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This is an archive collection of entries from my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.
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This collection of entries is from July 2007.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Making a mil... on a practical jokeOK... so... you're a dentist... you're an office prankster... and you're working on your assistant... and she's out cold, under anesthesia...
So... you implant fake boar's tusks in her mouth and take a few pictures... some with her eyes propped open.... before you pull out the fake tusks and do the rest of the real procedure.
The pictures make it around the office, she's devastated, quits, and sues the dentist.
The dentist's insurance company refuses to cover the claim, so the dentist pays her $250,000 out of his pocket, then turns around and sues the insurance company for not covering the claim.
AND WINS.
Not only was the insurance company ordered to pay the original claim, they also have to pay the dentist $750,000.
Dentist Wins Case Over Tusks in Mouth
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Dentist Wins Case Over Tusks in Mouth
By DAVID AMMONS
The Associated Press
Friday, July 27, 2007; 2:43 PM
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- An oral surgeon who temporarily implanted fake boar tusks in his assistant's mouth as a practical joke and got sued for it has gotten the state's high court to back up his gag.
Dr. Robert Woo of Auburn had put in the phony tusks while the woman was under anesthesia for a different procedure. He took them out before she awoke, but he first shot photos that eventually made it around the office.
The employee, Tina Alberts, felt so humiliated when she saw the pictures that she quit and sued her boss.
Woo's insurance company, Fireman's Fund, refused to cover the claim, saying the practical joke was intentional and not a normal business activity his insurance policy covered, so Woo settled out of court. He agreed to pay Alberts $250,000, then he sued his insurers.
A King County Superior Court jury sided with Woo, ordering Fireman's Fund to pay him $750,000, plus the out-of-court settlement. The insurance company won the next round, with the state Court of Appeals saying the prank had nothing to do with Woo's practice of dentistry. On Thursday, the state Supreme Court restored Woo's award.
In a sprightly 5-4 decision, Supreme Court Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote that Woo's practical joke was an integral, if odd, part of the assistant's dental surgery and "conceivably" should trigger the professional liability coverage of his policy.
Dissenting Justice James Johnson said the prank wasn't a dental procedure at all and only "rewards Dr. Woo's obnoxious behavior and allows him to profit handsomely."
The back story, the court wrote, is that Alberts' family raises potbellied pigs and that she frequently talked about them at the office where she worked for five years.
Woo said his jests about the pigs were part of "a friendly working environment" that he tried to foster.
The oral surgery on Alberts was intended to replace two of her teeth with implants, which Woo did. First, though, he installed temporary bridges that he had shaped to look like boar tusks, and while Alberts was still under anesthesia, he took photos, some with her eyes propped open. Before she woke up, he removed the "tusks" and put in the proper replacement teeth.
Woo says he didn't personally show her the pictures but staffers gave her copies at a birthday party.
Woo's lawyer, Richard Kilpatrick, described the surgeon as a kindhearted, fun-loving man who was chagrined that an office prank turned out so badly. He was delighted with the high court's decision, Kilpatrick said.
Attorneys for the insurance company did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
© 2007 The Associated Press « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 09:24 AM | Link | Odd | Care to comment? | § |
Sunday, July 29, 2007
White Sox 1 - Blue Jays 4
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Uuugghh...
Well, 2-out-of-3.
At least we got to see Thumbelina before the game.
Another fast game - 2:21. Guess that happens when nobody scores for 7 innings. I seem to have a problem with Javier Vazquez. Now, I know he's a really hot pitcher right now, but I've been feeling that he just can't go long anymore... he feels like he just falls apart, and is very inconsistent. Ozzie came out to the mound for a visit in the 8th... and when I saw Ozzie leave, I said that was a mistake. Sure enough, 4 runs later (well, 2 were earned, and one scored when Bukvich came in, another pitcher I'd rather not see again).
Oh, and I have to say... it was nice to see Frank Thomas again... and it was nice to have the crowd give him a warm welcome... 503 homeruns in his career so far (448 with the White Sox over 16 seasons)
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 04:43 PM | Link | White Sox | Care to comment? | § |
Saturday, July 28, 2007
White Sox 2 - Blue Jays 0
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In a season that is just the crappiest baseball season that I could remember in years... decades perhaps... tonight was a game that was really quite enjoyable.
First the weather - it's seems like ages since we've been to a game and actually sat in our seats... a great night, cloudless, mid-70's.. OK, a little breezy, but a good night.
To add to that - a great pitching matchup: Roy Halladay against our Mark Buehrle.
It was just a low scoring, fast paced game... pretty well played, I think (yes there were errors on both sides) and.. yes.. we left 9 guys on base. But, hey, it was just nice to really enjoy a good baseball game.
Somehow I felt we were owed that.
Now... if you could call this a negative, and normally I would never do that, the game was short: 2:07.
Now WHY OH WHY would that be a negative? It's fireworks night... hard to enjoy fireworks when the sky is still light.
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 09:34 PM | Link | White Sox | Care to comment? | § |
Thursday, July 26, 2007
The standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule ???OK... first we had crazy astronauts...
...now we have DRUNK astronauts... on the shuttle... before launch
From a magazine I subscribe to:
Aviation Week & Space Technology... said that the committee found that on at least two occasions, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so intoxicated that they posed a flight-safety risk.
posted at 03:41 PM | Link | Space | Care to comment? | § |
Grim ReapurrrrrDo you remember a show on Showtime called "Dead Like Me"? It was a favorite of ours, a great show about... grim reapers. The concept is the reapers must take the souls of people before the actually die so they can "move on". I know, it sounds grim, but the show was anything but.
Anyway, there was an article published in, of all publications, The New England Journal of Medicine about a cat that lives at a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island. I thought it was odd that a nursing home would own a cat, but then I remembered that animals do have a therapeutic affect on the elderly. And I thought it was VERY odd to have a story about a cat in The New England Journal of Medicine.
But, you see, Oscar lives on the third floor - the dementia unit.
Oscar goes on his own rounds each day... he has his own schedule, and he MUST visit each patient. If a door is closed, he waits to go in. He jumps onto the bed of each patient and surveys them. Most times after his survey he will jump down and move on to the next bed.
But, there are times when Oscar will curl up beside the patient.. and wait.
The staff knows that if Oscar is found laying next to a patient, they have to act quickly. The staff will start making phone calls. To the family.
Because, within about 4 hours, the patient will be dead. Oscar keeps them company until they pass. The staff calls the family to inform them that the time has come and gives them the opportunity to be with the patient for the last time.
When the patient takes his last breath, Oscar gets up, looks around, and leaves.
Coincidence? Look, I would say that... but if it happens a few times, you start to wonder.
But this cat has done this... 25 TIMES.
If anyone ever saw "Dead Like Me", you'd be convinced Oscar was a reaper.
The New England Journal of Medicine - A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat
posted at 03:08 PM | Link | Mundane | Care to comment? | § |
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Soda does... what???So... as I sit here with my bottle of Diet Pepsi, comes word that this bottle is really bad for me. It doesn't matter what's inside, exactly... since it's a carbonated soft drink... pop... soda.. whatever you call it...
It doesn't matter that I drink the diet version because the lack of carbs is good for my Type 2 Diabetes...
... but then there's this report of a study...
Apparently, if I drink one or more soft drinks a day (which I certainly do) I would have a more than 50 percent higher risk of developing the heart disease precursor metabolic syndrome than people who drink less than one soda a day - diet soda or not, it doesn't matter.
The study, in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, looked at more than 6,000 healthy people, who showed no signs of metabolic syndrome, and then followed up. After four years, 53 percent of people who drank an average of one or more soft drinks per day developed metabolic syndrome. Those who drank one or more diet soft drinks a day were at a 44 percent higher risk.
So... nobody knows the "why" behind this. Not the carbs, not the calories... so... what is it?
posted at 01:18 PM | Link | Health | Care to comment? | § |
When somebody just doesn't get "it"...OK... so...
...is it wrong to think that somewhere... someone... has started a Dead Pool... for Lindsay Lohan?
I mean, in my opinion, she's gone through all of this "alleged" rehab... and she has no one ... and I mean NO ONE... that is stepping-up to help this girl...
so...it's just a MATTER OF TIME... when she is going to KILL someone with her vehicle... perhaps even HERSELF...
No rehab will help her if she has no support in her life (yeah, like her own family are good role models)... it's obvious that she doesn't get "it"...
... and I don't believe I was actually compelled to even blog about this...
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Kwik-E-MartI drove into the city this afternoon.. I just HAD TO GO to... the Kwik-E-Mart
Not the 7-Eleven.. there's enough of them out here for that... over 6,000 ... no... the Kwik-E-Mart
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Since July 2, 7-Eleven has transformed 12 (11 in the U.S... there's that one in Canada) of its convenience stores into caricatures of the Kwik-E-Mart widely recognized as part of a promotion for the soon-to-be-released "The Simpsons Movie." And it's only going to last until the end of the month...
Out of the 11 converted 7-Elevens in the entire country, ONE is here in Chicago (the others: New York City; Dallas; Denver; Burbank, Calif.; Los Angeles; Henderson, Nev.; Orlando, Fla.; Mountain View, Calif.; Seattle; and Bladensburg, Md.)
WHAT a WONDERFUL trip and experience!!!
First of all, it's hard to comprehend any company that would be willing to replace ALL of it's logos and its very image for an animated movie, and yet that's what they did. The place was SWARMING with fans, starting in the parking lot.. gathering to take pictures of the main Kwik-E-Mart sign (looking as if it were hand-drawn on a tarp over the old 7-Eleven sign)... the exterior re-painted... new signage... every logo on the glass covered with the Kwik-E-Mart logo.
Inside the store was a madhouse, and yet somehow no where near out of control. People walking the aisles... looking at the signs... looking for products...
Up front was CASES and CASES of Buzz Cola against the glass... I grabbed two cans... over a row of just Simpsons trinkets (bobbleheads, talking pens, shorts?).
I was sent with only one request from Carol, one that I could EASILY satisfy judging by the display case toward the back of the store - pink donuts with sprinkles. (I grabbed 4 and put them in a bag... along with my 4 cans of Buzz Cola)
I couldn't help it.. I was looking around .. taking pictures of anything that jumped out at me as odd...
Back in the corner, I could see it... a soda fountain dispenser, with a big add on the face for Buzz Cola...
And next to it, something I couldn't pass up -
the Squishee Machine...
piles of Squishee cups, too... this had to be the busiest spot in the store... must... get... a Squishee... got a cup.. wait.. if I put a cup OVER the cup, no one would know.. and I could save the cup... mmmmm...
Went to the checkout counter. On the front was rows and rows of radioactive Man comic books... Had to get a few of those too... as I balanced the Squishee... cans of Buzz... donuts...
What a FUN place to be, if only for a few weeks... before it disappears again into the 7-Eleven landscape..
« hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 05:28 PM | Link | | Care to comment? | § |
Sunday, July 08, 2007
White Sox 6 - Twins 3
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Gametime temperature - 90... I think that was a lie, only because we saw a thermometer on the way home that said 100. MUCH windier today, too
Still hot upstairs... went back down to the Rain Room for two passes today.
So... we won again today, and wound up actually splitting the 4 game series! I NEVER would have thought that possible after Friday night.
Javier Vasquez threw another complete game. Three homeruns by Mackowiak, Thome and Konerko.
After the last out, we see camera shots of Mark Buehrle, out of the dugout, waving to the fans. Of course, the Stadium Club people in charge of the audio/video feed to the room SUCK BIG TIME, and we couldn't hear what was going on, but in the light of the trade rumors, the rumors about an impasse in his contract talks... it was hard to interpret what was going on... was he waving goodbye to the Chicago fans? was he waving saying "well thanks for the support on the first half... hope to see ya in the second half"?
The scoreboard in left field finally displayed the announcement, that apparently Gene Honda was reading of the stadium P.A. :
MARK BUEHRLE AND THE CHICAGO
WHITE SOX HAVE AGREED ON
A FOUR-YEAR CONTRACT
EXTENSION THIS AFTERNOON THAT
WILL KEEP MARK
IN A SOX UNIFORM
So, here we are at the All-Star break - 36-47 (.453), 13 games behind 1st place Detroit (Cleveland is in 2nd, just a game back, and Minnesota - that we just split with - is ahead of us 8 games back... oh... and Kansas City is in last behind us, 2 games back from us)
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:05 PM | Link | White Sox | Care to comment? | § |
Saturday, July 07, 2007
White Sox 3 - Twins 1
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VERY HARD to get excited about going to the game today. VERY HARD. I'll start first by saying that the weather is going to be bad this weekend, and it should have been in the 90's for the start of the game (though the boxscore says gametime was 85 degrees). It was going to be miserable, so we made reservations for the Stadium Club Bar, on the glass for great views. Both days, since tomorrow would be even hotter.
Well... let's talk about the other reason(s) why making the pilgrimage to the park is difficult. We're 37-47 coming into today - 10 games under .500 - a stark difference from the World Series year, or even being in contention last year. In 4th place in the division, 13 games behind the leader.
To add insult to injury, the team played two games yesterday, the first being a makeup from a freeze-out in early April. Talking about frozen... the score of the first game yesterday? 20-14. You didn't read that wrong - it was 2 runs shy of tying the American League record for Total Runs in a Game at 36. Normally, 14 runs is enough to kill your opponent - not yesterday. It got out of hand when starting pitcher Jon Garland only made it through 3 1/3 innings throwing 90 pitches to 25 batters, giving up 11 earned runs (12 total), 2 homeruns, 3 walks and not a single strikeout. Oh, the team not only gave up 20 runs but 21 hits, 8 walks (ooooo! 1 strikeout!) and 5 errors. And we still scored 14 runs, and had the bases loaded in the 9th.
So, you would think: put that behind you the second game will be different. We lose the second game 12-0. NO RUNS... 5 hits.
Between two games, we lost 32-14.
And you wonder why we didn't want to go to the game today? The Stadium Club was warm, and there was no air circulation against the glass where we were... we just kept drinking water, having the server bring us glasses of ice. During the course of the game I went downstairs and took a quick dash through the Rain Room to get wet and cool off. I noticed, however, when I was downstairs that it really didn't feel all that bad... I mean, it was hot, but there was a slight breeze... and just having the air move made it feel better...
Speaking of feeling better, the Sox WON the game 3-1. Mark Buehrle had a solid outing. We won, but it felt bittersweet as Buehrle has been the subject of MANY rumors about his contract negotiotions... and with him being the pitching star of the team, and the team doing so poorly, It would be hard to not deal him to get something back to put this tam back together.
But we WON... today.
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 08:05 PM | Link | White Sox | Care to comment? | § |
07/07/07Woke up this morning... and had forgotten about the date today. The Today Show was talking about the significance of this day... and at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas where over 700 weddings were scheduled for today alone... and in Chinese culture 8 is the lucky number, not 7, so China announced that the Beijing Summer Olympics will start on 08/08/08 at 8:00pm...
I rolled around in bed for a bit, scanning through the satellite guide... and stumbled on to the Sundance Channel and saw that they were covering the Live Earth concert, apparently since it started this morning in Australia (it's running 24 hours with concert venues on all 7 continents, in the cities of New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, and Hamburg ... and the British Antarctic Research Station in Antarctica where Nunatak, the band of the British Scientific Team played, just to make sure all the continents were covered)... I'll have to watch some of this... maybe grab some audio so that I can listen to it when I want ... the other interesting aspect of this event, even though it's all about saving the planet, saving the future, reducing our carbon footprints... was watching the acts at these venues... many are local to the region, so I have no clue on what I am watching...
UPDATE: Would you believe MSN has clips of every single act at every single venue? You can pull up any of them and watch... even if you never got the chance to watch them broadcast on the feed in your country... even if you don't have a clue who they are ... Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis
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The Live Earth Pledge
I Pledge:
To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral;”
To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;
To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;
To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;
To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,
To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century. « hide the extended part of this entry
Monday, July 02, 2007
I am SO HAPPY that I don't drive here anymore...ummm... I heard about it this morning, and I'm so happy I didn't hear about it yesterday... not to mention being happy to NOT HAVE TO DRIVE THROUGH THIS...
A busy section of highway was closed for seven hours Sunday after a truck tipped over and spilled pig ears, pig feet and grease.
I
CAN'T
IMAGINE...
posted at 08:22 AM | Link | Odd | 1 comment | § |
Sunday, July 01, 2007
*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*First of the month, first words today - "Rabbit, Rabbit!" said out loud for luck... (with two nose wiggles from our two bunnies)
... pausing to hear the echo in the empty room, wondering if there's anybody out there still visiting, still reading...
...after 5 years, 5 years of a mundane life, I'm having so much problem trying to get the motivation to write anything here... I still want to write, I just haven't found the motivation... and then there's the issue of trying to find something to write about... somehow I have to find something to write more often...
posted at 07:35 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |
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That's it for the entries in this particular Archive of my blog. If you want, you can look through other entries by selecting the links in the right-hand column of this page under either Archives by Month or Archives by Category, or you can search the site for specific keywords by using the Search page.
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