I’m off to the beautiful Arizona desert on a boondoggle sponsored by the good people at Pfizer Animal Health. They’ve been kind enough to have me along while my significant other attends his specialist-only seminar. I’m a lowly general practitioner so I’m typically not considered perk-worthy. Luckily I’m cute and helpful and I’m a good cruise director, so I get invited back in spite of my...

March 16th, 2006

A working Friday with a lot of work ahead. I have quite a few dental procedures today. It sometimes amazes me how much of my daily effort goes into dentistry. I’ve had to acquire a taste for it—I’ve had no choice, really. One of my colleagues at my hospital is a dentistry freak. He performs root canals, installs crowns, and chastises the other two of us whenever we fail to...

March 15th

It’s the Ides of March and I actually saw a pet named Brutus today. His owner was not unaware of the irony in naming his loyal dog after a notorious traitor. He was even amused when I pointed out the poetic quality in subjecting Brutus to a round of vaccines on this, of all days.

I’ve always been convinced that high school math teachers have unusual, sadistic impulses the rest of us...