A Brief Blog Break….

I’ve got lectures to prepare and a Grand Rounds talk to research, and a different more professionally-related blog to start up, so, instead of one of my periodic “blog breaks”, I may make this thing password protected – in order to concentrate – for the duration. Or not. I dunno. We’ll see.

Update:  I’m going to make this post “sticky” so that, whenever I log on, it reminds me that I’m SUPPOSED TO BE PRIORITIZING. I’ll stick to commenting at Inkspots and karakapend, post at Chicago Boyz (occasionally), and knock it off around here for awhile. Oy, the amount of time it takes to put together a talk. Consider this an ongoing Open Thread until I’m ready to post again. You know, all two of you.

Do you ever feel like this?

Fellow, sometime-and-in-some-fashion, academics or others dabbling in paper writing?

Dixon looked out of the window at the fields wheeling past, bright green after a wet April. It wasn’t the double-exposure effect of the last half-minute’s talk that had dumbfounded him, for such incidents formed the staple material of Welch colloquies; it was the prospect of reciting the title of the article he’d written. It was a perfect title, in that it crystallized the article’s niggling mindlessness, its funereal parade of yawn-enforcing facts, the pseudo-light it threw upon non-problems. Dixon had read, or begun to read, dozens like it, but his own seemed worse than most in its air of being convinced of its own usefulness and significance. ‘In considering this strangely neglected topic,’ it began. This what neglected topic? This strangely what topic? This strangely neglected what? His thinking all this without having defiled and set fire to the typescript only made him appear to himself as more of a hypocrite and fool. ‘Let’s see,’ he echoed Welch in a pretended effort of memory: ‘oh yes; The Economic Influence of the Developments in Shipbuilding Techniques, 1450 to 1485…’

Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis.

I never tire of this book – it’s one of my favorites – even as I pretty much dislike the main character and the object of his affection, the tepid and colorless Christine. What are your favorite campus, or academic, satires?

(cross posted at Chicago Boyz)

Update: There are some very good suggestions for reading in the comments section at the Chicago Boyz link. And SU, I am not procrastinating. I am working on my projects in a timely and methodical fashion, okay?

I’ve already broken my promise….

….to stick to commenting only on the above-mentioned blogs, and in a more limited fashion, too. Typical.

“As far as Afghanistan is concerned, I’m not sure whether the United States and Pakistan have the same objectives.”

- from the Lally Weymouth interview with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Washington Post)

(The above goes along with some comments I made at zenpundit, too.)

A couple of quick links….

1. It always motivates me to see some good, old-fashioned whiteboard action. If you ask me, this is where the magic really happens. This is what good leaders and analysts do – grab a small group of their smartest folks and think through a complex problem without overcomplicated PowerPoint slides or Excel spreadsheets.    al Sahwa

As I’m currently working on a set of Power Points, I’m not sure how to feel about the above excerpt. Except, the slides are simply a visual aid for my lectures to the residents and medical students (also a Grand Rounds). I’ll tell you what: I never put too much on a Power Point – when I talk, I talk to people. It’s best to try and really understand, or master, the information and convey it to the audience as you would in a smaller group or conversation. And, in my field, where we look at microscopic images of biopsied skin lesions, the Power Points are often nothing more than a photo of the micrographic image. Remember, these things are tools and tools are only as good as the user….

2. Jacques Rivette’s “Duchess of Langeais” seems to me a nearly impeccable work of art — beautiful, true, profound. Based on Balzac’s 1834 short novel and set against the French Restoration — Napoleon is in exile and a Bourbon king again sits on the throne — it traces how a passionate affair of the heart curdles into cruelty and obsession.    NYT

I watched a bit of the film on the Sundance channel while – what else ? - procrastinating from the Power Point extravaganza. I don’t know what to think of the film other than it seemed elegant, but very cold-blooded. I may have to rewatch it. Has anyone read the novella?

A thundery November morning….

How odd that I can hear thunder outside of my window. And in November, too! The sky is gray with cloud and the streets – relatively empty so early in the morning – are slightly damp from last night’s rain. This area is usually so loud and busy with traffic that it seems as if everything is under a spell when the streets empty out.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving; mine was lovely, a day spent with family. I love November, actually, for the holiday and the look of it: trees almost bare, branches raised, stark against gray skies. Will it rain, later? I can’t be bothered to check right now, instead, I’ll leave you with a total non-sequitur:

What to make of The Squid and The Whale? I don’t know what to think of this movie. There are some scenes that are coarse and I could do without (this surely marks me as old-fashioned), and really, the parents are utterly dreadful, but there’s something to it. Something completely authentic. Jeff Daniels is one of those actors that is in so many good movies, and yet, you completely forget about him.  (Also, do you think the following imdb user comment is real? I mean, authentic?

Brooklyn College was a hotbed of activism and liberal arts when I first encountered Jonathan Baumbach (rechristened “Bernard” in the film, a sly wink at Jonathan’s mentor and hero, Bernard Malamud). The arrogance and complete lack of self awareness is perfectly captured by Daniels in his over-the-top performance which, amazingly, underplays the actual father.

To call the picture patricidal is to completely miss the point; Baumbach pere is so self centered, he likely sees the film as an homage. Baumbach Sr. is a great writer; he receives good reviews in the literary journals and his books sell in the hundreds. Baumbach Jr., on the other hand, is a great filmmaker, and his movies (The Life Aquatic) are seen by millions. I’m sure the father is disappointed that the son isn’t pursuing tenure at a small Ohio college.

Ouch, if so.

“Nothing But A Miracle,” Diane Birch, on Letterman

“Lisztomania,” Phoenix

“36 hours in Rajasthan, India”

“India is modernizing rapidly, sometimes too fast. You have giant malls, but grandmothers afraid to use the escalators. There are villages in the middle of nowhere, with ornate temples soaring into the hot sky. Still, old Rajasthan endures, evoking rulers with giant mustaches, harems of beautiful women in the finest colored silks and some of the most spectacular palaces ever built.” - NYT

(My mom grew up in Pilani, Rajasthan -  my father attended and taught school there – and I love the state, too. I’ve got a thing for the desert….)

*And speaking of the NYT, which we weren’t really, take a look at this article. Interesting.

Update: It occurs to me that ultrabrown would find the above NYT excerpt to be a bit of exoticization….

On the changing relationship between doctor and patient and that element of distrust

Jonathan highlights an Instapundit discussion that caught my eye, too. The discussion is about mammograms and the latest proposed guidelines for screening: do the guidelines represent good science, or are they simply meant to save money (these are not mutually exclusive goals)? I don’t know the science, and don’t have any reason to distrust the health care professionals proposing the guidelines, but I understand that an element of distrust is introduced by the current health care debate.

Anyway, the above linked discussion brings up many interesting points. One is the Public-Health fallacy that Jonathan discusses. Another is the changing relationship between doctor and patient in a system where the federal government intrudes so heavily. Guidelines become suspect. Who is the real beneficiary of the guidelines – the individual patient, or the ‘greater good’ of the population as designated by a government official? The government guidelines, or official, become a third party between the patient and the doctor. The relationship is altered. To some extent, this is already the case with third-party payers and the current level of regulation, but the proposed health care bills take it to another level, entirely.

You see the same phenomenon of distrust when a patient talks about ‘greedy’ doctors and drug companies. I think that distrust will be transferred to Washington under the ‘D.C.-centric’ health-care bills that are being considered. And, in the political fight between constituent groups (patients and others), we may end up with a system where large public health bureaucracies will need to be placated first – a bit like California and the public service unions, or the British NHS*. The entire nature of the doctor-patient relationship will be changed. What do you all think? I’m a physician, and like many physicians, have my own levels of distrust. They are currently being directed at the government takeover of health care.

*I recently watched an old “Yes Minister” (Brit sitcom from the 80s) in which a government minister tries to shut down a hospital with no patients (it has a very large staff). A funny joke, yes? Well, the running joke of the show is that the unions resist by making the following claim – who cares if there are no patients? The greater good is served by all those public sector jobs. So, who “owns” the doctor-patient relationship in that sitcom scenario? Soon, alas, to be ours, perhaps?

Update: Think I used the word distrust enough in the above post? It’s like I’m trying to make a point, or something….

(cross-posted at chicagoboyz)