More. What was it you were saying about guns being beneficial for society?

Just got an email from Aetna, my health insurance provider through the University of Chicago, which, by the way, is probably the worst fathomable insurance coverage ever, especially considering I have handed over my life to work for the institution and generally be its bitch, thanking me for “choosing” them and letting me know that I am enrolled in their Vital Savings dental program for the period 9/1/2005–8/31/2006 and that I will be receiving a permanent ID card, for which I have been anxiously but patiently waiting for nearly three long years, in the mail 10-15 days from now.

Good to know. Thanks Aetna! I bet my ridiculous copays, especially those for “unannounced” ER visits, won’t be any cheaper though! I don’t hate you any less! But at least I will have my three-year-old policy’s card now.

You have to ask yourself the question, ‘Why did the tobacco company want to support her research?’ Dr. Kassirer said. They want to show that lung cancer is not so bad as everybody thinks because screening can save people; and that’s outrageous.

This, too, is pretty much how my life runs right now, twice over, except for one of them, instead of urine, it’s vomit. Vomit everywhere. Vomit vomit vomit. Throw up.

A similar thought has definitely crossed our minds.

This is pretty much how my life runs right now. I think I might have to find this guy’s phone number and start up a counseling group with him for those with exaggerative significant others.

Sometimes, people only know what you tell them.

‘We all fall into these stories,’ he says. ‘It’s just the way we are built. For hundreds of thousands of years, our memories, our friendships, our sense of family, our kinship—we build our identities from stories, stories that we tell and stories that we hear.’

Radio Lab. Gotta love it. One of the best episodes yet.

There has been nothing even remotely lamb-like about March this year in Chicago. Yesterday’s high of 57 was the closest thing we’ve had to spring weather since…last spring; it was still damn windy, too. Tomorrow calls for high 30s and snow.

Chicagoist agrees with me. They’re smart, rational people and take such things to be increasingly, alarmingly, frighteningly self-evident.

Whoa. My posts at The Differential have been going up at a furious pace. Lemme break it down for you:

Last weekend, I wrote about the then-upcoming match ceremony and celebration, something to which I look forward every year. This year was slightly different, though.

Then, early last week, I recalled some advice that my parents, both doctors, have given me in the past.

Later in the week, I reflected on some parallelisms between the auto body repair and the human body repair industries. Surprisingly, some ethical issues in each aren’t so different from the other, although the stakes are admittedly a bit higher in one of them.

This was a captcha I had to input tonight. Coincidence? Maybe it’s just all in my head, but it seems that reCaptcha is above the collective intelligence of every Congressperson not willing to impeach Bush for lying to the country (and repeatedly giving speeches about the “progress” we’re making).

Also, reCaptcha never ceases to amaze me in its brilliance. What an awesome idea.

People kill people. People, who are armed with guns, kill people, using guns.

Nice try, NRA; I see what you did there.

The other day, during All Things Considered:

Melissa Block: “From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I’m Robert—Melissa Block.”
Robert Siegel: “And I’m Robert Siegel….”

This is awesome. Almost sounds like it came straight out of The Onion.

For $50,000, you can have a classroom not named after you. For $5,000, you can not have your name on a plaque in the entryway to the building. For those of you with a little less to give, $50 will guarantee that the urinal of your choice will go unnamed. But only for the next 20 years.

I was sort of hoping they’d name it the Ferguson School of Business just because and especially considering my business savvy, but whatever. I’m over it. Bastards! Okay, now I’m over it.

Bill! Foster! Is! Making! Big! News!

Another one bites the dust shot and killed at school.