The Occasional Joke


Nurse: Patient's name?

Centurion: Marcus Licinius Crassus

Nurse: And his date of birth?

Centurion: 115 BC.

Nurse: All right. And what is he here for?

Centurion: Cataphract surgery.


Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Health Care Fun

A couple of recent stories from the realm of big health care:

Did you know Dr. Jarvik isn't actually licensed to practice medicine? Wonder if Pfizer did, before it signed him up to promote Lipitor. I also did find myself wondering (just because I'm a cynical SOB) if there's any reason why two Michigan legislators are on Pfizer's case -- couldn't possibly have anything to do with Pfizer's abandonment of Michigan? Probably not.

Scarier (who actually pays attention to pharmaceutical ads, after all?) is this story about harvesting organs for transplant. I can't tell from the reportage what I really think about it, but it sounds like the doc (who could get eight years in jail if convicted) did bend a protocol or two.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

More Snow


On the off chance you're interested, this is what things looked like from the front door this morning, with snow dog and snow woman returning from their walk.