862 Kindly Young Doc
A sure sign you’re getting old: the authority figures around you are all younger than you are.
The cop who pulls you over to tell you your taillight is out and please get it fixed and looks at you with sympathy and doesn’t give you the ticket he could because you remind him of his mom or dad.
The TV news anchor who looks like he should still be in Middle School but reports with great gravitas and brings it off.
The fitness instructor who looks like she can bench press an ‘80 Cadillac but can’t quite remember who was President that year.
And Kindly Young Doc, boy cardiologist, who is younger than your youngest kid.
Dr. KYD looks at his patient and then at her chart and then at his patient and then at her chart and says “Are you really in your 60s or did someone make a mistake and type 194_, not 195_ into the computer?”
This is not flattery. He has no reason to flatter the patient or her husband who is sitting with them in the examining room as translator. We kind of have the same reaction. He’s 38, he says.
A friend, also a cardiologist, but --ahem -- somewhat older and more experienced , has reluctantly and off the record guessed at the patient’s condition from afar and on the phone. (That phone call “never happened.”) Dr. KYD with a room full of fancy equipment has confirmed Dr. Distance’s opinion.
It’s not something you want guessed at without an on-site examinations and tests. It’s not something a reliable doc would do for a stranger, on or off the record. But it’s nice to know that all those years of seeing patients an older fellow could take a shot and hit the bulls-eye. Age and experience still counts for something.
Shrapnel:
--A good sign: Friend Ken of Chicago is out of the hospital in NY, after a serious -- make that VERY serious -- operation. Sure indication of recovery: He has banned his home health aid from the house Sunday evening. Priority: the Bulls are in the NBA’s Eastern Conference playoffs, and Game three is Sunday.
--IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, charged in an attack on a hotel maid in his swank suite on 44th St. got an NYPD perp walk in front of the news cameras just like Dom from Bay Ridge would if arrested and charged with sticking up a 7-11. His countrymen back in France are aghast because he (and Dom) supposedly are presumed innocent. Oui, right.
--Schwarzenegger also has a sex-based problem, fathering a child with an employee a decade ago. But that was no crime; he and she knew what they were doing and apparently agreed to do it. Arnold’s biggest problem with this one: Maria doesn’t recognize any statute of limitations, and in this case, she’s cop, judge and jury -- and should be.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com.
© WJR 2011
A sure sign you’re getting old: the authority figures around you are all younger than you are.
The cop who pulls you over to tell you your taillight is out and please get it fixed and looks at you with sympathy and doesn’t give you the ticket he could because you remind him of his mom or dad.
The TV news anchor who looks like he should still be in Middle School but reports with great gravitas and brings it off.
The fitness instructor who looks like she can bench press an ‘80 Cadillac but can’t quite remember who was President that year.
And Kindly Young Doc, boy cardiologist, who is younger than your youngest kid.
Dr. KYD looks at his patient and then at her chart and then at his patient and then at her chart and says “Are you really in your 60s or did someone make a mistake and type 194_, not 195_ into the computer?”
This is not flattery. He has no reason to flatter the patient or her husband who is sitting with them in the examining room as translator. We kind of have the same reaction. He’s 38, he says.
A friend, also a cardiologist, but --ahem -- somewhat older and more experienced , has reluctantly and off the record guessed at the patient’s condition from afar and on the phone. (That phone call “never happened.”) Dr. KYD with a room full of fancy equipment has confirmed Dr. Distance’s opinion.
It’s not something you want guessed at without an on-site examinations and tests. It’s not something a reliable doc would do for a stranger, on or off the record. But it’s nice to know that all those years of seeing patients an older fellow could take a shot and hit the bulls-eye. Age and experience still counts for something.
Shrapnel:
--A good sign: Friend Ken of Chicago is out of the hospital in NY, after a serious -- make that VERY serious -- operation. Sure indication of recovery: He has banned his home health aid from the house Sunday evening. Priority: the Bulls are in the NBA’s Eastern Conference playoffs, and Game three is Sunday.
--IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, charged in an attack on a hotel maid in his swank suite on 44th St. got an NYPD perp walk in front of the news cameras just like Dom from Bay Ridge would if arrested and charged with sticking up a 7-11. His countrymen back in France are aghast because he (and Dom) supposedly are presumed innocent. Oui, right.
--Schwarzenegger also has a sex-based problem, fathering a child with an employee a decade ago. But that was no crime; he and she knew what they were doing and apparently agreed to do it. Arnold’s biggest problem with this one: Maria doesn’t recognize any statute of limitations, and in this case, she’s cop, judge and jury -- and should be.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com.
© WJR 2011
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