My Mercy Memories--Not All Were Sweet

Mercy Medical Center filed for bankruptcy yesterday. That’s a pity for the neighborhood, losing a source of medical services in an area that lacks sufficient resources. For me, it unlocks memories from almost 45 years ago, when I had more hair, less belly, and a whole lot of medicine still to learn. In the summer... Read more »
By lesraff,
February 11, 2021 at 7:44 am • 

You Go On Trial Today

  You go on trial today. They’ll say you incited Your lawyers will fight it, The riot, disquiet In the city on the hill Your talk was disruptive You always did want this The power, the glory Your own favorite story, your quarry Four more years laudatory We’d all pay the bill You have your... Read more »
By lesraff,
February 9, 2021 at 7:39 am • 

The Key to the Past

Yesterday morning I felt something crunchy in the pocket of my blue jeans. I reached in expecting to find a crumpled receipt but instead pulled out the key to our safe deposit box in its cardboard envelope. What the heck was the valuable key doing there? Weeks ago we had been applying for Barb’s pension... Read more »
By lesraff,
January 25, 2021 at 8:05 am • 
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Have You Ever Had a Dream Like This? Would it Frighten or Calm You?

The dreams in which I’m dying  are the best I’ve ever had. Roland Orzabal, 19883 It may not have been the best dream I have ever had, but considering the subject matter, it was a strangely calm one. I was in a large building, perhaps a factory, perhaps a school dorm. Somewhere with a large food hall, and... Read more »
By lesraff,
January 18, 2021 at 8:58 am • 

This Blog Has Decided to Dump the Trump

Businesses everywhere are untying themselves from Donald Trump. From  Twitter to the PGA to Deutsche Bank, Trump is out. To quote Gail Collins in the New York Times, “you get the impression a lot of people are just rooting through their offices, trying to find some minor Trump connection they could announce they’re severing.” So let... Read more »
By lesraff,
January 14, 2021 at 8:20 am • 

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 • 
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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 • 

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 • 
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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 •