Month: May 2021

Memorial Day

On May 31, 2021

Image result for American Flag Clipart. Size: 191 x 104. Source: clipartix.com

Memorial Day began to honor those who died in defense of our country. Over time we also recognized the sacrifice of police and fire fighters. Now, in the face of the latest threat to our nation, let us add to the list of honor those in health care, education, and other vital industries whose lives were lost providing for our safety and security. May God bless them and their families.

Nine Out of Ten Doctors Recommend……

By John Turley

On May 28, 2021

In Commentary, Wine

It’s interesting to think about how the popularity of things changes overtime Sometimes they go in and out of fashion as a matter of preference. Other times it’s because we have learned that things done in the past were not beneficial or were perhaps even harmful. I’m going discuss a couple of those things and then try to wrap it all up with a guess about what may be popular in the future.

The first thing that comes to mind is cigarette smoking. There was a time during my younger days when cigarette smoking was not only acceptable, but it was almost mandatory if you were going to be sophisticated.

As illustrated by the advertisement above doctors were often employed as a vehicle to sell cigarettes. And in fact, I remember a friend telling me he was advised by his doctor to start smoking because it would “exercise his lungs”. (I really hope he misheard that.)

Movie stars all smoked. Check out Turner Classic Movies and look at any film from the 1940s or 1950s. The stars constantly had a cigarette in their hand. I can’t recall a movie with Humphrey Bogart where he wasn’t lighting up. The women were also lighting up. Lauren Bacall looked pretty sexy with a cigarette.

It wasn’t just the movie stars who made us want to smoke. President Franklin Roosevelt smoked, and he used a cigarette holder. He made it look elegant and made a lot of other people want to emulate him. Unfortunately for many who tried, very few could pull off the cigarette holder without looking foolish.

Smoking was also considered to be manly. President Eisenhower, when he was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, famously smoked 5 packs of cigarettes a day, all unfiltered. And we could only hope to have looked as cool as James Dean did in Rebel Without a Cause when he lit a cigarette in almost every scene. We certainly can’t forget the Marlboro Man, the rugged cowboy who always had a cigarette in his hand.

When I was in high school, we couldn’t wait to start smoking. We were convinced it would make us look like grownups, and as soon as we were able, we started lighting up. For the most part our parents told us we shouldn’t smoke but since they were smokers themselves that really didn’t carry a lot of weight with us.

But it’s easy to understand why my cigarettes fell out of favor. Health warnings in the early 1960s helped to discourage people from smoking and the widely reported scientific studies linking it to cancer that occurred in the 1970s and 80s further lessened its popularity. Smoking is no longer looked upon as sophisticated or elegant. It is looked upon as deadly.

The popularity of wine is also interesting. In the early 1900s wine was considered the province of the upper classes. It was served at white tie dinners by formally attired butlers. It had an aura of aristocracy. Average people seldom had wine at home.

Prohibition almost destroyed the wine industry in the United States with only a few wineries receiving an exemption for sacramental wine. (It was good to be Catholic during prohibition.) After prohibition, the wine business initially did not recover in the United States. It wasn’t until the 1970s when a few wineries from California started challenging the Europeans that wine started gaining any popularity. We only have to remember that for years the term that was used to refer to a “Skid Row drunk” was wineo. The only people who use that term now are wine aficionados. We use it jokingly to refer to ourselves to try and offset the wine snob image.

Wine has reached an almost cult status now. It’s become not only popular but ubiquitous in any group that considers itself to be “with it”. The craft beer phenomenon is a natural follow on using many of the same terms and rituals. It has also created a new generation of beer snobs.

So, what is next? I wish I could predict. I’d start investing now. Using the principle that what was old will be new, I’m going to take a guess and say that vinyl records will make a comeback. Or is that already happening? Good thing us geezers never get rid of anything.

The Word

By John Turley

On May 25, 2021

In Commentary

Biblical:

In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. It was good. The people were pleased.

Political:

In the beginning was the word. The word was changed. The change was revised. The revision was amended. The amendment was edited. The edit was deleted. The deletion was suspended. The suspension was removed. The removal was superseded. It was confusing. The people were not pleased.

Take what you will from the insights of The Grumpy Doc.

What is it about ramps?

By John Turley

On May 23, 2021

In Appalachia

Continuing my reminiscences about growing up in West Virginia I’m going to visit the subject of ramps. For those of you who haven’t been blessed to live in Appalachia, ramps are a type of wild leek in the onion family. They have a very pungent flavor that is like a highly garlicky, sulfureous onion. They have a short season in the spring and are highly prized by those who enjoy them.

If you think politics can be contentious, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen the disagreements about ramps. You either hate ramps or you love ramps. There is no middle ground and almost no one is neutral on the subject.

Those unfamiliar with ramps might think, “If you don’t like them, just don’t eat them.” Well, it’s just not that simple. If you think garlic or onions can give you bad breath, just standby.

Ramps may give you the harshest breath that you’ve ever experienced. But that’s not the worst part. The odor of ramps will radiate from your body for several days. Despite much folklore about the best ways to rid your body of the odor, the only thing that works is the passage of time.

I can remember many years ago when I was in school, kids who would eat too many ramps sometimes would be sent home because the odor was just too much to bear in a closed classroom. There were times when I thought eating ramps might be worth it if I got a day off school. Ultimately, I decided maybe school wasn’t so bad.

The spring of my senior year in high school a buddy and I decided to go to Richwood for the annual ramp festival. Richwood sits in a river valley and as we started down the hill, we could see a haze hanging over the town. As we got closer to the festival site I was almost driven back. I grew up in a town with several chemical plants so I thought I was used to bad odors in the air, but was I ever wrong. The only thing that kept us going was free beer. We had both just turned 18 and could legally drink.

Even the federal government has declared ramps to be a public nuisance. The editor of the Richwood weekly newspaper once mixed ramp juice with the ink for a special edition. The smell was so bad the post office refused to deliver the paper and destroyed all the copies in its possession.

People who love ramps talk about the many ways to cook them. In the spring in West Virginia restaurants seem to compete for new ways to prepare ramps during the few weeks they are available. They have ramp burgers, ramp pimento cheese, ramp jelly and ramp omelets. There has even been the misguided ramp infused wine. It seems to me that most recipes involve ways to disguise the flavor of ramps.

It’s not just when they’re cooked that they put off an objectionable odor. Even raw they can be hard to deal with. I was out in the country with my brother and his wife when she decided to pick some ramps (leaves only, the bulb is left to grow next year’s crop). Let me say I was glad we drove out separately. He said it was at least three days before the smell of ramps was cleared from the car. He joked that while ramps may not be grounds for divorce, they certainly could be grounds for temporary separation.

If you love ramps, I hope you enjoy them. Just make sure everyone else has enough warning to avoid you during ramp season. And that is The Grumpy Doc’s opinion about ramps. Be sure and leave a comment with yours.

Learning to Love Abstract Art

By John Turley

On May 15, 2021

In Art

I have to admit that I came late in life to appreciating abstract art. Early on, I thought it was the type of art done by people who had no artistic ability. My general impression was that it was probably done better by a 12 year old.

I was in my late 50s before my wife, who was extremely interested in art, got me involved in an art appreciation group called The Collectors Club at the Clay Center in Charleston. At that time, I still wasn’t convinced that abstract art was really art. I was more inclined to art such as the great masters like Rembrandt and Caravaggio, or the French impressionists like Renoir and Monet or the post impressionists like Cezanne and Van Gogh. While I still think that Van Gogh was one of the world’s greatest artistic geniuses, I have learned to appreciate other styles as well.

For a long time, I thought abstract art could be done by anyone with a can of paint and a brush. I’m ashamed to say I was not shy about expressing my opinions about abstract art. While this included such recognized masters as Picasso and Miro from the early 20th century; my specific scorn was held for the mid-century artists known as abstract expressionists.

I will now admit that I was completely wrong about this. And for those of you who know me, you know how hard it is for someone as opinionated as I am to admit to being wrong. But my wife, as she most frequently is, was right about this. It just took me awhile to recognize it.

We began going to art exhibits and museums and saw a lot of mid-century art. Initially I was resistant to it. My thought was that if I can do it, then it certainly can’t be art. And I really thought that I could do it.

The specific target of my scorn was Jackson Pollock and his drip paintings. At the time, I didn’t realize that he was a formally trained artist who had even studied under the famed muralist Thomas Hart Benton. He was adept at sculpture and ceramics in addition to representational works in oil.

When I finally took the time to truly examine his drip paintings, I recognized that there was something there. I just couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.

I thought, just to satisfy myself, I would give it a try. I bought some canvases and put them on the garage floor. Since many of the abstract expressionists worked with house paint, I bought several different colors of enamel house paint. I also bought a stylus similar to what Jackson Pollock used. I laid out my canvas and began to drip the paint.

I was really surprised, but his paintings had a coherence and a uniformity and a visual impact that I could not achieve. No matter how many times I tried I could not get my paintings to look like anything other than a drip cloth.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this. I decided this form of abstract art required a talent I didn’t understand. It was more than just paint poured on the canvas. It was paint poured on a canvas with a purpose. It created an effect that I could feel but couldn’t duplicate.

My initial thought was if I can do it, it is not art. Since I couldn’t, maybe it was art. The more I reviewed it, the more I realized that there was a plan, a vision, and a feeling that produced an overall sensory experience. This was not something that occurred by chance. It was something created by a person with an artistic vision I didn’t have.

I may not have convinced you, but I have convinced myself. This is art. Look at it with an unprejudiced view and you may come to recognize it as well. It is never too late to learn about something new, even if that something is 70 years old. Try it, you just might like. Call me; we can talk about it.

Doctor Google Will See You Now

By John Turley

On May 7, 2021

In Medicine

There are few words that cause more trepidation among doctors than having a patient start off a visit by saying, “I was reading on the internet”. It’s not that we don’t want our patients to be well informed; a knowledgeable patient is an important part of successful health care. It is what we call the therapeutic alliance.

What we worry about is what they may have been reading on the Internet. There is a lot of good information available, and I always encourage my patients to learn as much as they can about their own health issues. There are many professionally researched and peer reviewed medical websites. They include such commercial sites as Medscape and WebMD. They also include patient advocacy sites such as the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. And, of course, there are the government sites such as the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. All these present the best available science and benefit from rigorous research and review.

That is not to say that they won’t change. Science evolves and knowledge improves. What is our best knowledge now may at some point in the future be proven wrong. However, your best chance of getting solid information is on these well documented sites.

What I worry about are the undocumented or unverified websites that provide what can best be called rumor or conspiracy. Any time a patient tells me,” I was reading on the Facebook page “The Truth About….,” I cringe. Any Facebook page entitled “The Truth About…” is unlikely to contain much truth.

False information takes on a life of its own on the internet. The big lie almost always buries the truth. Long after the article that was the basis for a false claim linking the MMR vaccine with autism was withdrawn by the British medical journal The Lancet, and long after the physician who wrote the article was found by the British General Medical Council to have falsified the data and long after he lost his medical license, the study is still quoted by many anti-vaccine people as being a fundamental truth.

Even when the authors of such false information repudiate it, people still believe it. It becomes part of the legend that “they” forced the author to remove it. No one ever explains who “they” are or why “they” want to keep the public in ignorance. Of course, there is never any source documentation or research reference.

The websites espousing false medical information may be second in number only to that espousing false political information. At times it seems that the more outlandish the claim the more readily their adherents believe it. It doesn’t even seem to matter that this type of information is frequently published anonymously. You would think the readers would wonder why a person in possession of such great knowledge would refuse to take credit for it. I have often thought that if I anonymously posted on the internet that everyone who has ever drank water has died, that suddenly a large portion of the population would stop drinking water.

So, in closing, I just want to say I want all my patients to be well informed and take an active interest in their health care. And I encourage you to Google any medical questions you have. Just be sure that what you are reading is accurate and verified and scientifically based. Don’t allow conspiracy theories and “crackpot science” to have a detrimental effect on your health.

If in doubt, ask your doctor. If you don’t trust your doctor to give you factual information and prefer to consult with the anonymous pseudo medical websites then perhaps it’s time to find a new doctor. But please, think twice before disregarding the advice of someone whose entire professional life is dedicated to your good health.

Benjamin Franklin, From Reconciliation to Revolution

By John Turley

On May 5, 2021

In History

Franklin stands before the Lords in Council

I love studying about history, particularly the entire revolutionary period in America. The revolutionary period, as distinguished from the Revolutionary War includes the events that led up to “the shot heard ‘round the world”. This period is generally considered to begin with the Sugar Act of 1764 and end with the Treaty of Paris in in 1783. When I find something new, I love sharing it.

When considering an American icon like Benjamin Franklin it is hard to come up with something new, something interesting, something that everyone does not already know. Most people know the basic outline of his life. He was born the last of 10 children to a poor tallow renderer and his wife in Boston. His formal education lasted little more than a year. Until age nine he worked for his father making candles and soap from rendered animal fat. He was then apprenticed to his older brother’s print shop.

He rebelled against his brother’s tyrannical treatment and ran away to Philadelphia. After much hard work and several failures, he developed a successful printing business. He was one of the first businessmen in America to create what we now know as a franchised business.

He was so successful that by age 42 he retired from the active day to day management of his businesses and devoted himself to the pursuit of knowledge. He was largely self-taught but still became an esteemed scientist, known at that time as a natural philosopher. He was the first North American to be invited to join the Royal Academy of Science.

He spent a large portion of his adult life in Europe, particularly in England. He once told a friend he would be happy to spend the rest of his life in London. One of the few things that kept drawing him back to Philadelphia was his long-suffering wife Deborah who had a fear of ships and the sea and refused to accompany him to London.

Early on the road to revolution Benjamin Franklin strongly favored reconciliation with the monarchy. Some radical Patriots were suspicious of him and thought that he was a spy for the British. He believed that if only the King were aware of the misfortunes of his North American subjects, he would make things right and that would be best for all.

Franklin took a position in London as an agent for the colonies of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia. A colonial agent was something like a combination ambassador, publicist, and lobbyist. He frequently met with the Privy Council, an advisory group to the King, to discuss issues of importance to the colonies.

While Franklin was serving as an agent for Massachusetts, the colony’s citizens became increasingly dissatisfied with the Royal Governor, Thomas Hutchinson and wanted him recalled. Hutchinson and his Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver exchanged a series of letters concerning the best ways to control dissent in Massachusetts that included suggestions that some of the colonists “English liberties” such as the rights to assembly, trial by jury and petition of grievances, should be curtailed.

Franklin made an appointment to meet with the Privy Council to present the recall petition. The Privy Council met in a room in the House of Parliament called the cockpit. It got its name because during the reign of Henry VIII cock fights were held in the room.

Franklin was excited about the prospect of meeting with the Privy Council. So much so that he had a brand-new suit of blue velvet made for the occasion. He presented himself to the Privy Council on January 29, 1774, expecting to present his petition for the recall of the Royal Governor and expecting to have it well received. He assumed that the royal government would welcome the opportunity to support the rights of its American subjects.

However, he was unprepared for the reception he received. He was unaware that members of the Privy Council had discovered his role in the release of the Hutchinson letters, and he had no idea how angry they were about it.

I’ll take a brief pause here to introduce Alexander Wedderburn, the British solicitor general, the crown’s representative to the legal system. In court Wedderburn was considered a combative speaker and his aggressiveness in debate was well known. He was arrogant and condescending and held the colonies in contempt. So, why do we care about this now obscure British politician? Because he was responsible for creating one of the most important of American patriots.

When Franklin arrived at the cockpit, he was required to stand in the middle of the room. It resembled a theater in the round with Franklin alone at the center. He was not allowed to speak or to present his petition.

Lord Wedderburn spoke for over an hour and never addressed Franklin’s petition but attacked Franklin’s character instead. He accused Franklin of spreading sedition and inciting treason. Through it all, Franklin stood completely still, emotionless and silent, his expression unchanging.

After his attack on Franklin, Wedderburn declared that he was ready to examine the witness. Franklin replied that he did not choose to be examined. He then left the chamber. After the chamber was cleared of spectators, the Privy Council denied the petition without discussion.

The personal attack left Franklin in shock. He was a proud man and was not accustomed to attacks on his honor. The next day he learned that he had been removed from this position as colonial postmaster, Not only had his character been attacked, but his work for reconciliation had been ignored and his contribution to efficient government in the colonies had been disregarded.

This may have been one of the least known but most important events on the road to the Revolution. Prior to Franklin’s ordeal in the cockpit, he had been a strong proponent of reconciliation. After the cockpit he would work tirelessly for American independence.

As a note of interest, the suit he had made for this visit was put away and not worn again until the day France signed the Treaty of Alliance with a rebellious American government.

Without Franklin’s insight and involvement, the America that we take for granted may never have come into existence. He played a key role in convincing France to support the side of the colonies, in obtaining loans from the French and the Dutch and in negotiating the final peace treaties. He also attended the constitutional convention, proving a tempering presence to the frequently contentious deliberations. (More on the constitutional convention in a later post.)

So, in closing, when you thank those responsible for American independence, be sure and thank Lord Wedderburn, and do so with a smile.

I would be remiss not to recognize my two main sources for this post:

The Making of a Patriot: Benjamin Franklin at the Cockpit by Sheila Skemp

Benjamin Franklin: an American Life by Walter Isaacson

I highly recommend both books to anyone with an interest in American history or biography. As I quoted in my first post, “To define the future you should study the past.”

If you would like to read a more detailed version of this post, email TheGrumpyDocWV@gmail.com

Coffee and Cars

By John Turley

On May 4, 2021

In Commentary

Can it get any better than this?

My daughter shared this with me after my last two posts. I initially thought this was some type of clever photoshop product. But, after some admittedly superficial research, it appears that this was a actual option offered by VW in Europe in 1959. I don’t know how many they actually sold, but I sure would have bought one.

Take that Tesla. You think you’re so high tech. Elon, with a self driving car it would be a lot easier to brew coffee.