Dave's ImPatient Life

Bonus addition to Granite State of Mind

2010-04-10T22:34:00.008-04:00

Today on the radio I heard a smackdown improv addition to something that's been setting YouTube on fire, with a million views this week: Granite State of Mind. The guy was asked to rhyme "Winnepesaukee" on the spot, and he aced it. :-)

Read on.

A huge YouTube success has been hip-hop artist Jay-Z's homage to his home town, Empire State of Mind, featuring Alicia Keys, with 36 million views. (See it here.)

A hugely successful parody hit YouTube ten days ago: "Granite State of Mind" by SSP (Super Secret Project). It already has almost a million views:

(Interestingly, in the parody the lyrics sync much better with the rhythm than they do on Jay-Z's original.)

Today on WBUR's "Radio Boston" Karen Pelland ran a great interview with SSP about what a hoot this is. (Audio here. To hear this segment you can move the slider to 41:45.) At 47:50 she wraps up with one last thought:

"Even though you got a TON of both obscure and well-known New Hampshire references [into the song], there's a couple that I thought, 'I would have liked to have heard them.' So... I'm gonna throw down this challenge. Could you craft a rhyme right now that gets in the greatest of the lakes, Lake Winnipesaukee?"

In seconds he said "All right... here we go" and came back with this:

Catch me at the Whittemore
for Wildcats Hockey
but wishin I was fishin on
Winnepesaukee

Awesome. Great work, SSP.

Take THAT, Penn and Teller

2010-03-24T13:51:00.006-04:00

Okay, I don't speak Chinese, but I don't think that's necessary...

As the old magician's wisecrack goes, "Notice how my fingers never leave my hand."

(Email subscribers: if you can't see the video above, click here to view it online.)

"Graceful consort!" from Haydn's The Creation

2010-01-15T19:23:00.003-05:00

My good friend Lucy Jo Palladino wrote Find Your Focus Zone, a great book that combines old and new research into advice on finding just the right level of background stimulation so that your particular mind can comfortably accomplish things. She's wonderful, and the book's wonderful: it works.

I seem to like Bach, and while scrounging on YouTube I ran across this, which isn't Bach. It's just lovely; I keep playing it over and over in my new noise-cancelling earphones, as I work. Enjoy.

John Lennon tells royals to "Rattle your jewelry"

2009-12-28T16:16:00.004-05:00

Ah, holiday weeks: we discover all kinds of things we'd otherwise never find.

Twitter user @TheBeatlesVideo links to a blog where they post all kinds of Beatles related videos. Some have lyrics on top of the song, some are others playing Beatles on guitar.

But some are little-known videos of real performances. I love this one. Aren't they just having FUN playing for the queen?

From November 4, 1963:

(If you can't see the video, click here.)

"Cop Fail"

2009-11-15T07:42:00.000-05:00

I am *so* glad I have a separate blog for things like this. (Email subscribers, click the headline above to come view it online. 57 seconds you won't want to miss.)

Thanks to the world-famous Fail Blog for bringing this to our attention.

I mean, how many news stories make the off-camera announcer snicker to the point of snorting?

The Cactus Cuties sing the national anthem

2009-11-14T10:26:00.004-05:00

Wonderful, moving rendition. What precision! Great arrangement, well directed and beautifully executed by these cuties. Thanks to Uncle Sandy for this:

This must have been done some years ago, because here there are five (now four) and they're a lot younger here than on their site.

They seem more "produced" now, which is just not as impressive or, well, cutel. :-) Anyway, I love this, so enjoy.

O Sole Mio

2009-10-03T17:17:00.004-04:00

Thanks to good friend Jere for this link, sent months ago.... I just found it, undiscovered, in the email. As she said, "If you haven't already seen these guys, brace yourselves."

Even if you can't read Italian, you'll understand their ages when they're shown...

I solved the Canadian airline terror crisis

2009-09-19T16:27:00.000-04:00

I figured it out!

Today I returned from a medical conference in Canada, and at the airport I found that they don't make you take off your shoes when you go through security!!!!

No wonder they have constant suicide bombings!! Why can't Canada just be more like Americans??

Those silly northerners.

Well, that's my good deed for the day. Time for a bike ride.

Excerpts from pet diaries

2009-09-08T19:48:00.002-04:00

Another from Uncle Sandy, who clearly has plenty of time on his hands but is too lazy to use the free authoring login I gave him on this blog:

This may be old enough to have long gray hairs, but it still speaks abundant truth.

Excerpt from a Dog's Diary........

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk Bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!
__________________________________________

Excerpt from a Cat's Diary...

Day 983 of my captivity....

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.

Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. >

The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now

Innovative response to having one's car booted

2009-08-27T01:48:00.004-04:00

I've seen plenty of cars with a Denver Boot on them, but I've never "earned" the privilege of wearing one. Apparently in this case the woman disputed the charges...

Thanks to Uncle Sandy...

Hot diggety, Suede returns to New England! October 11

2009-08-11T23:52:00.004-04:00

Oh my goodness, what NEWS! Get out your calendars and lubricate your wallets! For the first time in 14 months, on Sunday October 11 my jazz-blues singer sister the fabulous diva Suede (www.SuedeWave.com) will play in New England!

It's her favorite New England venue, the wonderful Jonathan's in Ogunquit, Maine. Those who've been there know how good the food is, and the small-but-not-too-small club upstairs makes it easy to enjoy The Diva's magnificent voice and stirring performances.

This is not a cheap evening, it's an evening that's WORTH IT. And so are you. It's a big deal HOLIDAY weekend, and the food is great. Plan to stay over at one of the nearby motels (Ogunquit is a big-deal beach town) so you don't have to drive home. We'll close the place down, as we've done many times in the past.

Terrific Apollo 11 photos

2009-07-19T21:05:00.005-04:00

The Boston Globe's site Boston.com has a terrific series of 40 photos about the Apollo moon landing 40 years ago. Most are pictures I've never seen. I encourage you to go look.

Amidst all the world's cynicism and uproar today, this story continues to inspire, and for good reason.

My favorite pair: Neil Armstrong before the launch...

...and after he'd walked on the moon:

I know these astronauts were all "Right Stuff" military test pilots, but I knew an awful lot of hippies who had exactly that same grin on their faces in 1969, for very different reasons. :-)

Call me a fool, but humanity continues to inspire me. That was forty years ago, people. Think what more we will achieve.

Dick Cheney is an effing idiot

2009-06-04T21:09:00.003-04:00

Dick Cheney actually had the stones to assert recently that Richard Clark "missed" the approach of 9/11. Yes, the Richard Clark who warned Condi Rice about Al Qaeda 5 days after the Bush inauguration, and warned again with a memo on 9/4/01. Cheney says he doesn't remember any of it.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Dick (Uncut)

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Economic Crisis

Nudity optional

2009-05-25T09:30:00.002-04:00

Imagine my surprise to discover there's a nudist club in Cincinnati, a park called Paradise Gardens (www.nudelife.com). No, there aren't any nude photos, but the activity schedule includes several dances that sound like they think it's more fun to wear clothes:

Toga Dance

Toilet Paper Lingerie Dance

Costume Contest

Pajama Dance

~ Rhonda

Circus goat walking on a wire

2009-05-24T19:06:00.001-04:00

From Uncle Sandy. Gives a whole new meaning to "sure-footed." (The video, not him.)

Heartening word piece

2009-05-10T19:28:00.002-04:00

This has 5 million plays on YouTube, and chances are you're one of 'em. Whether you are or not, I hope you'll enjoy. Nicely done.

Remix of Alice

2009-05-10T12:01:00.002-04:00

Okay, children of the Sixties, this is it. Repeat after me: "TOO freaking MUTSCH!"

Seriously.

(Thanks to the odd design site Booooooom.)

CBS News: Kittens For Lunch

2009-05-08T20:12:00.004-04:00

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's a perfect Mother's Day message.

VocaPeople

2009-04-25T10:14:00.001-04:00

This is making the rounds of perpetually forwarded emails. I don't think it's as stunning as some folks say (the emails say "NO INSTRUMENTS! JUST HUMAN VOICES!", but it's fun.

Somebody has WAY too much time on their hands.

2009-04-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

MIT geeks create a virus that makes a battery

2009-04-07T23:27:00.004-04:00

Not kidding. From EcoGeek.org:

Those crazy lab rats at MIT are attempting to radically diminish the cost of producing sophisticated nanotech cathodes and anodes by enlisting viruses to do the hard work for them. ...

The team at MIT genetically engineered viruses to excrete certain proteins. Those proteins then react with chemicals introduced to the environment to create complicated structures. Proteins are very good at directing compounds to create complicated structures...like life forms.

The viruses, in effect, pull the needed compounds (gold and cobalt for the anode and iron phosphate and carbon for the cathode) into nanowires....

Unless EcoGeek is twisting the truth (how would I know?), this sounds closer to reality than one might think. Go read the post, if you wish.

We've all wanted to do this.

2009-04-04T08:04:00.003-04:00

(Click to enlarge)

Well yes, that would explain it.

2009-03-25T20:50:00.008-04:00

When we remember we are all mad,
the mysteries disappear
and life stands explained.
– Mark Twain

Portia DiRossi apologizes for getting married and the suffering it's caused people

2009-03-23T07:00:00.002-04:00

Thanks to @TheEllenShow on Twitter!

How to tell if your cat is trying to kill you (from Cats Who Twitter)

2009-03-22T09:53:00.002-04:00

People who are aware of cat behavior, you have a new concern. Beware.

Acting on a lead from amazing medical tweet @JenMcCabeGorman, an investigative reporter (me) looked into the Cats Who Twitter blog, found the list (brazenly published!) of participants, and unearthed the Twitter user @3CatBlog. And there it was:

How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you

A bear, dancing

2009-03-12T23:33:00.001-04:00

Hard numbers: The economy is worse than you know

2009-03-01T16:11:00.006-05:00

I've been meaning to post this for a long time. Someone steered me to it last summer. (Was it classmate Tim Koranda, our co-poster here?) It's about a problem that has nothing to do with party politics because it spans 25 years of both parties' rule. I work with statistics all the time in my day job, and I know first-hand, if you adjust your strategies in response to bad data, you'll run your car right off the road. And that's what I see has happened and continues to happen here.

The problem is that for decades various administrations have repeatedly changed the definitions of vital economic statistics, so one percent of inflation today is nothing like one percent of inflation a generation ago. Same for unemployment statistics and many others. It's almost as if we had changed the definition of "miles per gallon" and then tried to compare current cars with the ones from 1980.

The writer who was brought to my attention is Kevin Phillips, in last April's Harper's magazine. The article was reprinted online in the Tampa Bay paper. (The original has been taken down from the paper's site; the link goes to Google's cache of it.)

Yes, Hell has frozen over. Yes, I'm quoting a Nixon speechwriter on a topic where the Clinton administration seems to have been the most egregious offender. The chart above is one example: the definition of inflation has been repeatedly changed. Remember the Clinton campaign's internal slogan "It's the economy, stupid"? This graph shows that they apparently really believed it, adjusting the definition of inflation so the apparent number stayed around 3%, though by 1983's definitions prices kept rising at a faster and faster rate. (Others did it before and after, too.)

One form of manipulation is product substitution: in the weekly consumer grocery basket, when flank steak became too expensive, they simply stopped counting it and substituted hamburger instead - the same as if we stopped counting Toyotas and substituted Yugos and then talked about prices as if they were the same.

Another is hedonic adjustment, which means they've fudged the real prices increases downward, because we supposedly enjoy today's products more than we enjoyed previous products. (But note, they didn't make the definition change retroactive: one writer noted that this fudging would have blown the roof off prices in the 1950s, when air conditioning and widespread car ownership changed life dramatically for many people.)

Another example, which I discovered 5 years ago, is the definition of unemployment, also covered in Phillips' article. Many of you know that when you give up and stop looking, they stop counting you even though you still don't have a job and would take one if you could get it; and even if you're still looking after 6 months, they stop counting you anyway. JFK's administration brought us that one.

And the "job creation" statistics only count the number of W-2's, without considering full-time or part-time. So if someone loses a full-time job with benefits and has to take three part-time jobs to get by (without benefits), the statistics you hear on the TV would report it as "The economy created two new jobs last month."

My Congressman's office called the Bureau of Labor Statistics and confirmed that for me.

One problem with this is that policymakers don't take the fudging into account when they decide whether action is needed. They have rules like "if inflation is above 5%, do X." Look at the chart above and you'll see how cloudy their windshield has been.

Remember, I'm not saying this to attack any particular party - it's been happening through many different administrations. I'm saying that until we remove the fudging - or modify the policy guidelines - we have no hope at all of making effective decisions. And the economy's not going to get better.

Patsy Cline spoof (who's this comedienne??)

2009-03-01T12:51:00.002-05:00

Yes, from Uncle Sandy again.

This is in several places on YouTube but I can't find the comedienne's name! First person to find it for me (and put it in a comment below) gets a year's free subscription to this blog.

Obituary: on the death of Common Sense

2009-02-28T16:05:00.002-05:00

Good ol' Uncle Sandy again. I imagine this one's been around the barn a few times, but hey, it's OUR blog, and we get to post whatever we want. (That's what Web 2.0 is all about.)

I've cleaned up punctuation and deleted some stuff I didn't like, because hey, it's my blog. :) You can start a blog too - see the Create Blog link at top right. I'd never had a blog, until I started one. (Duh?)

====

An Obituary, purportedly from the London Times

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who had
been with us for many years.

No one knows for sure how old he was - he'd been around as long as anyone could remember. He will be recalled as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

When to come in out of the rain
The early bird gets the worm
Life isn't always fair
Maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overdone regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding a student worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

He declined further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant.

Common Sense lost the will to live as churches became businesses and criminals sometimes received better treatment than their victims.

The onset of his final illness occurred when a woman placed a steaming cup of coffee between her legs, spilled it, and won a lawsuit about the consequences.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by four selfish stepbrothers: I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, It's His Fault, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because hardly anyone noticed he was missing.

If you remember him, pass this on. If not, join the crowd.

"Nothing ventured"

2009-02-27T23:02:00.003-05:00

Here is an op-ed piece by Tim Koranda that just ran in the Orange County Register about paying people to do nothing.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nothing-money-government-2314257-new-one

New item on Denny's Menu

2009-02-27T21:36:00.001-05:00

In honor of the mother of octuplets, Nadya Suleman, Denny's is offering the "Nadya" breakfast special:

It's 14 eggs, no sausage, and the guy in the next booth pays for it!

All, Tim Koranda is a college classmate of mine, whom I met only last year as a result of my being class secretary, so I write everyone several times a year. It's a cheesy way to get more email in my life, but it works.

Why some senior drivers should be re-tested

2009-02-22T18:58:00.003-05:00

This blog is about impatience. I get impatient with idiots of all stripes. So does evil Uncle Sandy in Stone Mountain.

But I love this. I so get the frustration and, well, impatience of just wanting to get OUT of there.

Swami Beyondananda's Guidelines for Millennial Enlightenment

2009-02-14T07:39:00.002-05:00

I'd heard of this guy over the years, but this just showed up today on my ACOR cancer mailing list, and I laughed out loud about a dozen times. So here, happy Valentine's Day! From Swami Beyondananda:

1. Be a Fundamentalist--make sure the Fun always comes before the Mental. Realize that life is a situation comedy that will never be canceled. A laugh track has been provided, and the reason why we are put in the material world is to get more material for it.

2. Remember that each of us has been given a special gift, just for entering -- so you are already a winner!

3. The most powerful tool on the planet today is Tell-A-Vision. That is where I tell a vision to you, and you tell a vision to me. That way, if we don't like the programming we're getting, we can simply change the channel.

4. Life is like photography. You use the negative to develop.

5. It is true. As we go through life thinking heavy thoughts, thought particles tend to get caught between the ears, causing a condition called truth decay. So be sure to use mental floss twice a day. And when you're tempted to practice tantrum yoga,
remember what we teach in Swami's Absurdiveness Training class: *Don't get even, get odd.*

6. If we want world peace, we must let go of our attachments and truly live like nomads. That's where I no mad at you, you no mad at me. That way, there'll surely be nomadness on the planet. And peace begins with each of us. A little peace here, a little peace there, pretty soon all the peaces will fit together to make one big
peace everywhere.

7. I know great earth changes have been predicted for the future, so if you're looking to avoid earthquakes, my advice is simple. When you find a fault, just don't dwell on it.

8. There's no need to change the world. All we have to do is toilet train the world, and we'll never have to change it again.

9. If you're looking to find the key to the Universe, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is: there is no key to the Universe. The good news is: it has been left unlocked.

Joe Cocker at Woodstock, with subtitles

2009-01-19T22:58:00.004-05:00

I always did wonder what he was actually saying. Fasten your seatbelts.

=====RATS, that didn't last long! It now produces a copyright error. Sorry. Well, it was great. ==========

Hippo eats dwarf

2009-01-11T20:00:00.003-05:00

I've been using Twitter lately. Many people use it for insipid exchanges of "I'm going to lunch now" updates, but I (and my Twitter friends) use it to eavesdrop on things that interesting people have spotted and post on Twitter.

This one's an oddity. The guy publishes a really good technical blog, but tonight he "tweeted" something a wee bit bizarre.

Hippo eats dwarf. No further commentary needed - http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l23/dannymills/HIPPOEATSDWARF.jpg
Sun, Jan 11 15:39:02 from web

Okay so it's a month late. Listen to it.

2009-01-08T22:42:00.002-05:00

(Ignore the stupid preview image that they put on the YouTube. It's not about Hell.) (Well, maybe it is.)

New photo

2008-12-11T08:45:00.006-05:00

Don't give me any grief about this; I'm posting it because I like it and I want to. :)

It's a picture of me that was taken last month by a photographer at a convention I attended. GOOD photographer, I say.

Thoughts on my hobby - a chapter in transition

2008-12-06T12:41:00.003-05:00

My chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society is going through transition. After 9 years as Northeast District Champions and representatives of the District at International, many are burned out, and others are frankly tired of the eternal tension that exists in many hobby chapters between those who want to excel (weeding out the members who hold back our quality) and those who either can't or don't want to put in the extra work to achieve the quality.

In the past year or so, "the handlebars have come off the bicycle," in a sense – our previous responsiveness to our director and music team's pull has not been what it once was. So we're going through a process of recreating ourselves. We'll have a new director and before we can hire one we need to decide what kind of chapter we want to be. Some dedicated members have worked on detailed proposals of several different models. And we're near the final stages of that process.

Today in our email group, branching off a different discussion, I posted the note below, which expresses what I feel about all this. Those of you who know me well know how much it's meant to me to sing in this chorus in recent years. Who knows what the future holds, but I wanted to express this.

I share this with you partly because I have a sense that there's something in this for all of us, all of America, even all of humanity, not just my chapter of the barbershop society.

-----------

You know, gents, for a variety of reasons I don't know if I'll be on the risers after 1/1/09, for a while at least. But none of it depends on what the chorus's standards will be.

I'm going to stick my neck out for a minute and maybe embarrass myself a little, and because of that, I presume nobody else will take offense at what I say.

I started in 2002 pretty much at rock bottom level. At my first audition, one of the guys who was hearing me literally fell backward when I let loose with my very sincere bellow. :) And there was a time when I handed in a tape to David Patterson and he came back to me with the gentlest look on his face as he asked me some delicate question about it, only to discover it was NOT the tape I'd meant him to listen to - after my take, he'd continued listening to some old junk I'd not recorded over, which was the grossest squawks. Yet he was gentle about it; I was aghast later when I listened to what HE'd listened to.

Over the years I learned to hear overtones (now I can hear about half of what Boot and Steve hear), which makes it infinitely easier to fit into the sound. I'm still not instinctively good at flatting the thirds and adjusting volume based on where I am in the chord - that's all filtering in slowly.My breath and vocal production are much better than they were. And through the incessant training, I've learned something about interpretation.

Ironically, recently I've been thinking that in six years what I've really learned is to understand how good my voice is NOT. :) But I sure have fun.

Here's where I'm going to get dicey: [Recently at an event] I heard some truly bad singing. Even by my standards. I heard some choruses galoomphing along, with the chorus moving from note to note more or less like an amoeba, galoomph galoomph, not like a unit. And yet as I heard it, I found myself thinking "That must be what I have sounded like to others, and what I probably still sound like to some." And perhaps what Nashua sounds like to some, today.

So as I found myself thinking "Don't they know how bad they sound? How can they be enjoying that?", I was at the same time thinking "Without people in our chapter who were willing to suck it up and TEACH ME, I wouldn't be one bit better today than I was six years ago. I improved by better singers sucking it up and being generous with me."

I have to say this was not an easy thing to realize. But for the first time, I felt that if I knew how to teach, I'd be willing to.

I fully understand the guys who want to excel and don't want to be held back. God bless 'em, I say, personally. And at the same time, I hope everyone who has it in 'em will continue teaching. I am so, so grateful to those people, for it's they who have given me my hobby. They helped me, literally, give voice to what I love to do.

Shrimp on a treadmill

2008-12-04T18:25:00.001-05:00

Shrimp on a treadmill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkiM1S_dMm4

If HE can do it, I can do it!

~ Rhonda

Hmmm, somebody's not updating his LinkedIn profile meticulously

2008-11-29T22:06:00.002-05:00

Responding to a LinkedIn email tonight, I ran across someone's page that contained this little bit:

Singing: the key to a long, sexy life (Brian Eno)

2008-11-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

British composer, artist and activist Brian Eno was a founding member of the rock group Roxy Music, and has produced recordings by Talking Heads and U2. He was on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday today. Audio and text available here. Appetizer:

I believe in singing. I believe in singing together. ...

I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, super self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humor. A recent long-term study conducted in Scandinavia sought to discover which activities related to a healthy and happy later life. Three stood out: camping, dancing and singing. ...

And:

“A capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings -- to stop being me for a little while, and to become us.”

The River of Time

2008-11-23T23:38:00.000-05:00

To enlightened observers, time is a river of new beginnings. Little by little, we purge ourselves of the stagnant past by comforming to new circumstances which reveal themselves one minute at a time in our daily lives. Above all we must acquiesce to these circumstances which are borne along the river while the future is suspended behind coffer dams of hope.-– hoarded, as it were, so that we might put forth greater effort. If we are not yet perfect, we soon will be. Deliverance is certain to flow along this same current as one of these circumstances which is why Kierkagaard said. “Life makes sense looking backward, but it must be lived forward.”

The front page we thought we'd never see: 7/4/09

2008-11-23T21:19:00.002-05:00

http://www.nytimes-se.com/

(A tip o' the hat to classmate Tim Koranda.)

Beer launching fridge

2008-11-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

Who says American ingenuity is at a standstill?

Passing thoughts on the "new New Deal"

2008-11-23T09:10:00.004-05:00

Many observers are talking about the chances of Obama leading an initiative similar to FDR's New Deal, so these two items caught my eye this morning:

Obama Vows Swift Action on Vast Economic Stimulus Plan
[Includes "addressing neglected public infrastructure projects like roads and schools..."]

The New Deal Didn’t Always Work, Either
"The traditional story is that President Franklin D. Roosevelt rescued capitalism by resorting to extensive government intervention; the truth is that Roosevelt changed course from year to year, trying a mix of policies, some good and some bad. It’s worth sorting through this grab bag now, to evaluate whether any of these policies might be helpful."

I'm no historian nor a deep student of today's challenges. I'd welcome comments from those of you who are.

A genuine hand-made Raggedy Ann

2008-11-15T16:16:00.004-05:00

Shhhh..... here's the hand-made doll that Ginny just made for her daughter Lilly's fifth birthday later this month.

Isn't she talented??

(This blog is about impatience, and I'm too impatient to create something like this. But Ginny's not. Good thing. There are some things that grandmothers are just really ideal for!)

You'll like this

2008-11-08T22:29:00.001-05:00

Neptunus Lex says: Stay in school!

http://www.neptunuslex.com/2008/11/08/stay-in-school/

Japanese Mall Fountain

2008-10-31T23:10:00.002-04:00

What a nifty invention. What won't people think of next?

A tip of the hat to Uncle Sandy.

Palin Pipeline: Superb Washington-style methods

2008-10-26T08:53:00.002-04:00

I know Internet political messages don't generally change anyone's opinion. But I'm gonna post this one anyway because in my opinion it adds insight that's truly new to me: it appears that Sarah Palin's signature achievement, her gas pipeline deal to carry Alaskan gas to the lower 48, was executed with slick and savvy Washington-style buddy-buddy lobbyist deal-making.

Most potential bidders were excluded by the bidding terms, and the corker is that the deal eventually to a firm that had previously offered to do it without government subsidy but may now get a half billion of government subsidy:

AP INVESTIGATION: Palin pipeline terms curbed bids

Now, I know some people will say "There ya go again, tha lib'ral mediah." I'll touch on that subject tonight, regarding a station that sued for the right to fire reporters who won't lie.

Group photo of the candidates

2008-10-23T21:25:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Jere. Priceless.

Want your vote to count twice?

2008-10-21T21:04:00.004-04:00

I'm impatient about.... idiots.

“While well-intentioned, this type of exercise may only drive fear for the voting public,” said a spokesman for a company that makes voting machines.

What was she speaking about? Why, it's a successful effort to hack into voting machines, as reported by MSNBC.

By security experts? No, by undergraduates in a course.

At MIT or Caltech? No, at Rice.

One of the groups not only hacked in, they hid their hack so well that it survived two audits. Punch line: the same company spokeswoman then had the b@lls to comment that there's never been evidence of such fraud.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education. (A tip of the Hatlow hat to our friend who calls himself The Hat.)

Caption contest

2008-10-17T07:18:00.000-04:00

You know what to do: click the Comments link below.

(A tip of the hat to cousin Bob & Louise.)

Another Bill Buckley ex-columnist on Palin

2008-10-15T19:00:00.003-04:00

David Brooks, former columnist for William Buckley's National Review, and the "house conservative" columnist at the New York Times, speaking at the big shindig in New York last week introducing the new layout of Atlantic:

You might be interested in the whole write-up over on Huffington Post, in which he also recounts an interview he had with Obama. One excerpt:

Obama has the great intellect. I was interviewing Obama a couple years ago, and I'm getting nowhere with the interview, it's late in the night, he's on the phone, walking off the Senate floor, he's cranky. Out of the blue I say, 'Ever read a guy named Reinhold Niebuhr?' And he says, 'Yeah.' So i say, 'What did Niebuhr mean to you?' For the next 20 minutes, he gave me a perfect description of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought, which is a very subtle thought process based on the idea that you have to use power while it corrupts you. And I was dazzled, I felt the tingle up my knee as Chris Matthews would say.

Please note something: the headline on that Huffington post is inflammatory, even though it's a direct quote from Brooks. I'm intentionally not posting that here, because as I've said to some of you, I think we'll all be better off if we focus on exchanging ideas, not being inflammatory. Let it start here.

Sign of the times

2008-10-13T20:56:00.003-04:00

Buckley: "Sorry, Dad, I'm voting for Obama"

2008-10-11T20:00:00.002-04:00

The son of William F. Buckley has decided to vote for a Democrat
Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-10/the-conservative-case-for-obama

Best election status tracking site

2008-10-11T19:15:00.007-04:00

Tonight's news once again reported the nationwide poll results for Obama vs. McCain, which is the most useless thing you could possibly track. What are these people thinking? The only thing that matters on election day is state by state.

So I googled "obama mccain poll results" and found what seems to be by far the most useful site I've seen, named, appropriately enough, Real Clear Politics.

Intelligently, their navigation list on the left shows a list of the battleground states. Clicking one produces a list of recent poll results, like many sites. But unlike many, it also shows the blue/red trend. Here's my state. The red-blue chart shows the individual candidates' numbers; the graph below that shows the point spread as it waxes and wanes. (Click image to enlarge.)

The site also has a "RealClearPolitics Map" which shows the current status of all the states that are solidly in or leaning toward one camp, or tossup. Remember, judgments about what's a tossup and what's not are highly subjective.

Intergalactic quartet

2008-10-06T20:08:00.004-04:00

Lifted from the Wired blog.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "classless society." Completely classless.

Introducing my new self - today and 9 years ago

2008-10-05T09:42:00.008-04:00

I decided to use a different Blogger identity for this blog: ImPatient Dave. Here's my first post.

I added a new, better kind of subscription over there on the right. I had some problems on the other blog's email list - replies would unintentionally go back out to the whole list. This one should work better.

For this account's photo, I even dug out a photo from 12/31/99, Millennium Eve in Provincetown, a few weeks after I'd proposed to Ginny. Here are a few pictures from that evening:

First, my new profile picture: A peaceful, happy looking boy - hm, doesn't look very impatient!

With the lady herself - with dark hair!

And with the sister, happy and playful as always:

Life is good.

btw, one thing Ginny brought into my life is her hairdresser in Provincetown, who at the time was also a genuinely fabulous impersonator of famous songstresses. That weekend was one of his last performances before retiring from show biz. Here are some snapshots of the show - these are all one guy!

Agency’s ’04 Rule Let Banks Pile Up New Debt

2008-10-04T01:22:00.005-04:00

I've long been impatient with people who assert that our chief problem is too much government regulation, and this is a perfect example of why.

Friday's Times has a long, meaty article detailing how a key SEC ruling in 2004 let investment banks throw caution to the winds by removing the rules about how much debt banks could take on. The reasoning was that the banks were grown-ups and would know how to watch out for their own best interest.

They used financial modeling software to assess risks. The author of that software wrote to the SEC saying that removing those regulations was a really bad idea - the software the banks would be using to "watch out for their own best interest" couldn't anticipate severe turbulence, as had happened in 1987 and 1998. The SEC never replied.

At the time, some regulators questioned whether investments would be secure enough. A senior staff member said the SEC would hire the best minds, including people with strong quantitative skills to parse the banks’ balance sheets. It never happened.

With cash reserve requirements removed, some banks ran up their debt to 33 times their actual amount of cash. Imagine if you had $10,000 of life savings and you took on debt of $330,000!

A good friend of many years, with whom I differed on several points, used to assert that government should just get off the back of business. He also objected to taxes in all forms. I wonder how he's reconciling that, now that taxpayers are bearing the brunt of the irresponsible businessmen who made those choices, and the other irresponsible people who failed to hire those quantitative experts.

Debate party (last Friday) at Boston's ICA

2008-10-02T23:15:00.004-04:00

Wellllll, lookie here, isn't this fun!

Last Friday, Boston's new Institute of Contemporary Art hosted a live remix of the Presidential debate. (Live remix means geeks in the back room would be intercepting the life feed of the debate and scrambling its parts into a semi-psychedelic six-screen experience.)

My company's founder, Marco Peterson, invited me to go along, suggesting meanwhile that the occasion would require an attitude appropriate to a Samoan attorney.

Well, I gave up psychedelics long ago, but I did happen to have a conspicuous Mexican hat in the back seat of my car, left over from a wonderful party hosted by long-lost friend Pete Moloney a week earlier. So I grabbed the hat, went inside and had a good time.

Today Marco sent me a link to a column in the Boston Phoenix about the event. And lookie here!

Downstairs there were some serious politicos watching closely, others (including me) fading in and out of the debate, and a handful of cats dancing while the late night DJs warmed up quietly. One guy who fell into the latter group was wearing a sombrero, which was great since I’d forgotten mine. It was official – ReConstitution was the dopest debate party I’ve ever been to ....

Dude! My sombrero made a Phoenix writer say it was his dopest debate party ever??

It's all part of the job, sir. We just do what we see must be done.

A tip of the Happy Hat to Marco for putting me in the appropriate mental space TO see and do what must be done. And a re-tip to Pete for handing out the hats at his party's door!

Disgusting SEIU ad against my hospital

2008-10-02T20:35:00.008-04:00

A post on Paul Levy's blog about SEIU, a union I've mentioned before, led me to look into a new web site they've started, to slander Levy himself and the whole hospital.

As the post describes, they've put up signs at bus stops implying that the hospital is full of corruption and malfeasance, with a companion web site: "eyeonBI.org". I saw a "Share Your Story" link and went there to say how much I (and every employee I've spoken with) like the hospital, but look what I saw: (click to enlarge)

If you're not already familiar with this story, which has been going on for ages, it's summed up in the many comments on Paul's post.

Several months ago in a comment on a similar post I told an SEIU organizer "This gives organized labor a bad name. Why not go after some evil company??" And to me giving organized labor a bad name really is a problem. But, as shown in a link on Paul's post, it appears the union's leadership has ethical troubles of its own now:

The president of the Service Employees International Union said this week that he plans to consult with two labor reform groups in an effort to clean up his scandal-stained organization, beginning with a new ethics code and an internal watchdog commission.

But leaders of both groups said Wednesday that they were skeptical of Andy Stern's proposals.

"Why does he need a new code of ethics?" said Herman Benson, founder of the Assn. for Union Democracy. "People didn't know that what they were doing was wrong? It's preposterous."

More on Kathleen Parker

2008-10-02T07:25:00.001-04:00

Phooey. The link didn't show up in my earlier post. Here it is: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE=

Conservative commentary on Sarah Palin

2008-10-02T07:19:00.001-04:00

Kathleen Parker, a respected conservative columnist, has written a column on Sarah Palin's candidacy that is worth reading before tonight's debate. Nothing terribly new, but it does come from a thoughtful source on the right.

Some good questions for the VP debate

2008-10-02T05:40:00.001-04:00

The NY Times Op-Ed editors asked people with knowledge of the vice presidency, the candidates and their records to suggest questions they’d like to hear answered from the stage at Washington University in St. Louis this evening. Just reading the questions is informative, about both candidates.
Questions for the Next Vice President

The gasping dollar

2008-10-02T05:27:00.006-04:00

In the past, the value of the dollar was tied to gold - it had real value, $35/ounce. In 1971 we went off the gold standard. I've never been entirely clear what the reasoning was; all I can say is, I'm glad I bought my college class ring before then - it's an ounce of gold. Now the value of the dollar isn't tied to anything real, and the US dollar price of gold is one measure of the world's belief in the American economy.

Various web sites will let you track the history of the price of gold through the years. During the Clinton years the price of gold dropped from $329 to $265 - the dollar became 20% stronger. It was the first time since 1979 it had been that strong.

Today, in just 7.5 years, it's exploded to $869. Your dollar is worth 3.3 times less in the world market than it was when W took office. From http://goldprice.org/live-gold-price.html:

I'll have more to say later about why I think this is happening. (It's not all Bush policies.)

"We've had quite enough recklessness already this century"

2008-10-01T21:29:00.002-04:00

Interesting, thoughtful review of a few issues that I think bear considering. 12 minutes.

Let's stop being binary: The first 1:45 is an expression of something I've long felt - that we as a country have become far too binary - someone is great or abysmal. (This commentator had simply written that Palin did "great" in her Charles Gibson interview, and got flooded with angry emails.)

Palin's experience: The next 7:45 considers the suggestion that her experience is normal for VPs. I think the commentator twists Palin's words a little but the review he presents is worth considering. In his view, relevant experience would be (1) significant experience focusing on federal issues, or (2) significant executive experience, typically being governor for a significant time.

The 20% issue: 20% of all VPs (9/46) have acceded to the Presidency. Since McCain is the oldest candidate ever and he has health challenges, the odds of his VP taking over can't be less than that 20%.

I'm not 100% certain I agree with everything this guy says, but I like that he seems thoughtful, seems to consider things.

I chose his closing line for the title of this post: "We've had quite enough recklessness already this century."

Salon: The Sarah Palin Pity Party

2008-10-01T20:54:00.002-04:00

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/

Well written column. A bit long but easy to read. Sheds light on some confusing reactions columnists have had about Palin's recent embarrassing problems in the spotlight; points out that she's a tough politician who knows how to cut up a moose, didn't hesitate a moment to accept McCain's offer - "a politician who took the national stage and sneered at the work of community activists."

The whole thing is worth reading; here's an excerpt:

Sept. 30, 2008 | Is this the week that Democrats and Republicans join hands -- to heap pity on poor Sarah Palin?

At the moment, all signs point to yes, as some strange bedfellows reveal that they have been feeling sorry for the vice-presidential candidate ever since she stopped speaking without the help of a teleprompter. Conservative women like Kathleen Parker and Kathryn Jean Lopez are shuddering with sympathy as they realize that the candidate who thrilled them, just weeks ago, is not in shape for the big game. They're not alone. The New Republic's Christopher Orr feels that Palin has been misused by the team that tapped her. In the New York Times, Judith Warner feels for Sarah, too! And over at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates empathizes with intelligence and nuance, making clear that he's not expressing pity. Salon's own Glenn Greenwald watched the Katie Couric interview and "actually felt sorry for Sarah Palin." Even Amy Poehler, impersonating Katie Couric on last week's "Saturday Night Live," makes the joke that Palin's cornered-animal ineptitude makes her "increasingly adorable."

I guess I'm one cold dame, because while Palin provokes many unpleasant emotions in me, I just can't seem to summon pity, affection or remorse. ...

I don't want to be played by the girl-strings anymore. Shaking our heads and wringing our hands in sympathy with Sarah Palin is a disservice to every woman who has ever been unfairly dismissed based on her gender, because this is an utterly fair dismissal, based on an utter lack of ability and readiness.

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

2008-09-20T17:12:00.002-04:00

OMG.

How often do my two after-work passions come together? Singing and healthcare? (And they're from Minnesota, no less, like me.) A group of nurse anesthetists, singing medical parodies.

(From the amazing Toni Brayer MD, via KevinMD, all brought to my attention by Paul Levy. Looks like these boys are goin' viral in the medical blogosphere.)

Great article about barbershop harmony

2008-09-19T21:05:00.001-04:00

I attest, this article in the Saturday Evening Post completely captures the joy of barbershop harmony.

Great personal connection for me, too. In Wisconsin a few years ago I was coached by Todd Wilson, father of Taylor, and several times I've seen Rick Spencer perform - he's from my district of the barbershop harmony society.

(btw, a confession - my kid sister Amy sings in a much more competitive chorus in Sweet Adelines (Pride of Baltimore) than my chorus! And on their annual show this weekend, the featured quartet is Old School, which debuted at this year's international competition and placed fifth in the world - after being penalized for blowing a major note in one song. Some serious good songitude there.)

Takin' It Back with Barack, Jack

2008-08-28T22:17:00.001-04:00

As many of you know, my sister Suede is a professional singer who's just released a new CD, "Dangerous Mood." Two of the songs have fabulous harmonica accompaniment from a guy named Will Galison. When I saw her CD launch tour's inaugural show in DC this summer, he was there, live.

Little did I know he can sing. Here he is with a swing group – and what a song!

(A plug – this weekend we're going up to see Suede at Jonathan's, a fabulous restaurant and music venue in Ogunquit, ME. We saw her last weekend in Provincetown, and even with a cold she still got a long standing ovation and hollers for multiple encores. What a trouper – can't wait to hear the full voice again!)

Cross-posted: "Born To Be . . ."

2008-08-23T20:51:00.001-04:00

From Paul Levy's blog:

Born to be . . .
Following up on the theme introduced last Friday, here is a pertinent animated view of the Baby Boomers.

All I could say in my comment was "o... m... g..."

Inspiring news from my cousin's blog

2008-08-10T20:34:00.001-04:00

In May I wrote about my 28 year old cousin Chris McCulloh, who had a spinal cord injury in January (C6-C7 subluxation, for those who know such things). This happened as he was about to enter Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

He's been blogging occasionally about his recovery. I was inspired to receive this from him last Thursday - a wonderful story of the classmates he hasn't met yet.

Spinal Cord Injury and Healing

A special thanks..

Posted: 07 Aug 2008 07:37 PM CDT

Recently, I received a package in the mail from Cleveland, OH. It had been something I was expecting, as I'd been told by a few folks in the admissions office that something was on the way. But I had no idea what was inside, and so I anxiously awaited its arrival. When it did come, I was beyond surprised.

When I first opened the box, I found a bag with the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine logo on it. About the size of a laptop, looks like it'd be perfect for carrying one to and from classes. There was also a batch of materials that had been from Second Look Weekend, since I had unfortunately been unable to attend due to the injury. Those were all pretty cool, but they paled in comparison to what else was in there. I pulled out a t-shirt, and the first thing I saw was the Case Med logo:

This alone was exciting, as I had tried to order a shirt with the medical school logo on it after I was accepted. Unfortunately, the only shirts available online from the Case school store only have the basic CWRU logo on them, and no mention of Case Med. So having a shirt with the medical school logo on it was awesome. Then I unfolded the shirt and saw the rest of it.

All over the shirt in silver marker were signatures and notes from the entire Class of 2012, the group I was to join this summer in matriculation at Case. I saw the names of people who have contacted me since the blog URL was given out to the students, and there were very touching notes from people I didn't know. I was blown away.

The front of the shirt:

(Click to enlarge)

The back of the shirt was even more awesome. In addition to all the other signatures and notes, the students had printed "Dear Chris, Welcome to Case Med! Class of 2012″ in big letters.

The back of the shirt:

(Click to enlarge)

I cannot even begin to express how moving it was to see all of the names. It was one of the few times I've ever been left speechless, and I have been sharing it with family and friends that I've talked to since then. They've all been equally as blown away by the thoughtfulness of the students.

Mr. Essman and Dr. Mehta made it very clear to me that it was entirely the students' initiative to create and send the shirt. And this is precisely the reason I chose to attend Case - the people. The student body and the entire community as a whole are truly a supportive group, and the school lacks the cutthroat competition so prevalent at other institutions. I felt something special when I visited the school during interview season in all my dealings with students and faculty, and I've felt that even more so now. The warmth has really made me feel a part of the community, even from nearly 500 miles away.

To all the students of the Class of 2012 at Case Med, I thank you with my whole heart! I cannot tell you how much the gift means to me, and how much I cannot wait to get out to Cleveland to meet you all at some point. It is truly special to be one of your peers.

THANK YOU!!!

Beth Israel Deaconess on ... Jeopardy??

2008-06-04T00:11:00.001-04:00

One of my earliest posts on this blog was a thank-you to Dr. Drew Wagner, the amazing surgeon who removed my yucky-sticky-rude-tumored kidney, without cutting me wide open - just little tiny slits. Amazing.

In that post was a mention of the amazing simulation/training facility at his hospital (and mine), Beth Israel Deaconess. Well, today while chasing a link in the blog of that hospital's CEO, I came across this video clip: last December, their simulation center was featured on Jeopardy's Tournament of Champions!

And yes, they inflated my belly with that unnamed gas. (Yes, I have a bikini scar, and no, you may not see it.)

p.s. To be amazed at the openness of communication at that hospital, and the transparency they're bringing to the world of healthcare, go directly to that video site and page through the "More from this show" items on the right side. The video featured today is a real-life sample of how the hospital now approaches suggestions from workers at every level of the enterprise. What a beautiful example of empowering everyone, and the results it produces.

Memorial Day 2008

2008-05-26T22:37:00.001-04:00

Updated 5/27 - fixed typos.

1. The ceremony

Today I sang at the Groton (MA) cemetery, in their Memorial Day ceremony. This is the first time I've ever participated in such a ceremony, and it's time to say why, and what's different this year.

I came of age as assassinations and disillusionment put an end to post-WW II optimism. When I was 13 JFK was shot. We lived near DC and Dad took us to his office to watch the cortege. When I was 18, leaving high school for college, Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Kennedy were shot.

Something horrid was happening in the country. Then the Chicago Democratic convention happened, with cops bashing demonstrators on TV while a circus went on inside. (This was when reporters had the guts to call a spade a spade, and show it.) I couldn't believe what I was seeing; I was raised an optimist, fully participating in that post-WW II sense that America was great so all we had to do was work it out by talking.

I moved to Cambridge for college, where my optimism was ultimately shattered when I saw a cop smash the skull of a kid who was simply standing on a corner, while rioting happened 1-2 blocks away. (I know, many of you have heard that too often.) In my world cops couldn't possibly have done that, but I saw it. And suddenly all the things left-wingers and pessimists were saying were happening all around.

That was a filthy, corrupt war. (Note: I did not say anyone who was in it was filthy and corrupt.) I was left with a very disspirited feeling about everything to do with the military, because it seemed so polarized: either you loved everything military or you were anti-American. I just stayed out of the conversation.

Now I've aged. I faced death myself last year, leaving me acutely wondering what we're leaving behind for the next generations. I find myself concerned, seeing the rights that make us America increasingly eroded, and wondering who's going to win that particular fight. And I thought about the people who died to win us those rights.

I realized that for the first time I have a deep respect and appreciation for those who've willingly put their butts on the line for what they believed in, and got killed: went through that portal that I faced involuntarily.

That's really something. Their integrity, standing for what they believe in, transcends any lies and corruption that may have surrounded them.

So today as I practiced (and performed) "the land of the free and the home of the brave" and "America, my home" it had an impact on me that it's never had before.

2. The state of healthcare today

At the cemetery we stood near a tombstone detailing the fate of a family. As we work on solving healthcare's challenges, let's remember what a different world it is today. (The first date is unclear in the photo - it's 1798. Click to enlarge, if you want.)

A new quartet to keep an eye on: "On Air"

2008-04-10T19:06:00.002-04:00

At last weekend's local barbershop quartet competition, a new quartet popped a lot of eyes open. Their first song contains, about 45 seconds in, one of the best renderings I've ever heard of a "bangin'" barbershop chord, performed at a level that usually requires an international-top-ten quartet. Three of these four are members of my chorus.

From left to right: Jon Green (tenor), Jayson McCarter (lead), Kurt "Boot!" Boutin (megabass), George "the man" Feinberg on baritone.

What's particularly astounding is that these guys have been singing together for less than two months. Imagine what it takes to be so precise in beginning and ending phrases so completely in synch, not to mention with the pitches matched so well that they produce the "expanded sound" that's the hallmark of barbershop harmony.

What a pleasure to be around at the first coming-out of a new quartet like this.

A Neuroanatomist Witnesses Her Own Stroke

2008-03-30T21:02:00.001-04:00

Wow, what a speech, tying together so many aspects of all I've studied (many of us have studied) about what it is to be a human.

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor talks about observing her own stroke as it happened.

(If the embedded video gives you trouble, view it on the TED site here.)

Wonderful insights about the functions of the two hemispheres, and what she experienced as parts of her mental function dropped away, leaving her for a time with nothing but the experience of the moment of Now.

Aside from the inspiring beauty of her story, what smacked me in the face was the great similarities between what she says and what I discussed last year with members of my cancer community, about being at peace with it all, as Buddhists have done for millennia and as teachers like Ram Dass (nee Richard Alpert) continue to do today. A lot in common, too, with the description of psychedelic experiences such as described by Aldous Huxley in The Doors of Perception.

Powerful speaker.

I'm listening to her talk for the third time through. I know exactly what she's talking about re "no longer the choreographer of my life," and several other things, so I have no doubt at all that what she ultimately describes is available to every one of us, and that includes you.

A Singing Valentine from a barbershop quartet

2008-02-19T19:49:00.002-05:00

This is a commercial for one of the things that makes me happiest in life: singing barbershop harmony!

As this blog's "About me" page says, I sing in a men's barbershop harmony chorus, the Nashua Granite Statesmen. Most people don't know that there are barbershop choruses, but most do know about barbershop quartets. And indeed, as the photo shows, I'm in one, named "Route 5." It's loads of fun - there's a ton of tradition around this style of music - but the most fun is every February 14, when we hire ourselves out in quartets to do Singing Valentines, as a fundraiser.

The photo shows us with one of our "victims" - the head of the English department at a local high school. We ambushed her in front of a department meeting, claiming that our name is The Dangling Participles, and sang her a love song. A yearbook staffer was there, so next spring we'll be in print. How cool is that?

Next year you can order a Singing Valentine quartet (male or female) by going to www.SingingValentines.com. Or, if you're in the Nashua NH area, just contact me - next year I'm the local chairman. (Better yet, order now - why wait for the rush? :-)

If you're impatient, though, you're in luck - my chorus's annual show, with a superb women's barbershop chorus, is Saturday April 5. The featured quartet is named Rounders - we're flying them in from Fort Lauderdale, because they're good: they placed 8th in the world at last summer's championship. Here they are singing the Irving Berlin classic "They Say It's Wonderful":

As it happens, my chorus is currently recording that same song (a different arrangement) for our next CD, which will be out this fall - all Irving Berlin songs (Midnight Choo Choo, I Love a Piano, How Deep is the Ocean, and many more). When it's available for sale, you'll know it. :) But you can hear a preview, and much more singing, in Nashua NH on April 5. Tix: info -at- granitestatesmen.org (or me).

Web 2.0 means we get to say.

2008-02-07T15:13:00.001-05:00

My post below mentions "2.0" stuff. I've been dealing with this subject at work for the past year, but I know a lot of you have only recently heard this "buzzword" buzzing around like an unexplained annoying gnat that keeps getting in your ear, making it hard to think.

The e-patients blog yesterday has the best layperson's introduction I've ever seen for these key aspects of Web 2.0:

blogs
wikis (Wikipedia is just one example)
social networks
social bookmarks.

Worth a view. (These little "training videos" require having your speakers on.)

The big deal about all this is "user generated content" (UGC). See, in the early days of the Web (now known as Web 1.0), the Web was read-only: all web "content" (the stuff you read or view) was created by people who had access to a Web server and knew all the geeky stuff you needed for hand coding a web page.

In contrast to that, today we can create content: Look, I'm sitting here right now, blogging about whatever I want - just as if I could conceive and write a book and get it printed and have it appear in every library in the world, instantly. (Because it IS, right now, available on every computer in the world that has an Internet connection, including my iPod Touch.)

This that you're reading, right here, is user-generated content.

And the big thing about THAT is that it's enabled us to spout our opinions, for instance rating books on Amazon or even posting our own book reviews, as short or as long as we want.

What this means in the world of e-patients is that we ourselves get to talk about anything we want; instead of reading only what a magazine editor thinks we want (or need to know), we ourselves get to start any discussion we want and take it anywhere we want.

You could put it this way: Web 2.0 means we get to say. We get to say whatever we want, and we even get to say what gets talked about.

This is a core principle cited in the e-patients white paper, which you really should read, in PDF or wiki form. More to come.

Books that make you dumb? I don't think so.

2008-01-27T12:36:00.001-05:00

Time for another statistics lesson. I'm not the world's greatest statistics whiz (not like the super-geek on TV's "NUMB3RS" show), but that's part of my point: you don't have to be a super-geek to detect major mistakes in statistics that come your way.

This isn't a rant - it's just an interesting example of what to be careful about, with a little entertainment along the way.

I just got an email with something that, on the face of it, is fascinating:

Some one matched up the most popular books in Facebook college groups with average SAT scores at colleges to see what people commonly read at different intelligence levels. http://booksthatmakeyoudumb.virgil.gr/

Nice graphics, and a decent explanation about his method. On the face of it, pretty interesting.

But there's this thing about statistics: you've got to be careful about (at least) three things:

When you see a pattern, are you really seeing a pattern you can count on, or is it just a momentary coincidence? (If the first two people to walk into your office are men, does that mean only men will walk in today?)
Even when you do see a pretty reliable pattern, can you be reasonably sure it means what you think it means? (A relationship between the behaviors of two variables is called a correlation, but that doesn't mean you can say one caused the other. A famous example: for some years there was a correlation between wolverine population and the number of sunspots. Did either cause the other? Not likely, and besides, who could tell? The lesson: Similar behavior of two figures could just be a coincidence.)
Finally, you've got to be really careful about whom you actually measured. (If you interview people who are hanging out in skid row bars at 2 a.m., you may reach some interesting conclusions about the opinions of people in skid row bars at 2 a.m., but you can't say they're conclusions about people in general.)

Returning to the email: this guy saw patterns in which books were favorites at colleges with different average SAT scores. Addressing #1, he correctly didn't count colleges with very little data. But blew it on #2, when he titled the page "books that make you dumb," revealing a pretty massive fixation on one aspect of the whole picture, and flying in the face of his assurance that "I know correlation doesn't equal causation."

And besides, on #3, he doesn't even mention the gross sampling error of making an assertion about the book, based on data from Facebook readers who read it AND who participate in listing their favorites. Example 1: the Jesuit scholars at Boston College are highly intellectual, and I imagine that if they ranked their favorite books, the Holy Bible would rank high; but I doubt the Jesuits are ranking books on Facebook, and the Bible ranks among the lowest on this guy's charts.

Example 2: if some book actually made many people so brilliant they ditched Facebook, those people would disappear from this ranking entirely, and all that would remain would be the people who completely didn't get it. And, that book would show up as "making people dumb."

Besides, there's the whole issue of whether SATs are any indication of smartness, not to mention which type of smartness (Gardner's Multiple Intelligences).

He woud have been better off titling it BooksThatLowAndHighSATSchoolFacebookMembersLove.

This isn't just an academic issue - these errors can lead us to drive off a cliff. When we think we see something, and we don't, then with the best of intentions we can make serious mistakes in our conclusions, our policy decisions and our life choices.

On the health of complex systems

2008-01-20T11:26:00.001-05:00

Somewhat related to my "nature of wellness" post is the general question of what is health.

I've known Dorron Levy since November of 1994, and for almost the whole time he's devoted his career to figuring out how to tell whether a system is healthy, with the goal of enabling early detection, which allows solving a problem before its consequences spread, becoming more costly and eventually becoming urgent.

His work that's been published is about computer-based systems, but the underlying theoretical work is quite generalized, and I expect it'll lead to sophisticated early detection of human health problems. He's started a blog, SystemHealth.blogspot.com, to lay out his thinking in easy-to-digest chapters. If you're at all interested in how things work, you might enjoy reading it.

Don't fall for SEIU

2008-01-14T17:57:00.001-05:00

Some of you may have received an email today from MoveOn. I urge you not to donate to this particular campaign, and to go to MoveOn's suggestion form and warn them, as I did:

Be very, very careful about SEIU. I'm a strong progressive myself, very pro-union philosophically, but these people give unions a bad name. They lie, distort, send subversive emails and letters full of half-truths or outright untruths. Creating a strong union movement must not depend on such Bush-like tactics!
I'm quite disappointed to see them showing up in a MoveOn email.
Watch out - they open you to what could be well-documented claims of fraud and deception. That is NOT something MoveOn needs!

Here's why I said that.

These people are weasels. Those of you who've been following Paul Levy's blog, as CEO of my hospital (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, aka BIDMC), and who perhaps have met him, know what kind of man he is: competent, compassionate, committed, honest. SEIU wants to unionize his hospital, and they've been claiming he's a slimy liar who uses manipulative tactics more appropriate to the Bush administration.

Here's a blog post from the other day about a packet they just sent to 500 affiliated doctors (who don't even work for the hospital!). The package suggests, among other things, that Levy is failing to honor the Jewish tradition of social justice.

Furthermore, SEIU is trying to prevent putting the issue to a secret ballot of the affected workers, supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, and has even supported legislation to eliminate those elections. Note - NLRB elections were created specifically to prevent manipulative employers from blocking workers' free choice.

Paul advocated in an August 2006 post for a free exchange of views: "we will vigorously oppose any efforts to short-circuit the legitimate process by which employees of this hospital can consider, debate, and vote on this issue."

Several months later he again advocated that the vote be by secret ballot. Last summer he spelled out specific tactics the union has used in other cities. One commenter said

The initial cause for unions was to avoid worker exploitation and unsafe working environments. I don’t see this happening at BIDMC. If a Hospital or business provides a good safe place to work with decent benefits and livable wages for all its employees than there is no need for union intervention. That being said I do feel there are still places of business that could use a union…Maybe the SEIU should be looking at Wal*Mart????"

I couldn't agree more. I wonder why on earth they're not doing that. Or, consider Nike, which in 2003 went to court to claim the right to lie about whether they'd cleaned up their sweatshops! They finally gave up, six months later, and agreed to donate $1.5M to a workers' rights group.

Paul's "pages from the playbook" post contains comments spanning three months, with back and forth between Levy and various attackers (and supporters). You can decide for yourself whether he's open and honest. Consider in particular the August 13 comment by an employee, which criticizes several things about life as a nurse at BIDMC - Paul published it unedited. This man is not a manipulator.

We need unions where there are rampant abuses, as with Nike and Wal-Mart. But SEIU does not give unions a good name.

I personally believe the Reagan administration did us all a great disservice when they started busting up unions, starting with PATCO... that's one reason the middle class is disappearing in the US, with grave consequences throughout the economy. But the solution is not to lie and go after great not-for-profit institutions. Shame on them - not only are they not attacking the problem, they're giving the solution a bad name in the process.

Thank you, Harvard Pilgrim!

2007-12-09T12:49:00.001-05:00

The rant below is about statistics, not insurance companies. But I want to take a moment to thank my health insurance company, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. My cancer adventure (and house-selling adventure) this year had enough challenges of their own, but the year could have been sheer hell if my insurance company had been a jerk. Harvard Pilgrim was the polar opposite of that.

This year I’ve run up almost a half million in costs, including dozens of doses of Interleukin-2 at $7,000 a dose. As I chronicled in my journal, the Interleukin (and skillful hospital staff) saved my life, and I don't think I paid a penny for it, and only paid about a grand for everything else.

Early in March HPHC assigned a cancer coordinator to me. At first I was worried that she was a snoop, trying to find out if I was going to break their bank so they should ditch me. But she turned out to be a genuine supportive friend, helping me find information when I needed it, and truly making sure I was getting what I needed.

It's easy for me to see what they've again been ranked the #1 health insurance plan in America. Such rankings aren't perfect (don't get me started) but this one happens to reflect my experience perfectly.

In my first post here, I mentioned my admiration for a CEO who can accomplish great results for people while also managing for good business results. So many people think business is a zero-sum game, where if the company wins, somebody somewhere loses. Great organizations prove it doesn't have to be that way, and great managers (at all levels) make it happen. Blessings on them.

Don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. Thanks to all of HPHC, including both the management team and all the individual workers (like my Helen) who prove it can be done. They made an immense difference in my cancer.

For prettier statistics, omit inconvenient people.

2007-12-08T14:19:00.001-05:00

Occasionally I’ll use this bully pulpit for a rant. The two top rantables on my agenda right now are statistics and silos. This time it’s statistics.

I’m irked because I keep seeing a mistake that blows the kneecaps off any well-intentioned effort to improve policy by looking at statistics. People need to be aware of it, spot it, and cry “BS!” when it rears its head.

Earlier this week, in Paul Levy’s blog I got into a discussion in the comments section of a post. Frequent and knowledgeable contributor Barry Carol had wondered if high health care spending around here might be caused in part by a large supply of hospital beds and specialists locally. I said, in part:

I'm intrigued with Barry's observation. (I don’t have an opinion – I don’t know the data he cites; I’m just intrigued.) Is it accurate to say the *cause* is too many beds? Or is it that more are available, so it's possible to give someone the care they need? [I then recounted a story of my father’s care in his final decade, where the hospital staff only seemed to become competent when it was time to kick him out.]

If motorists were spending lots of money on fixing flats, would we say the problem is that we have so many tire repair shops? It's not a perfect analogy, but it's worth looking at. Some cultures think women are the cause of rape, because if there weren't all those women, there wouldn't be all those rapes.

I feel strongly that any statistics about costs and outcomes in a system should have an accountant's note specifying what proportion of the population goes without coverage in that system, so they don’t even have an outcome. Until we get honest about that, all we're doing is chasing a bubble under the blanket.

There’s the rub, the itchy spot. In cases like this, the goal of statistical analysis is to better understand things, particularly to know what a batch of data does or doesn’t represent so we can predict the best way to approach future situations.

And if we don't know what those statistics left out, we don't know what we'd be getting ourselves into by relying on them. We cannot rely on findings until we know what cases were and weren't included.

Increasingly, what might be getting omitted is you. Or someone you love.

As the boomers age, and their decades of productivity and home buying convert to decades of home selling and health costs (who, me?), this is gonna be a big skull-knocking issue. There will be claims about which system works better, with all kinds of statistics being flung around like monkey dung. (Sorry, but monkeys do fling dung when they’re fighting, and when policymakers start fighting, they fling statistics, claiming they're proving reality.)

For health policy, all kinds of claims can be made with good statistical support – but you damn well better ask who got left out, making the picture prettier, whether it was intentional or not.

Personal story: in Massachusetts insurers must price all group policies the same, without considering who’s in the group; New Hampshire has no such law. My wife and I started 2007 with insurance at her job in NH. Without warning, in June her (small) employer’s group rate went up 60%. Why? Because she had turned 60. Young people generally incur lower health costs, so in most states a company can choose to be competitive by selectively offering lower rates to more attractive groups. But when she turned 60, the entire company’s rates went up 60%.

I work in Mass., and it turns out we could get equivalent coverage from my employer (from the same insurer! See my next post) for 40% less.

Now here’s the killer: in NH the disenfranchised can find themselves in real trouble, as policies evolve and unattractive individuals are increasingly isolated. Next personal story: I know a healthy, athletic 20-something whose coverage was costing $2,300 per year (for one person) because she has a minor murmur that’s never caused a symptom, but she wasn’t in a big group. Now she works for a big company, so she’s swallowed up into a big group and gets group rates.

What is the justification for this???

I also know two young families who simply go without coverage because there’s no room for it in their budget. Statistically they are of course counted in the 46 million uninsured – but I say they should also be factored somehow into the total cost of health care, including what it WOULD cost to provide the care they don’t get but would if they could. (Which brings us back to Barry's point about how many hospital beds we have.)

Worse, while excluding those cases, you can bet that the insurance companies (all of them) talked about how good their rates are, and they mean it. (I would - I'm in marketing, and when I believe my company is doing a super job, you bet I say so.) But again, I say you can’t talk about costs and outcomes without specifying whom you’ve excluded.

Final first-hand story: some years ago, when self-employed in NH, I myself found that I couldn’t afford health insurance, because at the time things had evolved to where almost all the AIDS patients in the state were in the category “not a member of any group” – same as me. So any statistics about insurance prices in that state at that time would have been a fat load of crap – flingable crap.

Overlooking the inconvenient people isn’t limited to health care costs. Consider the following, from the US Dept of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

Unemployment statistics don’t include everyone who wants a job but can’t find one. Once your unemployment benefits run out, they simply stop counting you. You don’t even exist as a problem anymore, as far as the BLS is concerned. I cannot figure out a legitimate reason for this.
There are no statistics for people who eventually gave up on their previous career and are now working for half their previous pay. People in that situation are, again, simply not counted as a concern.
Nor are there statistics for the loss of benefits. Employers certainly pay less for no-benefit or feeble-benefit jobs, but if you or I change to a job with no benefits, it doesn’t even make a dent in the pretty statistics.
Worst of all, the “jobs created” statistics are a cruel joke. When a full-time job with benefits is carved up into three part-time jobs with no benefits, the BLS counts it as job growth. (I called my Senator’s office and had them check it out; a senior BLS statistician got back to me and confirmed it.)

This is insane. It's as if King Solomon chopped up 1,000 babies and declared a population explosion.

What is wrong with these people?? In May of 2006 an erudite observer in the New York Times remarked with surprise about the 200,000 “new jobs” that had been created in April: “employment [is] doing well, yet core inflation has remained remarkably subdued." Remarkable indeed, until you know what they're calling “job creation."

As I say, until we get honest about this, all we’re doing is chasing a bubble around under the blanket. With the best intentions, we'll make misguided policy decisions. And believe you me, policy has impact at the personal level. The time will come when you (or a loved one) is the bubble everyone wants to chase away. Do whatever you can to stop this crap. Now. Wake up! And wake others up.

What's it gonna take?

2007-12-07T23:51:00.001-05:00

What's it gonna take to be so present that I reliably do what I said I was gonna do?

I say I'm going to practice singing, then I do something else. Three days later I say I'm going to pay my bills, then I do something else.

The point isn't that I'm being "bad" when this happens. It's not that I "should" pay my bills that day, or sing that day. The point is that I said I was going to, and I meant it - so what the heck happened?? It's as if I turned on my blinker, turned the steering wheel, and nothing happened.

Well, actually something happened - I went straight, maybe I hit something, and I certainly didn't go where I said I was going. In any case it wasn't what I said would happen, and not what I put effort into. Isn't that weird??

So what's it going to take to be fully alert, present, and "connected to my wheels" so I'm actually the one who says how my life is going?

The irony of this, of course, is that I've spent the past year SAYING how my life is going to go, and succeeding. Nothing could stop me, because everything was at stake. I was, quite literally, living as if my life depended on it.

This reminds me of something from the "est" training (precursor to Landmark): "A game is what you have when what's not so, is more important than what is so." A current example might be CalvinBall, where they make up rules on the fly - none of it is real, it's all an agreement about what's important. Of course, Calvin & Hobbes supposedly know it's all made up, because they change the rules whenever they want, and it goes the way they say.

And est continued: "When what is so becomes more important, the game is over." Like, Calvin & Hobbes are just there, standing at what used to be the goal line. Except now they're just present.

I'd say, when you know what you want but you're not getting there, it's a pretty sure sign that you're playing CalvinBall and you don't know it.

I want to get back to where I was when I was sick. Isn't that weird? But - and I'm not making this up - as I wrote this post, in the background there was an episode of the TV show "House," about a cranky doctor, and in it, a character was ticked off because his diagnosis of terminal cancer turned out to be false. "I've never been as present and alive as I was these past few months - and now you took that away from me." Yeah well, you and I know nobody took anything away from him - it's all in his mind. Mine too.

So the question is, what's it gonna take, to be that present all the time, so I actually do what I say? I know from recent experience that I get a lot of joy when it goes the way I said.

More on this in later posts.

Thank you, Dr. Drew Wagner!

2007-12-04T21:38:00.001-05:00

Y'know, as I posted my thanks to the hospital the other day for the cancer care I received this year, I knew I was overlooking someone. I asked a couple of people who it could be, and they too didn't see anyone missing from the cancer team.

Then it hit me: oh yeah, I forgot the miracle surgeon who relieved me of that stinky kidney in the first place! Until he did his work, the oncology team couldn't start theirs. (See, their work was to get rid of all the metastases throughout my body. But that wouldn't have been too productive as long as the source of trouble was still there.)

Dr. Drew Wagner is the surgeon who did the deed for me. He does the really fancy stuff, laparoscopic kidney removal. Three little incisions to stick the instruments through, and a 2-3" bikini incision (yes, I have a bikini scar, and no you can't see it) through which they remove the culprit.

Now, here's the thing, and I really want you to get this: they inflate the belly to give themselves room, then they stick the tools in through the tiny incisions, and do the work by watching it on a TV. They remove the organ (which is large) by basically snipping it off, putting it in a Baggie, zipping it up, and sliding it out through the bikini cut.

Of course, they have to do this with surgical precision, in the dark except for the flashlight they stuck in there. And here's the thing: the TV is 2D, but your guts (including the location of blood vessels etc) are 3D. And p.s., you don't get to accidentally bump into anything with your knife.

In my case, it got a bit tougher than that. Here's how my sister wrote about it in my cancer journal (March 7, 1:29 a.m.):

The procedure took longer than expected for two reasons: 1) the adrenal gland was involved with the tumor and was also removed (as planned) making for two surgeries in one for all intents and purposes; and, 2) the tumor had attached to the wall of the bowel as well as the psoas muscle which embraces the side of the lumbar spine and had to be very carefully peeled away from both surfaces. Dr. Wagner was concerned that he might have to effectively start all over with a more commonly used incision but was remarkably able to perform the very intricate procedure laparoscopically.

"More commonly used incision" is a bit of an understatement. It's a very large incision, and they have to (permanently) remove a rib. It hurts like hell and takes 6-8 weeks to recover. Instead, I was out of the hospital in 2 days and off all pain meds in less than a week.

I had a unique opportunity to experience what laparoscopy is like. Beth Israel Deaconess has an amazing simulation and training center, where students can actually handle laparoscopic equipment. The very first training exercise involves holding two long-armed gripper tools, and all you have to do is use them to pick up some little white beans and put them in a cup. A foot away, and several inches higher.

That's plenty rough when you can see what you're doing. But when you're good at it, they put a drape over the plastic box that contains all this, and you lose all depth perception because now you're watching it on TV.

Then, don't get nervous or anything, but just remember that while you're trying to do this, the patient is bleeding (or might be) and every extra minute under anesthesia adds risk. So don't screw up. Oh, and pick up that bean you just dropped, because it rolled under the pancreas and it's really a piece of tumor. Or something.

And don't nick any blood vessels or other organs.

And then they tell you that this is the first of the laparoscopic training hurdles. You don't get to move to the next machine until you can move 50 beans from lower left to the cup in one minute, with no depth perception.

Until I tried this myself, it had never dawned on me that a surgeon has to be damned athletic as well as smart. And when I think of this guy going into my inflated belly through these little incisions and delicately peeling that super-aggressive tumor off the bowel, and off that muscle attached to my spine.... both of which the tumor was on the verge of invading... and then the adrenal gland got away, and had to be chased down ... well, the surgery took 5.5 hours,* almost had to convert to the rib-removing version, and yet I went home two days later.

Is this guy good, or what?

My gratitude: well, as that cancer journal excerpt said, when I finally got back to my room all I could say was "Mommy, they hurt me!", and I meant it. And when I (groggily) laid eyes on my cane, I (groggily) considered using it to whack the surgeon. But he moved faster than me, and took it out of my reach. (I am not making this up.) It seems somewhere along the line he developed quick reflexes and manual dexterity.

So thank you, Dr. Drew. You are an amazing guy, and I'm really glad your fingers work that well.

* See comment for update.

Thank you, Beth Israel Deaconess!

2007-11-29T23:34:00.001-05:00

People have different views of what causes what in life, and that's fine with me. On this blog you'll hear lots of thoughts about that.

Here's one of my strongest opinions: I wouldn't be here writing this if it weren't for some extraordinarily good people at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston.

It's not fair to include some names and not others, but since they have 6,000 employees, I've got to stop somewhere. Here are my heroes:

Dr. David McDermott, of the famous Atkins & McDermott team - among the best in the world for RCC (renal cell carcinoma). You may be a Yankees fan, but I love ya anyway, Dr. McDreamy.
Kendra Bradley, RN and a dozen other initials, from Dr. McDermott's "biologics therapy" team. Kendra is one of those extraordinary individuals who knows what people need before they say it. "I have to," she says. "I've worked a lot with little kids who have cancer, and they don't always have the words to say what they want." You go, KB. You've been fabulous in handling this overgrown kid.
Mee-Young Lee and Virginia Seery, both nurse practitioners. One of the defining memories of my many days in the hospital this year is the sight of one or both of them standing at the foot of my bed, with their constant beaming smiles and confident voices. What they said wasn't always good news, but these women have mastered the art of conveying strength, encouragement and confidence. I love strong, confident women.
Dr. Megan Anderson, the orthopedic surgeon who fixed my leg when the cancer led to its fracture (and again when my Frisky Pony act broke the screws she'd put in). She too works with kids (do we see a pattern here?) and won me over when, on our first visit, she reached for my foot and said "Let's check the pulse in your little feeties."
The nurses of Stoneman 7, whose quiet competencies are the gold standard of care, in my book. My life was at stake as I received a dangerous treatment, and they did it all right.
Dr. Danny Sands, my primary care physician, and co-manager of the creation of PatientSite, BIDMC's out-of-the-ordinary patient communication web site.

Finally, last in this list (which is where he'd want to be), Paul Levy, not MD nor NP nor RN nor medical nuttin' - he's just President & CEO of BIDMC, and he's the template for how I'd like every CEO in the world to operate. He is open, honest, feeling, compassionate, and tenaciously dedicated to doing good in the world - and competent, on top of all that. Competent enough to run a billion dollar enterprise, pulling it out of a tailspin five years ago so it's now flying high. Boy am I glad he did that.

Characteristically, Paul writes Running A Hospital, the first blog by a hospital CEO. You should read it - he's getting worldwide attention for his openness ("transparency") about the challenges of running a hospital, and for generally shaking up the conventional style of healthcare management. On that blog my "handle" is Patient Dave.

And so begins this blog: the New Life of Patient Dave. Let the games begin!