first? Beckham. Harumph. Unfortunately, soccer will always be a second tire sport on this side of the pond. I have fond memories, however of seeing Pele play against the Rochester Lancers on a couple of occasions many years ago. The Cosmos were something. Pele didn't need to show off his abs; he just played.

What does "fisked" mean?

SCC: tier...The anticipation of being the first post left my fingers jittery. Looking at the keyboard doesn't even help.

Ah. Okay. Google has explained it to me (via Wkipedia). Why do I never think to look these things up before I expose my cultural ignorance? I'm so embarrasked (as Popeye would say).

It's what happened to the Yankees when the BoSox catcher came to the plate.

Tim-"fisked" is point by point rebuttal of an arguement. Origin blogosphere, named for some guy name Fisk whose writing was often the subject of such treatment.

I know! I heard Beckham speak on some ESPN show a couple of weeks ago....the voice just didn't match the bod. Sort of like Jackie Kennedy..when I hear tape of her speaking I'm always shocked...that high, breathy, singsong-y voice just doesn't seem right.

Don't ask me what would seem right.

I linked to this a few boodles ago, but author David Brin also rebutted John McQuaid and a boodle lurker (Are you out there Blake Stacey?) linked to Joel's rebuttal in the comments after I first linked to it. It doesn't get more Ouroborosian than that.

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2007/08/gingrich-denial-and-more-on-decline-of.html

When I was in high school, I went to a lot of Tampa Bay Rowdies games back when Rodney Marsh was the star player. IIRC, the Rowdies were the second most successful NASL team behind the Cosmos in regards to attendance. Some seasons they averaged over 25,000 a game.

Then soccer went stone cold as a spectator sport for decades. Networks need to come up with a clever way to do interstitial commercials without interrupting the flow of the game, or work on a TiVo-like built-in delay, so none of the action is missed.

A lumberjack voice, Kim.

I agree about the voice. Reminded me of the first time I saw Remington Steele in the non-dubbed English. His dubbed voice in Spanish had been so wonderfully deep, like my husband's. I never got used to it, and could not enjoy a Bond with a reedy voice.

And I'll add "fisked" to my list of words. I'm putting together ideas on changes driven by blogging. A friend is teaching a class on cyberjournalism and I love the idea so much I want to be a part of it. I have an entire section on language.

It's getting very confusing to tell who is quoting who in the re-rebuttal. Maybe NewMan can issue some style guides on how to do that coherently.

NewMan wouldn't happen be the Rob Curley, late of newmedia hotbed Naples, FL, that is quoted in the newest Wired magazine:

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_gannett?currentPage=3

He's real big into crowd-sourcing and micro-blogging. Sort of fits in with the original SAO-15 concept.

I'm still waiting for John Baross's response to Joel's e-mail to him about weird life--Baross's initial gratuitous remarks to Mudge about Ingmar Bergman aside.

The little quotation marks in today's Kit are hard to see. I think italics vs. Times Roman would make it far easier to read and comprehend McQuaid's refisking of Joel's fisking.

News from Britain is getting a little strange on the FMD story. Turns out that tests on the third herd culled didn't have FMD. But as of last night, British authorities supect that another herd outside the original containment zone may have FMD, which, if confirmed, means that the virus has not been contained but is spreading. Tests will tell.

A worker at the Pirbright compound came down with Legionaaire's disease, caused by bacteria, several weeks before the outbreak of FMD, but the worker has since recovered. Odd.

One piece of reporting that I found strange is that the British press reported, in the link I provided on Wednesday, that since sabotage is suspected in the leak or dispersal of the FMD virus, that the government would be conducting thorough background checks.

Here's the response that I posted in reply to their reporting:

If, as you report in your third graf, that workers at both Pirbright and Merial will be undergoing rigorous background checks, then wouldn't one assume that a condition for employment in handling hot viruses at either Surrey facility--or at any other like compound in Britain--would be undergoing a rigorous background check? Hmmm?

I assume the Brits were caught flat-footed to learn that the recent Glasgow Airport drive-in and foiled London car bombings were planned by a cohort of Middle Eastern physicians. But shouldn't even the animal handlers and janitors at Pirbright be subjected to rigorous background checks as a normal procedure?

I forgot about the Rowdies, yello. I've been thinking of you and CP this week. We've been in the throes of band camp for the past two weeks. This year's show is Moulin Rouge.

The mention of soccer player's propensity to deshirt brought forth visions of this occurring in politics as a fluorish during a victory speech, or after a successful vote in one of the Houses of Congress. Yikes.

I'll put McQuaid's comments in italics or boldface and see if that looks better.

I hope that's better.

Much better, Joel! Thanks. Kind of like watching tennis.

"Everyone wants to be the girl who drinks the beer and eats the steak and looks like Kate Hudson," Ms. Crosley, 28, said. Wow. This whole thing leaves me (almost) speechless. Now, I'll admit that as someone who has been married (only once, still am) for over 37 years, dating is not my milieu. However, this whole article and the views expressed seem so incredibly shallow as to strain my Paris Hilton Autographed Model Superficial-o-meter to the breaking point. Uh, how about actually talking to the person and forming an opinion based on the content of their conversation and your impressions of them as a human being?

G'morning all. We are in for a miserably hot and humid day. I don't care if you use the heat index, humidex, or an egg on the side walk, it's going to be hot. Just yesterday I was looking forward to taking the little window AC unit out and storing it in the garage. All this heat, and still my tomatoes don't ripen.

An observation about earmarks from a town with no clout. Earmarks are here to stay because Americans love them. Without earmarks some very small but worthwhile projects would never be built. For instance, we would like to build a half million dollar paved walking/biking path to be used for transportation and recreation. (No sidewalks and people walk/cycle to the store along a stretch of state highway with heavy truck traffic) We'll have to come up with at least $50,000 to match funding in some federal and state programs, or at worst raise the whole bit on our own. Our annual city budget is $36,000. We are willing to raise taxes to do this but we have tribal housing taking up half our municipality's area and don't collect any property taxes from it. If we quadrupled our levy and none of our costs increased we could raise the $50,000 over 10 years. I would have no qualms about asking for, and getting, an earmark for this project nor would I begrudge other towns making similar requests. Many communities, no matter how committed and active their citizens, need a little help. The problem is when earmarks come with a quid pro quo and a pricetag that can only be justified by those old standbys-hubris and perfidy.

Thanks, Joel.

Mudge and I might know who the Sulzbergers (Loomis Chaffee connection--see Susan Tifft's and Alex Jones' 1999 book "The Trust"--cool genealogical chart before Chpater One) and Grahams are, but not sure if the rest of the Boodle does. Perhaps I underestimate them?

That Steve Coll? Yup, the Washington Post should definitely hire 'im. *l*

"Dropping into conversation the fact that steaks of Kobe beef come from Wagyu cattle, but that not all steaks sold as Wagyu are Kobe beef, demonstrates one's worldliness, said Gabriella Gershenson, a dining editor at Time Out New York. It holds the same currency today that being able to name Hemingway's four wives held in an earlier era."

Worldliness? I'd say it demonstrates one's propensity for Dungeons and Dragons if you ask me.

Loomis, I think you might be underestimating...

The piece posted by kbertocci was absolutely scary. It doesn't seem possible that anyone could be that stupid.

Rest assured Loomis, we are not that far beneath your intellect.

Say what you want LL, but just don't misunderestimate me.

The Economist has a story on crumbling roads, featuring the International Roughness Index.
http://training.ce.washington.edu/WSDOT/Modules/09_pavement_evaluation/09-2_body.htm#measurement

California's the second-worst, following New Jersey.

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9621456

Jeez, Linda. The family that built the paper that hosts this blog? And the publishers of this paper's principal national competitor? Of course we know (or can verify our vague awareness with Google and Wikipedia, which I spelled correctly this time).

Dave.. the quality of the pavement on I-40 in Arizona was appalling and scary for a 75-mph highway.

Good morning, all.

It was nice to see Mr. McQuaid weigh in with some clarifications, and I certainly agree with those that are not enamored of this country's management (for lack of a better word), both the executive side and the board (that would be our legislatures).

Extending my questionable thought process further, we've voted to make substantial changes to the board last November, but the executive contract lasts until Jan '08, and we're learning to live with that, and thinking about the next executive management team with the extended run-up to the next general election.

One idea to consider in this area is that the board/legislature and the executive management teams need to *work together* to set priorities, plan, and allocate resources to get things done with the existing governing agencies, and that some thought should be given to electing the executive team that will work best with the legislative board and the bureaucracies they manage, rather than simply the most popular top executive candidate.

We're the shareholders - will we consider probable effectiveness within the existing as part of our personal voting criteria?

bc

SCC: "We're the shareholders - will we consider probable effectiveness within the existing management infrastructures as part of our personal voting criteria?"

Dang me all to heck.

bc

i think that the article kbertocci linked gives a fairly accurate reflection of how self-conscious a lot of women are. yes, not eating is silly, as is eating beef just to make a statement, but the underlying self-consciousness about food is definitely out there.

The yellojkt photo of the day (if it were online) would be of my son and I at a teppan kobe beef restaruant on the top floor of a buidling in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo. It may have been this place:

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g348502/

It was the most expensive meal I have ever eaten in my life and that includes some famous name steak places in New York. I can't say I found the Kobe that much tastier than a good filet mignon, but I don't have that sophisticated a palate.

Next time, bc, if the voters are going to pick a CEO with some business experience, maybe they'll find one who has actually been successful at it.

Our current CEO hasn't figured out yet that you can't really use a failed country as a tax shelter.

As always, the usual advice should be to eat what you want to eat and be who you are -- while still putting your best foot forward, in an early date, just as a sign of respect for the occasion. If your purpose is to develop a long-term relationship, it won't work if you are found in a lie. If your purpose is to "get some" -- well, it's not too hard to talk a guy into this, so why be self-conscious?

What I find intersting in the excerpts I read from this article (I skipped the article itself -- I'm lazy that way) is the implication that the vapid young women who are pretending to be non-vapid believe that the male date holds all the power of judgment and decision-making in this burgeoning relationship. What? When did this happen? Since I've been off the dating scene for about 19 years now, I understand that I'm off the distribution list for the memos. Still, when I was a young fellow, the understanding was that boys were needy supplicants at the altar of femininity, hoping for a smile, maybe holding hands. What happened?

I was surprised when my 13 yo daughter told me that she had participated in a hamburger-eating contest at camp her first week there. She boasted, "I came in 3rd to last and even beat one of the oldest boys!"

I asked her why she had competed, wondering if it had to do with making some sort of impression. She answered, "Oh my Gawd, Mom.. I was SOOOOO hungry!"

I understand that the equivalent of "holding hands" is now an act of extraordinary physical intimacy that I could barely imagine back in my innocent youth. Back then, the burden was on boys to seem less vapid. Since I was a boy, I have some familiarity with the thinking processes of boys (such as they were), and I can state with some certainty that the prospect of female companionship was a definite civilizing influence upon boys. My universe is shaken by the notion that these relationships have flip-flopped.

Tim's description of dating long ago and far away makes me laugh. And, I feel a bit wistful. Not that I am pining for that culture exactly. But, hey, suddenly I realize that long ago and far away is just what the adjectives denote:

long
far

Tim: there are not dating memos anymore. They seem to be hanging-out memos, instead.
Off to the day of errands. I do not detect a heat reprieve exactly but the flowers look stressed rather than in hospice care.

Don't worry Loomis. We are not yet sunk into such brute ignorance as to be unaware of the great newspaper-owning families of the last and this century.

I wish Joel had included this paragraph in the kit; when I read it yesterday it struck me as not only true, but elegant:

A decade ago, four American families regarded themselves, correctly, as guardians of public trusts, because they controlled independent newspapers, situated in America's most influential cities, that were vital to the national discourse. They were the Sulzbergers, who control the Times; the Grahams, who control the Washington Post; the Chandlers, who controlled the Los Angeles Times; and the Bancrofts. Within their separate ranks, the families faced a common challenge: as generations passed and ownership became dispersed among siblings and cousins, it grew harder to act decisively. The Sulzbergers and the Grahams handled the problem by empowering a single leader; the Chandlers did the same for a time, but then fell apart; the Bancrofts never addressed it.

I agree with lurker about women and self-consciousness about food. Many years ago when I heard the advice about eating before going on a date, I just rolled my eyes. Love me, love my appetite was my motto. Although I would try to avoid messy foods like chicken wings on the first date, just to introduce the element of surprise (that I tend to wear my food well) later on.

Had to comment on something TBG said last night: "What we've got to do is get health care out of the hands of the insurance industry and Big Pharma--and their money out of the pockets of our elected officials. Or stop electing them, really."
TBG, we may be miles apart on some issues, but I'm right there with you. That's why we're still relying on a cost-inefficient (adding a middle-man drives up cost) system of health insurance--everyone is getting money from the insurance industry. That's also why I don't have a lot of hope that it will change with the current crop of candidates. The long campaign season guarantees that candidates need money and lots of it. And the insurance companies are glad to oblige. Sen. Clinton is #2 on the list of those in Congress receiving the most $ from the health care industry. So don't expect anything more than incremental reform from her.

I love the girl of yours TBG.

If I wanted to be snotty, I'd suggest that if Ms. Heller didn't "want to be considered vapid and uninteresting," she should consider working at someplace other than TV Guide.

But that would be churlish.

...speaking of which, there's a nine-year-old girl in Nova Scotia who can't go to West Hants' day-long fish/hike/golf camp, because it's for boys only. (Presumably, the boys are similarly prohibited from the "Glamorous Girls" camp the district offers instead.)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070810.wcamp10/BNStory/National/home

Joe Biden was on Charlie Rose last night and said he thought the first step in health care reform was public financing of elections.

My older daughter likes to chat, filling her dad and I in on all the wonderful intracracies of preteen life, with much detail. Recently she was describing the current fashion trends amongst her peers.

One in particular she called "Emo" the only reference her Dad and I could come up with was the goofy character from about 10 years ago - Emu?. Apparently the clothing , pink, red, black clothes, checked vans, heavy eyeliner, bangs in the eyes. But when I asked her about the "Emo" name, she told me they were termed that because these girls were SO EMOTIONAL, and dramatic/depressing.

Interesting, dmd. Down here, "emo" is a reference to "emotionally disturbed" not just emotional. Actual usage, of course, is to refer to a person who does not really have a clinical problem and thus exaggerate trivial social issues.

dmd, if your girls were just a little older you'd know that boys can also be emo, there is emo fasion, and there is a whole genre of emo music. And the music... originated in DC in the 1980s. Ta da!

SCC: just so, so many. Let's start with "fashion."

Tim,
One of the musicals I saw last weekend in New York was 'Spring Awakening' based on a scandalous play written in the 1890s about hot to trot teenagers. The musical adaptation includes songs about nocturnal dreams (yeah, that kind), sexual abuse, abortion, and homosexuality. All good family entertainment. I reviewed it in greater detail here:

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2007/08/les-awakenings.html

Based on the play/musical, how far to go was very much an issue back then too. Considering the on-stage action at the the end of Act 1, the answer is pretty far indeed. And based on Act 2, abstinence education wasn't much more effective as a birth control method then than now.

'Jude the Obscure' (written about the same time) reveals that faking a pregancy was pretty common courting tactic back then. Each generation thinks they discovered sex.

I'm not sure what golden era/place you spent your adolescence but the young gentlemen of my youth were very pre-occupied with getting well past the hand-holding stage as soon as possible, albeit perhaps less successfully than the kids of today.

No they just mean it in a preteen manner. In their class for the last either years have been a few special needs children, with a variety of challenges emotional/physical. The kids are very protective of these friends, and seem to have a very good grasp on the difference between real emotional challenges and people who use emotion for attention.

Their school is small and the kids are, at least in her class very close, there are separate "groups" but for the most part all are friends.

Boodlers, have you seen the photograph on the front page of the trader watching early activity? It is hilarious. Obviously, it was just a fleeting expression, but he looks as though he wants to disgorge.

*tentatively signing off and hoping things still work later this afternoon*

:-)

Loomis, I met Katherine Graham, and I've met Ben Bradlee and Len Downie.

Have you?
We appreciate your patronage in this matter for what it is, though.

On a side note, I remember your comment some weeks ago regarding the possible location of a Biomedical research lab in Texas that was focusing on swine-related viruses, and your position that a lab doing such research would best be placed in North Carolina, close to industrial swine populations.

I argued against, IIRC, thinking that the damage from an accidental release of a virus in an area with a high population of swine and a significant economic dependency on that industry would naturally be greater than an accident in a location with a small swine popluation.

This past week's events in Great Britain regarding the outbreak of a specific strain of foot-and-mouth disease in near a biomedical research lab working with that exact strain made me think of our exchange of views on that topic. The already weakened British Livestock industry is going to bear the brunt of more bans and cullings, unforunately.

bc

Emo is style of dress/music that borders on goth but emphasizes the sadness of life. Emo guys are stereotyped as moody, dour, and wimpy. They tend to have long straight black hair that falls into their eyes. Perhaps the most mainstream practitioners are My Chemical Romance whose latest record "The Black Parade" is a concept album about a kid dying of cancer.

The fact that 10 year olds are familiar with the genre might indicate that it is already on its way to obsolescence and ridicule.

My son HATES emo, but many of the girls he knows are very emo-ish, prone to wearing lots black and purple with heavy eyeliner.

Wow, the things you learn here, I will admit when it comes to Pop Culture I am out to lunch.

Thanks Yello and Yoki, you have helped clear up the gaps in my daughters explanations of the difference between Goth, Emo, and Drama Queens. FYI, I like My Chemical Romance.

yellojkt:

Hey, small world!

My own hypothesis is that "emo" is what happened to goth when goth lost the influence of Death -- that is, the bright, perky and cute personification of Death in the Sandman comics.

Tim, I think there have always been a few men for whom women will scratch each others' eyes out, or even eat steak, and then there are the rest of us.

byoolin, dmd linked that story earlier. While the choice between those two camps is stark, personally I think we've came far enough that an all-boy single-day camp shouldn't be an Outrage.

SoC I agree, but it is the stark difference in activities that worry me. Of course I am a mom that activily discourages my girls from focusing too much on "looks". Already at twelve several of her friends are frightenly worried about weight (merit less).

Blake so Emo is happy Goth? :-)

I like the band too, and think the Parade album is fantastic. For something even more in the genre, check out Damien Rice.

#2 was never emo, but lots of the drama girls and boys are.

dmd, I'm with you on the camps. As a kid, if that girls' camp was the only choice I had, I would have stayed home.

OK, I just have to share a laugh about my lunch. It's frozen mac and cheese, and on the package it says "chef-inspired recipe."

Just read the NY Times article.

1. In other breaking news, men reveal they occasionally pretend to be more interested in fashion than they are while dating.

2. There's a $60 burger? I guess one shouldn't add ketchup.

Joel, surely you meant *geeky* in the best possible sense!

CP, everything's a trade-off! Roses and chocolate on one hand, being on call 24/7/365 is the other. Finance/IT is unforgiving. There're layers of protocols to handle every detail, but sometimes it comes down to personal relationships and someone else's willingness to drop everything to assist you at that very inconvenient moment when you're desperate, both of you knowing they'll have to put in time from home at night to catch up on their own work afterwards.

I bake cookies or order Chinese for the network guys or Genius #1/Genius #2 when I've had to call them at 1, 3 and 5 AM on Sunday. My boss brings in great coffee all the time. I'll bet they throw roses at Gomez too! They should if they don't. With the heads still on. :-)

Close to on topic, maybe this is why America isn't getting things done--diminished personal contact and responsibility.

Hey, I like My Chemical Romance's "The Black Parade", too.

On the other hand, I'm a sucker for rock opera/concept albums.

Personally, I've been listenting to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Wolfmother, and the Mooney Suzuki's fabulous "Have Mercy" a lot lately. Saw MS at the Rock & Roll Hotel on H street a few weeks back, they were great (shh, I think Liz Kelley was there, too, but I didn't bug her).

On the other hand, the clock radio next to my bed is tuned to the local classical music station. Stravinsky, Bach, and Beethoven are a nice way to wake up and knock out pushups.

bc

kurosawaguy, Biden said the same thing at Wednesday's AFL/CIO debate that no one watched.

Raysmom - thats funny.

You just reminded me of a special bulletin I wanted to share with the boodle.

While on vacation in Quebec we stopped at a small restaurant for lunch. Reading the menu I noted several varieties of poutine and and a sign proudly claiming the "new" Italian Poutine.

>"...in D.C. when it's 95 degrees or thereabouts, humidity smothering,"
Wouldn't it be nice if there were some sort of metric to indicate the discomfort of such weather?

Speaking of the comic version of Death (the hot one prone to wearing leather pants and tank tops, not the Seventh Seal hooded one), 'Stardust' based on Neil Gaiman's comic is out today. It looks very Princess Bride-ish. My son wants to see it. My wife will be a tougher sell.

Last night we saw a preview of Beowulf featuring the rotoscoped version of Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mum. My wife wanted me to cover my eyes.

TBG,
Long ago, in Wyoming, we hired a bright Pennsylvania wildlife biology student for the summer. He had an original-model boxy Ford Bronco because "the paved roads are so bad." Maybe that'w why I think I need a Toyota FJ Cruiser.

That story kbertocci pointed out is hilarious. I love steak and burgers and salads, but I never thought of any of them as statements. I just order whatever I'm in the mood for. Maybe that's why one guy I dated took me to a steakhouse on the first date and out for (fancy) pizza on the next. Not exactly "chick food." Maybe I was being food-tested.

*jumping off my soapbox to pick up the Chinese food at the front desk*

Biden's got the right idea. There was an article in the NYT recently postulating that for healthcare to be fixed, doctors would have to be paid less (the part of the equation nobody's spoken about). I'll see if I can dig it up tonight.

The whole idea that North America might not be a can do place could be related to the food as a statement article.

Here is my emo detail: they pioneered the rectangular glasses look, now here in the malls of 'Merica. Emos started (restarted?) with Buddy Holly/Elvis Costello specs in dark black or hornrim.

But the gals broadened the look with purple rectangular glasses, etc. The frame shrunk from clunky to the small rectangles so popular now. They tend to be made out of plastic or zyl in optical-speak.

I showed up to class winter circa 2003 with new specs made by a friend as a birthday gift (she was a glasses/frames rep for a while): neon-to-teal green rectangles made of titanum. Very cool. Very me (I am middle-aging nerdie retro stylish every other day). I walked in and gal pipped, "OMIGOD, you have the best emo glasses ever."

She was gothic-vampira in look. Later she told me how upset she was that Anne Rice has left the velvet underground and has got religion again.

Same optical buddy made me a pair of maroon owl circles that my colleagues call my TS Eliot glasses; students have said they look like feminine Harry Potter specs....I am lucky that she makes glasses for me out of sample frames, that don't make it to the mall shoppes. Fun for me.

But, I am waiting on my rhinstone cat-eye glasses....those befitting a minx....or perhaps since I am a western gal, a lynx.

To be perfectly candid about it, I think western civilization can rest on its laurels a while.

Along the same lines as the NYT article, I think it's pretty horrifying to see this on Yahoo! Health...

http://tinyurl.com/yovcek

Sara - we've seen pictures of what you look like. You could have ordered a half a steer and I imagine your date would have failed to notice.

There's fine line between the Emo kids and the drama kids... the black clothes, etc. Usually the blue hair sets the theatre kids apart.

Regarding the cooperating board-executive view of gummint, here in CA the right wing GOP members in the legislature feel it is their duty to dig in their heels and not cooperate, no matter what the consequences to the operation of the state and its effects on the citizens. The 2/3 majority requirement for the annual budget brings this out.

Currently, one dot sports blue hair; other dot sports hot magenta hair.

Both are drama peeps. Both moved beyond emo in about 9th grade.

Mr. F is actually Mr. F #3 (and last I might add). By the time I met him I was so over relationships at all that on our first date he said something like "Tell me about yourself" and I replied with "I'm for national health, for unilateral disarmament, pro-choice, against capital punishment, and I don't eat oranges or anything orange flavored." Wasting even one brain cell on what my dinner order might have signified is more alien to me than that weird life we were speaking about days ago.

BTW, our relationship was almost over before it started when he expressed what I took as rather condescending surprise that I would mention Maxwell and Murdoch and their complicity in the ruination of American newspapers (this was 1990)in a conversation about USA Today. As if one had to have lived in England, and be days away from finishing an MBA (as he did and was)to have such knowledge. No wonder the umbrage meter seems pegged around here today.

CeePee... yes! See?

There are definitely some emo kids in drama, but for the most part the drama kids are a lot more engaging and interesting--to adults at least.

yeah, ltl-ca, i think that contributes to the c- for ca.

how can a state run when there needs to be a 2/3 majority to pass its budget? it's insanity. (the partisan ratio is almost always 60/40, for the non-ca folks.)

Back in the day, I went on a startling number of first dates. I remember what the young ladies looked like, what they were wearing, how they smelled, how they laughed, the wittiness (or lack thereof) of their conversations, and a gnawing fear that I was coming across as a doofus.

I do not remember what they chose as an entree. All I worried about is if I had brought along enough cash to pay the check.

Thanks, RD. I'm blushing. That doesn't happen often.

frostbitten, Mrs. D has a weird orange thing. While she'll eat oranges, and use orange extract in cooking, she won't eat anything else that's orange flavored--she doesn't even like orange M&Ms (at least acknowledging that it's psychological.) She attributes it to being forced to take a revolting orange-flavored medicine as a child.

And on my last first date, it turned out I hadn't, so I had to borrow.

But she married me anyway.

So you're still paying, eh, RD?
:-)

What, none of those orange sherbet-vanilla ice cream Creamsicle things? They sustained me through my undergrad years.

I still remember what I ordered on some first dates. Really only that steakhouse date (because it was the best steak ever--peppercorn crusted--amazing) and my first date with my husband. P.F. Chang's. Lettuce wraps of course because they taste so great and it's what I always get there. I suppose that puts me into the "uninteresting and vapid" category since it's just lettuce and chicken, but it has water chestnuts and those are crunchy so they have to count for something.

Nah byoolin. But whenever she starts to hassle me about my absent minded ways I always remind her that she *was* warned.

RD.. my parents' first date happened that way, too. Except she didn't have any money on her and he had to run home and get some (he'd forgotten his wallet, apparently). She sat in the restaurant hoping he'd actually return.

It was several months before they went out again.

I couldn't agree more, TBG. The other thing about the drama cohort is how supportive of each other (and most other people) they can be and usually are. The truly emo kids I knew were much more self-absorbed than the drama kids.

In my case it was my assumption that *everyplace* took credit cards.

I can report, without fear of contradiction, that in 1987 the Arlington Cinema and Draft House did not.

dbG I'd love to see that NYT article. Related to that WaPo had an article a week or so ago how doctors are already earning less than 10+ years ago due to HMOs. Doesn't seem to have helped so far ;)

Wilbon has always been "skeptical" of soccer. If by skeptical, you mean he ridicules it on a regular basis. While I certainly do not have a lot of love for Beckham, perhaps mostly because he has played for two teams I absolutely despise, Real Madrid and Manchester United, he is a quality footballer. Will he be the star player that MLS so desperately craves? I think not, because predominantly he is not a goal scorer and doesn't have the technical ability and moves that would wow people regularly. The money on Beckham would have been better spent bringing more quality South American players, like Christian Gomez, Jaimie Moreno, Juan Toja and Juan Pablo Angel. That would do a lot mroe to improve the quality of MLS than one Brit with a magical right foot. Is this another example of "mixed up priorities"?

The Nova Scotia day camp story interested me in several ways. First, that anyone in the 21st century thinks activities are gender specific is a surprise. Second, that no willingness to make an exception for a single girl in such a small program was even contemplated. Third, that the threat of lawsuit apparently never entered anyone's mind on either side (how un-American!). Fourth, that the girl's family responded so sensibly by pulling the brother out and finding an alternative that the whole family could enjoy. As the father of a snake catching, soccer kicking, canoe paddling, desert backpacking, tarantula loving, frisbee chucking, swimming, diving, singing, dancing, kayak flipper of a daughter, I would advise anyone with a child to avoid at all costs any attempt to define the limits of appropriate activity.

Luckily I've never had a date that didn't have enough money. Because I never had enough money when I was dating (I was single, therefore I shopped because my only responsibility was school) so there was no way I could bail him out. I think I would have been more embarrassed then the guy would have been. I don't do well in really awkward situations.

>Close to on topic, maybe this is why America isn't getting things done--diminished personal contact and responsibility.

dbG, with every fuunction outsourced to a different company it's easy for people to hide behind their contracts (contract says we have 48 hours to to what you need done RIGHT NOW) and basically just not get the urgency of the situation. I just heard a co-worked the other day sayy something like "hey, I've got 500 temps sitting at PCs that aren't working because you guys whacked the application last night. Yes, this needs to be fixed NOW!".

When it was all in-house people it was a matter of calling through the layers until you got someone with enough juice to make it happen. Now you've still got to do that but you've got contracts and corp. firewalls to get through too.

I was just pondering the Nova Scotia camp folks' reaction if it had been a boy wanting to join the spa activities.

We gave a friend of my son's a ride home last night. She's one of the head drama techs and has some sort of electric blue hair highlights. My son has wanted to dye his hair for years, but my wife won't let him. She keeps saying, "But your hair looks so beautiful, why would you want to ruin it." One girl had colored it so many times, so many ways, that it had become frizzly fried.

Joel has three daughters. We ought to be getting his take on teen female non-flyaway hair.

I never went to a "girls" camp. It was all crafts and hugs around a campfire. I hate crafts and I'm very selective about my hugs. The only year I went was when they were whitewater rafting. There were still crafts and hugs, but I was able to get out of crafts (seasonal doorknob hangers only get in the way of the doorknob) and I had one good friend there so I only hugged her. That way I didn't look like an anti-social jerk, but I didn't have to hug random girls whose names I didn't even know.

That is a good question Raysmom, certainly boys trying to get into girls events gets less coverage here so it is hard to tell what the reaction would be. SoC any good trials in that area?

Reminds me of this old skit - male synchronized swimmers, this always makes me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxCEkhGbfM

Agreed, Error. Our outside contracts are so well-reimbursed that our SLAs max out at the 2 hour mark. (2 hours for them to get it up and running).

Sometimes dealing with our in-house layers of IT (beyond whose desk I can drop by), it's more of the problem you describe. I think it's why we take such good care of the people around us. They could say, "Hey, I've got 4 hours to fix it, go away," but don't.

I've seen a couple of papers recently that attribute some of the "can't do era" to cultural diversity, i.e., immigration and class differences. *We* refuse to pay for anything because *they* will benefit from it.

I'm interested in your wife's reaction to the question of dyed hair, yello. For me it is (and always was, after the girls reached about age 12). It's just hair. It is one of the few things an adolescent can really control that won't do permanent damage. So, they dye it and don't like it? Change colour. Shave it all off. It'll grow back. The only time I think it is a problem is if the hair-style is an indicator of something else going on. I always told the girls that so long as they were good family members, students, friends, citizens and acted responsibly, they could do whatever they like with their hair. And they always were and did.

But the fact is, boys almost never want to do "girl stuff." It just doesn't happen; it is not a matter of such things not being reported. It is the same as the fact that girls will read literature geared to boys, but boys do *not* real "girl" books.

Please note, I am not endorsing the perception of gender-appropriate activities, just saying what studies report.

Check this out.
http://enr.construction.com/news/transportation/archives/070810.asp
Further example of almost Can Do.

Maybe a boys' summer camp project to find fiber, make it into cord, then into a fishing net, so as to have a fish feast?

I agree with Yoki on the hair... My daughter went hot pink last summer. I figure it's something I can easily give in to. Especially at 12. She wasn't at the mall looking for a job or anything. Who could possibly care?

I'm not familiar with John McQuaid or his background, but the question of infrastructure sounds more like Systems Analysis than Cultural Decline. You might as well ask if railroads were better during the golden age of railroads, and why they are worse now. Systems are much easier to maintain when they are simpler or under the oversight of one (or a few) people.

I work as a Systems Administrator. I've seen beautifully maintained datacenters, and poorly maintained ones. I've seen perfect deployments of clustered servers and websites, and abysmal ones. It usually corresponds with how many project managers it has and what their investment is. Having friends who are Traffic Engineers, I'm told highways, bridges, and traffic lights suffer from the same issues as servers and datacenters do (strained resources, poor planning or oversight, or too many managers)

I hardly think the wolf is at the door for the United States.

Yoki, that's always been my take on hair too. I do know it can backfire.

I have a neice who had long red hair and decided to dreadlock it. It looked wonderful and she is a delightfully glowing girl. They moved and the people in her new school immediately put her into a category of not fit to know. NOT just teachers, but the kids in the school. After one year of being taken only as the sum of her hair she went to live with family friends and completed highschool in her old school. I always thought the whole thing really a sorry statement about how preconcieved notions can harm.

What's up, friends. Just getting to the computer. The weather person is calling for a temperature 107 today, and I am inside, and don't want to really go out.

Slyness, CP, my sister is home, and doing okay.

I like the answers given by the writer (Quaid) to JA piece. Some of it definitely applies. I just feel like that when people put their minds to do a thing, and come together as one to that thing, it is always going to work. Here in my small rural town, I think that is exactly what we need to do about education. Report card this week shows that fourteen of the eighteen schools in the county failed, and failed miserably. We're taking our resources and putting them in something else, and other things are failing.

byoolin, I had to laugh at your response to RD's take on the dating thing. Of course, RD, did not allow you to have the last word on that.

Bad sneakers, I told my neighbor that about her tomatoes, and she looked at me like I had lost my mind. People are touchy about their addictions. It's almost like one made a bad comment about someone's mother. I understand, been there, done that.

My grandson is here. Just one. The other one went with his mother. I am so happy to see him, and for him to be here. I want to take him out to eat. Maybe later when it cools off some.

I am basically a shy person, so I probably would not eat a lot of anything around any one. I think people should eat whatever they want when dating or any other occasion.

Saw some of the interview with the Spice Girl on Larry King Live talking about Eddie Murphy. Boy, is she trying to tarnish that image. A woman scorned is deadly. He seems to be trying to remain cool, but is looking a bit frosty. I think people like warmth when it comes to babies and children. None of us asked to come here, that decisions was made by two people in heat.

Please be safe in the heat, and drink plenty of water. Stay cool, if possible, and please check on elderly folks, and those that live alone.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

DotC your comment about boys at camp "finding fiber" gave me the idea for an older adults camp. Couldn't complete the scenario, though--can someone help?

bh-similar incident in Tampa in '04.
http://tollroadsnews.info/artman/publish/article_662.shtml

>I hardly think the wolf is at the door for the United States.

When I awoke the dire wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin
Was sitting at the window
All I said was "Come on in"

Hmph.

I'm not sure I've ever made a jugement about anyone - man or woman - based solely on what they ordered at a resturant.

But I will add extra points for folks that know their know their way around seafood.

And come to think of it, I do take a gauge about how people handle situations when Things from the Kitchen Go Wrong. Or when a dinner companion struggles with chopsticks (hint: it's OK to laugh as long as you don't roll your eyes).

bc

PS Seriously, I don't have problems with chopsticks. Really. Except when a waitress offers me a replacement set from her hair.

bc, I'll see you a When Things From the Kitchen Go Wrong and raise you a fussy order maker ala Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. Picky eaters tend to make my alarm bells go off.

bc is too modest.

He gets extra points for catching the eye of the very busy, very pretty waitress at lunch.

The first phase of the Tampa Crosstown Expressway had serious design issues where the piers didn't settle as much as expected leading to a rather bumpy roller coasterish ride, particularly west bound. For a perfectly flat state, road construction in Florida seems needlessly trouble-prone.

OK bc here is a scenario for you, I would be interested in how others might have reacted.

It is very hot and humid, you are at a quaint eatery, that was recommended for its wood oven pizza. You are outside sitting on the veranda, half way through the pizza, being shared by all, your daughter asked to split another picture, int the process of taking the piece of pizza your daughter comments that it looks like a fly is in the cheese. Thinking is is just overdone cheese you attempt to take that portion off the pizza only to discover wings and legs.

How to handle?

Apologize to all who are currently or just finished consuming a meal.

You know, the youthful urge to do strange and unusual things with your hair is not limited to women. I hope you will not be too horrified to learn that during the latter part of the 1970s I - this is *so* humiliating - I actually parted my hair down the middle.

I'm shocked that Eddie Murphy has enough time leftover from picking up tranny hookers to go around impregnating washed-up pop stars. What image does he have left to protect?

dmd - I would simply avoid that piece and take solace from the statistical improbability of there being *two* flies in a given pizza.

dmd, I don't know what to do about the fly in the cheese, but when it's in the beer, I start pumping its little legs furiously and scream, "Spit it OUT!"

We recently found a deep-fried bug in the basket with our deep-fried pickles. We just kind of picked it out and all shrugged, including my daughter. I figure any place serving deep-fried pickles is gonna have some bugs, especially considering the summer season.

I think the words "quaint eatery" and "sitting on the veranda" say it all, dmd. I'd expect my date to shrug, pick the fly off the pizza and continue eating.

Imagine all the bugs we don't see.

Raysmom, I'm jealous. I just wear my food, no stylishness involved. Quantities of sauce are, though.

As a friend of mine once said, food on my chest means... that I have an actual chest.

I once managed to splash BBQ sauce by accident on a guy next to me once-- none on me, I was amazed. (And yeah, I apologized and made a joke of it).

Dmd, flipping out, screaming, gagging, yelling how gross etc. is the suitable way to handle it in front of your child. It'll be a story told for 40 years that way.

The FDA has an informative page that tells you just how much bug is too much, comestibles-wise.
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dalbook.html

The only time I drove any distance in Florida was from Melbourne to Orlando on the Beltline Highway. It was hard to understand how two ruts could be made in a concrete roadway. Ruts that were filled with rain water so I had to run on the right of left edge of the pavment. Made me think that road design standards in Florida were not of the national level.

I'm a picky eater. Very picky actually. But its pretty benign. You'd hardly even notice really.

No mayanaise ever except tuna salad or egg salad or macaroni salad etc.

No ketchup ever except for onion rings and cocktail sauce for shrimp.

Cooked carrots and cauliflower are a big no-no, but do love them raw.

Peaches and pears, one word: yuk.

I could go on and on...

If I didn't just type all that out and hit submit it would be posible for you to know me years and never realize these things.

And I'm with RD on what he said about you Sara.

And I'm glad everyone convinced you to stick around birdie (nee Flatworld (nee-nee Random Commenter))

byoolin, you bring up an interesting point, were it a fly in my beer flicking it out and still drinking the beer probably would not bother me, but eating that piece of pizza I couldn't do. It was the fact that is was cooked in that bothered me, the pizza was quite ingeniously covered when it was brought out to us, a wonderful use of paper napkins.

dmd - I loved that male synchronized swimming clip. Especially the wife selling AMWAY to make ends meet. It captures so beautifully the tone of those overly-earnest "up close and personal" bits ABC used to do.

That is just my point, RD. You parted your hair down the middle, but you don't do so anymore. You learned your lesson the hard way and no long-term harm came of it (except having to hide some pictures from high school from your kids).

As someone who now wears baseball caps for sun protection, I definitely fall into the "enjoy your hair while you can camp" but I have to toe the party line for marital harmony. My compromise offer was to allow him to color his hair as long as it was manga bubblegum pink. He was ready to call my bluff on that before the wife stepped in.

And for some true umbrage, here is a columnists that feels we need to be attacked my terrorists more often in order to keep that unified can-do attitude:

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/stu_bykofsky/20070809_Stu_Bykofsky___To_save_America__we_need_another_9_11.html

I hope al Qaeda picks his neighborhood to sacrifice to keep our morale up.

You're right, omni, I wouldn't have known. You hide it well, which was kind of my point. High maintenance folks would call attention to it.

"Picky" to me is the guy that won't eat vegetables, except for peas and corn. Who won't eat homemade mac and cheese, only Kraft. Who think that anything that grew up underwater is verboten.

Back in the day when I didn't drive with night vision goggles, and didn't give up orange flavored things because of a vat of tequila sunrises, my dearest friends and I would spend quiet evenings at home disassembling and assembling our sidearms, blindfolded, and snacking on the occasional cricket. I have always felt the appropriate response to discovery of a fly in one's food is to say "ah, protein" and drive on. Voicing a preference for crickets, even when true, is just showing off.

>My compromise offer was to allow him to color his hair as long as it was manga bubblegum pink.

I went to a friend's house and found his son in full green/blue hair mode a year or two ago. I suggested that coloring was old and he should consider bolting some sort of installation-type performance art on his head instead.

Like, a broken toilet or something. Now THAT would get attention. But do these kids listen?

dmd, I would have left that piece of pizza behind, too.

Yello that article is mind boggling. I kept looking for a sign that is was ment to be humourous or satire, if it was I would say if failed miserably.

Aw, now EF, we both know the only reason that lady even looked our way was because I had that lighter and a gallon gas can and was threatening to set myself on fire if she didn't bring some menus over after we'd been cooling our heels at the table as long as we had.

Raysmom, I have three daughters between the ages of 16 and 7. I know more than I care to about fussy food ordering. Oy, do I.

dmd, in that situation, I would suggest suggest that everyone stop eating right then and there and remain *calm*, and I would get the server to come to the table posthaste, show them what I'd found, politely impress upon them my surprise and disappointment at having the family's meal disrupted at such a fine resturant (recommended by a friend, no less) in such a manner, and ask to speak to the manager.

I'd discuss the situation with the manager in the same manner - calmly, quietly, and politely, but again clearly conveying my surprise and disappointment - and ask them how we can resolve the problem of a Meal, Interrupted.

Typically, any good resturant manager will offer sincere apologies and reasonable options if approached calmly, rationally, and politely with a frisson of firmness.

bc

We merely pointed it out and paid for the meal and left, it was too hot a day for them to be responsible. As we were away from home being nasty tourists was not something I wanted to be thought of, even worse nasty english canadian tourists!

The pizza was also very good!

>I had that lighter and a gallon gas can and was threatening to set myself on fire

Well right, there was that.

dmd, if it were *just* me, I might just do what you did and not make an issue out of it. As you point out, chances are it was simply an unavoidable accident.

But with guests and/or my children at the table, I'd feel responsible to do something about it. One of the things I'm working on with my kids is teaching them to speak up politely when something's wrong, and I'd consider that fly in the pizza an opportunity to teach them about addressing situations, wherever they happen.

But, that's just me.

Gotta run, I'll check in later.

EF, thanks for the backup, buddy.
And for the gas can.

bc

yello, was referencing the "screen image", not the personal. I suspect not many stars want their personal image projected in any way. Like the rest of us, I'm sure there are many skeletons in the closets, and maybe lurking around. In Murphy's case, that thing that sells movies and fills up the theatres.

Oh, forgot, love the expression, drama queen. I use it all the time when having fun with the g-girl.

It is so hot here, one can feel the heat coming through the bricks. We need water.

As for hair, I don't have much. And usually keep what little I have real short, trimmed to the scalp. I want to let it grow out, but I suspect that still would not be much. I like it short. I tell the barber, give me a brush and go. Cracks him up every time.

African-Americans are touchy about the hair, and most do not do colors of purple, pink, and such. Most of us can get pretty way out with the hair, and some like me struggle with it. I came to the decision awhile back that I kind of like mine the way God gave it to me. Designing hair can take a long time.

At my 25 year high school reunion, they put our yearbook pictures on our name tags. Easily, 80% of the guys' photos had that parted in the middle, hair around the ears look. It was no help in identifying who was who.

I never parted my hair in the middle, but I did have it near shoulder length and I had those huge 80s eyeglasses.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2007/07/rank-secret.html

Yeah yello - that parted down the middle look (what my mom used to call "druggie hair") seemed to sweep through like the plague and then left just as quickly.

'course you still see it now and again.

That was pretty much my only deviation from the standard "side part" look.

Except for the whole "Perm of '82" fiasco. But there was a woman involved. And of this we shall no more speak.

RD, I was going to mention the poodle-do that men sported for about fifteen minutes back in the day.

M rhymes-with--bike Akins.

His mother did it with a Toni Home Perm Kit. We were so sorry about it, that very little kidding took place.

That thing about a woman ordering steak to impress her date is something of a two-edged coin. I agree that it would be "shallow and vapid" of her to order somwething she wouldn't ordinarily eat just to impress the guy--but the guy would also have to be fairly shallow and vapid himself to draw any particular conclusion from just this one dinner or one aspect of it.

That said, I'm also with bc; I'd be more interested in seeing how she handles seafood. I wouldn't want to have to judge a woman by just one date or one dinner, but if I did, rather than take her to a fancy steak house, I'd want to dress casually and take her to a down-and-dirty crabhouse, where they put brown butcher paper on the table, serve beer in pitchers, and you roll up your sleeves so the melted butter can roll down your forearms. Now, a woman who can relax and be herself and have fun and not be all uptight about picking crabs is aces in my book. (But I wouldn't "reject" a woman who didn't like picking crabs; it's not a requirement, just a bonus point.)

On the other hand, I regret to say that a vegan would be a deal-breaker. Just no mutual future and no possible compromise there.

To change the subject completely, I've been methodically wading my way through the current issue of "The Atlantic," which is their Special Fiction Issue. The lead story is by John Updike, and I wasn't impressed by it. However, the third story was "Running Out of Music" by Constance Squires. It's a great little story about a 13-year-old girl who is the daughter of an Army officer stationed in Germany in 1982. The girl is just discovering rock music (circa 1982 and earlier), but can't afford to buy as many albums as she'd like, so her father introduces her to a young GI who has a big record collection, and he starts recording albums for her on blank cassettes. There's a lot of music talk many of you will enjoy. Can't tell you what happens, of course, but the story is well worth the cost of the magazine and your time.

The story does have (IMHO) one minor flaw that irritated me. The GI is named Nately, and his roomate is named Snowden. Many of you will recognize the pairing of the names Nately and Snowden, and although the story has absolutely nothing whatsoever to make you think of "Catch-22" it keeps making you think of it anyway. The author's little homage to Joseph Heller, I suppose; try to ignore it.

The story in front of it by Marjorie Kemper is also pretty good. It's called "Specific Gravity," about a parish priest who runs into serious debt doing good deeds for his parishoners, and has to find his way out of debt. Don't have to be Catholic or religious to enjoy it.

Good essays by Ann Patchett and Edward Delaney in the back. Haven't read the pomes yet.

FYI and SCC, a "two-edged coin" is quite similar to a double-sided sword, mangled metaphor-wise.

The URL and entire article, should someone be unable to reach it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/weekinreview/29berenson.html?ei=5070&en=34b4613ec256f798&ex=1186891200&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1186775214-6amD4X3OKwZFALz53QccLQ

The Nation
Sending Back the Doctor's Bill
E-MailPrint Reprints Save Share
DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink

By ALEX BERENSON
Published: July 29, 2007
HOW to fix the health care system?

Skip to next paragraph

Alex Nabaum
Easy, liberals say. If Washington would just force cuts in prescription drug prices and insurance company profits, plenty of money would be left over to cover the uninsured.

Conservatives prefer to argue that the answer lies in forcing people to pay more of their own medical costs.

But many health care economists say both sides are wrong. These economists, some of whom are also doctors, say the partisan fight over insurers and drug makers is a distraction from a bigger problem: the relatively high salaries paid to American doctors, and even more importantly, the way they are compensated.

"I always find it ironic that when I go to doctor groups and such, they always talk about the cost of prescription drugs," said Dana Goldman, director of health economics at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institute in Santa Monica, Calif.

Prescription drugs cost, on average, 30 percent to 50 percent more in the United States than in Europe. But the difference in doctors' salaries is far larger, Dr. Goldman said.

Doctors in the United States earn two to three times as much as they do in other industrialized countries. Surveys by medical-practice management groups show that American doctors make an average of $200,000 to $300,000 a year. Primary care doctors and pediatricians make less, between $125,000 and $200,000, but in specialties like radiology, physicians can take home $400,000 or more.

In Europe, however, doctors made $60,000 to $120,000 in 2002, according to a survey sponsored by the British government in 2004.

Given the years of training that doctors require and the stress and importance of their jobs, few would disagree that they should be well paid. In addition, with a year of medical school now about $30,000, many doctors leave school deeply in debt. And many doctors would argue that cutting salaries would only persuade talented, college graduates to pursue better-paying professions.

Still, the lower salaries are a significant part of the reason that European countries spend less on health care than the United States does -- a fact liberals avoid mentioning when they preach the advantages of a European-style single-payer system.

Americans generally do not seem to mind the fact that doctors are well paid. In public opinion surveys, doctors usually rank as the most trusted professionals. Congress has repeatedly blocked Medicare's efforts to reduce the amount it pays for each procedure doctors perform, even though overall Medicare payments to doctors are soaring and the cuts are legally required to keep the program's budget balanced.

The way that doctors are paid may be an even more significant factor driving up costs and may lead to unnecessary care, said Dr. Peter B. Bach, a pulmonary physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a former senior adviser to Medicare and Medicaid.

In the United States, nearly all doctors are paid piecemeal, for each test or procedure they perform, rather than a flat salary. As a result, physicians have financial incentives to perform procedures that further drive up overall health care spending.

Doctors are paid little for routine examinations and very little for "cognitive services," such as researching different treatment options or offering advice to help patients get better without treatment.

"I don't have a view on whether doctors take home too much money or not enough money," Dr. Bach said. "The problem is the way they earn their money. They have to do stuff. They have to do procedures."

Primary care doctors and pediatricians, who rarely perform complex procedures, make less than specialists. They are attracting a declining percentage of medical students, and some states are facing a shortage of primary care doctors.

Doctors are also paid whether the procedures they perform go well or badly, Dr. Bach said, and whether they are crucial to a patient's health or not..

"Almost all expenditures pass through the pen of a doctor," he said. So a doctor may decide to perform a test that costs a total of $4,000 in order to make $800 for himself -- when a cheaper test might work equally well. "This is a highly inefficient way to pay doctors," Dr. Bach said.

Medicare, especially, does not like to second-guess doctors' clinical decisions, said Dr. Stephen Zuckerman, a health economist at the Urban Institute. "There's not a lot of utilization review or prior authorization in Medicare," he said. "If you're doing the work, you can expect to get paid."

As a result, doctors have steadily increased the number of procedures they perform on Medicare beneficiaries -- and thus have increased their income from Medicare, Dr. Zuckerman said. But the extra procedures have not helped patients' health much, he said. "I don't think there's any real strong evidence of improvements in health status."

Private insurers like H.M.O.'s are more aggressive than Medicare in second-guessing physicians' clinical decisions, and they will refuse to pay for imaging scans or other expensive new procedures. Now Medicare and private insurers are moving cautiously to change the current system. Recently, they have proposed pay-for-performance measures that would give doctors small bonuses if their care meets the standards set by national medical organizations such as the American Heart Association.

BUT all those measures are a minor fix, said Dr. Alan Garber, a practicing internist and the director of the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University. Instead, he argues, the United States should move toward paying doctors fixed salaries, plus bonuses based on the health of the patients they care for.

Even in the existing system, some health insurers, notably Kaiser Permanente, already have large networks of salaried doctors. But it would require doctors to give up some of their autonomy and move into larger group practices or work directly for insurers, a step they have been reluctant to take. About 40 percent of doctors are in single or two-physician practices, Dr. Garber said.

Nor is the American Medical Association, which represents doctors, eager for wholesale changes in the system, said Dr. Edward L. Langston, chairman of the A.M.A. board.

Insurance company profits and the rising cost of preventable diseases like diabetes are big culprits in soaring health care spending, Dr. Langston said.

But Dr. Goldman of RAND said that doctors are misleading themselves if they think the current system serves patients' needs.

For example, if a diabetic patient visits a doctor, he said, "the doctor is paid to check his feet, they're paid to check his eyes; they're not paid to make sure he goes out and exercises and really, that may be the most important thing."

"The whole health-care system is set up to pay for services that are rendered," he said, "when the patient, and society, is interested in health."

Blech. Sorry, dbG, but I got three words into that article and got steamed. "Easy, liberals say."

No, liberals *don't* say "easy." What a horrible straw man set-up. And he's just as bad on the other side.

Raysmom, I think everybody has their food likes and dislikes. You're right if somebody makes a thing about disliking a common food, the thing is probably not to order that dish in the first place.

Omni, I have the same mayo prejudice. I finally figured it was the taste of Miracle whip, which adds spices, including dill (which I detest), so i can only tolerate it in dishes that really do kill the taste (tuna salad etc.) as long as the mayo isn't overdone. Hellemann's is much better, more plain and less offensive in taste. Subway's serves such plain mayo so I sometimes will order that.

I like cooked carrots and cauliflower, but yes, cooking changes the taste and glycemic index considerably. That's not odd at all. Fortunately stir-fries don't cook carrots that throughly.

Now frozen carrots are awful-- the freezing process seems to dehydrate them on the outside so they're rubbery and terrible when cooked slightly. You can cook the texture out slightly, but you can't ever remove that frozen taste. I prefer to cook with raw carrots only.

I do eat anything at least once. I've had duck feet salad, tripe, kidney, etc.

Ironically, I don't like popular american restaurants so much-- I like my veggies to be done right, and to be served human-sized food.

Seriously, some places serve "lunches" that must be 1,500 calories or more in total. I usually wind up ordering salads at such places. It's NOT to be trim or girly or anything.

It's just better for me not to be tempted to consume 500-1,000 calories of carbohydrates or anything if I don't want to fall asleep by the time the check comes.

The more I have, the more I will eat, no matter how I try and judge how much I should eat before I start.

bc,
Re your 11:28...

I did say or boodle recently that the slight majority of germs, to use a catch-all word, that are listed for study by the proposed Bio-and Agro-Defense Lab are swine-related. This proposed lab would be the next generation of Plum Island and land not too far west of us is nominated as one of five possible sites across the eastern portion of the nation.

But the reason Plum Island was founded in 1952, in large part, came after 10,000 Americans were dispatched to Mexico to battle its FMD outbreak from 1947 to 1954--quite a story. Here's a very small portion of it:

http://humanitarian.net/biodefense/fazdc/fmd_62103.html

(The story, of which I have bits and pieces, is darker and far less rosy than Callis, former head of Plum Island, portrays below. This link also ties in, interestingly, to the 1918 flu outbreak in Kansas in the form of Doc Shahan.):

Dr. Jerry Callis was kind enough to share that the consternation that confronted the Dutch and British during their recent FMD problems, to vaccinate or not, was also experienced by the United States and Mexicans during the 7 year fight against FMD from 1947-1954:

"Initially, USDA was determined to eradicate by slaughter. For several years the Mexicans went along with this idea, but after slaughtering 1 million animals, the campesinos rebelled, stating-you have killed 1 million animals, we still have FMD, can we not do something else like vaccinate? With great reluctance USDA agreed. Suitable vaccine could not be purchased. Vaccine was indeed purchased from at least 4 laboratories in Europe and South America, and determined not suitable, thus the decision to begin from scratch and make the vaccine in Mexico. Having no buildings, no protocol, etc., this was a serious undertaking. However, over 18 months, 76 million doses were produced, every lot was quality controlled and then applied, resulting in eradication, following which, no vaccine was stockpiled, and the buildings used for production of the vaccine were destroyed (Why? Live-virus A strain? If they do vaccinate in Britain, I understand it will not be with the live or attenuated 01/BFS67 strain of the FMD virus, but with the strain's antigens.)."

FMD affects all cloven-footed animals--sheep, goats, horses, pigs, cattle. Even a British circus and a camel-racing team have been stopped in their tracks thanks to what is for now, at least, a localized outbreak--as I posted yesterday.

Plum Island has studied, in addition to FMD, not only Rift Valley Fever that originated in the long Rift Valley in eastern Africa, to the evolved, more recent, far more dangerous hemorraghic Rift Valley Fever that kills humans much like Ebola, as well as animals. RVF is on the current list for the next-generaion lab, but it's not listed if its the mild Entebbe strain or the hemorrhagic one. So how is the population to know what the proposed lab will truly study? Carroll in his book paints a frightening hypothetical scenario--if just one mosquito bit an infected animal sick with hemorrhagic RVF and then subsequently bit a human.

I reviewed Michael Christopher Carroll's book very carefully yesterday. Near the end of his second chapter, he states that his FOIA request just to get a list (a LIST) of the pathogens studied at Plum Island since it opened its doors in 1952 was turned down by the government on national security grounds.

Texas has about a million horses.

http://www.horseproperties.net/texas-ranches-and-horse-properties.html

Texas is the largest cattle-producing state in the nation.

http://www.landandlivestockpost.com/stories/100306/news_20061003037.php

If anything, I think a lab like Plum Island should stay insular. Plum Island just had a major, very costly redo of its facilites, completed in 1995, a project begun around the 1978 timeframe when the FMD virus got loose out of its labs. As per Carroll, over a September weekend in 1978, the scientists and veterinarians put down ever single animal on the island except the mice and hamsters and 60 sheep (which was a violation of the lab's own policy).

If anything, the outbreaks in Britain (the first one from Pirbright occurred in 1960 and the one just this month) and the known accidental virus release from Plum Island, strongly suggest that there be a deep navigable waterway between the animal research facilty's location and the U.S. mainland. Perhaps the virulent animal disease research lab should be relocated to Guantanamo Bay? *joking, but only in part*

I am eager to read Carroll's last two chapters in which he details the problems with work contracted out on Plum Island, since McQuaid made a contractor refisk in his reply now in the Kit.

I'm glad you met Katherine Graham, bc. Was it fun? It would be a pleasure to meet Ben Bradlee and Len Downie, too, I think. I should be so lucky! But Robert Kaiser would be the true apple of my eye. *w*

Bc, would the dialogue go something like this:

"Ma'am, we ordered pizza pie, but this seems to be a shoofly pie that didn't have all the flies shooed off it." (pointing to the fly remains.)

dmd and mudge,

I don't where the stereotype that liberals are easy came from.

I had an evangelical Christian friend that had a motto: Date Democrat but marry Republican.

He lived by it.

EF: The Dems predicament of late, especially WRT surveillance, as revealed in the next lines:

...the wolf came in, i got my cards, we sat down for a game
I cut the deck to the queen of spades but the cards were all the same

So 'mudge, if you met that person who was happy to pick crabs and drip butter and swill beer, but how didn't have the skills (say, a Canadian who had never before picked a crab) would the opportunity for you to teach those skills make it a better date, or a worse one? Does she already have to know how to do it?

I'm thinking back to a range-barbeque date I once had (Claresholm, 1978) where I was enthusiastic about learning, but it was still a terrible evening.

Yoki, I think if YOU were the "date", Mudge would do his best to make it enjoyable even if it meant personally cracking every crab for you.

And in return, I'd teach him and Mrs. Mudge everything I know about range-barbeques!

I'm so excited, #1 just called to say "I miss you!" So I'm giving myself an early out and running up there for some hugs. Cool.

Raysmom, you wear food too?! I'm the one in my family who invariably drops something on my chest. Mr. T rolls his eyes, the dottirs laugh. Oh well.

Cassandra, I'm with you on hair. Back in the dark ages when I was in high school, the style was long and straight, parted down the middle. My hair is curly; I could never have done that look. I kept it short then and still do. Cut once a month, wash in the morning, comb waves in, go. OTOH, I've always admired the beautiful things African-American women do with their hair.

We made it up the hill, where it is 85, as opposed to 102 in Charlotte. There was a storm to the west of us but it went around. Darn.

Happy weekend, everybody!

Slyness, food on the chest= increased attention, love, and cuddling from our dogs.

Yoki, Wilbrod had it. The basic point is for the woman to be relaxed and down-to-earth and just be herself. The food is really incidental. But sure, willingness to try something new and different would be a pretty cool thing.

Although on a first date, I can understand how both parties might be nervous as all get-out, and on their "best behavior," and not necessarily ready to relax and kick back. I know *I* would be (was always) nervous as a cat.

Which is why first dates often turn out so bad, methinks.

Ok, Mudge, what about a woman who ate with gusto, but ended up flinging some of the said seafood into the chandelier?

If she was your friend, would yuou invite her back?

Apropos of nothing, this morning on the bus ride in, a woman across the aisle from me was reading a book titled "Dear G-Spot." One wonders if perhaps it may be a response to "The V@gina Monologues." Or maybe the beginnings of a dialog back and forth, I dunno.

I hope the answer is yes, dr-- because that would almost certainly happen to me sooner or later ;).

Silly rabbits. Steak is for sex.

Wilbord, Slyness, Raysmom, you have no idea how comforting it is that I am not the only one who wears their food. I think of lunch time spills as a fashion accessory.

"what about a woman who ate with gusto, but ended up flinging some of the said seafood into the chandelier?"

I think that's what my husband found attractive about me. That and the food on my shirt.

What? Oh, I was staring at the food on your shirt, yeah, that's it.

Dinner is a stupid first date anyway. Everybody eats, you want to find out what makes this person worth a second date. I met Mr. F when we were randomly paired for mixed doubles tennis in a military/civilian sports tournament. We won, which didn't hurt from the mutual attractiveness perspective, but we learned a lot about each other on the way to the trophy.

TBG, you too? Now you have me laughing.

I did this at a friends house with fresh Atlantic lobsters. They invite me back, but they haven't served seafood since. I bug them that they are scared too, but they just nah, but next time they'll send me the cleaning bill.

TBG, Slyness, Raysmom, and all the other ladies that feed their shirts, I pose to you a question.

Do your family members, at times take bets on what gets fed first: the mouth or the shirt; as I have sometimes with my dear mother?

Well the fact that I carry around a Tide to Go, with me at all times should just about clarify that my food ends up on my chest as well. Normally in direct proportion to how light my top is and if I am eating something with a sauce. Some sort of magnetic attraction?