You learn something new every day.

In this post: Club Meds, rediscovering George Sanders.

The big story today from Howdygram headquarters? During a routine appointment this morning with Dr. M she decided to discontinue two of my ten million prescriptions — Aldactone for high blood pressure and Glyburide for type 2 diabetes — because they’ve been causing a couple of my most annoying side effects, i.e. hypotension and hypoglycemia. I’m especially happy to get rid of Aldactone because Dr. M said low blood pressure (hypotension) is why I feel like passing out every time I stand up. My blood pressure today was 105/60, which apparently is ridiculously low.

In case you give a crap, I already take Benazepril Hydrochlorothiazide for high blood pressure and inject two kinds of insulin (five times a day) for diabetes.

In other news from Club Meds, Dr. M told me to start taking 2,000 units of Vitamin D every day because my level always registers somewhere in the “cadaver” range and she doubled my dose of Fenofibric Acid for high cholesterol. Then I clicked my heels three times and stopped at the lab on the way out to pee in a cup and donate five tubes of blood.

Here’s an interesting tidbit from our You Learn Something New Every Day department. This afternoon, for the very first time, I finally had a chance to watch the Irving Berlin musical Call Me Madam (1953) starring Ethel Merman and discovered, much to my delight and amazement, that everybody’s favorite dramatic scoundrel — George Sanders — had a terrific part as Merman’s very romantic leading man ... AND A GORGEOUS BARITONE SINGING VOICE! Holy crap ... who knew? And then, a few minutes later, I find out he had been signed to play Emile De Becque in South Pacific (1958) but turned it down due to “overwhelming anxiety” when rehearsals started. (Know what? I would have preferred George Sanders to Rossano Brazzi!)

Please take a couple of minutes to check out George’s voice in the following video clip from Call Me Madam. He absolutely blows me away. All of a sudden I feel sad that he had so few opportunities to sing in his movies.

And now it’s time for my second nap of the day because I’m really cold, my head hurts and I can’t think of any additional crap to write about. Thank you for paying attention. Seriously.