635 It's All White

635 It's All White

What's all white? Every pill in the medicine cabinet and every pill in the SMTWTFS little dose box that helps us feeble minded and poor sighted and demented seniors remember which day of meds we missed.

Up until recently, one pill was blue, one was bright yellow, one was dark yellow and one was white. Now, some genius in drug store land has figured out they can save two cents per million pills by not using the various colors.

Next step: they're going to make them all the same shape, probably round, because every manufacturer has a machine to make them round. What they'll do with the machines that make them oblong or elliptical is anybody's guess.

The cholesterol pill is elliptical. The antidepressant is oblong. The blood pressure thing, formerly teardrop shape and yellow first became round and yellow and now is round and white. Only the low-dose aspirin remains unchanged. Plus it's tiny, so even if they do make it white, those of us with a sense of touch remaining will be able to identify it.

This is part of the vast right wing conspiracy to kill everyone who is (a) older than 65, (b) can't afford name brand drugs and (c) is forced to buy generic stuff from the mail order house in which the health insurance company has some kind of interest or arrangement.

Kill us? Sure. Take a few too many of one and a few too few of another, and baby you'll be toes-up in no time.

There are some possible solutions. First would be to put magnifying lenses on the SMTWTFS boxes. (By the way, why are some of them SMTWTFS and others MTWTFSS?) Another would be forgetting the little daily dose boxes and using a felt tip marker to write the name of the drug in big letters on the bottles, which also are all white these days. Writing on the caps is not a solution. Every cap fits every bottle and you can easily mix them up.

Shrapnel:

--The "Monk" series finale wrapped up all the loose ends from years and years of episodes. They'll be hard put to revive this show "by popular demand" or otherwise. Most of us have had enough, but probably will take an occasional peek at the inevitable re-runs.

--A second thought on the NBComast thing. Comcast hasn't (yet) taken possession and already is telling us what they will and will not sell and what they will or will not try to "improve." These poor naive takeover folk have no idea what they're in for and it's hard not to feel sorry for them as they learn -- the long way, and the hard way.

--Six weeks and the clothes dryer remains broken and limping. They absolutely promise promise promise that it'll be fine by next Monday. Note to Eddie Lampert: this is not how Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck got big as they got.

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2009