Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
I don’t know many people who like going to the doctor and going to a specialist is always less than enjoyable. I went to see the ENT physician today. While my appointment was at 11:30 the receptionist said to get there 30 minutes early to fill out the forms. That’s pretty normal. And I am always early. My parents always said that the doctor or dentist should never be left waiting for you. I got there about 10:50, got the forms and filled them out. Since everything is computerized these days I still wonder why I have to write my name, birthday, and reason for coming in on three different forms. I fought with minimal success in streamlining the forms at TCBS registration. So the forms were in their hands at 11:05. Today must be the day set aside for new patients as the person in front of me and three more who came after me were all filling out forms. 11:30 came and went. 12:00 came and went. Finally at 12:15 I was called in to the patient room where I got to wait another 10 minutes. The nurse sort of apologized for the wait, but it seemed to me it was part of her regular greeting. “Hi Charlie, follow me to the room, sorry you had such a long wait, the doctor will be right in.” So the doctor comes in and first in a very serious way, apologizes for the wait and says it’s just one of those days. The computer crashed when the lights went out—I was in the waiting room when that happened. Then he asks why I am there. I explain that my PCP wants to be sure there isn’t some physical reason for my high red blood cell count. He asks me how long my voice has been like that. Huh? I said ‘all my life’. He said “I doubt that”, so I added, ‘well, probably since puberty.’ Then I told him about my two removals of adenoids and tonsils in my youth—it was like at 6 months and 8 years old. He checked and said the second time worked, but left scar tissue. Then he says he wants to run a light through my nose to see my voice box. He sprays some deadener up my nose, leaves, and returns about 10 minutes later. As he is leaving I tell him if he is going to eat lunch he has to share it with me. He laughs. When he returns, without any food, he sticks the flashlight up my nose. Then he says “you have the weirdest larynx I have ever seen. It’s not bad, it’s just weird.” I told him that didn’t sound very ‘medical’. So he uses big words, most of which aren’t English based and asks me, while smiling, “how was that?” I told him I got it now, weird. He asks if I sleep on my back. I tell him I’m a stomach or side sleeper and he says he’s not surprised. It seems I have extra something down there that is just moving around when I breathe. He says he is sure it is benign and that I have probably had it for decades. I have just learned to work around it. He says that ‘trimming’ it should fix my voice and I will breathe better. Didn’t know my voice needed fixing, but the breathing thing sounded good. He also said he doesn’t think I have sleep apnea and even if I did the mask probably wouldn’t help because of my very weird larynx. I have to get a throat CT so he doesn’t have any surprises during my ‘trimming’. The day surgery will be done in January and he says the only way I would need to spend the night at the hospital is if there is unexpected swelling after the ‘trim’. I need to talk with him some more after he gets the scan results to see what the hell he is talking about. He really turned out to be a very nice guy and I left believing that my long wait was really unusual.
I don’t even want to know how much this is going to cost. My insurance has a co-pay of $30 for an office visit with a specialist. That doesn’t include the flashlight thing. The co-pay also doesn’t decrease with amount of time I have to wait. So as I am setting up the CT and the next appointment, I volunteer to pay my co-pay. The lady says I will just be billed after BC pays whatever they pay. By December, many patients have already met their deductibles so I’m not real sure what she was talking about. The billing is actually more worrisome than the ‘trimming’. It’s not like I can’t afford it; it’s just not knowing.
I talked to my brother in Miami Beach. He was complaining about the cold—it was only 42° while Flag was 56° as we talked. They were heading out to Laura’s birthday party. As usual it was quite the affair. Lots of creative people were there with lots of creative gifts.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1964 1st time 4 people in space
∞ JEOPARDY PUZZLE—(SuperJeopardy Answers) from 1990 World History
►In 1947 Britain's George VI dropped his title as emperor of this country
►On May 30, 1967 it declared itself a republic & seceded from Nigeria
►After discovering the Philippines in March of 1521, he stayed there for about a month & was killed
►By 1906 British New Guinea had become a territory of Australia & was renamed this
►This smallest Balkan country didn't become independent until the 20th century
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—Charlie Brown Part II
However, viewers and reviewers LOVED it. On Thursday, December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas was seen in more than 15 million homes. It won critical acclaim as well as an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program and a Peabody Award for excellence in programming.
►◄
The logo for Coca-Cola, the movie's first sponsor, appeared several times in original footage of A Charlie Brown Christmas. For instance, in the skating scene, Snoopy throws Linus from the rink into a Coca-Cola sign. Later sponsors objected, and the frames were edited out.
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
Palm Beach, FL--When choosing a getaway vehicle, it's a good idea to make sure it goes more than 3 miles an hour.
A Palm Beach man led security guards on an intense slow-speed chase in a motorized shopping cart in a grocery store parking lot after he allegedly stole some meat and ran over a child's foot during his escape.
Louis Lorensen, 58, was finally cornered by security guards and employees of the Winn-Dixie, who waited for police to show up to finally arrest the would-be thief, reports the Sun-Sentinel.
"I ain't no punk, and I ain't going down without a fight," Lorensen was yelling, according to a police report of the odd incident. He apparently wasn't in a rush to get away, either.
Most motorized shopping carts can reach speeds of about 3 miles per hour, but they might not even be that fast.
At that rate, Lorensen would have been better off using his feet. But that didn't stop him from allegedly loading up on 11 packages of meat and then low-tailing it out of the store.
As he tried to exit, a woman and her 4-year-old son were walking in. Lorensen told the customers to move out of the way, but the little boy was caught like a deer in headlights with the oncoming slow cart bearing down on him, according to the police report.
Lorensen ran over the boy's foot and made it into the parking lot before finally being corralled, the police report said.
At the police station, Lorensen told an officer, "When you take these cuffs off, I'm going to punch you in the face," according to the report, as reported by the Sun-Sentinel.
He now faces two counts of larceny, aggravated battery on a child, possession of stolen property and resisting arrest.
A LITTLE LAUGH
A man comes home with his daughter, whom he has just taken to work for the day. The little girl asks, "I saw you in your office with your secretary. Why do you call her a doll?"
Feeling his wife's gaze upon him, the man explains, "Well, honey, my secretary is a very hard-working girl. She types like you wouldn't believe, she knows the computer system, and is very efficient."
The daughter thinks for a minute and then replies, "Oh. I thought it was because she closed her eyes when you lay her down."
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
DAYBOOK INFORMATION
♦ THIS WEEK ♦
10-17: Human Rights Week
14-28: Halcyon Days: The seven days where there are no winter storms
♦ TODAY IS… ♦
Ashura or Tenth Day (Islamic - begins at sundown)
Bill of Rights Day
Cat Herders Day
International Esperanto Community: Zamenhof Day (creator’s birthday)
National Lemon Cupcake Day
Alderney: Homecoming Day, celebrates the return of evacuated citizens to Alderney after World War II (in Channel Islands)
Netherlands: Kingdom Day or Koninkrijksdag: the signing of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands 1954
Pakistan: Quaid-i-Azam's Birthday
US: Puerto Rico: Navidades (beginning of celebrations in the Catholic community)
♫ Academy Awards Best Original Song ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
♦Today’s Births♦
ARTS
Dave Clark, 68, musician (leader of the Dave Clark Five
1907 Oscar Niemeyer Brazilians architect (Brasilia)
Edna O’Brien, 79, author (Country Girls Trilogy, Time and Tide)
1906 Betty Smith novelist (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
►◄Actors
1918 Jeff Chandler [Ira Grossel] Brooklyn NY, actor (Broken Arrow, Away All Boats)
Don Johnson (Donnie Wayne Johnson), 61, actor (“Miami Vice,” “Nash Bridges”)
ATHLETICS
Alexandra Stevenson, 30, tennis player
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1832 Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel French engineer (Eiffel tower)
1892 J Paul Getty oil magnate (Getty Oil)
1882 Helena Rubinstein US cosmetic manufacturer
1859 Ludwik L Zamenhof Russia/Poland, physician/linguist (Esperanto)
POLITICS
37 Nero Claudius Augustus Germanicus 5th emperor of Rome (54-68)
1848 Edwin Howland Blashfield decorated the dome of Library of Congress
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1852 Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity (Nobel 1903)
1863 Arthur D Little US, chemist (patented rayon)
♦Today’s Obituaries♦
Alfonso de Albuquerque viceroy of Portuguese Indies, @ 62 in 1515
Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) Hunkpapa-Sioux chief (Little Big Horn), killed by US Army @ 59 in 1890
Lillian Disney widow of Walt Disney, @ 98 in 1997
Walt Disney animator, lung cancer @ 65 in 1966
Glenn Miller US band leader/jazz composer, plane crash @ 40 in 1944
Thomas W "Fats" Waller jazz pianist, pneumonia @ 39 in 1943
Chill Wills actor (Frontier Circus, Rounders), cancer @ 75 in 1978
♦Today’s Events♦
ARTS
1954 Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter was featured on Walt Disney’s TV series for the first time. Crockett was played by Fess Parker.
1962 Vaughn Meader's "The 1st Family" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 12 weeks
ATHLETICS
1997 San Francisco 49ers retire Joe Montana's #16
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1791 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
1810 1st Irish magazine in US, The Shamrock, is published
1854 1st street-cleaning machine in US 1st used in Philadelphia
1925 1st road with a depressed trough (Texas) opens to traffic
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1855 Governor Stevens gets NEZ PERCE honor guard.
POLITICS (US)
1791 Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gave its approval
1836 Patent Office burns in Washington DC
1944 US Congress gives General Eisenhower his 5th star
POLITICS (International)
1582 Spanish Netherlands/Denmark/Norway adopt Gregorian calendar
1964 Canada adopts maple leaf flag
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1612 Simon Marius, is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1952 Christine Jorgenson is 1st person to undergo a sex-change operation
1973 American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not mental illness
ANSWERS
∞ JEOPARDY
►In 1947 Britain's George VI dropped his title as emperor of this country
What is India?
►On May 30, 1967 it declared itself a republic & seceded from Nigeria
What is Biafra?
►After discovering the Philippines in March of 1521, he stayed there for about a month & was killed
Who was Magellan?
►By 1906 British New Guinea had become a territory of Australia & was renamed this
What is Papua New Guinea?
►This smallest Balkan country didn't become independent until the 20th century
What is Albania?
