Archive for December 2020

Of Partners and Memories

My partner died a few weeks ago. Let me clarify, he was a former professional partner, not a personal one. Dave and I spent almost 20 years working side-by-side, or at least office-by-office, part of a threesome in the Pathology Department of HFMC. He welcomed me in when I first started as a very green,... Read more »
By lesraff,
December 24, 2020 at 12:49 pm • 

Musical Questions for the Boomer Generation. What is your answer to #2?

  When COVID and politics get to be too much, I turn to a Facebook Group “I Love the 60’s and 70’s Music.” It’s filled with lots of music videos that I don’t vid, and queries as to who was the third drummer on the fourth album by Purple Fudge, but browsing through the postings... Read more »
By lesraff,
December 18, 2020 at 10:33 am • 

Hail The Lizard Brain--Pathology's Friend

  I once had an experienced colleague named Paulo who claimed that within a second of starting to examine a Pap smear on his microscope he could tell whether it was going to be abnormal or not. Paulo “could smell it.” Since most pathologists I know have long had their olfactory sense dulled by the... Read more »
By lesraff,
December 17, 2020 at 8:42 am • 
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I Loved Reading Le Carre--And I Will Miss Him

One of my favorite authors died this weekend. Most of my readers won’t care much about John Le Carré. He wasn’t a Steven King, a J.K. Rowling, or a John Grisham. But Carré was a friend from my childhood who followed me into middle and old(ish) age. I will miss his annual contribution to my reading... Read more »
By lesraff,
December 14, 2020 at 8:53 am • 

Is This a Scare Technique, or Good Pharma Advertising?

How do you sell an anti-coagulant drug in a pandemic? If you are giant pharma such as Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb, you run a pair of radio and TV commercials putting a scare into listeners and viewers. Ads that tell you that if you have symptoms of shortness of breath, leg pain, or palpitations you need... Read more »
By lesraff,
December 9, 2020 at 11:28 am • 

Democracy in Action--Small Town Style

If all politics are local, our small suburban village proved last night, that tricky as it may be, it still works. State law requires that municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants establish a caucus system for picking candidates to run for elected positions such as mayor or trustee. Both in 2018 and this year, I... Read more »
By lesraff,
December 8, 2020 at 10:49 am • 
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Coop the Pisher

Today I turn over the keyboard to Barb, who last wrote a blog as acting General Contractor when we were building “The Big,” back in 2016. Time flies. “Last week, Les introduced you to Cooper, the gorgeous Labradoodle that has moved in with us. And I am here to tell you — he is still around, and... Read more »
By lesraff,
December 3, 2020 at 9:40 am •