If you thought I wasn’t going to post anything today you were
almost right. I got caught up in a variety of projects — such as an extended and rather luxurious afternoon nap — until I realized a few minutes ago that I don’t want to break my perfect record for the month of December. (I’ve written at least one post every day this month.)
Today’s other projects included: 1) emailing month-end invoices to a bunch of my website clients; 2) eating cake; 3) attacking my feet with a pumice stone; and 4) deciding to return the defective bench that arrived yesterday from
Amazon.com (see previous
post). The upholstery was ripped in two places with little wads of foam stuffing leaking out, which is not the kind of fine furniture anybody would want in a formal living room unless you’re Jed Clampett. At first I thought about requesting a replacement, but I read a number of online reviews for the identical bench in different colors and realized other customers were having the same problem, so I contacted Amazon for return shipping instructions. I’m annoyed, despondent, aggravated and not in the mood for pizza. (I wouldn’t mind another piece of cake, however.)
Please raise your hand if you’ve ever seen any of the
Dr. Kildare movies with Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore.
There were eight
Dr. Kildare movies — all with the same cast — released between 1938 and 1942. TCM showed the entire series today for Lew Ayres’ birthday. (He would have been 103 if he hadn’t died in 1996.) Although these were definitely “B” movies, it was an eye-opener to see what the world considered acceptable medical practice in those days. For instance, epilepsy was treated and feared like
insanity, and doctors believed it was inherited, life-threatening and the kiss of death if you expected to have a career or family. There was also no medical treatment for a high fever other than ice cubes for the patient and everybody else pacing up and down the hall with their fingers crossed waiting for “something to happen.” Sure makes a person realize how much the world has advanced since then. We’ve got ordinary OTC meds available today that would have
saved lives 75 years ago.
Can you believe it’s almost New Year’s Eve? Only three days left to buy your party hats and screwy noisemakers. Thank you for reading this.
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