October 2009
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Today I went to see a new doctor, a specialist. His receptionist sits behind a sign that reads "Co-payment must be made at the time of service. Failure to pay the co-payment will result in an additional charge of $10." I took a seat to wait and to fill out various forms — and to be apprised of a "policy change": "A patient…
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I have recurrent baseball dreams, most of them nightmarish. The most frequent is that I hit a sharp line drive to right, start for first but run as if I were stuck in a sea of mucilage. My legs won't move. The right fielder throws me out before I'm halfway down the line. I leave…
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I hate to fetch the mail nowadays because there are so damn many importunate communications from doctors, hospitals, from medicare, and from insurance companies. Even though I'm in relatively good health and need only routine servicing, each time I visit a doctor the system manages to generate one piece of paper after another — most of…
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"Yellowface" is the Asian equivalent of theatrical "blackface," as in the case of Warner Oland (a Swede) or Sidney Toler (an Scottish-American) impersonating Charlie Chan. "Yellow Face" is also the name of an uncharacteristic Sherlock Holmes short story — one that is unusual among Conan Doyle's compositions in that no crime is solved nor none committed, and also because…