Category: Allegory, parable, rhetoric

Me and Janis

7/2017

Mom was fighting hard to make ends meet and take care of my brother and me after Dad died.  My sister had married and left and it was just the 3 of us.  Starting about age 15 or so, my job was to help Mom fix up houses so she could “flip” them (although that term wasn’t in use back then) and make some money.  I’d do yard work, minor repairs, and for the most part paint, clean and haul trash.  It was lonely work.

Most think of me as a recluse anyway, but I’d be working in a vacant house most of the day by myself.  No MP3 players or iPods.  No, not even a Walkman.  They just had not been invented yet.  So I took a junky old record player and 1 album.  Yeah, one of those vinyl turn style thingys.  Janis would belt out (that’s the only way to describe Janis Joplin’s style of singing) “Piece of my Heart”, “Ball and Chain” and “Me and Bobby McGee” at volumes not heard since.  No wonder I’m almost deaf now.

While driving to work today, I heard some interesting backstory.

Bobby Berns (not the Scottish poet) was a songwriter.  When he was about 15 (back in the 40-50s), he got rheumatic fever.  Rheumatic fever (which most of us have not had) is strep throat (which most of us have had) with a phage infection (A virus that attacks the group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal bacteria that causes strep throat)  that attacks the heart valves.  He dropped out of school and became a bum for the next 15 years or so.  At about age 30, he began to rise in fame for songwriting (“Hang on Sloopy”, “Twist and Shout”).

According to legend, ever since he recovered (a relative term as the effects after rheumatic fever scar one for life) from his childhood illness, he had a phrase turn over and over in his head, take another piece of my heart.  He could not shake it. Finally, he met up with Jerry Ragovoy and together they fleshed out the song “Piece of my Heart”. The song was originally recorded by Erma Franklin but hit #1 when Janis recorded it.  In my humble opinion, no one will ever sing that song as well as Janis.

I don’t know how I missed it but I just didn’t think of the immuno-microbiologic pathophysiology of heart endomyocardium when I listened to Janis sing, “Take another little piece of my heart, now baby….” back in the day.

Reminiscences of your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Weary.

Google Docs

7/2017

For quite some time I have dealt with Google Docs. Both at work and not at work. The not at work are the most abrasive. I think that I have mentioned in a previous post that I use Google and the Google Doc personality tendencies to a therapeutic advantage in caring for my patients.

But, conceited as I might be, I’m surprised to find that I’m not the only Doc to use this technique. We went to see my wife’s doctor last Friday and I was surprised to see him use my technique on her. He acknowledged that she would resort to Google to educate herself about what he was explaining to her and used subliminal suggestions to guide her to where he wanted her learning to go.

There. The secret is out. You know how I/we do it.

But there is a new kid on the block. Tonight, there was a 4th-year medical student working with my coworker and I. As a teaching exercise, my coworker asked her a question that stumped her and he persisted in wanting an answer. In the old days, I would have been told, “You need to go to the library and research the subject and return tomorrow and let us know what you’ve learned (meaning return to give a short lecture to the team).

But, we are now in the digital age. The medical student had to find the answer in real time sitting beside us. So where does she go? Did she pull out a 4” thick textbook from the backpack she carries with her everywhere? Nope, she went straight to Google. Extrinsic factor metabolism in human digestion is on Google. And our lives are dependent on it.

An update from your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, not a google doc.

Weary.

Lazy’s Remote

7/2017

I saw a younger-ish woman today.  Her friend, who accompanied her here was in the room with her.  The friend was sitting about 5 feet from the TV, but instead of getting up to change the channels, she downloaded an app to turn her cell phone into a remote.

Voila, now she didn’t have to get up to change the channel.  At least she didn’t use the call light to ask the nurse to change the channel for her.  It has been done, before.

It dawned on me that this could be fun.  I could sit at my desk and randomly change the channels on the TVs in any one of 39 rooms.

Of course, I would never do anything like that. Of course.

Musings from your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, chuckle, chuckle.

Weary.

Rocky Raccoon

7/2017

We went to Ponte Vedra, for an educational conference.  It was a long overdue time to enjoy some R&R (rest and recovery, not rocky raccoon).

The week before the trip, we had some uninvited guests that wreaked havoc with our peace and tranquility.  Raccoons.  Those cute little (8-20 lbs.) furry critters that are one of nature’s most destructive forces.  They are very resourceful, clever, persistent and can hold a grudge better than an ex-wife/husband.

In a week, they (I’d estimate there are 6 plus critters just on our homestead) have unearthed plants in the garden, in pots, in flowerbeds.  They have destroyed solar lights.  They have toppled varmint-proof cat food containers, ate what they want and shit in the rest.  They have eaten pet food, soiled pet water and shit on about every surface imaginable around the homestead.  They have spread potting soil all over the driveway, left muddy paw prints on the deck and all the vehicles.  They have broken terra cotta pots.

Yeah, I was ready for some raccoon-free time off.

On the first day before the conference began, we were lounging by the pool.  The wife was in the water and I was on a chaise lounge with my back to the lagoon.  Just a few feet from me was a sign that said, “Don’t feed the alligators.”  Is a sign with that warning really necessary, or effective?  Since we were by the pool and I have a habit of just jumping in the water to cool off without thinking, I didn’t have my hearing aids in.  They don’t do well submerged.

Suddenly, I noticed the wife looking startled and a little bemused.  I couldn’t hear her but I read lips.  She was wide-eyed and attentive to something behind me, “Dave, turn around and look at what is behind you.”  As I recalled the sign, I did and it wasn’t an alligator.  It was a scrawny raccoon.  He avoided direct eye contact but slowly walked to within about 3 feet of me. Well, probably to within 3 feet of the french fries I’d been munching on.  I guess I didn’t look very friendly because he seemed to melt back into the brush.  About 10 minutes later, a security guy came by to “scare” Rocky off.  I think I would prefer he come to taze the damn critter instead of scaring it off.

I got home from the conference about 0030 Friday morning. There, walking across the yard was a momma and 5 babies. No not alligators.

Your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Weary.

Quid Pro Quo Sanctuary Cities

7/2017

Sanctuary cities and cities, communities, states, courts or law enforcement agencies that elect to not enforce a law are included in this discussion as similar entities.

Let’s take the example of a local policeman or sheriff’s deputy comes in contact with an illegal immigrant, what should he/she do?  Arrest the person and transfer them to the custody of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or La Migra)?  Well, of course they should.  The arguments to not do so are stupid.  And yes I did mean to use that word just for the label it portends.

Immigration is not under the jurisdiction of local laws.  Horse pucky.  Neither is cooking methamphetamine.  That is under the jurisdiction of the Federal government (DEA), manufacturing a schedule I drug is illegal without a specific exception and can be used for experimental purposes only.  Doctors, pharmacies and drug manufacturers cannot manufacture, sell or dispense schedule I drugs without this license.  Human trafficking is another example.  Who would presume that local law enforcement would not intervene in either of these activities on the basis that they are not their jurisdiction?

Uncle Donald is under attack over withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities and fighting it out in court.  Why bother?  I think there are perfectly obvious and legal ways to accomplish the same thing.

Let’s say California, or any city therein, offers protection to illegal immigrants, against current federal law.  All Uncle Donald needs to do is shut down the border patrol in that state and pull the entire department back to the border of, say, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon or whichever state wants to cooperate, and stop enforcing the law to which these sanctuary cities object in the state of California.  Not only will there be a mass expansion of people migrating north for economic reasons, but there will also be a huge influx of radical jihadists getting one step closer to the Great Satan.

It is called Quid Pro Quo.  Been in our legal system since the beginning of time.

From your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, smiling at the thought of how fast the rest of the citizenry of California would correct this problem.

Weary