Minor Surgery

What is minor surgery? Minor surgery is surgery that happens to someone else. Unless that someone else is your child. My nine year old son is scheduled for surgery in the morning. He is scheduled to have a tympanoplasty. What is a tymponaplasty you wonder? It's a fancy word to describe the creation of a new ear drum from a piece of skin removed from the back of his ear lobe.

It will be the second time he's had this surgery but the first time he was only three and didn't realize what was happening. This time he is fully aware of what is happening and is scared. I know from an objective standpoint how simple the surgery is for a skilled surgeon. We have complete confidence in Dr. Hughes. That doesn't stop me from being concerned about my son.

I'm more worried about his anxiety than the actual surgery. I just hope he can get a good nights rest tonight and not worry too much about it. My mother has asked him if a gift card from Target would help ease his anxiety. I'm certain he will take her up on her offer.

A Pickled Conundrum

What do you think of when someone says pickle? If you are like most people you will thing of a pickled cucumber! Dill pickles, gherkins, bread and butter, garlic, etc.

But why does the cucumber get this distinction of just being a "pickle?" Lots of foods are pickled. Pickled eggs, pickled beets, pickled bologna, pickled corn and on and on. So why do we have to specify a pickled what unless we are talkinga about the lowly cucumber? Did they have a good PR firm or a better lobbyist?

I'm probably the only person to ever ponder this question but that doesn't mean I don't deserve an answer!

The Rise of @

If you were born before 1990 you probably remember that little circle a looking mark above the 2 on your typewriter keyboard. You know that symbol which was rarely, if ever, needed. Well thanks to the internet and Al Gore the @ symbol has made a meteoric rise.

My iPhone has an @ symbol everywhere to make it easier to enter email addresses. In the electronic age when more people communicate electronically than face to face (and no I don't have any empirical research supporting this position) the @ symbol has become ubiquitous in our society. Everyone can be reached @somewhere.com.

The @symbol is a poster child for other aspiring marks. Who's next? You Mr. ^ or how about you Ms.* We'll keep on eye on you Ms. * because we think you are on the rise. You too can join @ and / in the common parlance if you work hard and find your internet niche.

Todays musing brought to you courtesy of Dot Com.

Murphy's Law of Traffic Lights

Have you ever noticed that if you are in a hurry then inevitably you will hit almost every single red light on your route. However, if you are in no hurry you will sail through the intersections like the lights were timed just for you.
A corollary to this is if you need a red light you will NEVER get one. Drop your phone in the floor, spill your soda, need to send a text or make a call then you may as well be driving on the Autobahn because you never see a red light!

Today's foray into my brain was brought to you by the letters A and P and the numbers 7 and 11.