ChaiTeaLatte

"IT WAS LIKE A BAD EPISODE OF THREE'S COMPANY. WHICH I GUESS WAS EVERY EPISODE OF THREE'S COMPANY."

Overheard Lines is a blog about, er, things that are overheard in conversation. It's brilliant.

via About Last Night.

(And I have so played this game, too).

OH, AND ONE LAST THING...

I wanted to write this down before I forgot. Last night it rained so hard it turned all the windows in my place silvery and cool. You know, the way the rain droplets cover the glass and reflect the light? M____ was in the kitchen working, so I went to stand by the big picture window that looks out onto the city. On most days, you can see everything in the distance: the Prudential building and the Citgo sign. Last night the rain and mist obscured the skyline so that all you could see was a black sky merging into drifts of cloud and the bright neon Citgo triangle. Floating against the sky. Floating above the street below. On the street, the trains were running, people were running, cars were running. I stood by the window and listened. To the water falling against the glass, and splashing under the tires of cars. I love the rain.

THIS WEEK'S MEDICAL GRAND ROUNDS

Here. The format is a hoot. Oh, and make sure to search around this blog; the pics are really striking.

"I WISH I COULD'VE PUT HIM ON A PLANE TO THE U.S. WITH THE BEST DOCTOR IN THE WORLD WAITING TO GREET HIM AS HE ARRIVED...."

From A Day in Iraq (via Mudville Gazette).

PARK STREET CHURCH, BOSTON, EASTER 2003

We decided to go to Park Street Church (Evangelical) for the Easter service. Ch___ wanted to go because she usually went to Easter services back home in Alabama, and I wanted to go because I thought, why not? Ch__ and Ca___ were being very kind to me. They had visited me the night before: I was resting and spending the night 'in'. Lamps lit, piles of artwork against the bay-window (half-completed projects from my collage class) and incense glowing. They bounced in, laughing and alive, full of gossip and single girl complaints.

The next morning, I dressed carefully and wrapped myself in a beautiful (almost scarlet) scarf I had bought in Venice. We walked together to the church and they each took an arm. We walked that way, arm-in-arm, very Italian really, to the church. It was full. We sat in back, on smooth wooden pews, with the sun flowing in, bright and warm. Park Street Church is very famous for it's music and a lot of people attend the services for just that reason. Young and energetic kids singing hymns and religious songs; some songs incredibly fresh and to my unmusical and uneducated ear, with a modern beat. Lots of clapping and laughter, some tears. I must confess, I didn't pay much attention to the sermon, but I thumbed through a copy of the Bible that was sitting in a little 'cubby' in front of me.

"How beautiful," I thought, and really, it was. I wish I could tell you how it felt, but for some reason the words escape me. I think, on a thread somewhere on a religion blog, I wrote: "God is too beautiful an idea to abandon." My mother, who has a strong and simple Hindu faith, will tell me frequently to pray, or at least to set aside some time to think and meditate. To seek peace. She is the most gentle and kind person I know and I wish I would take her advice more often (I'm sure she wishes the same thing!)

Yes. God is too beautiful an idea to abandon.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LIGHT TOUCH?

Looking through my blog archives and was reminded that about this time last year I was in Tuscon, vacationing and visiting R and A and toddler K. Sunny, dreamy, langorous friendly little blog. So serious lately. Please spring, we're tired of waiting for you up here in New England (and wasn't the last issue of Vogue, the one with Sandra Bullock on the cover, gorgeous? Fashion is fun again! Ok, maybe a little ugly and eighties, but fun. Shimmery Indian and Morroccan and Turkish prints, and everything covered with flowers. On shoes, bags, skirts, blouses. 90s minimalism taught us we didn't have to look like clowns, but unfortunately it was also whimsy-deprived. Oh, and that DKNY ad with the models in jackets cinched with big belts over full skirts? It so makes me want to go down to see the cousins and run around New York.......)

MEDICAL GRAND ROUNDS

Here.

FROM DISABILITY LAW: Mary Johnson on the Schiavo case

"Disability groups don't think guardians should have carte blanche to starve and dehydrate people with conditions like brain injury, developmental disabilities -- which the public calls 'birth defects' -- and Alzheimer's. People have the right not to be deprived of life by guardians who feel that their ward is as good as dead, better off dead or that the guardian should make such judgments in the first place."

From an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by disability rights activist Mary Johnson (from the Disability Law blog).

I wouldn't go as far as saying that the guardian should not be making these decisions in the absence of a living will, but I do think it is interesting that many disabled rights groups are alarmed by the Schiavo case. How can you ensure that the rights of the disabled are not 'trumped' by the needs or wishes of guardians (who are purporting to act in the 'best interest' of the disabled person)? I still think Congress should not have gotten involved with the Schiavo case in that I think it is an intrusion of the government in an area in which it does not belong. Still, in the absence of knowing what the disabled person wanted, I think you have to err on the side of life. What many disabled rights groups are arguing is that the standard by which the courts determined what Schiavo would have wanted was too low. So the answer is not grandstanding by members of Congress, but for states to re-consider the laws they have in place and if those laws do an adequate job of safe-guarding the rights of the disabled.

I got to this fascinating blog via Ann Althouse's site.

ANN ALTHOUSE ON TERRI SCHIAVO AND FEDERALISM....

"Surely, many of those who oppose what Congress did in the Schiavo case do generally approve of intruding on the state to impose a higher standard of individual rights - including the rights of the disabled. They would not normally stand back and allow the states to innovate and experiment with the narrowing of individual rights..."

I confess, I have nothing profound to add to the many discussions on the Schiavo case. This post by Dr. Althouse did catch my eye however - in particular, the focus on the rights of the disabled. I don't know if this reasoning should apply to the case of Terri Schaivo ( who is not really disabled in the way we commonly think of that term) but I was intrigued with the notion of the individual rights of a minority as being at the center of this case. The right-to-die argument seems to be getting the most play. Most of the right of center blogs I have been reading, which tend to be of the libertarian stripe, seem appalled by the intervention of Congress in this case.

UPDATE: Come to think of it, I'm not sure why this should be such a novel idea. Of course it's pitting the idea of which 'right' should prevail in the absence of a living will. And in the absence of a living will, we have a process through the Florida legislature and courts which has answered this question, which is why so many people are appalled. I guess it was the idea that the intervention of Congress, by siding with the governor and legislature, was actually an application of federalism. Anyway, I'm probably getting it all wrong so just read the post : )

PHYSICIANS IN FICTION: IAN McEWAN AND SATURDAY

"The high concept of the novel is simple and classic: Here is one day in a man's life, in this case that of a 48-year old neurosurgeon Henry Perowne," from the Washington Post.

Heard an interview with the author on NPR: he said that most of us are basically on vacation compared to the hours a neurosurgeon works (too true :) ). He met regularly with a neurosurgeon to research his book and even ventured into the OR. When a group of medical residents walked into the OR - where the author was observing an operation - they asked him what was going on with the case and he gamely tried to tell them! They had assumed he was a physician. Sometimes, all it takes is the white coat (or, er, scrubs....)