Weekend review.

[rivka]

Library book sale this weekend. Sadly, I completely misestimated the amount I was spending. When it rang up as $4.99, I realized that I had culled way too much from my pile - I could have bought a lot more. But by then it was too late.

It's hard for me to tell if I'm going to like a mainstream novel or not. I went over tables and tables of them without picking much of anything up. With SF and fantasy and mystery, I can often even pick up good clues about whether something is worth looking at from the title and book jacket. With mainstream novels, even the blurbs don't necessarily help me. I keep checking things out from the library and not liking them very much.

---

We've started watching House so that we can fit in with the rest of my friends list. I like the show - bitter sarcasm can carry me a long way - but I can't help wondering:

Am I really supposed to believe that the reason this guy is constantly on the brink of being fired is because he's nonconformist and insubordinate, rather than, for example, because he almost kills every single patient via a succession of incorrect diagnoses?

---

I went to Whole Foods to stock up on baby food and organic frozen vegetables, and was captivated by a display of tiny live Christmas trees. I've been debating whether the pleasure of having a tree this year would be overwhelmed by the hassle of keeping Alex away from it. (At least by next year she should understand what "no" means, even if she doesn't pay much attention.) I bought a little 18" pine for our dining room table. Now poor curiousangel has to dig through the massive piles of junk in our storage area to find the buried Christmas ornaments.

---

After Michael gave Alex her bath, I came down to help get her ready for bed. She looked up and saw me coming down the stairs. Her face broke into a grin... and she clapped. Clapped with excitement because Mama was coming.

I am not ashamed to admit that I cried. And asked her if she wanted me to buy her a Corvette.

Comments

[eeyorerin]

Am I really supposed to believe that the reason this guy is constantly on the brink of being fired is because he's nonconformist and insubordinate, rather than, for example, because he almost kills every single patient via a succession of incorrect diagnoses?

Oh, thank God it's not just me. I've been wondering that for ages. Also, I keep wondering: who in the US has health insurance that would pay for all those tests and treatments? (I like the show too, but.)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I am not ashamed to admit that I cried. And asked her if she wanted me to buy her a Corvette.

*laughing with delight*
:):):)

As for House, hey, I don't want *reality* in my escapism! :)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The point was made in the most recent episode that 40% of the hospital's malpractice suits involve Dr. House. He's on the brink of being fired because he's nonconformist and abrasive and insubordinate in dangerous ways. Dr. Cuddy is the only person to give him a chance because she believes, rightly so far, that he's enough of a genius at diagnosis to override his basic suckitude in almost all doctorly skills except diagnosis.

There's also been some speculation that there's a meta-case going on -- that, as time goes on, they give more and more subtle clues that something else is going on with House himself -- that he's deteriorating or SOMETHING like that, and that the real challenge here is going to be noticing that something is wrong with House and fixing it before he DOES kill a patient.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

There may well be a meta-case going on, but my position is that House's incorrect diagnoses are are a structural artifact of the TV drama format.

There's nothing inherently dramatic about all the times House sucessfully diagnoses someone. While the show's writers can make some open-and-shut cases interesting, simple cases in which House is right are strictly B-plots-- there's not enough dramatic potential to hang a show on any one of them. House and his team doing differential diagnoses that are incorrect but reveal new symptoms through treatment, however, can sustain the backbone of a show (and obviously has, repeatedly). That's the show's basic formula, equivalent to the X-Files' "monster of the week" episodes. It's the template that makes it possible to produce over 100 shows (which is the magic number for syndication, where the real money is... or at least used to be, before DVD sales began affecting TV's business model).

The writers also have a fairly good excuse for why House doesn't bore the viewers by reeling off correct diagnosis after correct diagnosis: It bores him, too, so he seeks out cases no one else can solve (and which even he needs several tries to clinch).

I don't know if thinking about the show differently would help people who are focused the obvious real-world consequences of this kind of behavior look past it, but House is essentially a police procedural transplanted into a medical setting. The show's creator has even admitted that the character of Gregory House is a transparent riff on Sherlock Holmes (antisocial genius investigator, drug addiction, only one close friend, minions who do his footwork for him). The only fly in the ointment (as noted) is that in the typical police procedural, you don't have a patient who nearly dies every time your working hypothesis turns out to be wrong. With House, if there's no patient, there's no show.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Dr. Cuddy is the only person to give him a chance because she believes, rightly so far, that he's enough of a genius at diagnosis to override his basic suckitude in almost all doctorly skills except diagnosis.


I know, and yet I continue to maintain that it is not a sign of a good diagnostician to repeatedly treat patients for the wrong diagnosis before hitting on the right one. "He's a genius diagnostician! 75% of his diagnoses are dangerously wrong!"

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Awwww. :)

We use 4' high redwood trees (live) on a table. Dogs chew ornaments.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

So, did she say yes?

Unrequested Geek Answer Syndrome

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I've been debating whether the pleasure of having a tree this year would be overwhelmed by the hassle of keeping Alex away from it.

My parents used a playpen to keep me away from the tree.

They put the tree in the playpen, and let me roam.

Re: Unrequested Geek Answer Syndrome

[tracicle.livejournal.com]

Same here. We did this for Ethan his first Christmas. He was 11 months old and completely mobile, but we (read: I) had to have a tree. Playpens are great.

Other friends tied the top of the tree to the ceiling or wall so if it was knocked over, it wouldn't actually fall.

Re: Unrequested Geek Answer Syndrome

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I am utterly tickled to be receiving parenting advice from you, Janet. ;-)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Misoverestimated!

[beaq.livejournal.com]

I like your weekends.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I figured I'd just let him climb it. When he pokes himself, then maybe he'll stop picking at it. No? Heh.

What a cute little poo-face she is.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

We had a big 8 foot tree last year, and had no real problems with Liam messing with it at all. This year... well, let's just say that I'm glad we're going to Florida for the holidays, so won't be putting up a tree. Hopefully by next year he'll be more able to understand limits...

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe I'm wrong. But she's just started pulling up, and she's chewing on everything, and it seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. We'll see how she does with my parents' tree.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Ahh, hadn't realized Ms Alex was so precocious compared to Mr Liam. I looked back in my LJ to see if I wrote about him attacking the tree at all, and realized that he'd just started crawling at the beginning of December, so wasn't at the pulling up phase at Christmas. That would be a disaster waiting to happen, you're right.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She's just started crawling, too, so I don't think she's especially precocious. Much more of her attention goes towards STANDING STANDING STANDING than crawling.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Given the amount of time they dedicate to figuring out how to crawl, once they get there they certainly don't stop to relish the moment. Checking my LJ archive, it appears that Liam started crawling on Dec 2, and pulled up for the first time Christmas Day.