Hello Fellow Travelers!
Like most wordy people, I'm a big reader, I always have been! I read my first whole book at age five (Charlotte's Web) and I went on from there. Growing up I'd read anything, anywhere I could. I still like to read but nobody told me how neurosurgery would impact my reading - immediately following surgery on your brain the printed words sort of around for awhile. They finally settled down long enough for me to go to magazines and then short stories and finally books. When I was a teenager I would reread books I really liked which gave me the words to mentally play with and rearrange when I couldn't read normally.
Recently, my track record as a first-class smart aleck came into question. I now co-exist harmoniously with all living things (except spiders) but back in the day when I muckraked, the muck stayed raked! I could (and did) stir things up with the best of them, albeit briefly, because muckraking just for my own amusement is pointless and stupid and I quickly became bored. Now when I consider proper situations for "muckraking" (not to be confused with "rabble-rousing" - a different matter altogether,) I think back to our founding fathers. Those guys were really wordy and put the "muck" in "muckraking" After they muckraked they started a revolution! And they wrote a lot of letters and speeches too! With quills and beautiful penmanship! As the Japanese Charlie Brown answered in "Kill Bill 1" , when asked if he'd like to get his head chopped off, "No, I don't think I'd like that!". Well, if I had to wear hoopskirts and churn my own butter I'd like to think I'd draw the line if some wig-wearing, Revolutionary MD offered me a stick in lieu of anesthesia. That's the best you've got in 1775 Dr.? A stick? Nay, a small stick! A twig? Come on!
Sometimes I think it would have been really special to live back then and revolt with my wigged countrymen, but with my luck I'd get cancer and some "doctor" would come at me with a stick for anesthesia and then I really would have to punch him in the face, and things would get bad fast for all concerned from there, let me make sure I understand: You want to perform a double mastectomy and the most modern pain treatment available is a stick? A stick? From a tree! Really? Really, really. I'm going to let this medieval barber type operate without anesthesia and I'm going to die anyway and this jackass gives me a twig to bite down on? I can't.
So the olden days look like they probably were - olden, not great or "a simpler time" just simple. Maybe their paintings were great but the food sucked and it wasn't safe to drink the water. ( Not really that different from today, when you think about it!) and they had awful healthcare! Aw-ful! If you lived to 40 you had "a full life". I don't know why sticks surprised me! These people thought leeches were a medical treatment!
Like most wordy people, I'm a big reader, I always have been! I read my first whole book at age five (Charlotte's Web) and I went on from there. Growing up I'd read anything, anywhere I could. I still like to read but nobody told me how neurosurgery would impact my reading - immediately following surgery on your brain the printed words sort of around for awhile. They finally settled down long enough for me to go to magazines and then short stories and finally books. When I was a teenager I would reread books I really liked which gave me the words to mentally play with and rearrange when I couldn't read normally.
Recently, my track record as a first-class smart aleck came into question. I now co-exist harmoniously with all living things (except spiders) but back in the day when I muckraked, the muck stayed raked! I could (and did) stir things up with the best of them, albeit briefly, because muckraking just for my own amusement is pointless and stupid and I quickly became bored. Now when I consider proper situations for "muckraking" (not to be confused with "rabble-rousing" - a different matter altogether,) I think back to our founding fathers. Those guys were really wordy and put the "muck" in "muckraking" After they muckraked they started a revolution! And they wrote a lot of letters and speeches too! With quills and beautiful penmanship! As the Japanese Charlie Brown answered in "Kill Bill 1" , when asked if he'd like to get his head chopped off, "No, I don't think I'd like that!". Well, if I had to wear hoopskirts and churn my own butter I'd like to think I'd draw the line if some wig-wearing, Revolutionary MD offered me a stick in lieu of anesthesia. That's the best you've got in 1775 Dr.? A stick? Nay, a small stick! A twig? Come on!
Sometimes I think it would have been really special to live back then and revolt with my wigged countrymen, but with my luck I'd get cancer and some "doctor" would come at me with a stick for anesthesia and then I really would have to punch him in the face, and things would get bad fast for all concerned from there, let me make sure I understand: You want to perform a double mastectomy and the most modern pain treatment available is a stick? A stick? From a tree! Really? Really, really. I'm going to let this medieval barber type operate without anesthesia and I'm going to die anyway and this jackass gives me a twig to bite down on? I can't.
So the olden days look like they probably were - olden, not great or "a simpler time" just simple. Maybe their paintings were great but the food sucked and it wasn't safe to drink the water. ( Not really that different from today, when you think about it!) and they had awful healthcare! Aw-ful! If you lived to 40 you had "a full life". I don't know why sticks surprised me! These people thought leeches were a medical treatment!
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