Dear Everyone,
We are having some unbelievably warm weather for
mid-November. Perhaps this is the new normal.
Of course, the movement of this front from the south led to several days
of high winds, and our delay in return from New York City on Wednesday. I got home around 1 am (there was a dearth of
cabs available at the airport), and into work at 7 to prepare for an 8 am
conference. Because I slept fairly
poorly on our trip (one night surely due to my ingestion of a dessert that had
{I think} at least two shots [maybe three] of espresso), I was so tired by the afternoon that I had
to go home. I was afraid that I would
harm a patient if I looked at any more slides.
I took a nap that afternoon, and went to bed around 8:30 (and the night
after, 9:30). It wasn’t until yesterday that I felt awake.
Cindy and I are going to Spiaggia this evening with Andy,
Gail, Barbara and Roger. I originally
made the reservations at Café Spiaggia, but then changed them when I realized
this was the more rustic, ‘family style’ part of the restaurant. I’m sure the food will be good at either
location. We ate well in NYC. We patronized three restaurants, Aureole, Vitae, and Quality Meats. I liked Vitae the best of the three, but I think
a lot depends on how comfortable your seating is, and your decisions in ordering
food. As for our meetings with the
Masters of the Universe? Some good,
others indifferent. I’m glad that I work
in an area where the decisions seem to be more discrete, although on the other
hand, I am expected to have an error rate well under 5%, and finance people are
not held anywhere near this standard. I’m
also quite happy not to live in Manhattan; it’s way too crowded for me.
As I mentioned in my last letter, the weekend before Cindy, Jasper, Nicola and I met an old
PEA friend of mine, Anthony Chen, for dinner at Mercat a la Planxa. Anthony was once a
family practice physician, but now he is the Director of the Tacoma-Pierce Public Health
Department. I asked him what the
biggest scandal of his tenure was. Anthony, having become a political animal,
told us a story about his predecessor. Apparently, the previous director was
quite worried about possible flu pandemics in the 200’s, and sought to
stockpile antivirals for the county.
Unfortunately, he could not get enough FDA approved antivirals from the
single supplier, so he used county money to purchase medications from gray
market pharmaceutical companies in India.
Obviously, this came to light, and he was forced to resign. I thought it was quite funny - - the Director
was doing his best to protect the citizens of his county, and if he had to
extra-legal methods … well, you could only fault him for being too zealous. If he had been the Cook County Director, the
scandal would have been 1) that the director did nothing to protect the health
of the county, or 2) took illegal kickbacks from the Indian pharmaceutical
company, or 3) (most likely) did nothing AND took kickbacks from the Indians.
Terrorists struck multiple sites in Paris on Friday. I don’t understand these events very well. I
don’t believe these bombings further the political aims of the people they allege
to represent. Perhaps the real aim is to create chaos and civil unrest, but why
would anyone want this to occur? I would think that political stability is a
benefit even to criminals.
Bears won!
Love, H
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