Just a Body

The Kid is ten. Driving home from school last night we had this conversation: "See that dot on their license plate?" he asks, pointing to the car in front of us, "it means that guy's a donor."
"A what? Organ donor? No, they don't put it on your license plate. Someone needing a kidney might run you off the road... they put the dot on your driver's license."


"Oh... Are you a donor?"
"Yes, of course."
"What part of your body?"
"The whole thing."
"Well, that's good. They might as well take it all and help someone else. You won't be needing any of it anymore."
"Does it bother you?"
With some disdain, "No, mom... It's just a body."

WE CARE Solar

If you want to take a position on child birth, consider this. If you want to talk about injustice and what it means to work for women, imagine. If you want to take on a women's rights issue, this is it:

"Maternal mortality worldwide accounts for more than half a million deaths a year...that's the same as one woman dying every minute of every day, and that's an outrage. That should never be happening."
Laura E. Stachel MD, MPH, Founder of WE CARE Solar.

WE CARE Solar "reduces maternal mortality in developing regions by providing health workers with reliable lighting, blood bank refrigeration and mobile communication using solar electricity."

This organization needs, and deserves, your support.

Dweebs and Assholes

Yesterday, after a very pleasant telephone conversation with my former PI (read:boss) who happens to be a successful MD, I related part of our conversation to The Partner.

"So, the Doc said to me, 'I don't like to hang out with other docs. They're all dweebs and assholes'."

After having sat through a very painful weekly Ob/Gyn Grand Rounds that very morning, lead by a particularly unbearable female doc, I remarked, "It's true. Even the women are assholes." The Partner smartly decided that this would be the title of my upcoming tome on feminism:

"Even the Women Are Assholes: The Unthinkable Thoughts of a Feminist."

Illustration credit, obviously, goes to the late, great Kurt Vonnegut.