I had to get up at 5:30 am so that I could get to see Dr. Yang, my dermatologist, who is over an hours drive away. But I got good results... as a skin cancer survivor, my skin needs to be monitored closely.. and today I only had a couple of small suspects which will go away because of the cryogenic spritzing that Dr. Yang gave them. By the way, the good doctor had a bio in his office... he was Phi Beta Kappa, tops in his class all of his school years, besides an M.D., he has a PhD. And besides speaking English perfectly, he is also fluent in Korean. He also is a professor at Hopkins. Quite a guy.. and very personable too.. and.. he is very young. (I doubt that he is older than his 30's.) I think I mentioned before that I reminded him of his father, who he reveres... so there!
That reminds me.. as President Obama mentioned, the small island of Cuba produces more medical doctors per capita than each of the Nations in the Western Hemisphere. They are revered in their home country as well as in Africa and South America. The only problem is... they don't make a livable wage in Cuba.. and when they defect to the United States, they get rich... I think.
I would really like to see Bernie Sanders become President and somehow get colleges and Congress to allow for free tuition. If Cuba can do it, why can't we? A more educated America would probably be less bigoted.
Buck v. Bell
The New York Times recently wrote about the Buck v. Bell decision by the Supreme Court which went along with the States that wanted to sterilize "idiots" including "epileptics!" Almost one hundred years later, the decision has not been overturned. Carrie Buck was sterilized so that the she would not give birth to "idiots" like she supposedly was. (Apparently Carrie's mental deficiency did not extend to her hobbies, like reading the daily newspaper and doing it's crossword puzzle). . At the height of the sterilization craze, tens of thousands of "victims" were sterilized, especially in the Southern States, where the procedure was called "Mississippi appendectomies."
Logical Fallacy
Curran Douglass in The Mensa Bulletin talks about "begging the question." It has been recognized for years as a form of circular argument.. but recently, it has been commonly used as "suggesting a question."
Long ago, when I was finally talked into attending a Toastmasters Club meeting. The Toastmaster of the evening, asked people to come forward and explain certain phrases.. this is an exercise called "Table Topics." First, my friend Bob was asked to talk about "the apple of my eye." Being an experienced Toastmaster, he responded with a mini-speech which included things like..."most appealing", and "getting to the core" of the situation. Boy, was he good.
Then, surprise! I was called on, even though I was a guest. At the time, I was afflicted with overwhelming stage fright. My topic was: explain "begging the question." Besides shaking in my boots, I had to admit that I had not the faintest idea what that meant. Embarrassed to the core of my being, I sat down and plotted my revenge.. which was.. to go away and not come back for ten whole years. I guess I showed them!
A Magic Number
Brandon Specktor in the Readers Digest, had an article entitled: "You Can Count on 40." He then listed a lot of things that have a number 40 relationship. A couple of them intrigued me:
o Minus 40 degrees is the only temperature that is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius.
o Chemists tried 40 times to develop WD-40.. (Water Displacement).. hence it's name.
o A typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.
Dietary Pot
Chuck Shepherd writes in the Funny Times about the world's first certified Kosher marijuana. The Orthodox Union of New York says that the product meets the Jewish dietary laws, as long as its grown with insect-free plants.
What is New in the World of Style
Once a month, the New York Times issues a Style magazine that comes with a Sunday newspaper package. This is obviously a very sophisticated magazine indeed.. with lots of anorexic models showing off their expensive Gucci stuff. It also has nice ads for condos in the city that cost in the many millions of dollars. I've heard that these condos are a favorite place for the leaders of foreign countries to invest the money that they have stolen from their fellow countrymen.
However, there often is much for a poor man like me to drool over. Such as:
o A paperweight that looks exactly like a Caucasian foot, toenails and all. ($350.)
o Toothpaste "infused with caffeine." (A steal at $12)
o Soothing Hip-Hop music for your baby. Rihanna sings for just $12)
o A furry bracelet that looks like it came off of a Russian snow princess' head ($750)
Now, don't you wish you were rich?
Inventions
The Mensa Bulletin mentions a book with this explanatory title: The Inventor's Complete Handbook: How to Develop, Patent and Commercialize Your Ideas, by James L. Cairns.
Mr. Cairns mentions some famous inventions in his book:
o The electric lamp, by Thomas Edison (1889)
o The cotton gin, by Eli Whitney (1794)
o The telegraph, by Alexander Graham Bell (1876)
o Barbed wire, by Charles Washburn (1881)
o Buoying system for boats, by Abraham Lincoln (1849)
o A head rest for urinals, by somebody or other (you have to read the book to find out)
..........................................................................................
Enough!
............................................................................................
No comments:
Post a Comment