Man, I've really been neglecting this blog.

What % are your g-mail mailboxes full?

Mine is 25%.

...

As I was about to start on some tangent about g-mail mailboxes, Cindy got a text. But Cindy is at Nania's bridal shower, and her phone sitting here on the table next to me.

The text was from an unidentified number, and it said,

Don't forget to email me how much I owe and then I can send you a check asap!!! Thanks again Cindy for all your hardworking on this wknd!

Safe to assume it's a friend of Nania's in from out of town for the bachelorette party last night.

I can also see the previous text from the same number received at midnight last night that said:

Hey Cindy, I didn't chip in for nan's drinks before I left. Please let me know how much I owe for that tomorrow. Sorry abut that!!

(Cindy didn't respond)

The only other text in their conversation was from the other girl 3:31pm yesterday saying:

In the cab nearby, I think! ;$

(I don't know what kind of face  ;$  is supposed to be. I googled it and got the rare, "Your search - ;$ - did not match any documents." 


Since Cindy hadn't responded to either of the previous texts from this girl, I thought maybe I should reply just to acknowledge that Cindy received the them.

So what should I respond? For some reason, the first thought that popped into my head was:

Fo shizzle

Then it struck me that it's possibile that this girl might not know what "Fo shizzle" means.

If Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his friend reminding him to send him a bill, and the friend replied with a letter that simply said "Fo shizzle" would Jefferson have any idea what it meant?

It ain't the King's.

At this point I had built "Fo shizzle" up enough to where I wanted to know if this girl knew what "Fo shizzle" meant, so I sent the text.


How did "Fo shizzle" even sneak its way into my pretentiously un-pretentious vernacular?

I remember Snoop Dog saying stuff like that. There was one particular instance of it on Chapelle's show that probably made it stick with Cindy and I. (I think it had to be because my next instinct after typing "Fo shizzle" was to follow it with "My nizzle" --- which is what he said on the show.)

I googled "Fo shizzle." 

It turns out that Snoop probably got from E-40, which makes sense because E-40 is pretty much the Pied Piper of Slang. I remember enjoying watching E-40 interviews on Rap City when I was a kid, but I didn't like his music, so I'd tune in for the interview, and then flip the channel after a minute of the song. Maybe Snoop did too.  

Just as I finished writing this, the girl responded,

Thx!!!

I guess she must have been watching E-40 interviews too.

...


Marginally related note. I just finished reading Seal Team Six by Howard Wasdin last week. (It was pretty good.) At one point he's telling a story about a black guy saying to another black guy, "Nigga please."

But instead of spelling out Nigga with the "a" at the end, Wasdin---who is white---wrote, "Nigger please."

That had to be discussed at the editing table, right?

Healthcare

A few Sundays ago my dad awoke feeling nauseated. My mom assumed it was a hangover from the six tequila shots he drank night before---probably the most he’s drank in my lifetime---but my dad disagreed. My dad drinks once or twice a week, but rarely more than two beers, so he has probably forgotten the pain of a real hangover. As a result he checked his blood pressure that morning and found it was higher than normal and decided to visit his primary care physician.

His PCP referred him to a specialist, and the specialist told him he had suffered a minor heart attack. My dad couldn't believe it.

My dad has never had a heart attack, but the heart-attack-conducive temperament runs in his family. And although he has improved his diet and takes a cholesterol lowering medication, he wasn't exactly exercising regularly and eating grilled chicken salads every night either, so the possibility of him having a heart attack at 70 wasn't completely unreasonable. (But to this day, he insists he didn’t have one.)

The specialist suggested inserting a stent into one of my dad’s arteries to keep it clear and prevent future heart attacks. He recommended my dad stay at the hospital overnight and undergo a simple outpatient procedure (requiring only local anesthetic) the next day.

My dad was skeptical, but the doctor strongly recommended the stent, as did my mom---who may have just wanted the peace and quiet of having my dad out of the house for 24 hours---so he agreed. My dad stayed at the hospital that night and had the procedure the next day. He has been fine ever since, and has even started exercising regularly.

My dad's hospital bill was $120,000, and since he’s 70, it was covered by Medicare.

According to the CIA factbook (which I highly recommend for random perusal) our GDP per capita is $47,000. For the sake of extreme oversimplification, let's say the average retired American made $50,000/year, paid 12% payroll taxes and worked for 45 years. And lets say payroll taxes were split 50/50 between Medicare and Social Security. And lets give him the $50k salary for all 45 years to adjust for inflation.

If we assume my dad is an average American, he contributed $135,000 to Medicare in his life. Add a $150/month premium for the last five years, and his lifetime contribution is still only $149,000. And thanks to the wonders of modern medicine---the effectiveness of which has been accelerated by our readiness to pay top dollar for it---he has a long retirement full of modern medicine consumption ahead of him.

I read an article last week citing studies suggesting that doctors tend to overuse stents. I'm not suggesting that my dad's doctor unnecessarily gave him a stent, but the $120,000 price tag on the operation probably didn’t dissuade him.

The threat of malpractice litigation should ensure that a doctor won’t do anything that may potentially harm my dad. But what about doing something that is unlikely to harm him, but is also unnecessary?

No one in our case is complaining. If the stent decreases my dad's chances of a heart attack by .01% without any adverse effects, then my dad, me, the doctor, the nurse who works for the doctor, the hospital, the stent manufacturer, the steakhouse next door to the stent manufacturer’s office, the former owner of the doctor’s new lake house, the attorneys for all parties, the accountants for all parties, and everyone else through whom this money passes are all glad he has it.

Is perceived productivity the same as productivity?