ArtieShaw

My husband had a weird job many years ago doing this very thing. He worked (via a temp agency) for the federal government. They reviewed hospital billings for their agency’s workers and send mildly threatening letters if they charged $12,000 for a procedure that averaged $5,000.

It had some success, but some states had outright outlawed this sort of thing. Texas.

Not a doctor, but I’m interested in the subject. I think the current consensus is “yes and no.”

200 years ago, people may have answered yes. Thirty years ago it was popular to discount the idea entirely because germs are what make you sick. Can’t deny that.

Lately I’ve been hearing some acknowledgement that a stress to your body may make you more susceptible or less able to fight off an infection. The wiki article includes a recent study that pointed to poor sewage treatment near the White House in Harrison’s day. For whatever reason WHH wasn’t able to fight that off but the rest of the residents seemingly were.

People have been making the connection of “he stood outside for hours in the snow and drizzle, then caught the dropsy and died” for centuries. I don’t think they lacked for sense or couldn’t make the obvious connection between exposure and sickness. I do think they lacked for microscopes.

Hoping for another Wm. Henry Harrison?

When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe… He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day.[104] He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history

In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30 p.m. he uttered his last words…

The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier.

Things one learns in high school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison

I would say that the hair is the set of raccoons that hang out on the roof of the house and do weird shit at unexpected times.

It seems like everyone is talking about these cascading failures.

I feel like an artificer would be skilled in the application of rouge. As well as foundation and eyeliner.

One doesn’t buy a 3D printer to make a knob. One is suddenly presented with a need for a knob (or a thingy, or a flangle, or a twizzlet…) and suddenly remembers, “hey - I have a 3D printer.” Followed by “I wonder if there are any matching designs in one of the several massive free databases of models.”

Particle Man by TMBG, of course.

It was a long time ago, but I have a vague memory of my mother making something distressingly close to this. I want to say she used one of those Easter lamb cake molds or something similar. She was a good cook and didn’t lack artistic ability - but had no sense of “this looks like an abomination.” Or “maybe I should slice this before trying to serve it.”

30 Helens agree.

I’d be salty about that too!

I’m under a series of non-disclosure agreements that serve to protect Big Talc. I can disclose that step one is to dig it out of the ground. The rest is processing.

Yep, I am sick unto the death over talc and talc derivatives. It’s all sunshine and lollipops for the first few years, but it gets old.

Anyway, these medical devices were sort of like spinal implants, or things that could mitigate damage from a bad alligator bite if one got ahold of a person’s ankle. Bone replacements, mostly. The photos on the posters were pretty unpleasantly graphic, but they all basically looked like good solutions to very unfortunate problems.

Honestly, I like to avoid them. They sound fun at first, but then you realize that you’re going to be in a room with strangers for 8 hours and at the last minute you realize, “would anyone really notice if I just skipped out?” And, “why do I always get invited to the talc and sulphates convention and not the candy convention?”

I do travel a lot for work, and frequently see conventioneers at hotels. The Excruciating Implantable Medical Device Convention (with posters) looked amazing. I honestly thought about crashing that one.

Compared to Billy Budd, I was all in on Bartleby. I felt a certain kinship, if you will.

All of our proposed work field trips sucked so hard, everyone revolted.

Idea one: There was a bizarre “corporate leadership conference” which was a bunch of weird conservative motivational speakers that were on tour across middle America. No one aside from the two asshats who proposed it wanted to go after learning the details.

Idea two: Our two department managers decided that a canoe trip would be a great way to bond as a group. It sounded fun until anyone put an ounce of thought into it. Since the managers didn’t want to do any planning, we were all given vague tasks. Like, “lunch.” And “portage at the roller dam.” I was one of the two in charge of lunch. WTF? Do we figure out a place to stop mid-way and eat at a restaurant? Am I bringing a cooler of hotdogs? Does Steve bring a grill? Can there be beer? (NO)

I had a woman slap my hand away from a hot surface while on one of these tours. No songs, though. And I’m not much of a higher up, so probably not worth it.

“She touched the reactor’s body, she did! Now her flesh is melted like…?”

I enjoy how Germans were like, “fuck you (W)oden, we’re calling it mid-week. We’ll keep the rest.”

Yep. Conventioneering! Except you get to learn about talc processing and talk to sales reps who are really big into talc processing.

It’s a weird petrochemical fluid and some straws. You dip the straw and can blow a bubble that hardens on contact with the air. They come in colors.

They’re not much fun, and have been disappointing children for decades.