in his career. The still image shown below is from one the film's most memorable scenes. (I also know that goldstone enjoys this film immensely).

Identify the following:

1) Who is the main actor?
2) What is the name of the film?
3) What is the famous line that is repeatedly being said during the scene pictured here?

Good luck. This one is a little tougher...

Previous flicks:

Saturday Night Movie I
Saturday Night Movie II
Saturday Night Movie III
Saturday Night Movie IV
Saturday Night Movie V
Saturday Night Movie VI

History Was Made Today

2006-03-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know from previous posts, I have had issues with contractors. Well, our latest home improvement project started today and I am amazed to report it got off to a great start.

The first contractor was scheduled to arrive at 7 AM. Of course, our baby son normally wakes up at 6 AM, but today decided to sleep in... Anyway, the first contractor actually arrived at 7:20 AM which in Pacific Standard Contractor Time is within one standard deviation of arriving on time, so not too bad.

And then, things really got amazing.

The second contractor, who was scheduled to arrive at 10:30-11:00 AM, actually arrived at 9:55 AM. It was so incredible, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him. My wife is still choked up about it.

Then, I called the third contractor, who wasn't even really supposed to come today, and told him he could come by and pick up the old window frame so he could start working on the new one. His response: "I'll be right over."

My response: "What did you say?' .

He said, again: "I'll be right over."

And he came right over.

Contractors #2 and #3 finished their work in about 20 minutes and left. Contractor #1 boarded up the old window space, and he just left as well.

I am beside myself. I don't know what to do. I had cancelled my office hours until 2 PM today so I could be here to help supervise and now all the contractors are gone, having shown up on time and efficiently getting their work done!

Something is terribly wrong here, but I haven't yet put my finger on it...

Saturday Night at Da Movies

2006-03-18T21:57:00.000-08:00

The tagline for the film pictured below is:

The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live TV. 12 hours later, it was all history. And its all true.

I won't insult you by asking you to identify Al Pacino in one of his greatest roles, though he didn't want an Oscar for this one (he was nominated). Identify the film, and tell me why Pacino and his costar (John Cazale) were robbing the bank in the first place.

Past Saturday Nights Flicks:

Saturday Night Movie I
Saturday Night Movie II
Saturday Night Movie III
Saturday Night Movie IV
Saturday Night Movie V

I took care

2006-03-17T18:38:00.000-08:00

I took care of a made man. A guy in jail for being the enforcer for one of the five families. He spoke exactly like Marlon Brando in I. I could have cleared him and sent him back to the prison, but I referred him on to the larger hospital, just in case.

I took care of a woman with one leg. She was 88. She didnt lose it because of diabetes or vascular disease. She lost it because on the first day of high school in 1932 she was hit by a car while waiting for a trolley. She never went to high school, got home schooled. She got a prosthesis a year later. and worked her whole life. But she never got married. Sad.

I took care of a woman who claimed she was raped by several prison guards. She was schizophrenic. She refused to be examined. She attacked the guards who were watching her. I had to assume she was telling the truth. A few days later I ran into one of the guards at the hospital. She retracted everyting. I let him know that I didnt believe her in the first place.

I took care of a man who I have no idea what he has. But he is dying.

On My Mind

2006-03-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

Borrowing from posts on Stacey's Shmata here and here, where she just lists stuff going on in her life, I've decided to do something similar. So without further ado, I bring you:

Five Things On My Mind

1) Is Elliott Yamin Jewish?

Those of you watching American Idol know who I'm talking about. Unconfirmed reports elsewhere in the blogosphere report that his real name is Ephraim Yamin and that he is in fact a member of the tribe. Elsewhere in the blogosphere also states that he has a face made for radio, which means he probably won't win. I predict either Chris Daughtry or Katherine McPhee.

2) There have now been three shootings at Denny's.

In Pismo Beach, Ontario and Anaheim - I've never been to any of them.

3) No one will buy the rug we're trying to sell on Ebay.

We bought a Pottery Barn wool rug on Ebay for our son's room a few weeks ago and it turns out that it sheds worse than an Old English Sheepdog. We're trying to sell it (at a loss!) and its been listed for a second time now without any bidders. For now, its sitting wrapped and rolled up in our entrance hallway, waiting for a buyer. I've sold many things on Ebay before, and this has never been a problem. Aaargh!

4) We're having a leaky window in our house removed, rebuilt and then reinstalled next week.

It's got me scared - let's just say I've had some bad experiences with contractors.

5) Will Doctor Bean ever blog again?

He's the one who got me into this crap, and though he does scatter comments around the blogosphere, I must admit I miss his Reaganesque, smirky posts. I'm thinking of starting a Bring Back Bean campaign.

So there you have it - feel free to take any of these on (or none!).

They're Baaaaackkkk!

2006-03-12T22:12:00.000-08:00

Who you ask?

The Sopranos!!!

And what a great episode it was tonight! It just reminds me what a great show we've been missing for the last two years or so. I'll be looking forward to Sunday nights now, that's for sure.

Flick of Da Week

2006-03-11T21:31:00.000-08:00

I reckon this week's flick should be a little easier considering its a little more recent than the last couple of films we've discussed. Mmmm, or maybe not...

The still you see below is from this week's film, which was written and directed by the actor who plays the main character. The film won the Oscar for best screenplay, but I also think he deserved the best actor award, for which he was nominated. (He was beat out by Geoffrey Rush in Shine, in another excellent performance).

Who is the actor-writer-director? What did the main character particularly enjoy eating?

Past Saturday Nights at the Movies:

Saturday Night Movie I
Saturday Night Movie II
Saturday Night Movie III
Saturday Night Movie IV

This is Bella

2006-03-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

I would like to take this opportunity to formally introduce you all to Bella, our family beagle.

Bella is a purebred, American Kennel Club (AKC) registered beagle. Her official AKC name is actually GEM's Bella Rina (kinda like ballerina, get it?). She is a 13" beagle (they also come in a 15" variety) and has tricolor markings (beagles also come as red & whites, "blueticks" and "lemons"). There were only two pups in Bella's litter, and her brother unfortunately died within hours of birth. Luckily, there were other puppies at the kennel for Bella to grow up with, and she is very social. Bella joined Bella's Mom and me about about a year and a half ago, when she was 12 weeks old. We had lost a pregnancy quite far along, and were recovering from the trauma of it all. Bella helped save our mental health.

Top Ten Factoids about Bella:

1) She was born in a small town near Eugene, Oregon at GEM Beagles.
2) Bella claims that her real name is "Lady Jean Casilbury" and that she is actually not from Oregon, but is one of the Queen of England's Royal Beagles, well-known throughout all of Nottingham Forest as a champion fox hunting hound. (I made this all up, she's really from Oregon).
3) Bella's father "PD" was the Best of Breed at the 2004 Wesminister Kennel Club Dog Show and the 2004 National Beagle Club Best of Breed (really!).
4) Bella has eaten two of her mom's cell phones. The cell phone insurance company has cancelled our policy because of her. Bella has also eaten one pair of Adidas and one pair of Nikes.
5) Bella has a theme song, Tiny Dancer, by Elton John. "Bella Rina, you must have seen her. Dancin' in the sand..."
6) Bella enjoys eating diapers, preferably used diapers. I can vouch for the fact that diapers are not digestible, and emerge from the dog's digestive tract unchanged.
7) Bella has eaten a tube of Desitin. There is such thing as Animal Poison Control. They charge $55 for a consultation, and are very helpful. They said beagles eat everything, and they never die from anything they ingest, no matter how toxic. Other breeds apparently do.
8) Bella has a very precise biological clock. She wakes up at precisely 7 AM, and expects to be fed at precisely 8 AM. Dinner must be served at precisely 6 PM.
9) Sometimes Bella gets gas. Bad gas.
10) When our baby son got his last set of vaccination shots at the pediatrician's office, the only thing that made him stop crying was a picture of Bella.

Bella really is our first child, and we love her very much. Despite the fact that she drives us crazy at times, she enriches our lives in many ways. She is a loving, loyal pain in the ass, but we could never imagine how things would be without her. She's glad to meet you!

Saturday Night Flick

2006-03-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

The scene you see below was almost left out of the film because the studio thought it to be in bad taste. Luckily, the writer-director had final say, and the scene remained. It is a classic film from the 1970's.

Identify the film, the writer-director and, most importantly, what's going on in the scene.

Good luck!

Prior Saturday Night Flicks:

Saturday Night Movie I
Saturday Night Movie II
Saturday Night Movie III

The Clash Between the Middle Ages & the 21st Century

2006-03-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

Wafa Sultan is a Syrian expatriate Arab American psychologist who has been critical of Islamic fundamentalism for some time. She has bravely debated members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic fundamentalists on several occasions. Her bravery is not only remarkable for its unapologetic and direct anti-Islamofascist stance, but particularly in that it comes from a woman, which particularly enrages many Muslim fundamentalists. Most recently she appeared on Al-Jazeera TV:

http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null

Excerpts include:

The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand.

The Jews have come from the tragedy (of the Holocaust), and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror, with their work, not their crying and yelling. Humanity owes most of the discoveries and science of the 19th and 20th centuries to Jewish scientists. 15 million people, scattered throughout the world, united and won their rights through work and knowledge. We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people.

Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them.

Many have spoken of the need for a Muslim reformation before there can be an end to the war between Islam and the West. Voices like Wafa Sultan's must continue to be heard and amplified throughout the Muslim world, so that this spiralling madness we are witnessing can hopefully soon come to an end.

Link and transcripts from MEMRI.

Rachel Corrie

2006-03-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

So, here the situation. A movie about suicide bombers is nominated for an Oscar. Israel is trying to have the movie removed from consideration.

Alan Rickman(of Harry Potter,Die Hard, and Truly Madly Deeply fame) directed a play in London about the life and death of Rachel Corrie (ISM member who was crushed by a bulldozer on purpose, or crushed by debris pushed by a bulldozer who didnt see her in Gaza two years ago)
It was a big hit in London (big surprise) and was to move to New York but the producers decided to delay it. No reason given but my guess is the donors to the theater company would have stopped any kind of support if this had gone through.

I feel bad for her and her family, but I read some of her journal entries, and I cant for the life of me understand how someone could be so passionate about people under occupation, and have nothing to say about bombs filled with screws and ballbearings blowing up in Sbarros or during a Seder.

The Bat Mitzvah Dancers

2006-02-25T22:43:00.000-08:00

Bella's Mom and I went to a bat mitzvah party last night. It was the daughter of a friend of my parents, who happens to be a physician and has thrown me a couple of bones (patients) to help get my practice going. I guess he thought he'd invite us to his daughter's bat mitzvah as well. They came to our wedding, and to our son's bris (circumcision ceremony).

It was held in the penthouse ballroom of a decent local hotel. There was an open bar, passed hors d'oeuvres and a DJ. There were about 125-150 people there. The dinner options were chicken or fish.

Anywhoooo.

This is all pretty standard I guess. They are a very secular, Israeli family. My parents were there too. Apparently this was the extent of the Bat Mitzvah. My mother told me that there was no religious ceremony, there was no announcement at their synagogue (they don't go to one) and that she didn't think the bat mitzvah girl even knew how to read Hebrew. The girl did make a speech about how today was the day she took on the responsibility of a "member of Jewish society" and how it was important to live by "Jewish ethics". She thanked her parents, grandparents, and everyone for coming. They lits some candles for some reason.

Then the dancing started. All of a sudden, these four scantily clad young women emerge from a side door. The DJ cajoles everyone to join in dancing. The four women are wearing, I kid you not, tight royal blue leggings and a halter top shaped like a royal blue Star of David, with their cleavage, midriffs and belly buttons showing. They pranced around the room and grabbed people by the elbow and pulled them onto the dance floor. Mind you that Bella's Mom and I are not the least bit shy or prude, but we just looked at each other and our mouths dropped.

As the evening progressed, the Bat Mitzvah Dancers, as we dubbed them, had several costume changes. Always including tight leggings, always showing off their belly buttons, and always prancing around the room, they were apparently charged with getting the party going. They then did a strange performance dance to the tune of the Gipsy Kings' "Volare". What did this have to do with reaching the age of mitzvot or even the transition from childhood to womanhood? Dissonance.

Now ok - I've heard of over-the-top bar and bat mitzvah celebrations, but this was a little too much... Our son is only about six months old, and his bar mitzvah is very far off. It will not be like this. Sure we may change our minds several times between now and then, sure he may pressure us to do some things we may not think are appropriate (or maybe he won't), but he will be called to the Torah, there will not be the Bat Mitzvah Dancers and I really don't envision a Saturday night party at a hotel penthouse ballroom.

I have read elsewhere and also personally experienced the degeneration of the bar/bat mitzvah from a religious rite of passage to an over the top and ostentatious party. I know this is an issue that comes up for many Jewish families as the bar/bat mitzvah stage approaches. My impression is that it seems to be more of an problem in secular families, or perhaps in Reform, or even some Conservative families. While I sometimes hesitate to fully affiliate ourselves with the Modern Orthodox congregation to which we belong, this is one situation where I have no hesitation whatsoever.

To me, these ostentatious celebrations are not at all about the transition from being a child to becoming a Jewish adult with the responsibilities of mitzvot and community. They are repugnant and morally bankrupt displays of gluttony that should not in any way be associated with a religious or ethical rite of passage. I feel like I am coming across strong here, and I may look back on these words sheepishly down the line (or maybe 12 1/2 years down the line), but I think I would have enjoyed myself much more if this was just a nice birthday party, rather than being done under the guise of an important religious life cycle landmark event. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that they invited us, they are a lovely family and I wish them the best. As I said, I don't think that they are particularly unique - I just lament the fact that this is where much of American Jewry is at these days and don't know where we're headed. The Bat Mitzvah Dancers just seem like the wrong direction.

Saturday Night Movie III

2006-02-25T22:24:00.000-08:00

For this one I will tell you very little. Look at the picture below. The actor who plays the child as an adult is also the director of the film. The film is a classic, one of my all time favorites. What is going on in this scene? Where are they?

Good luck.

Previous Saturday Night Flicks:

Saturday Night I
Saturday Night II

Nerd, Geek or Dork

2006-02-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, one of the nurses I work with pointed out to me that he was a geek because the first page he opened the newspaper to was an ad for Fry's, a gadget and electronics store. I told him I actually thought that made him a nerd, and we began a discussion about what the difference was. We really couldn't arrive at a decision, so I decided to look it up when I got home.

From Wikipedia, a nerd is someone "who is perceived to have above-average intelligence and whose interests (often in science and mathematics) are not shared by mainstream society." Whereas a "geek is essentially a person who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by obscure or very specific areas of knowledge and imagination." The lines dividing a geek from a nerd seem blurry and difficult to me. Furthermore, in this day and age, does an interest in gadgetry and electronics make someone any different from the mainstream? Perhaps, when carried to an extreme.

In my research, of course, I came across a test that I hoped would help distinguish for myself at least whether or not I was a geek or a nerd. To make matters more complicated, the test I found also included dork as an option. Dork is defined as a person who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. My results:

Pure Nerd
69 % Nerd, 47% Geek, 47% Dork

So there you have it. For some reason, I always saw myself as more of a geek. Maybe that's because that's what they told me I was in high school. It turns out that nerdiness, geekiness and dorkiness can all coexist. It is possible to be a little of all three. If this post wasn't enough to prove it, I now have proof documented by rigorous testing that my nerdiness predominates. I trust that nerdy traits would predominate in most bloggers, as the act of blogging is in and of itself a nerdy trait. Funny thing is, after re-reading this post, I feel most like a dork. Go figure.

Saturday Night At The Movies

2006-02-18T21:25:00.000-08:00

This week's film is in my opinion the greatest Vietnam movie ever made. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the cinematography is phenomenal, and the sniper scene at the end is one of the most gripping, suspenseful sequences ever filmed.

See the image, and for extra credit identify who the actor is and what he has been doing more recently.

Fire in the Hole

2006-02-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

The L.A. Fire Department visited us this evening...

We had noticed this burning smell around our house late this afternoon. I went outside and "sniffed around" and couldn't identify where it was coming from. It kinda smelled like burning plastic, or what I thought was electrical insulation.

I took Bella for a walk and sniffed around the neighborhood. The smell was definitely strongest around our house. I got out my high power flashlight and shined it around the perimeter of our house and saw nothing. I went down into the crawl space under the house, where the furnace is and smelled nothing.

After consulting with Bella's Mom, we decided we had to call someone. But who? This wasn't an emergency, so I didn't want to call 911. I looked in the yellow pages for the non-emergency number and found that in the City of Los Angeles, you're supposed to dial 311 for non-emergencies.

I dialed.

"Hello, this is Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of the City of Los Angeles..."

What, I got the mayor?

"...if this is a life threatening emergency, hang up and call 911. Hola, esta Antonio Villaraigosa, el alcalde de Ciudad de Los Angeles. Si es un emergencia, marcar nuevo uno uno..."

I stayed on the line for ingles. The woman who came on was very nice, and connected me to my local fire station, station 58. The firefighter who came on the line was also very nice, and listened to my story and my fears.

"Why don't you call 911 so they can direct the correct resources to your house."

"But it's not an emergency," I said.

"Just tell them its not an emergency."

"OK."

So, again after consulting with Bella's Mom, I dialed.

"911, what's your emergency."

"It's not an emergency," I said.

I told her my story.

"Hold on, while I connect you to the police operator."

Police? But its just a burnt smell.

I tell them my story.

"Hold on, while I connect you to the fire department."

Wait, I already talked to them, they told me to call you.

"Station 58, what's your emergency?" Voice sounds kinda familiar.

I tell him my story.

It's a different guy. "Fire department will be right there!"

2 minutes go by. A siren in the distance. Bella's Mom looks at me. We sigh.

Engine 58 pulls up in front of Casa de Wanderer, lights flashing. Neighbors are peaking out through their windows. 5 firefighters in full battle gear step off.

"What's the problem?"

I tell them my story.

We walk around the perimeter of our house.

"Smells like candles. Have you been burning candles?"

"Umm, no...."

"Is your heater on?"

"mmmm....yes. But it never smells liike this."

"OK"

Then they bring out the coolest thing. An infrared fire detector!

They scan every wall of my house. They find nothing.

"Sir, we don't think there is anything to worry about. Your house is not burning down."

"So what do you think the smell was?"

"It's a mystery."

Huh? That's it? A mystery. Hmmm. OK.

"Well, thanks for coming out then. Sorry to trouble you. I told them it wasn't an emergency."

"Sure." And they left.

Boy do I feel dumb. If I don't post for a few days, it might be because my house burnt down and I was too embarassed to call... Hasta luego...

Random

2006-02-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

Last week I saw Geraldo leaving the restaurant I was in. Two weeks ago my wife saw Robin Byrd there.

My daughter walked into our room several days ago and vomited in several locations. My son vomited the next night. Both had a fever. A few days later he had an ear infection and recurrence of fever. and they both had diarrhea. Did I mention the cat seems to like vomit. We considered seeing if she would lap it all up, but she lost interest quickly. After the professional rug cleaners left, I made a vow to myself that when my daughter says" my tummy hurts" i will take it more seriously.

Dinner

2006-02-15T18:32:00.000-08:00

Thai or Burritos?

Tevye Has Left Anatevka

2006-02-12T17:23:00.000-08:00

And ended up somewhere else:

http://www.toho.co.jp/stage/yane2005/asx/yane_r1_low.asx

This is a hoot! I watched this a few times and found myself mesmerized. It's amazing how when you know the story, you don't have to understand a word of the script. If you think about it, I guess that's kinda what opera is all about...

Movie Notes

2006-02-10T04:21:00.000-08:00

Wanderer,did you really like Cinema Paradiso that much?

EDIT: (by Wanderer)
It's one of my favorite flicks. I love the musical score, the cinematography and the story about the friendship between the young boy who's father dies in WWII and the old man who runs the Cinema Paradiso. It's Italian cinema at it's best.

I've decided to put a different image on the right side of this page every Saturday night representing a different favorite movie of the contributors to this blog (unless something else seems more appropriate that week). Hopefully it'll be fun. I believe the image I put up this week is one of goldstone's favorites. Identify it in the comments!

Iranian Paper Plans Holocaust Cartoons

2006-02-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

So does this mean we have to go torch the Iranian embassy? Is there an Iranian embassy in the United States for us to torch? How about all the Persian rug places here in L.A.? Should we boycott them?

A prominent Iranian newspaper said Tuesday it would hold a competition
for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West extends the principle of
freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide as it did to the caricatures of the
Prophet Muhammad.

Does the West extend freedom of expression to the crimes committed by
the United States and Israel, or an event such as the Holocaust? Or is its
freedom only for insulting religious sanctities?" Hamshahri wrote, referring to
the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

And this competition is occurring now because they haven't published garbage like that before? The difference is we don't riot when they publish this garbage. Puhleez....

Capitol police apologize to activist Sheehan

2006-02-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

Whether one supports the War in Iraq or not, what happened to Cindy Sheehan at the State of the Union address is a travesty and should be an embarassment to all Americans. Ms. Sheehan had her constitutionally guaranteed right to freely express herself violated, and her rights were further violated by false imprisonement. And this for non-violently and silently wearing a t-shirt with an anti-war slogan. The fact that the wife of a Republican Congressman was also told to leave the chamber for wearing a T-shirt supporting our troops is similarly inexcusable. One wonders why she wasn't arrested, however.

An "apology" by the Capitol police does not suffice. The arresting officers should be disciplined, and an investigation mounted to determine exactly where the order to arrest her came from.

This is a woman who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country - she lost her son - in order to preserve the very freedoms that were violated by her arrest. Shame on the Capitol police, and shame on whomever ordered them to arrest her.

Ode to Ikea - Home of New Beginnings

2006-01-29T17:01:00.000-08:00

Some time last year, the founder of Ikea, a Swede named Ingvar Kamprad, overtook Bill Gates as the richest man in world. Who would have thunk that the maker of put-it-together-yourself particleboard furniture would build an empire of almost 200 stores in 30 countries and end up the richest man in the world?

What is it about Ikea that makes it so popular? A recent trip by Bella's Mom and I to our neighborhood Ikea could be instructive.

First of all, there's that escalator ride up to the showroom. Reminisicent of the lines to Space Mountain at Disneyland, its as if you have left your normal life behind, and are ascending to a new level. The showroom. The furniture of course is nicely laid out, looking stylish and now. There's the Ektorp and the Lyckeby and the Malm and the Hensvik (the names make me laugh). Sure there's some nice stuff, but that's not what it is.

There's the restaurant with the full breakfast for $0.99, or the Swedish meatballs and the lingonberries (what are those?), or maybe the Swedish applecake with the vanilla sauce. Some of it sounds good, but then again, Sweden isn't exactly known to be a culinary powerhouse.

You continue through the serpentine showroom, careful to follow the big blue arrows on the floor, brightly lit from above. You enter the "marketplace," with the shiny utensils, the colorful textiles, the hip lighting fixtures, and the pop art, ready for framing. Nice, but the richest man in the world?

As you look at the people around you, it dawns on you. People come to Ikea when they're at a new beginning. There's the two obviously college roommates you see looking at the $99 table with the four chairs. There's the young newlywed couple trying out the different couches. The pregnant woman is looking at the cribs and changing tables while clutching her back. The woman with the clipboard is watching the man with gloves load up twenty single bookshelves - are they for a new library, a new store? The guy with the torn T-shirt is checking out the CD racks, the woman with the baby in the cart is choosing new curtains for the nursery, and on and on.

This wasn't meant to be an ad for Ikea (though I will of course accept any offers of compensation), its just a place I used to go to when I was in college, its where we bought our bookshelves when we were newlyweds, and where we just bought a little nightstand to put by the rocking chair in our son's bedroom. Ingvar Kamprad hit on something by putting together a clean, well-lit store with hip home furnishings at reasonable prices. Sure they may be made of thick cardboard held together by wooden divets and the customer's own elbow grease, but they look and feel new, have exotic names and fit the customer's needs to a tee.

As long as people continue to have new beginnings, Ikea will continue to succeed. People come there to start something new, and they bring their positive energy with them. Ingvar Kamprad just found a way to channel that energy into his pocketbook, which is now apparently bulging at the seams. Even though it may not be the best quality furniture, and it isn't necessarily built to last, it still gets the job done, and most importantly, it gets those new beginnings off to a good start. Here's to you Mr. Kamprad, I raise a Svalka in your honor.

My Memory of Challenger - January 28, 1986

2006-01-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

There are historical events that occur where people look back and say that they always will remember what they were doing at the time they heard of the event. I think of President Kennedy's assassination in those terms, and perhaps the death of Elvis Presley or maybe John Lennon's murder. This Saturday will be the twentieth anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.

For me, the Challenger disaster was the first event in my life that affected me in that President Kennedy kind of way. I'm not sure if others share this same feeling, but it affected me powerfully. As the son of an electronic engineer, with an uncle who has worked in aerospace, and also growing up in Southern California, the aerospace industry has been an omnipresent and important part of my life.

One of my father's friends was an engineer at Rockwell International, and was a part of the team that designed the space shuttle series. For my tenth birthday, he brought me a collection of artist's renditions of the space shuttle in action, way before its maiden flight. I proudly decorated my room with the prints, and they were fixtures on my wall for many years.

In high school, a group of friends and I drove out to Edwards Air Force Base one chilly morning to watch the space shuttle Discovery land after one of its early missions. We parked on the dry lake bed with the various other spectators and had a grand old time. We heard Discovery's two sonic booms, and then watched it glide to a perfect landing. A truly awesome sight.

The morning of January 28th, 1986 I was a freshman in college at UCLA. That first year of college, I lived at home with my parents. For the early space shuttle missions, a launch was still considered a big deal, and they were televised live. I got up that morning and was looking forward to watching the launch of Challenger. The launch had been postponed several times for various reasons, and I wondered if it would go off as planned. There was much excitement about the astronaut Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher sent to space. Besides McAuliffe, the Challenger crew consisted of mission commander Francis R. Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; mission specialists Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Judith A. Resnik; and payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis. Christa was also listed as a payload specialist.

As the launch occurred, and the explosion followed, I remember sitting on my parents' bed, alone at home, watching with disbelief. Tears streamed down my face as I watched Challenger explode and break up. I watched for a while longer, and with a heavy heart, left for class.

When I arrived at the biology lab section that morning, I was struck by how little it seemed to matter to my classmates. I walked in and everyone seemed to be behaving normally. There was no sense that a tragedy had occurred, and I remember feeling confused about it. For some reason, I felt like no one really cared about it, at least not as much as I did. I turned to my lab partner and asked if he knew that Challenger had blown up and he said that he did, but didn't say anything else about it. The lab instructor got up, gave us the morning's assignment, and it was business as usual.

Of course later I watched all the news coverage and heard President Reagan's speeches about the heroic astronauts. I mourned their deaths too, and mourned the first casualty of the shuttle program. Years later when Columbia broke up on its return to earth it upset me as well, but it wasn't the same as that day when Challenger exploded.

In my life, there have only been a few events that have impacted me in the same way as the Challenger disaster. The day when Saddam Hussein lobbed the first Scuds at Israel is one, and of course, Sept 11th will also stick with me forever. The latter two cases are days when I felt a sense of danger not necessarily for myself, but for people and places that I loved so much. Many people were upset and worried by the Scuds and the first Gulf War, and 9-11 of course will go down in history as a day that changed the world forever. On January 28th, 1986 I didn't feel like anyone was in danger (other than the astronauts of course) and I don't think it changed the world. But I definitely lost some of my childhood hopes and innocence that day, and I think that is why it affected me so powerfully. I will always remember that day.

America, Israel, and Hamas

2006-01-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

A thought-provoking essay at Daily Kos with perspective on allowing Hamas to participate in the upcoming Palestinian election process. He draws a parallel to the Nineties, when Fatah and the PLO claimed to reject terrorism and joined the political process:

And when I hear the voices which call for us to reject Hamas, and tell us
that there is no hope that Hamas can ever come to peace with Israel, I remember
how the voices then told us the same about Fatah... [If] we dare to give
Hamas the chance we gave to Fatah, that we can all learn the limits of violence
and come to the room to talk and shake hands. Perhaps they will not accept
us, and will not accept peace. We know only too well how to deal with
that, and if we must, we shall again. But we can only have hope if we dare
to take the chance.

I am not ready to accept his premise - namely that allowing Hamas to participate in the political process now would be a positive step towards peace. Hamas's founding charter calls for (and continues to call for) the destruction of Israel and wants to impose an Islamic state on all Palestinian territory. All that needs to change. Even Fatah has not come around in the way one would have liked, as of late they seem to have regressed to their old terrorist ways. Corruption is rampant in Fatah, and this has actually been Hamas' biggest selling point - that they are reliable and relatively free of corruption. But they still have much blood on their hands. But the first step is thinking about change which is what Jay Elias has done, as naive as it currently seems. Unfortunately, the only alternative is more pain and suffering on both sides.

In a related story, "New-look Hamas spends £100k on an image makeover." I kid you not .

Happy Birthday Wanderer

2006-01-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

Well I'd like to think of something more thought provoking but I can't seem to pull it together since my head is spinning from the three hours of sleep last night because of our nervous pacing dog, our stuffy heads and runny noses, our child that likes to awake for suckling, cuddling and rocking every two hours... hmmmmphh.... *sigh* but hey hun... Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband and a terrific aba to our delicious little boy. I can't believe you are one year away from the year before 40! But don't your patients still ask you if you are old enough to be a doctor?

We are awaiting your arrival home and love you. I better get moving, the sirens are going off over here~~ but yummmm we have a good meal for tonight.

Happy Birthday.

Love, Your Wife and Son (aka- Bella's Mom)

Lame Post

2006-01-19T20:21:00.000-08:00

Our six month old son got his first cold. We haven't slept more than two hours in a row in a week. Now I have a cold too. I really can't think very well. Please discuss the following and tell me what it means:

Oh, I could hide 'neath the wings
Of the bluebird as she sings.
The six o'clock alarm would never ring.
But it rings and I rise,
Wipe the sleep out of my eyes.
My shavin' razor's cold and it stings.

Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean.
To a daydream believer
And a homecoming queen.

You once thought of me
As a white knight on a steed.
Now you know how happy I can be.
Oh, and our good times start and end
Without dollar one to spend.
But how much, baby, do we really need.

Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean.
To a daydream believer
And a homecoming queen.
Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean.
To a daydream believer
And a homecoming queen.

[Repeat and fade]

Thank you very much. We hope to resume regularly scheduled programming soon.

Bush Blew It, Again

2006-01-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

Since Medicare Part D kicked in, I have noticed a marked increase in my elderly patients not being able to get their medications, or having to pay the full out of pocket expense. Apparently there has been concern from both sides of the aisle in Congress as well:

The concern was bipartisan. Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, said many people had been "turned away at their pharmacies or told that they must purchase the drugs up front and seek reimbursement later."
"These are very vulnerable people who do not have the means to pay for their prescriptions and who cannot go without their medications," Mr. Gregg said.

Particularly troubling have been the poorer patients who previously obtained their meds through Medicaid, and now are forced to come up with more funds to pay their copays (if they can get their medications at all).

It's nice to see bipartisan criticism of the Bush Administration for a change, and governors from both parties (including our own Govinator) have been signing emergency legislation into laws to help bridge the gap until Medicare and its contracted insurers gets their act together:

The new federal program is too complicated for many people to understand, and the implementation of the new program by the federal government has been awful," said Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican.

And:

Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a Republican who is chairman of the National Governors Association, declared a public health emergency.

Like with his initial response to Katrina, Bush has been pointing fingers at everyone but his own executive branch, which is supposed to execute the laws that he signs. Eventually, someone is undoubtedly going to be the scapegoat and have to resign, but only after being told they have been doing a "heck of a job." Great way to get that approval rating up!

What Should I Have Done?

2006-01-15T12:47:00.000-08:00

When I was asked to see the 78 year-old Mrs. Goldberg (not her real name) the other day, I was forewarned that she had an "interesting" or "challenging" personality. Indeed, when I walked into her hospital room she was busy getting dressed and preparing to leave the hospital against medical advice. Her husband and daughter stood by speechless.

I introduced myself, told her I was a cardiologist and explained to her that I was there to see her because her primary care doctor thought she had suffered a heart attack. She replied that she had heard that too, and that they were wrong and that all she had was the flu.

I proceeded to ask her a few questions about her medical history. She told me that she had been experiencing trouble breathing while walking to syngagogue for some time now. After a few more questions it quickly became clear that we in fact attended the same synagogue (though she didn't look familiar to me)! She then sat down and agreed to stay in the hospital so we could finish working her up.

Her condition improved rapidly, and this morning I arrived on her floor intending to discharge her. On my arrival, the nurse taking care of her informed me that Mrs. Goldberg was not eating, and that she was saying she was on a hunger strike. I went to her room and asked her about it.

She told me: "I have not eaten in fourteen and a half hours and have now been waiting for breakfast for three hours and it has not arrived. My last meal was the ice cold turkey they served me for dinner yesterday."

I nodded my head.

"I am on a hunger strike to protest the terrible food at this hospital. I am supposed to be on a low salt diet, and not only was the turkey ice cold, but I KNOW there was salt in it!"

I proceeded to examine her, and found her to be physically fit for discharge and told her so. She thanked me and told me she would see me in my office later this week.

As I sat ordering her discharge, the nurse emerged from her room and said: "She wants to go down to the hospital cafeteria to eat breakfast, and she's on a cardiac diet you know." I told the nurse I was discharging the patient, and that once discharged she could do whatever she pleased.

Next thing I know, Mrs. Goldberg, in her hospital gown with the rear open, is standing in front of me.

"Doctor Wanderer," she says, "I have not eaten in 14 and a half hours. The nurse has offered to call the hospital kitchen for my breakfast, but I told her not to because I am protesting this hospital's food. It is not good enough to give a DOG! Is it OK if I go down to the cafeteria for some breakfast?".

"Mrs. Goldberg," I say, "I am discharging you now and you can then go home and eat whatever your heart desires."

"Thank you, Doctor," she replies. "I need to ask you a favor. My husband took all my belongings home and I don't have my wallet. Could I borrow ten dollars so I can go to the cafeteria? I promise I'll pay you back in shul..." (shul=syngagogue).

Wow, I thought to myself. I have never been asked for a favor like that by a patient (unless you count the drug addicts who used to ask me for "cabfare" when I was a medical student in the Bronx). To be honest, it made me feel a little uncomfortable. The nurses stood around with huge smiles on their faces, giggling, and Mrs. Goldberg was waiting for an answer.

What should I have done?

Drano for Your Arteries

2006-01-13T09:46:00.000-08:00

I'm going to wear my cardiologist hat for this post. The article linked refers to a treatment that could potentially revolutionize the care of heart disease if it proves to be effective. It could conceivably eliminate the need for anyone ever needing coronary artery bypass surgery or angioplasty, and prevent heart attacks just by taking a pill!

It is also a wonderful story about how a serendipitous observation by a smart physician in a small northern Italian town called Limone sul Garda could eventually result in millions of lives being saved.

This doctor saw a 49 year old man named Valerio Dagnoli who was sick with something non-cardiac and happened to order a cholesterol panel. "[He] found that the villager's HDL of 7 was dangerously low, well below the normal level of 40. His triglycerides, other blood fats linked to heart disease, were 319, more than twice the norm. Despite these ominous signs, his arteries were clear," and furthermore it turned out that he came from a family that never experienced any heart disease!

"Puzzled by the result, the doctor sent Dagnoli to a specialist, Cesare Sirtori, in Milan. The case so intrigued Sirtori that he screened all 1,100 residents of Limone sul Garda to see whether he could find others with similar blood profiles. He found 40 people, all of whom could be traced to common ancestors born in the late 1700s. Their HDL averaged less than 20, half of normal for men and women. " None of them had heart disease.

Researchers eventually found that the villagers had a mutation in HDL's biggest protein, apoA-1. They dubbed the mutant version apoA-1 Milano.

Subsequent testing in animals has shown that infusion of apoA-1 Milano can actually lead to shrinkage of the plaques that often can lead to blocked arteries and heart attacks. To date, no other treatment had ever been shown to do this effectively, and with a good safety profile.

Celebrations have ensued, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, as they have rushed to jump on the bandwagon and get the drug tested and out on the market. A similar story exists for another mutation found in a small group of related individuals from the Japanese island of Honshu. This drug is also in the developmental stage.

What does this all mean? Well, for now nothing, so don't go out and load up on hamburgers, french fries and ice cream because the drugs aren't ready for prime time yet. But it is a great story (at least to a medical geek like me) and offers great hope for the future treatment of heart disease, the number one killer in this country. Stay tuned!

This is fun!

2006-01-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

If you haven't gone for a cab ride recently, you should try this out! (Speakers on!)

Re-Gifting or Not Re-Gifting

2006-01-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

Our son is five months old and we just celebrated his first Chanukah and even managed to throw together a latke party for family and some close friends of the family. One of the guests I thought was so kind to get my son some very cute shoes that appeared to be of boutique quality, a brand I was unfamiliar with. I asked her if this was a name of a store or a brand carried at stores. She went on and gave me an elaborate response about the gift, where she got it and why and how she was inspired to get it for our son.

Well today I went walking along this boutique friendly neighborhood and came across the store that these magical shoes came from. I wanted to exchange them for a larger size since I don't feel our son needs to wear shoes at five months old. So I walk in and ask the boutique owner if I could exchange them for a twelve month shoe. She looked at the shoe with a look of unfamiliarity and then proceeded to say "Oh, I'm sorry Miss we have not carried these shoes for maybe over a year. We can't do anything for you". With embarrassment I took them back and just proceeded to look around.

Then I get home from our little walk and there's a box delivered by our regular UPS guy. It was a gift from my cousin for our son. We had just been up there for their son's bris and upon our return received an email from her explaining they had forgotten to give our son a gift they bought and so on, again with a longer than normal explanation. Fine. So, I wait for my husband to get home from work for us to open the gift together and lo and behold the gift was not wrapped and was shoved inside a baby shower gift bag (from her baby shower) and we take out the gift and wipe our finger across the inch of black dust on the toy and torn corners of the package with old tape and wrapping paper stuck on the box.

So, I ask myself is this what parents do these days is re-gift their own kids' gifts? I always thought when you get a duplicate of a gift that you take it back to the store and try and exchange it. Or, if you don't know where it came from then offer it to a friend or family member with the truth behind it, rather than lying to someone else and getting rid of it that way. Even if the re-gifter is low on cash, I'd always respect honesty far more or no gift at all.

What are the thoughts going through a re-gifter's mind?

"Ooooo, they'll never know!"
"Wow, we didn't have to spend a dime!"
"This is so cool - I didn't even have to leave the house to shop!"
"Phew! We finally got rid of this!"

I have to say that right now I have a different feeling inside about my cousin and the people who gave the shoes. Yes I still care for them but they've also just lied to me and it's bothersome. And do I want to give these gifts to my son to use? No, and not because they were re-gifted but because of the way in which they were re-gifted.

The Good Old Days

2006-01-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

It seems that things were always better in the Good Old Days.

Riding down the elevator from my office this morning, an elderly gentleman is conversing with someone else on the elevator.

"The Fifties were the good old days, not today."

I interject:

"Not the good old days thing again, tomorrow you'll say that today was better than tomorrow because it will have become the good old days."

He replies: "No, today is wild and crazy. The good old days were in the 1950's."

To which I reply: "How can you say that? The 1950's were full of fear, the Red Menace, nuclear annihilation, Joseph McCarthy, etc."

"Son," he says, "I fought in the Korean War in the 1950's. I was seriously wounded and ended up at Walter Reed Medical Center outside Washington, D.C. Senator McCarthy came to visit me."

"Really." I said.

"Yes, he wanted me to sign an oath of loyalty."

"Interesting. So what did you do?"

"I told him to go f#%& himself."

And he walked off the elevator.

Aside from the enjoyment I derived from seeing an 80 year old using the f-word, it struck me as amazing that despite the fact that he went to war, despite the fact that he was wounded and despite the fact that the country was in a state of suspicion and fear, he still felt that those were the good old days. Why is that?

Why is it that we are never satisfied with the here and now? Things were always better before, and of course, they can only get better in the future. Or maybe they're not always going to get better in the future. To quote Jack Nicholson "What if this is as good as it gets?"

I can understand being optimistic about the future more than I can understand the notion that things were always better before. I think part of the way our mind works is to focus on the good stuff in our life, and suppress things that were bad. I've said before that our memory for events can be selective, but does that apply to emotions, feelings and our sense of well-being? Are the emotions and feelings actually more important? There are parts of my life I can look back on and say those were the good old days (year I spent at Hebrew University in Jerusalem), and other parts were the bad old days (11th Grade). I assign them as good or bad based not entirely on what happened to me, but based on the emotions I remember I had at the time. So maybe elderly elevator guy went to war and was wounded, but he was happy to do it, felt good about himself at the time, and that's why they were the good old days. Either way, I hope to live to an age where I can recount to a young whippersnapper that I once told someone like a United States Senator to go f#%& himself! The Good Old Days indeed!

Geraldo Was Right!

2006-01-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of. As a follow up on an earlier post, it turns out the skull was not Mozart's, and even more surprising that the alleged remains of his grandmother and niece aren't even the remains of relatives.

But DNA analysis by researchers at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in
Innsbruck and the U.S. Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville,
Maryland, proved inconclusive. The team found no link between the skull and the
exhumed remains, nor among the remains themselves...

...In a similar but unrelated project, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory reported last month that x-ray analysis of skull fragments from Ludwig van Beethoven showed that the German composer died of severe lead poisoning.

Glad to see our tax dollars hard at work unraveling these important mysteries...

Voila!

2006-01-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

The dining room is finished. We think it looks great, much brighter and warmer than the Sangria color before. The Saffron paint is from Restoration Hardware and was really a pleasure to work with and clean up. Here is the finished product:

I must say that I had a hard time with the trim. I taped everything up really well, but still paint got in under the tape and I had to spend a couple hours last night getting it off the trim with a scraper. I have the aching back to prove it!

More Vacation Fun!

2006-01-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

As promised, more details of my low-key vacation...

We moved into our house about a year and a half ago and had it painted. At the time we thought it would be cool if our dining room had the feel of a Parisian bistro, and therefore we had it painted a deep red color, called Sangria. It works really in Paris, but we decided it was too dark for our house, and have decided to change it to a lighter, brighter, Dijon Mustard like color called Saffron. Here's what it looked like when it was Sangria before I started the prep work:

I actually enjoy painting, provided its in limited doses. The most important three words in painting are prep, prep, and prep, and I've also learned to use the best brushes, etc. So far I've prepped the room, and just finished a first coat of primer:

I'll post the final results, hopefully by Sunday!

Aside from painting, I also have taken the time to go to the dentist since I haven't had the time to go as often as I'd like to. Here is a photo of my teeth from the beginning of the week, before I went to the dentist. He said I had no cavities, but had to do a better job flossing. As you can see in the photo, I have not shaven since being on vacation:

After a trim of the beard, the teeth cleaning and a treatment with the Zoom! whitening system, the results are much better:

Note that your results with the Zoom! system may vary...

Whaddaya think? Nothing like a good low-key vacation to catch up on things, no?

daisy

2006-01-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

I reread the Great Gatsby last week. And I finally realized what a great novel it is. What is it about high school english class that ruins the reading and study of good literature? Is it the forced assigments? The demand to look for symbolism, that has already been underlined in pencil in the dogeared copy your school couldnt afford to replace? The canned discussions that your english teacher has had a zillions times with other classes before your's? I reread it in one sitting, and was blown away.

Mozart's Skull

2006-01-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

This month marks the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth. As a part of the festivities the results of DNA testing on a skull believed to be his are to be released this Sunday!

Those of us who remember the movie (which is generally accurate historically, with drama, of course) will recall that he was buried in a pauper's grave after what was believed to be a bout of rheumatic fever or tuberculosis. More recent evidence suggests that rheumatic fever may not have been involved. From the linked article:

In 1991, a French scholar who examined it made the startling - though
unconfirmed - conclusion that Mozart may have died of complications of a head
injury...[based on] a fracture he found on the skull's left temple. Mozart, he
theorized, may have sustained it in a fall, and that would help explain the
severe headaches the composer was said to have suffered more than a year before his death.

Hmmm, interesting. Maybe they could make an alternative ending to the movie now? Like some bar room brawl where he suffers head trauma or a boxing match with Salieri?

Apparently "genetic material from scrapings from the skull was analyzed and compared to DNA samples gathered in 2004 from the thigh bones of Mozart's maternal grandmother and a niece." I guess they know for fact the identity of these relatives and therefore will be able to have a high statistical likelihood that the skull belongs to old Wolfie. Stay tuned.

Early reports coming in had Geraldo Rivera giving 2:1 odds that the skull actually belongs to Al Capone...

Vacation

2006-01-03T13:10:00.000-08:00

Being low man on the totem pole-try to remedy that soon, when the little when starts school, you will find yourself pulling him out of school in order to take your vacations. That is unless you decide to homeschool him. New years for me was spent with a 102 fever, asleep for 18 hours. I ended up seeing no movies, missed a good party, and ended up at a brunch where me and one other guy were the only straight people there. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I didnt feel entirely comfortable either. On monday night I volunteered at a rape-crisis clinic, and treated a girl who had been raped by her father her whole life. Or maybe she was lying. Happy new year.

Starting Off My Vacation With A Bang

2006-01-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

Being the low guy on the totem pole in my medical group, I didn't get to take my winter vacation until this week. I'm planning on being pretty low key - spending time with my wife and baby son, going to the dentist, getting new glasses, taking the car in for service, painting a room in the house, getting some new bedroom furniture, etc.

A couple of months back, my buddy Doctor Bean had invited me to join him for some target practice at the local firing range. We had talked about gun ownership in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katina government debacle and I had expressed my fears that we would not be able to rely on the government for security in the aftermath of a major natural disaster (like the expected Big One -earthquake- here in Los Angeles). Always eager to recruit new members to the NRA, Bean was kind enough to suggest that we go shootin' so I could try the cold steel feel of a Glock for myself.

After a twenty minute session on basic handgun safety in the Bean dining room, we proceeded to head down to the firing range. Of course we called ahead to confirm that they would be open on "New Year's Day Observed." We got there, signed the necessary release forms stating that we didn't hold the range liable if we got shot, and bought two hundred rounds of 9 mm ammo to blast away. Here is a picture of me in shootin' pose:

Bean also shot away, and I must admit he was a much better shot than I (experience, experience)...

As he was shootin' away, I began to notice something strange happening to his neck. An odd transformation unfolded before my very eyes. At first there was just a hint of a flush. Then it began to coalesce, and a pink hue developed. After he fired a few more rounds, it finally happened. Doctor Bean had transformed into a redneck before my very eyes! I couldn't believe it (and you probably don't either) but the act of shootin' a gun at a firing range transformed that mild-mannered, easy-going internist into a living, breathing redneck! See for yourself:

Ha! Bottom line - it was a lot of fun. Not quite sure if I will get my own weapon, but it was a great way to start my low-key vacation off with a bang. I'll try to post some more of the goings-on as they come up!

Elevator Diffusion

2005-12-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed how when you get into a crowded elevator there is some kind of metaphysical force that causes an automatic reshuffling of the occupants so that each person maximizes their individual space? Its particularly noticeable as the elevator rises and people exit on their respective floors. Once a person leaves, every person remaining on the elevator will shift their position, to allow for more space between everybody. And if someone doesn't move as expected, you can almost palpate the discomfort that everyone else feels at the ensuing dysequilibrium in personal space. This is regardless of whether or not someone has passed gas or not.

Why is that?

I remember there used to be a show or skit (on HBO?) in the Eighties called Sniglets that came up with words for things that weren't necessarily found in the dictionary. I seem to remember there being a word for this "elevator diffusion," but I can't remember what it is.

I Love Google

2005-12-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

So here I am, a relatively young physician with a growing practice, doing OK, reasonably happy with my work and my life. And there they are, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two guys who are a few years younger than me and they have this great business going that's all over the 'Net, in the MSM, with blue skies ahead. Page and Brin are the founders of Google, which between its search engine, Froogle, GoogleEarth, GoogleMaps, Picasa and Blogger seems to be one of the pieces of Internet real estate that I use the most, and for free! And they are raking it in.

Not that I'm jealous, well, maybe a little. Sometimes I just wonder about the road not taken - I mean I was in medical school as these guys, and the Jerry Yangs (of Yahoo!) and the Jeff Bezos (of Amazon) were getting their educations and starting up. Was I in the wrong place at the wrong time? I love Yahoo, Amazon and Google and sometimes I think well, gee, I could have done that. At the very least, maybe if I could have invested the $150,000 I owe in student loans for my education in Amazon, Yahoo or Google stock when they IPO'ed I wouldn't need to work at all, and could be thinking about the next Google. Maybe not.

Apples, Liberal Jews & Blueberry Muffins

2005-12-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

This morning, as I usually do, I picked up a cup of coffee and a pastry before starting my rounds. I like to drink my coffee as I'm going from patient room to patient room and typically finish the pastry by the time I get to the first patient.

As I walk through the halls of hospital munching on my blueberry muffin, I occasionally think about an experience I had when I was interviewing to get into medical school. I was interviewing at a top tier medical school with Christian roots on the East Coast. The interviewer was a very prim and proper middle-aged physician, who started the interview by telling me about the school's rich and Christian roots. It was very interesting, actually.

He quickly surmised that I was Jewish, and he assured me that there were "many Jews" at Top Tier Christian Medical School. He then told me about another Jewish candidate he had interviewed recently. He told me he was not like the other "liberal Jews" and that both of them had been appalled when during the medical school tour they witnessed a physician walking through the halls of the hospital eating an apple.

I have never eaten an apple while walking through the halls of the hospital (only an occasional pastry) and I don't condone either (nor do I think its a particularly big deal, provided its all sanitary). I am a Jew though, and most would say I'm on the liberal side of the political spectrum.

At the time of the interview, his words kind of bounced off me - I felt like I was in a vulnerable position and couldn't really respond to what I have since determined to be antisemitism. I think its kind of an old East Coast upper crust type of antisemitism, that's subtle and not necessarily overt, yet this interviewer felt was appropriate enough to project on to me, provided of course it contained the modifier "liberal". In my book, it would have been equally offensive if he said it was a conservative Jew, a purple Jew or an athletic Jew.

Maybe I should have "reported him" to the administration there and made a stink about it. Maybe it would have forced them to offer me a spot in their incoming class, out of guilt or whatever. (Probably not, and I wouldn't have gone there anyway...). Maybe he would have gotten a slap on the wrist and told he was inappropriate, and maybe he wouldn't be allowed to interview applicants (or at least not the liberal Jewish ones...). I think I carry some guilt or bad feelings over not doing anything about it.

Bottom line, though, is that I carry the experience with me to this day, and I think about it sometimes as I'm eating my morning pastry, walking the halls of the hospital.

Yoo

2005-12-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

When the chips are down who do you want in your corner? Rummy, John Yoo, and Dick Cheney, or Les Aspin, Paul Begala, Warren Christopher, and Walter Mondale?

Brokeback Madrassa

2005-12-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

One of the interns here is from Bangladesh. And very effeminate. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But I wonder how being in a freer and more tolerant society will affect him and how he chooses to self identify. I interviewed his class mate last week, and he said the reason he chose our program was because his friend was here. I didnt give it a second thought, although as he exited the interview I threw a rock at him. I think it made him homesick.

You Blew it Stevie, You Blew it

2005-12-14T13:53:00.000-08:00

Any interest I had in Munich quickly dissipating. The previews looked good, got the sideburns and tracksuit look of the early 70s down. And you know he is a great filmmaker. But from what I hear it is he goes for the even-handed bullshit relatavistic approach. Shame on you Steven. And its boring as well.

nurse

2005-12-13T18:51:00.000-08:00

So my friend is an internist. And he got a new patient on his panel. Poorly controlled hypertension who had just been discharged after being admitted for severe hypertension.
So he is taking her history, she is an RN, and he says what medications do you take-and she says,"the little blue pill"

Can Jews Listen to Christmas Music?

2005-12-11T21:52:00.000-08:00

Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King!

I grew up in a pretty secular Jewish household and then have become more religiously observant beginning in college and then more (or less at times) as I've gotten older. When I was in college, one of my Orthodox Jewish friends (of all people!) introduced me to the Frank Sinatra Christmas Album, which I quickly grew to love.

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!

One time I was over at his house after a Shabbat in December when his brother-in-law, a pillar of the Orthodox community, heard us listening to the album, and asked us to turn it down (or off) because his children were in the house. We kinda looked at each other, shrugged "OK" and turned it down.

Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;

I generally have an urge to listen to the CD starting around Thanksgiving and extending through mid-January. Since that time with my friend's brother-in-law, I never really thought too much about it.

With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Whoa! Did he say Christ? He always has. Hmmm. Let's skip a couple of songs ahead; I like that song, what's it called, Adeste Fideles:

O come all ye faithful, Joyful, and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye To Bethlehem!
Come and behold Him Born the King of angels!
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord!

Vvvvvvvvvehhhhwwwupppp (the sound of a scratching record) - Christ the Lord? OMG! Can I listen to this stuff? It's really fun to listen to, and I hear it in all the stores. Let's see who wrote some of these songs.

Song#2 - The Christmas Song, by Mel Torme. Well, he's Jewish.
Song#5 - The Christmas Waltz, by Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne - Jewish too.
Song#13 - White Christmas, by Irving Berlin. Jew!

So there are other Jews who liked this stuff enough to write songs about it. Still, there's the whole Christ thing, which means Messiah in Latin, and of course we Jews don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. We are so assaulted by the "Christmas Spirit" and poor little Hannukah has been elevated to this status where it must compete with that spirit. To quote comedian Adam Sandler,who seems to share some of my confusion over this issue "Okay...This is a song that uhh..There’s a lot of christmas songs out there and uhh..Not too many chanukah songs. So uhh.."

I have to admit I listened to the whole Sinatra Christmas Album the other day, sang along and enjoyed it by myself, kinda like a guilty pleasure for lack of a better term. All of a sudden my wife's voice from the other room: "Honey, you're going to confuse our son!" Our son is still too young to understand any of this religious stuff anyway, but I guess I'm going to have to start thinking about these issues more in the future. We intend to instill in him a love of all music, and certainly don't want to shelter him from the society around us. Maybe we'll just have to explain it to him and how we're Jewish and so on and so forth. In our home, rather than competing with Christmas , perhaps we can show him our love for Jewish music all year round, and in December as well. In the meantime, am I a bad Jew for liking this stuff?

Oh by gosh by golly, it's time for mistletoe and holly...

John Lennon: October 9, 1940- December 8, 1980

2005-12-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

It was twenty-five years ago today that John Lennon was assassinated in front of his apartment building in New York City. Besides his musical work with The Beatles, solo and with his wife Yoko Ono, Lennon is also known for his political activitism and tireless campaign for world peace. Regardless of what one might think of his music or his politics, most people would agree that the world lost some of its innocence the day he was murdered. We can only imagine what Lennon would have done or thought about things like the AIDS epidemic, the environment, Islamic terrorism, the Gulf Wars, etc. We may not have always agreed with what he would say, but I'm sure his voice would have been heard loud and clear, and he is missed.

Imagine all the people, living for today...
Imagine all the people, living life in peace...
Imagine all the people, sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

Politics aside, it just occurred to me after re-reading this post that a great way to remember John Lennon would be for everyone who reads this post to leave their favorite Lennon/Beatles song in the comments section. And I know EVERYONE has a favorite Beatles song...

The Whims of Memory

2005-12-05T20:21:00.000-08:00

Doctor Bean and I share a patient who recently was admitted to the hospital because she passed out at home. She is a lovely nonagenerian who has heart disease that would require open heart surgery to fix, and she is too frail to go through with it. She has some memory deficits too, but usually keeps it together pretty well. Her first day in the hospital, she insisted she was at Lenox Hill Hospital (a hospital in Manhattan, New York) when in fact she was hospitalized at one of the local hospitals here in Southern California. Several days after being hospitalized I asked her about it and she chuckled, telling me that it was strange she would think that and that she knew she was at the hospital in California. I asked her if she remembered my name, and she couldn't. I then asked her where Lenox Hill Hospital was and she replied, "oh doctor that's on Lexington and 78th." I then asked her if she knew where Mount Sinai Hospital was and she said, "everyone knows that's on 5th Avenue and 102nd Street." She has lived in Southern California for decades.

Another one of my patients, a lovely octogenerian woman came to see me today because of a skin rash she developed possibly from a new medication I prescribed. Blanche (not her real name) is a feisty one who's losing her memory. She has blocked arteries in her heart, but we never did anything about it because she would have chest pain every once in a while, but would never remember it after the fact - so it didn't bother her too much. She comes to see me with either her daughter and her caregiver and I make adjustments to her medications and she leaves. I had told her once that my wife and I were expecting a baby and when he arrived, Blanche immediately dubbed him "The Chochem" (smart one in Yiddish). Every time she sees me since he was born four months ago the first thing she says to me with a big, partially toothless smile is "How is the Chochem?" Do you ever have chest pain, Blanche? "No doctor, I don't think so."

Serge Zweibel was one of my first patients when I became a full-fledged cardiologist. He was almost one hundred years old. In the 1920's he had played on the Czech national soccer time and was always an accomplished athlete. He survived the Holocaust and moved to America after the war. He remained very active for years until he was crippled by severe heart disease and arthritis. His mind always seemed crystal-clear. In his last few months of life he was repeatedly hospitalized with terrible heart failure. As he would gasp for air the first few hospital admissions, he would complain about his back pain and yell at the nurses caring for him. Once the medications cleared his lungs, he would invite me to sit with him, and he would tell me about his days as a star soccer player. He showed me pictures of himself in his twenties flying through the air kicking the ball spectacularly. We never talked about his experiences during the Holocaust. He would get a little better and then go home, only to return to the hospital a few days later. With time, he would ask me why God was doing this to him. He said he could not understand why God would let his body fall apart, especially his, the star athlete, and yet leave his mind so crystal clear that he would have to know everything that was happening to him. He would say that he wished he could be demented, and then at the very end, he would ask me to leave him to die and not treat him. I would cajole him to let me clear his lungs again, and he would let me, until the last time.

Elie Wiesel's book The Forgotten deals with the theme of memory and the Holocaust. The main character Malkiel Rosenbaum is watching his elderly father, Elhanan, a Holocaust survivor slowly lose his memory. Elhanan is very troubled by his memory loss. Like many Survivors, since his survival his raison d'etre has been to bear witness. As he feels his memory slipping away he feels extreme anguish. Malkiel must travel to Romania to vist his father's old village and revisit the places and events that comprise his father's memory. In the end Malkiel decides: "I will bear witness in his place; I will speak for him. It is the son's duty not to let his father die." Memory becomes existence, and existence memory.

In my day to day work I see many elderly patients, occasionally with cognitive impairment and varying memory deficits. On the one hand many of them seem quaint and "forgetful." It is easy to see them how they are now, and for me to forget that each of them carries a lifetime of memories. What is amazing to me is what actually sticks. What is it about a memory that makes it so significant that a person carries it with them. Why do some people remember a street corner from many years ago, can remember a newborn "Chochem" from four months ago but can't remember a noxious sensation or a painful time in their life. One can talk of "selective memory," and perhaps that each person chooses what to remember. There are some things that just can't be explained, and instead it might just be enough to observe them and then take some free time to think about them a little. Maybe that's how memories are formed - we remember what we think about, and we think about what's important to us. And different things are important to different people. I guess today, thinking about memory just seemed important to me.

Life and death and Samuel Alito

2005-11-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

It seems that new information about just how conservative Judge Alito really is keeps coming out of the woodwork. We heard of his views against legal abortion in the last couple of weeks, and yesterday the L.A. Times published this op-ed piece by a UC Berkeley law school professor.

Basically, Alito is so supportive of the death penalty that he has repeatedly demonstrated a blatant willingness to disregard the due process laws guaranteed by the very Constitution he is charged to defend. Particularly appalling is the specious logic he uses in one case described where a black defendant was not tried by a "jury of his peers," but by a jury where African-American jurors were specifically and systematically excluded. This occurred in a county that had shown an earlier pattern of excluding black jurors. In his dissent he insensitively and wrongly makes an analogy to a left-handed candidate in an election as equivalent to the exclusion of black jurors:

"Although only about 10% of the population is left-handed, left-handers have won five of the last six presidential elections…. But does it follow that the voters cast their ballots based on whether a candidate was right- or left-handed?" A majority of the full court disagreed with Alito, criticizing his logic for "minimiz[ing] the history of discrimination against prospective black jurors and black defendants."

While his racial insensitivity is certainly disturbing (does he really think that being left-handed is the equivalent to having black skin in America?), the op-ed piece cites other examples where Alito is clearly overzealous in his support of a death sentence. He is willing to overlook faulty jury instructions, racial discrimination, and neglected evidence of mental retardation in a defendant. The current Supreme Court has found his positions "objectively unreasonable," and yet he is President Bush's nominee to replace Justice O'Connor's important swing vote. The agenda is clear.

I am often puzzled by conservatives who are so enamored with the "culture of life" when it comes to abortion and so readily leave this culture by the wayside when it comes to the state killing people. Without getting into the arguments against the death penalty, a morality that supports life above all else (including in situations where a woman stands to be harmed by an unplanned pregnancy) and yet rushes potentially innocent convicts to the gallows lacks internal consistency and is therefore suspect as an ethical basis for law. Alito continues to show his true colors, and the very building where the Supreme Court conducts its business shudders at the possibility of his nomination being confirmed.

On The Joy of Parenthood

2005-11-23T23:11:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow our son will be exactly 16 weeks old. Parenthetically I always wonder when we are supposed to make the transition between referring to his age in weeks to his age in months and then of course to his age in years. Any help would be appreciated!

He has brought us great joy, as I have alluded to here. He's growing at a good pace, he's sleeping better (a little), and he's more interactive. We are having more and more "parental moments" where we witness him hitting some new developmental milestone.

This morning at 4:15 AM Bella (this blog's namesake who's mug graces the upper right hand corner of the page) decided that her dinner had completed its fantastic journey through her digestive tract and needed to be eliminated. In her characteristic way, she got up from her comfy pet bed, shook the sleep off (LOUDLY), and let it be known that she wished to be escorted to the loo (the yard).

Of course she woke yours truly up, and Bella's mom woke up too, but she also woke up the boy! Uh-oh. Now mind you that Bella's mom, who is breast feeding the boy, gets only limited sleep, so any time the boy is woken up, she is not happy as he inevitably searches for the boob, and her sleep therefore ends. The night before Bella woke us all up at 3 AM with a reverse sneezing fit and the boy had a hard time going back to sleep (we very much recommend the Miracle Blanket by the way). We were not happy with Bella then and were not happy with her again on this night.

So I took Bella out, she did her thing, and I came back to bed. The boy (I need a good blog name for him, something like Psycho Toddler) was busily enjoying the bounty only his mother could provide, and was no longer interested in sleep. We made multiple attempts at putting him back to sleep. He was fed to the point of spit-up, his diaper was changed (Pampers are better than Huggies), he was reswaddled with the Miracle Blanket, he was placed back in his bassinet, but no go. I got up, tried my time-honored (almost 16 weeks and still going strong) position over my shoulder and still, the boy was done with sleep.

At first our anger was directed at Bella for waking us all up again, but then as the boy insisted on not sleeping, and verbalized his disgust with the very idea of sleep with particularly high-pitched shreaks, we became increasingly exasperated. And then we did what all good parents eventually must do:

We Gave In.

We unswaddled the boy and brought him into bed with us. I bent my knees and positioned him so he would be comfortable leaning on them and set him down. At first, he just kind of sat there looking at us, not sure how to proceed. And then, you know what he did?

He Smiled.

And it wasn't just any smile (he's done that many times already), it had to have been the BIGGEST smile I have ever seen. Complete with a sparkle in the eyes that could only come from someone who only knows pure joy and love. And it completely melted our hearts. It was now 5:30 AM, and we were all wide awake (except Bella, who was now snoring) and the boy was so happy, and we were so happy, and it was all just wonderful. I carried that smile with me for the rest of the day, and the rest of the day just sailed on by til I got home to see him smiling for me again. I can't wait til Bella wakes him up again tonight.

We really do have so much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving!

The First Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T19:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since the 1970s when I was in elementary school studying the Thanksgiving story so I thought it would be interesting to see how it is being taught now.

Overall, I'd say that the story I was taught in my Los Angeles public elementary school was not much different than what Scholastic is peddling to teachers now. Maybe things really were good between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag (at first). Back when I as in school we called them Indians and now they are called the more accurate Native Americans. The area is referred to as Plimoth, the Wampanoag name, and we learned it (and it became known) as Plymouth. Progress, I guess. The Scholastic story ends with:

More English people arrive at Plimoth. They begin settling other areas
nearby. Sometimes the English give the Native Americans beads or tools in
exchange for the land. But the natives believe that the land belongs to everyone
and cannot be owned.
Today only a small number of Wampanoag still live in this area.

No mention is made of what happened to the rest of the Wampanoag or the other Native American tribes of New England and why only a small number of Wampanoag still live there. I guess its up to the teachers to fill in the blanks.

We have much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving and its a wonderful holiday, but there are others out there who probably have a different take on the holiday, and they should be remembered as well.

A Happy and Peaceful Thanksgiving to All!

U2

2005-11-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

Great seats, all the hits, apolitical.

Big News In Israel

2005-11-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

Israel's Sharon due to see president for election - Yahoo! News

First Peres is ousted from the leadership of the Labor Party and now Sharon leaves the Likud. Early elections are on the way.
The Times They Are A Changin'!

Stay Tuned!

New Fonts

2005-11-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

I think the page looks nicer and clearer now - what do you think?

Bloviating

2005-11-19T04:53:00.000-08:00

When do we get to hear about Bob Woodward's entanglements and tropism toward powerful men?

Should I Eat It?

2005-11-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

One of my patients, a very sweet older guy with terrible heart failure, was ecstatic because we were able to get him medically tuned up enough for him to go home and visit the old country, where his brother was ill. He just got back, and to express his gratitude brought me a gift:

Aside from the fact that I was touched he got me a gift, I also got a kick out of the fact that he got his cardiologist a heart-shaped collection of pistachios, almonds, cashews and assorted other nuts. Here's a blow up of the label from the upper left hand corner:

Look where they're from - should I eat them?!?!?!

Can I blog on Shabbos?

2005-11-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

Let me see if I get the drift of the next 24 hour news cycle. Four suicide bombers turn out to be Iraqi, therefore the invasion of Iraq actually created these bombers. If we hadnt invaded, there would not have been suicide bombers in Jordan. Maybe. And 9/11 happened after March 2003. And the secret bombing of Cambodia created the Khmer Rouge. I get it, we are to blame for everything before and after anything bad happens. No thanks, Chomsky, Moore, Hertzberg.Assholes.

Why You Treat Me Like a Dog?

2005-11-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

Alito will be one of the best jurists this country has ever seen, second only to Roberts.

'Intelligent-design' school board ousted in Dover, PA

2005-11-10T18:26:00.000-08:00

It amazes me that people are still debating this issue. "Intelligent-design" is but a thin veil hiding Creationism, which no one disputes is a matter of faith and religion. There is no room for the teaching of Creationism in schools funded by the government. With all its flaws, natural selection continues to be the best scientific explanation for the origin of life on earth, and is the only theory that stands up to any empiric testing. This cannot be said of intelligent-design, which relies on faith rather than science. It is OK to be awed by the complexity of the universe, but it is not necessary to invoke a higher being to explain it.

There is an excellent discussion reprinted from Natural History magazine here, which does a good job of dispelling the intelligent-design pseudoscience.

I continue to be mystified by the resurgence of this religious rhetoric on the American political scene. We are quick to decry the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and yet the religious right in the United States, who Bush describes as his base, continue to try and push the country back a century. These attempts will undoubtedly continue and may eventually enjoy greater success, particularly as the Senate begins the debate over the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

In the meantime, we welcome the new school board of Dover, PA and hope the ouster of the previous board is a harbinger of good things to come elsewhere.

And as an added bonus...

2005-11-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Televangelist Robertson warns town of God's wrath

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told
citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their
school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them
on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.

Just what they were afraid would happen!

I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a
disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city,"
Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700
Club."

Oh boy...

The Dover case sparked a trial in federal court that gained
nationwide attention after the school board was sued by parents backed by the
American Civil Liberties Union. The board ordered schools to read students a
short statement in biology classes informing them that the theory of evolution
is not established fact and that gaps exist in it. The statement mentioned
intelligent design as an alternate theory and recommended students read a book
that explained the theory further. A decision in the case is expected before the
end of the year.

That's why judges like Alito worry me.

In 1998, Robertson warned the city of Orlando, Florida that it risked
hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist bombs after it allowed homosexual
organizations to put up rainbow flags in support of sexual diversity.

So is that why there have been all those hurricanes in Florida?

Hassidic Reggae

2005-11-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

This guy Matisyahu is for real, has a record contract with SonyMusic and apparently causing some controversy within Chabad but overall I think he's really cool:

http://www.ormusic.com/ecard/matisyahu/

Here are the lyrics:
http://www.hasidicreggae.com/index.php?section=article&id=8

Why You Treat Me Like a Dog?

2005-11-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

Right now, all over Britain, pints are being raised as millions of Brits are toasting the fact that they colonized India, and not Algeria.

Oil Execs to Be Asked to Justify Profits

2005-11-06T20:14:00.000-08:00

I find it unbelievable that people at the grassroots level aren't raising hell about this.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, announced earnings for
the third quarter of $9.9 billion, on revenue of $100 billion. Royal Dutch Shell said it had
profits of $9 billion, while ConocoPhillips earned $3.8 billion, nearly double profits a year
earlier.

As we all pay nearly $3/gallon, poised to begin the winter heating season with the highest oil prices ever recorded in the United States, Exxon, Shell and Conoco rake in record profits. It remains to be seen at the November 9th Senate hearing how their executives can justify this.

"Consumers are increasingly feeling that they are being taken for a ride," Sen. Larry
Craig, R-Idaho, said at a hearing last week.

I have heard rumblings about taxing the oil companies profits and about a potential federal energy price gouging law. The oil companies say they plan on investing their profits in infrastructure. As if building more refineries or drilling new wells will somehow lower consumer prices? Consumer prices will only be lowered if the oil companies lower their wholesale prices. That would mean less profit for them, of course.

Either way, for the foreseeable future, prices will remain high, and even if the oil companies are taxed consumers will still have to foot the bill. A grassroots boycott of these giant corporations could be considered and possibly have some positive effects, but would have such a negative impact on our collective lifestyles that it would be a very hard sell to the public. We are so dependent on the oil companies, and I unfortunately feel we will continue to be held hostage by them unless Washington takes an aggressive stance against their pricing practices. With Bush and his Texas buddies in office, I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, I'm driving my 1.8L Passat and only filling the tank every couple of weeks...

Makes you want to take more drastic measures, like my friend at Get Off Oil.

So I'm Trying to Understand What's Going On In Washington

2005-11-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

Let's take it step by step:

1) Bush Administration sells the world on War in Iraq based on supposed weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi connection to Al Qaeda and 9/11.

2) No WMDs found in Iraq.

3) Joseph Wilson, charged with investigating the WMD issue, accuses the Bush Administration of twisting intelligence to justify the war.

4) Wilson's wife Valerie Plame is "outed" as a CIA operative to the press. (A criminal offense)

5) Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby is indicted by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for committing the offense of outing Plame, and then making matters worse by purjuring himself during the investigation. Libby subsequently resigns.

6) A cloud of suspicion still circulates around top White House Advisor Karl Rove.

So what's it all mean? Breaking it down on several levels, the obvious first issue is that the Vice President's Chief of Staff broke the law, and in the time-honored Washington tradition made it worse by lying about it. OK - so he should lose his job, be indicted and go to jail if found guilty.

But what's more disturbing is how it all relates to the Bush Administration's attempts at covering themselves for the lies they told getting us to war. Clearly they were unhappy with Wilson's report and felt the need to retaliate, but it seems almost infantile and playgroundish to out Wilson's wife as a CIA agent. What did they hope to achieve by doing that? Is Ms. Plame's life now in danger because she works for the CIA and now will be hurt by opposing spies? (Is my life in danger for wondering about it?!?!) Does she lose her job now and have to go on welfare? I don't get it. Is there more to the story?

I'm Disaster Weary

2005-10-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

My wife always makes fun of me because whenever there is a disaster occurring, I become riveted to the TV. I watched the tsunami, London subway bombings and Hurricane Katrina coverage for hours. It seems like there have been way too many disasters this year. In the past week alone we have witnessed flooding on the East Coast of the United States, a deadly mudslide in Guatemala and the massive earthquake in Pakistan and India. With every disaster we have made a donation to the many relief agencies, and will continue to do so. Thousands of people have died, but this time I haven't watched any of them on TV. I don't know why for sure, but I think it may have to do with the fact the we are in the midst of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

I sat in synagogue the other day and as always, was struck by the words of the U'netaneh Tokef portion of the prayer. This is the central part of the service, in my eyes, where the central purpose of the day is laid out:

All mankind will pass before You like members of the flock. Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living; and You shall apportion the fixed needs of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict.

And then the text continues:

...how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.

The difference for me this year is that I paid closer attention to the different ways that people would "pass from the earth" and to the other things that could happen to them. Whereas in previous years many seemed far-fetched and archaic, this year "water, fire, thirst, storms and plagues" were much more real. There were people who lost there homes in the tsunami and in New Orleans who could not "rest" and now "wander." Many people died before their time.

But not only does it say that God considers how many will pass, but it also says He considers how many will be created. In the last year, I was blessed to become a father to my newborn son. Perhaps it is selfish and unworldly, but this Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, I choose to focus on that aspect of the holiday because I have never been able to before. There seem to have been so many terrible natural disasters in the last year and I feel privileged to have my own little private miracle at home. May this coming year be devoid of any more disasters and full of miracles for all.

Book Review: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

2005-09-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

The premise of this book is that Charles Lindbergh (of Spirit of St. Louis fame) wins the 1940 Presidential election instead of Frankin Delano Roosevelt on an isolationist, "America First" platform. The story is told through the eyes of a young Philip Roth, a child of a Jewish family living in a predominantly Jewish suburb of Newark, New Jersey.

Masterfully told with Roth's characteristic wit, the novel goes through the travails of the Roth family as the Lindbergh administration gradually unveils it fascist, Nazi-leaning policies. Jewish families are to be resettled in the Heartland to help their assimilation into the American melting pot. Prominent Jews and sympathizers like Justice Felix Frankfurter and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia are quietly rounded up by the FBI. The American equivalent of Kristallnacht occurs, while the Roth family strives to maintain an almost ironic air of normalcy in the face of a climate of increasing fear and antisemitism. On a certain level the book is a superficial attempt at presenting an alternative history; some of the events occurring seem a bit outlandish and implausible in our political system of checks and balances with a Supreme Court charged with protecting our Constitution, an independent press and various other safeguards of democracy.

The book was released on the eve of the 2004 election, and many reviewers have seen the book as an allegory for that election and its aftermath. As we continue to live in a climate of fear, with a global war on terror in progress, Roth reminds us that we must continue to be vigilant on the homefront. It is only too easy for the Lindbergh administration to violate the civil rights of American Jews, echoing the internment of Japanese Americans and perhaps, though hopefully not, foreshadowing further violations of our own civil rights in the name of homeland security. Roth shows his political colors here, condemning the America Firsters of the 1940s (Lindbergh really was virulently isolationist and racist) and by extension their contemporary conservative offspring. As we are in the process of selecting new Chief and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, we must remember the importance of a judiciary charged with jealously guarding the Constitution, no matter what the political or social climate of the day.

The book is a quick read, Roth seems to make his political points in setting up the story, but then just as the reader has begun to become engrossed in the character's lives, he wraps it all up with a seemingly neat twist in the last chapter. Too much happens in this one chapter, the book should be longer and in the end leaves one wondering if Roth was more interested in just completing it to get his message across, or if he actually sought to tell a good story. (But then the question can be asked, what is the true purpose of literature?) Nonetheless, it is a fascinating novel that should be read by all interested in American history and the road not taken.

Some Thoughts About New Orleans

2005-09-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

On a personal level, among the things that scare me the most about what happened in New Orleans is the realization that we cannot count on the federal government to effectively and expeditiously bail us out in the event of a national disaster. Whether it is because of Bush's usual inability to lead until he is thrust into that role simply by virtue of the Office or because the National Guard is spread too thin to respond to what it was created to respond to, the fact remains that our elected government failed us.

There is simply no excuse for FEMA not being prepared to respond to a Category 5 hurricane (or 8.0 magnitude earthquake, or ruptured dam, or major fire, etc.) in a major metropolitan area in the United States. They blew it. For the director of FEMA to be unaware that there were nearly 25,000 hungry, thirsty, sick and increasingly desperate people at the New Orleans Convention Center is inconceivable and inexcusable. What the hell does he think his job is? He should be fired, or at least resign. Unfortunately the folding of FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security is at least partially to blame. While dealing with the threat of terrorism on the home front is certainly important, the same approaches cannot be extrapolated from dealing with a terrorist attack even on a complex as large as the World Trade Center compared with a natural disaster affecting a wide swath of the American heartland. I'm afraid that FEMA's mission has become diluted by the Bush Administration's now pathologic obsession with the "war on terror."

Imagine the Federal response if Kennebunkport was hit by a major disaster! Or even Houston! The hierarchy of race and class in this country again rears its ugly head. It is now becoming clear that emergency planners were well aware of the deficiencies of the levees surrounding New Orleans. These were known to be built to withstand only a Category 3 hurricane, and yet each year Corps of Engineers funds earmarked to upgrade the levees have been diverted to more pressing, "homeland security" issues and the "war on terror." Perhaps this is excusable in the aftermath of 9-11, especially if there is no immmediately impending Category 4 or 5 hurricane on your doorstep. But if it is two, three days before Hurricane Katrina is on your doorstep, for heaven's sake, build up a supply depot in Baton Rouge, have a tent camp ready to rise, send the Navy and the hospital ship Comfort steaming towards the Gulf Coast, mobilize the National Guard. Oh wait -- they're all in Iraq -- they can't come, they're too busy building the world's next great democracy, protecting "homeland security."

To quote Maureen O'Dowd of the New York Times, paraphrasing Don McLean:

W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

I am reminded of a story about the elder George Bush. While he was President he was visiting a grocer's convention and saw a standard check-out counter with the usual barcode scanner. The former President was so impressed with this "new technology" and asked if it would soon be available in stores...

The Katrina fiasco again illustrates how out of touch the Republican Leadership is and has been with day to day American life. Bush was too busy on vacation to actually think about preparing for the disaster. Once the disaster happened, he was too out of touch to recognize that the levees failing was both anticipated and expected for years. His Homeland Security Department "didn't know" there were starving, thirsty and sick thousands stranded in New Orleans.

Their attention will soon turn away from New Orleans in any case. Now that Chief Justice Rehnquist has died, they will need to find a new judge to fill the seat. Gotta prepare for the next Presidential election...

Those of us who live in disaster prone areas of this country should check their emergency preparedness kits this Labor Day Weekend. Check that you have enough fresh water, canned goods, and medicine to get you through at least 5 days following a major event. Katrina has taught us that we cannot count on anyone but ourselves to survive such events. Perhaps this is what went through the minds of many of the looters in New Orleans. I'm not sure we can blame them for it.

New exhibit at London Zoo - humans

2005-08-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

"We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man's place in the planet's ecosystem," London Zoo said. (Click on the post title to read the full article.)

I wonder how much these people are being paid (if at all!). Are they actors? Why are they acting like chimpanzees?

Heartbreak in Gaza

2005-08-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

No matter what one's views on the disengagement from Gaza, the images coming out of the settlements there are heartbreaking.

One of the unique and amazing things about Israel is that the IDF is truly a people's army. On any given day the roles of the people in these images could be reversed. The man in the blue shirt could on another day be wearing an army uniform, while the soldiers could easily be civilians that same day. This is why these images are so heartbreaking. Both weep at the deconsecration of a Jewish synagogue. The soldiers and police officers are charged with forcibly removing their own brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts.

The arguments for and against the disengagement are compelling. Israel cannot afford to rule over 1.4 million people and continue to maintain its democratic character. The resources devoted to the several thousand settlers in the Gaza Strip could be better used elsewhere. Even Ariel Sharon came to these conclusions, and he certainly has the credentials to arrive at the decisions he has made (whether we support his particular worldview or not). Opponents rightfully fear that the terrorist elements among the Palestinians would have an easier time preparing for, training for and executing attacks against Israelis. A reconquest of Gaza would certainly incur heavy Israeli casualties should it be needed.

As we strive to understand and debate the events in Gaza, I am reminded of Golda Meir who once said that she blames the Arabs less for killing so many Jewish boys than for transforming so many Jewish boys into killers. Nothing has destroyed the moral fiber of Israeli society as much as the 38 year old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the rest is unfortunately bloody commentary.

Red States and Blue States

2005-08-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Can someone please explain this to me?

In the old days I thought "Red" was bad, as in "left-wing pinko, red-ass Commie bastards." Red, white and blue was good.

Then along came Ronald Reagan and helped get rid of the pink, red-ass Commie bastard Evil Empire. Now our biggest enemy is Al Qaeda, and I don't think they really have a color (maybe green?).

But then, with today's nomenclature, wouldn't Ronald Reagan be considered "Red?" And Democrats, who traditionally have been considered left-wing pinkos are now "Blue?"

I just don't get it. Who's idea was it to switch it all around and confuse the issue?

is that really mustard

2005-07-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

So one of the goatfuckers confesses the London bomb was not to harm but was to get attention. So I ask, which part was to get attention?:The carpet tacks pointed outward to shred human flesh, or the homemade explosives that remove limbs from bodies?
Today on the subway platform my wife said:lets move down the platform. I asked why, and she motioned with her head in the other direction. I looked and there was a young South Asian woman in full chador with some packages. We made eye contact and then I followed my family down the platform. After we relocated I told my wife that on a Saturday morning on a near empty subway, it would be unlikely for anything to happen. She said its not so much that she was frightened, although she was a bit, she said that this woman might take the experience, and tell her brother, or cousin or cousins friend, or imam what New Yorkers are now doing to avoid her on the subway, and maybe just maybe that sense of shame/and disapproval will lead to positive outcomes.

A Hot Dog with Mustard

2005-07-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is what happens to Bella if she stands under Bella's Mom while she's eating a pretzel with mustard...

Of course Bella doesn't know the mustard is there...

Moral Compasses

2005-07-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Case in point, a recent shooting by the LAPD in the 'hood. Apparently a gangster had holed himself up and was shooting at some officers. In the gun battle that ensued, the criminal's daughter was unfortunately shot and killed by an LAPD bullet.

Obviously, this is a terrible tragedy.

What ensued was an almost riot, with people blaming the LAPD for a loose trigger, and racism. There is no doubt in my mind that there are racist cops in the LAPD. These elements were not expunged by the Rodney King Incident, Trial and subsequent Riots. They were not eliminated when Darryl Gates left his post as police chief, and they remained even when Bernard Parks, an African-American was chief. There are racist cops patrolling the streets as we speak.

What I haven't heard from the affected community is any sense of responsibility or outrage over the fact that it was this little baby's father who was a CRIMINAL was SHOOTING at the LAPD, and that he in fact had put his OWN DAUGHTER in harm's way. That precious little girl would not have been shot had her father not been a criminal in a shoot out with the police. Where is their moral compass? Do they honestly believe the LAPD would have shot that little girl for any other reason then that they were being shot at? How can anyone sit there with a straight face and blame anyone but this little girl's father for her death?

Sudanese Guards Rough Up Rice Delegation

2005-07-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

What a great way to get the sanctions lifted!

Disturbing News from the Homefront

2005-07-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

So we are having our front entry way redone to our apartment, turned into a ramp actually. So according to the doorman, yesterday the son of one the contractor was seen trampling on an American Flag we have in the basement. When confronted by one of the residents about this, the kid ( I have no idea how old he is, he may be twenty- which in Pakistan might be pre-Madrassa, but here I would consider it
pre-deportation) says, are You Jewish? and when the neighbor said yes, he said, of course you would side with them.
Now, I should hasten to mention that the workers are Bengali, or Pakistani, and though prone to make a big deal of it, Im thinking in this situation of calling the FBI, or DHS, if only to get the kids name on a list from which it will never be removed, so that he can have the fun of a full body-cavity search every time he flies, and can then think about desecrating the flag again for the rest of his miserable life.

Interactive Map of the Gaza Settlements

2005-07-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

Things look like they are heating up as protestors continue their demonstrations against the dismantlement of the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the four in the West Bank. There certainly is an internal logic to dismantling the Gaza settlements (disengagement), but why these four in the West Bank (especially if you are the Sharon government, which fundamentally supports the settlement movement anyway)? Check out the link for an interesting description of each settlement, put out by the folks who bring you Arutz Sheva.

Welcome

2005-07-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

What If Doctors Were Like Contractors?

2005-07-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

We are in the finishing stages of a kitchen remodel that was supposed to take 2-3 weeks max, but has now dragged out to over 3 months. Much of the delay has been due to the inability of contractors to live up to their word, show up when they say they will and stay long enough to do the job and do it right.
My wife (bless her pregnant soul) spent many many hours sitting at home waiting for the contractors to never show up. So did I. During those times I imagined what it would be like if I was "careless with the truth" in my line of work - doctoring.

"Let's see Mr. Jones, we'll schedule your surgery for next Monday at 9 AM. Go ahead and have your pre-op labs and x-ray done and I'll see you then."
["OK Dr. Wanderer, I'll install your cabinets on Monday at 9 A.M. You can go ahead and order the hardware and let the painter know I'll be there."]

So Mr. Jones gets a needle stuck in his arm for the labs, gets a good dose of radiation for his x-ray and takes off work for the day of the operation and five days for recovery.
[We spend a couple hours and hundred of dollars at the hardware store, and we let the painter know the cabinets will be here for him to paint on Monday morning. I take the morning off from the office, and Bella's Mom reschedules her clinic for the week.]

Monday morning Mr. Jones shows up at the hospital at 6 AM after fasting from the night before, undresses, gets placed on a gurney and is wheeled into the operating room. The staff pages me as this is going on, but I don't respond.
[We get up early to get things ready in the kitchen. Around 8 AM we call cabinet guy to confirm he's coming. We get voice mail and leave a message.]

They assume all is ok, nonetheless.
[We assume all is ok, nonetheless.]

The anesthesiologist puts Mr. Jones to sleep because I had also told Dr. Gas-Passer that I would be there at 9 AM. Mr. Jones is now fast asleep, on an anesthesia breathing machine. Another page goes out to me, but I don't respond.
[The painter arrives at 9:30 with his four man crew, and begins setting up the spray machine and loading it with paint, diluted just to the right consistency, as his crew tapes, papers and preps the kitchen. We call cabinet guy again - no answer- and his voice mail box is full.]

It's now 10:30 AM. The anesthesiologist tries to call me on my personal cell phone, but I don't answer. He decides at this point to start reversing Mr. Jones' anesthesia. Just as he's doing that, I call and say I'll be there in fifteen minutes and to hold on.
[At 10:30 AM, still no cabinet guy. We call kitchen designer guy and tell him cabinet guy is late. He says he will try to reach him. Painter says he will take half his crew to another site, and return shortly. At 11 AM, we call kitchen designer guy - says he left message for cabinet guy. We are surprised - his voicemail box is full. We try to call cabinet guy again - voicemail still full - was kitchen designer guy lying? Cabinet guy calls - says he'll be there at noon. Painter already gone.]

Its now 12 noon - Mr. Jones has been asleep since 9 AM. I have not showed up yet. Anesthesiologist has woken Mr. Jones up and has wheeled him to recovery room.
[It is 1 PM - still no cabinet guy. I leave and go to the office. It's 1:30 PM, cabinet guy calls and says he's on his way, and does Bella's Mom want him to pick up some tacos for her, cuz he's stopping for lunch.

It's 2 PM - I walk into recovery room (through a side door) and see Mr. Jones on the gurney. I ask if he can be still brought into operating room. Anesthesiologist has left. I see Mr. Jones, re-examine his knee and tell him I can't operate because the artificial knee we ordered has not arrived -they sent the wrong size. We reschedule for Thursday.
Cabinet guy shows up at our house at 3 PM, but sneaks in through the back entrance. He has two cabinet doors with him, he says the other 5 were made the wrong size and had to be reordered. He rescheduled for Thursday.

Everything you have just read in blue print actually happened, including the kind offer of tacos for lunch. These types of things happened over and over again, and not just with cabinet guy. I guess that being a professional, you come to have certain expectations of people. I guess that in medicine if someone is unreliable people can die. No one dies if your cabinets don't get installed on Monday at 9 A.M. Still, it'll definitely drive you crazy.

Right Here With Ya

2005-07-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Let's get this show on the road...