Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

JB>  "Great" orchestral works in the day, were intended
JB>  to be as disposable as last weeks news.


          Yes... and the same also applies to various other types of music.  I
heard that a patron of J.S. Bach, for example, insisted on a new chorale every
week.  It seems the desire for novelty has been a factor for a long time.  ;-)



JB>  If the latest work wasn't "greater" than last weeks,
JB>  the composer was considered a has-been.


          To this day, folks in the entertainment business say "you're only as
good as your last [gig]".  But once in awhile a song which has dropped off the
Top Ten list will eventually resurface as a Golden Oldie or whatever.  I had a
Beatles poster in my band classroom after the initial excitement had subsided,
and was often asked "Who are the Beatles?"  Now our daughter's favourite radio
station includes Beatles songs in their regular Classic Rock program.  I still
chuckle over the incident several years ago at a family campout when a teenage
girl was listening to Beatles music on a portable CD player & the parents were
able to identify every one of the songs after hearing the initial chords.  The
usual drill is that teenagers love the music their parents love to hate & vice
versa.  The Beatles were young when they created this stuff... and in order to
benefit personally from the Classic rating, one has to live long enough.  As I
understand the situation most people didn't three or four centuries ago.  :-))



AH>  I laughed at myself when I forgot to bring the fever
AH>  thermometer on a camping trip & soon realized we didn't
AH>  need it.

JB>  Hind-sight would have you ask for a thermometer from
JB>  others, but for us mere mortals we just do the best
JB>  with what information is "at hand". 


          I hear you.  Oncology parents are a special breed, though!  And as
it happened there were other families with us on that particular occasion who
were in similar circumstances.  BTW... since you expressed some puzzlement
regarding triage elsewhere... we've found ways of getting attention promptly:

 1)  You can't breathe.  This condition may kill you within minutes if somebody
     doesn't do something about it right away.

 2)  You arrive with a towel wrapped around some part of your anatomy, and with
     blood spurting from an artery.  This may take awhile longer to kill you...
     but if you get blood on the floor, somebody will have to clean it up.  The
     cleaning staff have been cut back & other folks are terrified that you may
     have AIDS or some other dreadful disease.

 3)  You arrive with a little kid who has no measurable white blood cells & who
     has had a high fever for three hours.  You bring along with you the latest
     blood counts from the very same hospital & a list of temperatures measured
     at half-hour intervals to two decimal places.  They'll have to verify your
     assessment with their equipment, of course!  But before much time has gone
     by they will probably call for reinforcements who understand such matters.
     When the intern said "I've never seen blood counts like this" and asked if
     we'd like to send Nora to the oncology ward we said "Yes, please"....  ;-)

          When you had internal bleeding after surgery, the cause & severity
of the symptoms were less obvious.  That's the sort of situation where the
patient may feel frustrated over long delays etc.  We had much the same
experience with Nora's stroke, as my parents evidently did with theirs...
(sigh).




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)