We Don't do Doctors

Good late morning, late morning people of Stroock's Books. 

Let's get in the way back machine...

...The time is 1033 hours. We are sitting in an exam room, and the nurse assistant (who's not even cute) is asking us question after question about depression and bi-polar disorder. This is a Rheumatologist's office and we're seeing the doctor about our foot. Devotees will recall last June's AC wars and our excoriation of an AC repair technician and his supervisor. We didn't feel good about it afterwords. Sitting in that exam room we remind ourselves of that awful aftermath and we hold our tongue and politely answer the nurse's dumbass questions. 

The actual doctor consultation was...mostly useless. The doctor saw us for ten minutes (much longer than we anticipated, actually). Said doctor examined our foot. They had nothing to say about our ankle pain and ignored us when we pointed to our right big toe, which has been red bordering on purple for several weeks. The doctor then spent several minutes explaining gout, what it is, and how one gets it. As if we don't already understand all there is to understand about gout. The doctor then recommended an anti-gout drug. Side effects of the drug include skin rash, gout (what the actual ef?), we stopped the doctor at 'liver trouble'. 

We declined the drug and later went to the gym.

After complaining about the appointment for...a while, Mrs. Stroock says we're not allowed to talk about it anymore. 

Related: Oh look, FB says that 10 years ago we were cracking jokes about going to the urgent care for an EKG because we were having chest pains. 

We read over the bullet points of Trump's Gaza peace plan, looking for the knife in the back, looking for the bitter pill to swallow. Sorry, we just don't see it. This isn't a peace plan. It's a victory plan. And Trump told Hamas to take it or else.*

This plan gives Stroock's Books almost everything it wants in Gaza, including voluntary relocation of Gazans. Some hard right Israeli messianic nut cases are screaming this morning. Occupation? Resettlement? You'd have to be a moron to want anything to do with Gaza. This plan wins the war and the peace. 

Last night we were accused of silence in the destruction of Gaza. Silence? We celebrate it, sir. We shout our approval from the rooftops.

As we write this Secretary of Defense  War Pete Hegseth is addressing the generals. We can't get the Patton theme out of our head. For a time we loved that movie, and owned a cassette of the soundtrack, which included the speech. Our senior year, when we played Captain Brackett in South Pacific, we modelled the character on Patton, and gave Brackett's speech in the same cadence as Patton's speech in the opener. 'Up until now....our side... has been having the hell kicked out of it...in two hemispheres....'

Reminder, Patton is an AWFUL movie. A caricature of a very complex man shaped in part by dyslexia and academic struggle. Patton ignores that. Patton also ignores Patton's service int the Old Army, he was in an actual old-west style gunfight in Mexico. Patton has nothing to say and the man's worship of Pershing. And by the way, George C. Scott sounds absolutely nothing like the real Patton. YouTube it. 

Sports Wrap: Same old Jets. Dolphins 27, Jets 21, and it wasn't that close. Gangrene is now 0-4 and the fandom ins confronted with another lost season. We shake our head in sympathy.  

DOGE Report: We took a look at Thatcher's War, yesterday. It's a big unruly novel with lots of twists and turns. Accept it. Embrace it. We must embrace the unruliness and make Thatcher's War even more unruly. The only way out is through. Or we could start over. We're not going to start over.

We are writing an absolutely gut wrenching nuke short story. We're almost reluctant. We had thought this would lead off the novel. But now we're not so sure. Think about it. You're a parent. Everyone and everything around you is dying. What do you do? 

*Okay, some terrorists go free. We can live with that. Ex Confederates with blood on their hands walked free in Reconstruction era America. Some Nazi SS and imperial Japanese officers never saw justice. That's war. Deal with it.