“It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.” - Sir William Osler






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Death Comes Like a... Mime?

Okay, this is sweet. After giving interview after interview in which he spilled the beans that his character Lisa is going to die of breast cancer, and even leaking the day on which that's going to happen, today Tom Batuik opens the paper and finds... this.

Oh, and by the way, Lisa is kicking the bucket too. And the noise you hear coming from the Curmudgeon site is mostly cheers, whistling and applause. For Lynn Johnston. IMHO, she had to have done this deliberately, and I love the idea of her killing off Grandpa Jim to pull the rug out from under Batuik. One of the best comments:

Here’s a morbid idea: On Lynne’s Foob site, you can order a print of today’s strip. Why not have it framed and give it to an elderly loved one? Make ‘em think twice before complaining about stupid crap. Make ‘em treasure the days they have left!

But read them all. They're so good it's worth the time. (Warning: the commments thread is up past 269, so it may take you awhile. Start at about 179 on this thread.)

UPDATE: Josh now has addressed the dueling strips in a post.

Labels: Comix

posted by Dr. Alice at #

 
Another Quiz

Your Brain's Pattern

Structured and organized, you have a knack for thinking clearly. You are very logical - and you don't let your thoughts get polluted with emotions. And while your thoughts are pretty serious, they're anything but boring. It's minds like yours that have built the great cities of the world!

Labels: Pop Culture

posted by Dr. Alice at #

 
Birth Control for Less

The Blog That Ate Manhattan has a great post: Wal-Mart is now offering generic birth control for $9 per month. The only types Wal-Mart is offering are generic versions of Ortho-Cyclen or Ortho Tri-Cyclen, but I have many patients who pay $20 a month or more for these pills. Interestingly, TBTAM points out that Wal-Mart charges only $4 per prescription for all other generic drugs that they carry. This is extremely annoying, but $9 still beats $20.

Labels: Medicine

posted by Dr. Alice at #

 
Church? I'd Rather Have a Nightclub!

Well, this is interesting:

The Episcopal Church will make sure that any property it sells is not intended for use by parishes that plan to affiliate with other Anglican provinces, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said Sept. 30 on a visit to Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

What this is about is the announced sale of St. Clement Pro-Cathedral in El Paso, Texas to its congregation. The congregation of St. Clement's is splitting from the Episcopal Church to join another diocese in the Anglican Communion and wishes to buy the property (rather than suing to try to take it with them). They made a good faith offer of, I think, two million dollars which was accepted by the bishop, Bishop Steenson of the Diocese of the Rio Grande (who interestingly enough is now resigning his position in the Episcopal Church to join the Roman Catholic Church). Apparently now Presiding Bishop Schori is moving to block the sale, or trying to, because the congregation is aligning with a dissenting Anglican diocese.

So, apparently, it's okay to sell a church building to any other Protestant demomination, or to turn it into a synagogue or a mosque, or even to put it to secular use such as a nightclub. But a dissenting Anglican denomination? No way. Uhh, yeah, that'll stand up in court.

I hope PB Schori got some really good legal advice before making this statement to the press. At best, it makes her organization look petty. At worst, if this isn't legally enforceable - and it's difficult to see how it could be - it will make her look foolish. And if there's one thing TEC doesn't need right now, it's that.

Labels: Episcopaliana

posted by Dr. Alice at #