MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest items from the 'Zackary Sholem Berger' source. Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:56:59 +0100 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/oddity-of-physicians-insistence-that.html By the fourth sentence of the preface to The Silent World of Doctor and Patient, Jay Katz has quietly issued a startling challenge to a fundamental principle of the doctor-patient relationship. He writes: It took time before I appreciated fully the oddity of physicians’ insistence that patients follow doctors’ orders. During my socialization as a physician I had been taught to accept the idea of doctors’ Aesculapian authority over patients. When I began to doubt this authority, that was the moment when the book began to take shape in my mind. “The oddity of physicians’ insistence that patients follow doctors’ orders” – the phrase brings you to an abrupt halt. Jay Katz, who wrote those words in his landmark book published nearly a quarter of a century ago, died in late Novem... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2074422 Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:43:00 +0100 2074422 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/ill-suited-for-rapidity.html Today's hospitals are all about the Rapid Response Teams.But I was born a member of the Languid Deliberation League. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2065411 Fri, 26 Dec 2008 02:50:00 +0100 2065411 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/times-again-re-discovers-yiddish.html A whole article in the Times about Yankl Ejdelman without mentioning Yugntruf. Still and all, it's a positive piece.But I can't help myself. Why is Yiddish a "venerable tongue" in the headline? Surely the language is no older than English? And why is it called "the 1,000-year-old amalgam of Hebrew, German and assorted European dialects that was once the lingua franca of Europe’s Jews"?Amalgam? (You mean, perhaps "language"?) Assorted European dialects? (Maybe "languages"?) Lingua franca? (Rather, "first language"?)It's almost as if the reporter knew nothing about the topic she was writing on!Naw. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2056161 Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:03:00 +0100 2056161 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/conversation-on-lower-east-side.html [regarding me, between two Jews]"Iz er a yid?" (Is he Jewish?)"Avade iz er a yid." (Of course he's Jewish.)What was next said, as I first heard it:"Er kikt oys vi a narisher." (He looks like an idiot.)I said "Vos?" (What?)"Ir kikt oys vi an arisher." (You look like an Aryan[?].)"Vos?""Vi an arisher!""Ah!"Oh! I get it. Like an "ayrisher" ("Irisher" in non-"YIVO" Yiddish, Irlender in standard Yiddish), in the speaker's pronunciation - "arisher."Thus was I saved from getting in a fight with two older men on the Lower East Side (probably avoiding a beating in the process). (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2040182 Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:14:00 +0100 2040182 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/building-philosophy-of-medicine-for.html Ultimately, because of vast historical and social forces, physicians by and large remain oriented towards an unattainable and inappropriate positivist ideal, and thereby severely compromise the deeper values of their own moral agenda. This choice—encouraged by the professionalization process—largely explains why medical ethics serves such a minor role in medical education; why complaints of medicine’s dehumanization are rampant; and why myriad studies, surveys, and testimonies attest to the lack of physician empathy. Indeed, if medicine aspires to an objective ideal at the expense of its unique value-laden agenda, the profession will be hounded by complaints that it has forsaken its ancient calling for a Faustian pact. A self-conscious moral epistemology—an epistemology that remai... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2033342 Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:25:00 +0100 2033342 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/of-minimal-interest.html I updated my literary CV. Where can I tell people that if not on my blog? (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2027263 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:32:00 +0100 2027263 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/lay-down-your-scalpel-its-nap-time.html E.B. Solomont (formerly of the Forward, as it happens), writing critically in Slate about the Institute of Medicine's work hour report, observes hyperbolicallySurgical residents may someday soon have to prepare themselves to halt an operation and announce that it's nap time.Solomont doesn't know that surgeons often must hand off care during a long procedure (colectomies can last forever)?The Royal College of Surgeons (one of the organizations named by Solomont as opposing stricter work-hour regulations) provides a summary of their recommendations regarding training modifications. After a thorough review of work patterns in the context of impending regulations (or after they had already been instituted; it's not clear to me), the following findings became (magically?) apparent:a significant... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2027264 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:11:00 +0100 2027264 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/greed-vs-greens-or-in-which-righteous.html I hope you're happy, landlord. You gouged Zen Palate Union Square out of business and you don't have another renter yet.View Larger MapA pity that Google Maps' streetview is not festooned with the For Rent banners I saw today on the building at 34 Union Square East. I didn't take a photo, since I was stunned simultaneously with grief, schadenfreude, schaden-anger [Schadenzorn?], and......the happy thought that Maoz Vegetarian is just down the block.View Larger MapYummy, and much cheaper than Zen Palate Usq ever was. Maybe I'm not so mad after all. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2027265 Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:09:00 +0100 2027265 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-talk-in-philadelphia-today.html It's lacking something without the talk, but here's a silent Power Point. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2013693 Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:24:00 +0100 2013693 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/resident-work-hours-in-times-and.html The Well blog at the New York Times talked about the new Institute of Medicine study, Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision, and Safety. I'm not likely to read it, but the IOM "asserts that revisions to medical residents' workloads and duty hours are necessary" to protect patients against errors and improve the educational environment.The comments at the Times blog are to be avoided, as most comments are. Try this New England Journal article instead for a take on the tricky balance between work hours and handoffs. The fewer hours, the more handoffs. And fewer hours, with today's sicker patients, don't mean less work. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2011232 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:14:00 +0100 2011232 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-we-do-in-improving-quality-can.html That's what Neera Tanden, a member of Obama's transition team, had to say in this morning's conference call organized by Doctors for Obama, which had over a thousand people listening in.* I wish it were true. As I expected, the focus of the call was on outreach and recruitment. Tom Daschle (Obama's pick for HHS Secretary) spent some time talking about the transition team's Change.gov and the umpteen zillion comments that have been offered up there about needed healthcare reform, all of this by way of example of the transparency Obama emphasized during the campaign. "He wants the administration to change the way people interact with their government," said Daschle, "and this is especially true when it comes to healthcare." "We have to have better transparency," he said later - "we can't un... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2011234 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:04:00 +0100 2011234 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/activity-of-imagination.html set the answer face to facewith its question.awkward encountertill the match fails.who are you to set them up? (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1999166 Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:02:00 +0100 1999166 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/intoxicado-does-not-mean-drunk.html Among Cubans, “intoxicado” is kind of an all encompassing word that means there’s something wrong with you because of something you ate or drank. I ate something and now I have hives or an allergic reaction to the food or I’m nauseous. On the day Willie’s intracerebellar bleed began, he had lunch at a fast food restaurant, the newly opened Wendy’s. His mother and his girlfriend’s mother assumed that the severe headache he experienced that night was related to eating a bad hamburger at Wendy’s - that Willie was “intoxicado.”More at the Health Affairs Blog about a terrible linguistic misunderstanding. "Neither the ER doctor nor the family requested a professional medical interpreter because each side believed they were communicating adequately." (Source: Zackary Sholem Be... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1975276 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:41:00 +0100 1975276 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/presenting-presenters.html I was at Hopkins last week giving a talk as a recipient of one of the GIM Housestaff Research Awards. The other awardees were impressive. I wish they were as blogorrheic as I am, so I could provide links to their life & work. In any case, among the presentations werea discussion by Matt DeCamp of intellectual property rights and distributive justice, and their interdependenceLee Jennings' study of osteoporosis treatment in the hospital (per guidelines: calcium, vitamin D, and anti-resorptive/bone-forming agents). Two percent of patients got recommended treatment in-house!a sobering fact about residents' physical examinations of women (Rosette Chakkalakal): they don't listen to the heart like they should (is it because they respect too much their patients' modesty? or they're uncomforta... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1969040 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:15:00 +0100 1969040 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/drug-seeking.html Imagine you're in the hospital and in pain. You would like some medicine to treat that pain. Ipso facto presto chango- you are looking for drugs. Hence drug seeking. Voila! A reason not to give pain meds. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1955329 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:01:00 +0100 1955329 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/right-on-max-baucus.html From today's press conference:We need to train more primary care doctors. I heard only 2 percent of last year's doctors were primary care, because the money wasn't there. We need more medical homes, a more holistic approach to care. There must be a greater role for primary care then there is in America today, and this bill has incentives to do that. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1955330 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:13:00 +0100 1955330 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/spelling-hope-in-hebrew.html From TNR it looks like Yediot Acharonot have chosen to spell Obama with two alefs, and Maariv - with one. Which spelling wins?The Google, please:אובאמהversusאובמהI suppose it makes more sense to analyze the word as following normal Israeli Hebrew phonetics, than as a foreign word which needs to be spelled with another alef. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1952016 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:11:00 +0100 1952016 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/emanuels-take-over-2.html Which Emanuel brother are you? (Warning: extreme snark.) (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1952017 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:44:00 +0100 1952017 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/c-reactive-protein-cuts-risk-of-heart.html Shorter New England Journal on the JUPITER study(a corrective to reports like this one)1. We knew statins helped lower the risk of heart disease anyway.2. Now we have an industry-funded study to tell us that statins help in people with high CRP.3. They cut the risk of cardiovascular events from 1.8% (per year) to 0.9%. Yes - a relative risk reduction of 0.5. But 1.8% and 0.9% are both low numbers. Do you have patients who would think this difference meaningful?4. The study excluded basically everyone we meet in the real world: folks with high cholesterol, diabetes, and kidney disease.5. We still don't know if CRP risk stratification helps improve outcomes.6. We're not buying it. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1947344 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:48:00 +0100 1947344 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/catholic-worker-against-torture.html Mike Benedetti continues to be idiosyncratically (& admirably) activist - going to DC as part of Witness Against Torture. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1947345 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:34:00 +0100 1947345 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/cat-and-hat-dont-rhyme-in-yiddish.html Buy our books - and hear about why we translate them - in Philadelphia!a talk in English by Zackary Sholem Berger, co-publisher at Yiddish HouseThursday, December 4th, 2008, 9:30amDrexel UniversityStern Judaic Studies Seminar Room, Room 302, Hagerty Library33rd and Market Streets, Philadelphia, PA (map)All Yiddish House books (including our new Eyn Fish Tsvey Fish) will be available for purchase and signing.Sponsored by the Judaic Studies Program of Drexel University, Dr. Rakhmiel Peltz, Director. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1939260 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:04:00 +0100 1939260 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/breaking-news-obama-cabinet-selection.html Secretary of Jewish-American Literature. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1939261 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:57:00 +0100 1939261 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/emanuels-take-over.html If Rahm is chief of staff, does that mean we get health care vouchers from his brother? (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1939262 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:09:00 +0100 1939262 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/11/public-appearances-1.html I got an award, so I'll be giving a talk at General Internal Medicine Grand Rounds at Johns Hopkins on November 14th. Drop by. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1927874 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:02:00 +0100 1927874 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/wi-mitzwha-for-robber.html If you use Google Translate to translate this paragraph of my Yiddish novel-in-progress וווּ געפֿינט זיך הײַנט דער שׂכל-צענטער? עס איז וויכטיק צו וויסן, ווי אַזוי דאָס באַוווּסטזײַן ווערט צונויפֿגערעכנט און דעפֿינירט. וווּ געפֿינט זיך דער נאַציאָנאַלער שׂכל פֿון עם־ישׂראל? דאָס איז ניט קיין נאַרישע שאלה. דעת־הקהל, ווייסט יעדער, איז גאָר אַ וויכטיקער פֿאַקטאָר. מע דאַרף פֿאַרשטיין וווּ ער געפֿינט זיך, פּונקט ווי (להבֿדיל) אין די אַלטע שרעקפֿילמען, דאַרף מען זיך דערוויסן דאָס א... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1918081 Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:20:00 +0100 1918081 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/for-sausage-factory-various-health-care.html Even in the midst of the presidential campaign, we should remember that there are a number of health care plans other than those proposed by McCain or Obama. Given the vagaries of politics, any given plan is very unlikely to be passed. Thus we should become familiar with the details of a variety of them, since any compromise will look like a hybrid.More in Clinical Correlations. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1911424 Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:14:00 +0100 1911424 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/needed-renovations-or-setting-roof-on.html Our exposure to health care policy - as part of our primary care curriculum - ran the gamut recently.Last week we went to Washington to advocate for increased support for the primary care workforce. (In brief: we need more primary care health care providers. There aren't going to be enough of them, especially if we start covering the uninsured. We need to create incentives to help people choose to go into primary care rather than the oversubscribed and overpaid subspecialties.) We spoke to young, fresh-faced, intelligent, and hyperinformed health care staffers of some of the Capitol's most influential senators - they were genuinely friendly and happy to see us.One senator's office is working on a creative idea left over (so they said) from Hillarycare, a "foundation" to ensure a funding st... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1908869 Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:09:00 +0100 1908869 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/home-for-holidays.html I was eating a stale Danish in NYU Medical Center's sukkah this morning. On the wall, a notice painstakingly informing the sukkah user that the hut was built by heymishe yidn, the term used by Yiddish-speaking Chasidim to refer to themselves. (The English and Hebrew notices didn't include this fact, by the way.)But what's this hanging from the ceiling? A red and gold plastic ribbon with a golden bell?In the heimische sukkah, a heimische Christmas decoration! (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1889059 Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:42:00 +0100 1889059 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/inheriting-radiance.html Yiddish poems of home life: my translations of poems by Gella Schweid Fishman and Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath (taken from an upcoming anthology) in Words Without Borders. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1870922 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:38:00 +0100 1870922 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/speaking-albanian.html To Albany today with my fun-loving primary-care colleagues to advocate for streamlined consent for HIV testing - to make sure all New Yorkers get HIV diagnosis and necessary treatment as early as possible. Everyone was nice and I didn't trip over the furniture. Enjoy our position paper here. Spread the word! (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1859642 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:24:00 +0100 1859642 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-which-kesher-israel-member-waxes.html Psst, Joe! Does Barry Freundel think you and Sarah Palin worship the same God? (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1856147 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:07:00 +0100 1856147 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/10/reckless-beauty-heedless-joy-many.html reckless beautyheedless joymanypeople neverpanicclamorous intoxicating spacesliving alonedying embraced (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1851081 Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:03:00 +0100 1851081 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/three-and-half-jewish-philosophers.html ZSB: Is there a risk of the religious life? Hilary Putnam: There’s always the risk of fanaticism. I spend part of every year in Israel at Tel Aviv University. There, the conflicts of certainties are appalling; that’s beginning to be the case in the U.S.More in the Forward, where I interview Putnam about his new book, Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1829232 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:41:00 +0100 1829232 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/americas-next-top-health-policy-problem.html James Knickman, the unassuming and friendly health-policy analyst and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation, talked to our class of third-year primary care residents on Tuesday as part of our health policy course. Here is his list of the Top Ten Health Policy Crises.*Solutions received by Monday at 7pm will get a free piece of apple-and-honey.1.The lack of affordable and accessible health care for all Americans.2. The need to develop methods to decide when to pay for emerging modalities and pharmaceuticals.3. The need to move resources into prevention and public health.4. The need to move resources into primary care.5. How do we care for an aging population?6. How do we expand physicians' use of evidence-based treatment approaches?7. Great disparities across ethnic and income groups.... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1829233 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:30:00 +0100 1829233 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/diagnosis-of-exclusion.html A zillion years of medical and graduate school, and nearly three years of residency, and I still don't understand what it means when people say that such-and-such is a diagnosis of exclusion. Any diagnosis is a diagnosis of exclusion!Often, I think, people use that phrase as a retelling of the widespread myth that psychopathologies can't be diagnosed through testing. ("Anxiety is a diagnosis of exclusion.") Or a claim that only laboratory tests or imaging matter, not the history or physical. ("Hepatorenal syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion.")The next time someone calls a diagnosis a D of E, by gum, I'm going to ask them just what they mean. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1806380 Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:08:00 +0100 1806380 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/jewels-of-elul-cxviii-month-of-dreamers.html with apologies to Craig 'N Co.Since I have a lot of money, people are always sending me their crazy ideas. And I have to take them home on the train. I fall asleep and dream . . . dream of long vacations, plush terry-cloth robes, little bars of soap you always steal and then feel obscurely guilty about (unless you steal from the minibar, in which case you dream about credit-card bills in the mail and some meaty guy stomping through your front door with a large stick). When I wake up from my dream, I'm at the last station stop and the janitor has to sweep me out of the car with his broom. I wander outside and can't find the bus stop. Scared, I take a taxi.That's my dream. To some people, it's trivial, stupid, a little cheap. But then I give them some money, and the word "cheap" is never men... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1791687 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:16:00 +0100 1791687 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/well-thats-all-right-then.html Worried whether your favorite presidential candidate will defeat the other party's lying traitorous scum and save our nation this November? If you care about health policy, don't worry about it. Neither man's plan has a pig's chance at a barbecue of getting anywhere near passage. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1791688 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:07:00 +0100 1791688 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/welcome-to-hekhsher-tzedek-community.html Or: happy Elul!So when will the OU withdraw certification entirely from Rubashkin's? When the case goes to court? When a conviction is handed down? When the sentence is served? How many "weeks" will this take? 1? 2? 6? 12? 52?And why does there need to be a change in management? After all, these are just goyish legal structures we're talking about (ערכאות של גוים). "The law of the land is the law" is just Conservative liberal halachah, right?Maybe there needs to be another trip to Iowa, company-paid. Make sure one of the rabbis involved "knows some Spanish." Look, the cafeteria is awful clean! (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1782742 Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:57:00 +0100 1782742 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/art-of-improbable.html Today I voted for Paul Newell and Daniel Squadron. Nothing like casting your lot with the losing team! (And speaking of losing...)* * *You know what's useful? Reading political news. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1779357 Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:22:00 +0100 1779357 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-fish-for-sale.html From there to hereFrom here to thereNew Yiddish fish are everywhere!Now available:Eyn Fish Tsvey Fish Royter Fish Bloyer FishOne Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. SeussYiddish translation by Sholem Berger978-0-9726939-3-6$15 + shipping (and tax in NY State)yiddishcat.comDon't forget:Di Kats der Payats, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, in Yiddish--$15George der Naygeriker, Curious George by H. A. Rey, in Yiddish--$18Colorful alef-beys poster by Stephen Cohen--$12 (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1759983 Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:56:00 +0100 1759983 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/09/futile-slow-code.html I was involved in a slow code recently. (I won't say where, or when, or with whom.) They are slippery and repugnant. Rarely can any of the parties involved say with satisfaction or complete clarity when, or by whom, the slow code was suggested or agreed to. It is a substitute for an honest discussion of options with the patient and family, and it is a legal minefield.Remind me not to get involved in them again ... when I have a choice in the matter. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1750302 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:39:00 +0100 1750302 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/politics-of-kashrut-kosher-food.html An event at Town and Village Synagogue. No word yet whether the refreshments will be fleischig.Join JFREJ, the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership, and Uri L'Tzedek for a salon-style, interactive program: learn about the complex intersections of immigrant rights, labor rights, and Jewish law - from the Lower East Side's kosher meat boycott of 1903 to the AgriProcessors boycott of 2008.Featuring Professor Hasia Diner, NYU, and Organizers from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Uri L'Tzedek, and Hekhsher Tzedek. Presented through Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and American Jewish World Service and AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps.This event is co-sponsored by Hazon, the Workmen's Circle / Arbeter Ring, and Jewish Labor Committee/United Hebrew Trades. For more information or to R... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1750303 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:02:00 +0100 1750303 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/without-any-negation.html We confirm the amazing achievements of Yiddish without any negation at all of the importance of Modern Hebrew, Ladino, Zionism, secular Judaism, Jewish culture as a whole (yiddishkeit) or any other intimate, creative, and authentic Jewish entity and conviction. In addition, we are not all just Yiddishists, of the sort who are committed to Yiddish and only to Yiddish. Just the opposite. We are of various Jewish ideologies. "Whatever we are, we speak Yiddish" - Yiddish is our common property and an integral part of our anchoredness in a part of our identity, our past, and in a part of our future. --Joshua Fishman, from אַ באַגריסונג־וואָרט לכּבֿוד דעם 100סטן יובֿל פֿון דער טשערנאָוויצער שפּראַך־קאָנפֿערענץ an article... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1750304 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:47:00 +0100 1750304 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/dance-of-dripping-hand-fairies.html I'm no choreographer, but it is important to be meaningful in the movements you adopt in front of the motion-detector paper-towel dispenser. I do want this paper towel! I do! Look, here I am reaching my arms underneath it! (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1746413 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:23:00 +0100 1746413 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/yiddish-is-still-national-language-of.html Happy 100th anniversary of the Tshernovits conference! (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1714026 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:11:00 +0100 1714026 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/studying-with-big-pharma.html The American Board of Internal Medicine ratifies a core of medical knowledge in which the qualified internist is supposed to demonstrate proficiency. I am using MKSAP to study - it's a series of study guides produced by the American College of Physicians. Before the table of contents, the contributors are listed, together with their disclosed involvement with (meaning: compensation by) pharmaceutical companies.It'd be asking too much to eliminate pharm-phunded contributors from ostensibly nonpartisan guides which reflect the best available consensus of our profession (that would be . . . legitimate!). Nor do I think it's likely that their contributions will be vetted by a pharm-free referee (that would be . . .adequate!). In the absence of these strategies, it would be nice - paradoxically... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1709345 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:12:00 +0100 1709345 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/day-and-night.html -We wait frozen in angry dayfor night with its moon,for moon's tenderness.We wait terrified in angry nightfor day with its sun,for sun's clemency.Day and night -They think we're big,they make free use of us.We're small, quite small -fear pulls us to the ground,as if we're his, as if he owns us.So small, what should wedo with ourselves?Our pain, what should we dowith our pain?Love?Secrets?Day and night -They think we're big,they make free use of us.--Leib Kvitko (Oct. 15, 1890-August 12, 1952)(my translation; original here) (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1700826 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:57:00 +0100 1700826 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/poets-homework.html Write a poem using only these words.It should be a good poem. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1686349 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:10:00 +0100 1686349 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/08/work-hour-anecdotes-battle-it-out-head.html Sandeep Jauhar, writing in Slate, has an introduction to the controversy around work-hour regulation for medical residents. 1. One assumption made by opponents of work-hour regulations is that these regulations are only justified if there is a proven connection between longer work hours and more medical errors. But why is the burden of proof on those who want to change the established order? Why must we assume that the more hours doctors work, the better? Do we know that 120-hour work weeks make better doctors than 80-hour weeks, or do older doctors - who tend to be most vocal in their opposition to work-hour regulations - merely harbor nostalgia for their training days? Would another helping profession expect its practitioners to work more hours (consecutive or total) as proof of their s... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1677261 Sun, 03 Aug 2008 06:51:00 +0100 1677261 http://zackarysholemberger.blogspot.com/2008/07/summer-song.html Grass under halogendraped by noonish shadows.I stroll like a lazy football playerwithout a ball.This all happens at summerwhen boats cut open oceans.Hating sweatI'm waiting for winter. (Source: Zackary Sholem Berger) Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1671613 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:16:00 +0100 1671613