MVP = Kobe

I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the end of both NBA playoff games today...first, I returned home from my Sunday shift just as Chicago was sealing their surprising victory against the Miami Heat to even their series 2-2...however, I'm still pretty confident the Heat will pull it off especially since their only reliable big man (Tyson Chandler) went down with what appeared to be a scary-looking ankle injury at the end.

Even more remarkable, I woke up from my nap just moments before the end of the Phoenix-LA Lakers game, where Kobe Bryant popped a Jordanesque jumper right as time expired to allow the underdog to take the game and a 3-1 series lead! I know that Steve Nash is supposed to win the MVP award later in the week, and I admit that throughout my entire NBA fan career I've been a Kobe-detractor, but in my mind he's the clear choice for MVP, and this game only proves the point.

Trivia question: On which television variety show did "The Simpsons" originally debut? Click the image below for the answer.

This is some seriously @!#??!'ed up &*!@^*

I found this bizarre cartoon site which is funny but seriously messed up. If you bother to look up the link, check out the "Superfly" cartoon series.

Do I look like this man?

Just got finished working a payback shift in the ER (somebody had done me a favor earlier in the year, so I was working one of their shifts in return). Anyways, one of my favorite nurses there always says that I look like rock 'n roller Warren Zevon (whose most famous song is probably "Werewolves in London" that you've probably heard).

Here is a side-by-side comparison of myself & Zevon. What do you think?

Bonus Botswana Pics

Thanks to Sophia Hussen, one of my medical students in Botswana, for sharing these excellent photos...
Me & my two star medical students on the Male Medical Ward, Sophia & Prateeti (who just matched at Penn & Stanford for residency--congrats!!)

What the hell, why not show another picture of giraffes?

Ostrich near the Cape of Good Hope

Myself, Prateeti, Sophia, and Dr. Stephen Gluckman (head of Penn Program in Botswana) in front of Princess Marina Hospital sign.

Some traditional Botswana houses on the road to Khutsi.

Nice photo of woman and baby selling stuff.

Congratulations to Me

Bizzles!

So it looks like I won't have to be mooching off my wife during our planned year in France after all! I got word yesterday that I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, which will help support my studies there as I work in the lab of Dr. Corinne Antignac, where I will be studying diseases of the kidney. I found out yesterday, and am quite excited (and relieved) to know that I will be receiving some financial support during the year.

Our move to France is coming up soon! My last day of residency EVER is on June 20th (I have to work a night shift in the Emergency Room, where nobody will care that it's my last day...very anticlimactic). After putting our shit in storage and then subjecting Claire to her first ever Duluth trip, we're hopping on a plane to Paris. Now all I'm waiting for is my French visa application to come through, which should hopefully be sometime in the next few weeks... That's right, it won't be long before I'm wearing a beret, walking around with a loaf of French bread under my arm, rioting in the streets, and basically fulfilling every possible offensive French stereotype I know of.

In honor of my scholarship, I looked up some information on its founder, J. William Fulbright, for the Question of the Day. Fulbright was a Senator, serving from 1945 to 1974. From what state was he? Click the pic of Senator Fulbright below...

American Dreamz

Finally, a day off yesterday...it was most welcome, and I spent the bulk of the day lounging around the house and watching NBA basketball. It wasn't until the evening that I left the apartment where I had a tasty roast lamb dinner at my friend Ellen's, and then afterwards Claire & I saw the movie "American Dreamz."

My own personal review: definitely entertaining, but pretty fluffy. Despite trying to break down ethnic stereotypes, the movie relies heavily on one-dimensional characters who are often obvious caricatures of people we are familiar with in real-life. For instance, Dennis Quaid plays a dumb-as-a-post president a la George W., Willem Dafoe plays an obvious Karl Rove-like character, Mandy Moore draws comparisons fellow white trash phenom Britney Spears, and Hugh Grant plays a typical reality-show Ryan Seacrest-type vapid host with no talent of his own. Probably the best subplot involves a young Iraqi whose mother was killed by an American bomb who comes to the U.S. as part of a terrorist cell but ends up as a contestant on the American Dreamz (a.k.a. American Idol) television show due to his passionate love for famous American show tunes. Despite these shortcomings it's very watchable and witty. I'd even recommend seeing it before it hits the rental store...

But go see Spike Lee's "Inside Man" first.

Since I mentioned the country Iraq in the above movie review, today's Question of the Day is the following: How many countries does Iraq border? Click here for an answer...

Am I tired?

"Am I tired?" It sounds silly to have to ask that question to yourself, but that's the central theme of my life this past week. I've been working the Night Shift at the VA Hospital, you see, which entails being in the hospital from 8pm until 8am. The issue is that it's not really all that difficult an assignment--I'm responsible for supervising 2 interns who are already fairly well-trained at this point in the year, admitting new patients that come in late, and dealing with any emergency situations that pop up. So far, the load has been pretty light--on average, only admitting about 2 patients a night. So I've decided I might as well try and get some sleep on the job while I'm there so that I might use my free daytime hours to do something useful, as opposed to just sleep. I get some sleep...but it's not very restful because every 2 hrs or so I get paged in order to take care of something that usually only takes about 1/2 hour or so. As a result, over the past week I've probably gotten a good amount of "total hours of sleep", but only in 2-hour increments. A lot of the time I'm confused about whether or not I should be tired.

My sister tells me it's good practice for having a baby...

Question of the Day: Jim Morrison has two famous mughots from two very memorable arrests. One was for allegedly masturbating on stage while the other was for using profanity during a concert. In which two cities did these events take place? (click picture for answer).

NBA Playoff Preview

Okay, NBA playoffs start in a few days. Time for some picks, as introduced by goofy college basketball star Adam Morrison.

1st Round, East:
#1 Detroit def #8 Milwaukee 4-0
#2 Miami def #7 Chicago 4-1
#3 NJ Nets def #6 Indiana 4-1
#4 Cleveland def #5 Washington 4-2

1st Round, West:
#1 San Antonio def #8 Sacramento 4-1
#7 LA Lakers def #2 Phoenix 4-3
#6 LA Clippers def #3 Denver 4-3
#4 Dallas def #5 Memphis 4-1

2nd Round, East:
#1 Detroit def #4 Cleveland 4-2
#2 Miami def #6 Indiana 4-3

2nd Round, West:
#1 San Antonio def #4 Dallas 4-3
#6 LA Clippers def #7 LA Lakers 4-2

Eastern Conf Finals, East:
#1 Detroit def #2 Miami 4-2

Western Conf Finals, West:
#1 San Antonio def #6 LA Clippers 4-1

NBA Finals:
#1 Detroit def #1 San Antonio 4-1

Check out my picks from the beginning of the season...

In honor of the NBA playoffs starting, today's Question of the Day: A current NBA player recently set the record for most 3-pointers in a season. Who was it? Click the image below for the answer:

Weight Off My Shoulders

Wow, 10 days since my last blog post. It's hard to come up with an excuse for that. I suppose my recent Grand Rounds talk, which I gave yesterday and is a humongous weight off my shoulders, will have to suffice. I had been asked to organize a "Morbidity & Mortality" conference, a series within our Department of Internal Medicine meant to examine a particular case in which the outcome was, well, crappy. In this case, it was the unfortunate story of a 71-year-old woman who had a cavitary mass in her left lung which was assumed to be cancer but ended up being tuberculosis. Unfortunately, this was not figured out until about a week prior to her demise. Below is an image of the patient's CT scan. Can you see the abnormality? My wife (who is not even an MD) was able to point it out, and I bet you can, too. See? Being a doctor is a piece of cake...

To celebrate, my return to the blogosphere, we're going to try something new. It's called "Colonel Hellman's Question of the Day", until I can think of something better. Here it is:

According to the Johnny Cash song "Folsom Prison Blues," why did he shot a man in Reno? (Click image for answer).

Everyone Loves a Wedding

Had a great time at Anthony & Elise Frisella's wedding this weekend in St. Louis. Here's a picture of myself with the groom & world-famous Neurosurgeon Scott P. Leary (the three of us went to medical school together) at the rehearsal dinner.

Inside Man

I truly enjoyed seeing the movie "Inside Man" last Sunday night. This is the latest Spike Lee joint starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, and Willem Dafoe. It's much more mainstream than most other Spike Lee films, but still retains some of his trademark quirkiness and multicultaralism. Great acting. Complicated plot. Plenty of funny lines. I highly recommend it.

On-call in CCU tonight. So far two admissions, one sweet, elderly guy with heart failure that we should be able to take care of and a middle-aged man with a large MI who's getting cathed as we speak.

This weekend: I'm going to St. Louis! My roommate during medical school for 4 years, Anthony Frisella, is getting married. I'm very much looking forward to visiting the city where I lived for 7 years and haven't been since I graduated in '03.

Mmmmmmmm....

Another call almost finished...

Overall I can't complain too much. This call has already featured: (1) delicious takeout Indian food (photo included) during which I chowed down on some outstanding chicken tikka masala, (2) got to watch at least part of both Final Four games (can you believe it: UCLA vrs Florida?!?), and (3) a challenging but ultimately successful central line catheter placement as performed by my All-Star intern Ami Patel and supervised by yours truly.

Also only two admissions, both of which were admitted for chest pain which I have a strong suspicion is HIGHLY BOGUS. Or at least non-cardiac in nature. We'll see in the morning after all the tests come back.

But the absolute BEST thing about tonight's call.....

It's a full HOUR LESS IN THE HOSPITAL BECAUSE OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS!!!

It's the little things in life...