Another guest post tonight, from my friend Jackie Widen: I miss letters. Rather, I miss sending AND receiving letters in the mail, real letters on stationery. Our cultural communication has been reduced to tweets, posts, texts, emails and Facebook messages. Another part of growing older is remembering and cherishing this simpler method of communication. I guess… Continue reading Love Letters
Category: General Observations
The Library
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” Stephen King If books are a uniquely portable magic, the same cannot be said for hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of books, but port them we did. The first thing that my husband and I noticed about the house we ended up buying was the library—a room completely… Continue reading The Library
A Not Quite Requiem for Big Red
Some of us think of the automobile as a means of transportation and nothing more. Others, like me, see the car as something else entirely—an extension of ourselves, and an expression of identity. Growing up I was influenced by my dear old Dad—our childhood was marked by a succession of American made muscle cars from… Continue reading A Not Quite Requiem for Big Red
Lighting Out For The Territory
“But I reckon I better light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn While I wasn’t looking, someone snuck up behind me and bought my house. Well, not exactly… Continue reading Lighting Out For The Territory
In Sickness and in Health: Seven Things to Know about Healthcare These Days
My 23 year old son says my blog posts are too long. He says that his generation believes that if you can’t say what you mean in 350 words or less, you’re not worth reading. At the writer’s conference I attended last spring, I learned that books sell best if there are odd numbers in… Continue reading In Sickness and in Health: Seven Things to Know about Healthcare These Days
And Speaking of Plastic Surgery
I have a new favorite doctor show, “The Knick” on Cinemax, airing on Friday nights. The show stars Clive Owen as the charismatic cocaine addicted Chief of Surgery Dr. John Thackery at a fictitious New York City hospital called The Kickerbocker at a time when surgery was one foot out of the barbershop. The tagline… Continue reading And Speaking of Plastic Surgery
In Pursuit of Perfection
“Upon what instrument are we two spanned, and what musician holds us in his hands?” Rainer Maria Rilke This past week was a very busy yet very interesting time for me. Early in the week, I had a visit from an old medical school classmate who is now one of our nation’s leading researchers in… Continue reading In Pursuit of Perfection
Do Dogs Know They are Dying?
Labor Day, 2006, is a day I will never forget. It was a gorgeous day here in San Diego—bright, sunny and nearly 90 degrees. I decided it was a perfect day to give the dogs an outdoor bath. At the time, we had Valentine, the matriarch at nearly twelve years old, Izzy who was four,… Continue reading Do Dogs Know They are Dying?
To Find, To Have and To Give Away
These days I have begun to separate my life into two separate eras which I call BE and AE, “before eBay” and “after eBay.” How could there have been so many things in the world which I never knew that I wanted? I think back to the early days of my marriage, when my husband… Continue reading To Find, To Have and To Give Away
My Days In Dermatology
I’ve always been good at pattern recognition and my visual/spatial orientation is excellent. Photography is my hobby, so it was only natural that as a medical student and internal medicine resident, I loved my dermatology electives. Each day yielded up a new parade of interesting skin lesions and rashes, and by the end of my… Continue reading My Days In Dermatology