Dr. Sour Puss

Letter to the editor in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 14, 2010 Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not ...

Neither of us ever discuss it, with each other, or with others. It seems so improbable to me that there's really nothing to say about it. 20 years ago I met this Australian foreign exchange student at Berkeley. We had an instant connection, an affinity that seemed like we were destined to play a major role in each others lives. We even shared a birthday. We spent the winter after we'd met driving across the US together. Over the years, despite being in the pre-internet era, we stayed in touch, writing letters, sending care packages, the occasional phone call. He even came back to the states for a visit. Flash forward 10 years. I move thousands of miles for school and residency and eventually end up in Seattle. Tony, living in Paris, meets a wonderful American woman, they fall in love and decided to get married and move to her home town: that's right, Seattle. Our wives become best of friends and now, 20 years later, we both have sons that were born three months apart. As I ...

How on Earth did I miss this? 1972 recording by Italian pop star Adriano Celentano with the unwieldy title Prisencolinensinainciusol .

7/2/03-11/30/09 Shireesha and I both commented that we'd never lost anyone as close to us as her. Leela Lou. Little Lou. The littlest little. Little Scoop. Leela-pants. Little Fluff. She played the foil to Kali's straight man. She was the playful one, carrying her favorite ribbons up and down the stairs all day long. No twist tie or string was safe with her around, and no empty box left unsat in. Little tufts of fur could be found all over our house, left over from some sudden pounce on something, often on her sister Kali. There was just no end to the fur. I'd said before that you could construct a new Leela from what we would vacuum up on a weekly basis. Sometimes we'd catch her munching on giant ball of it after cleaning herself. I could be traveling in some far off place and pull out a sweatshirt and find it covered in traces of her hair. Now there are bits of her everywhere in places like India. She was the most interactive, personality-filled, friendliest little ki...

Last night, as many of my high school friends whom I hadn't seen in years gathered to celebrate Kevin's 40th birthday, I was stuck in the hospital, sitting at the foot of the bed of one of my favorite patients. I was on call, attending for the residency, and trying to figure out how to deliver this patient's baby who'd arrested at 8 centimeters dilation. Her temperature was rising and the fetal heart rate was showing signs of distress. For 40 weeks, this patient had greeted me with a huge smile at each prenatal visit. She was so excited to be pregnant again, having miscarried her last pregnancy at 13 weeks the year before. She had no insurance, and most of her family was in Mexico, so for her the care and support she received from the clinic each week was literally a lifeline. Each visit, I'd work so hard to reassure her that things looked normal, diffusing her anxiety with humor. I knew she and her husband had wanted a boy and so early on, long before her ultrasou...

Matt Haughey , founder of Metafilter and user #1, is in the hospital and twitter is probably going to crash with the flood of well wishing. -->: #mathowielove Guy tweeted his own seizure. That's hardcore geekery. Get well soon, Matt. Metafilter is the only website that matters.

I love Wonkette's headline this morning: "House Votes to Kill Your Grandmother & All Christians, 220-215." The House bill, which has to go through further watering down in the Senate and is a *long* way from becoming law , is a step in the right direction. Problem is, I think we are *far* past the point where "steps in the right direction" are going to take us where we want to be: quality, accessible, evidence based health care. I honestly think that, with the exception of health care providers and people with serious medical problems, very few Americans understand how far we are from that goal and how entrenched the institutions are that are trying to keep us from this goal. I am all for market based approaches that improve quality and drive down costs. The problem is that quality and cost aren't where insurance companies are competing. They compete with strong arm negotiations with hospitals, denials of coverage, and lobbying money. This bill, while s...