Sunday, February 24, 2013

Here's a cat and some clutter

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A Russian Pallas Wild cat.

One million Brits 'descended from Romans'

For parents of a genderqueer child.

One sentence to describe what's wrong with health care.



4 comments:

Marcellina said...

The descended-from-Romans link: when I was small (around 9 perhaps) my grandfather, who's family emigrated from Sicily, said to me, the youngest in the family, that I should never forget that we are something special, we are Romans.
I wish I had been aware enough at the time to ask him exactly what he meant. No one else in the family had ever heard anything like that.

ellroon said...

Soon we'll be doing our genealogy by submitting our DNA to a computer and it will tell us who our great great great grandfather was...

I would think that because of the Roman empire and soldiers going about all over Italy, some of your Sicilian heritage would definitely have Roman blood. Have you ever thought of tracking the family tree? (We could be related! Italian from my great grandmother.)

Steve Bates said...

The pill-price example really hit home.

When I was in hospital, I asked Stella to bring me my Benfotiamine, an over-the-counter synthetic vitamin B1 dietary supplement that is good for peripheral neuropathy. A young hospital pharmacist happened to see it and confiscated it from me (let's call a spade a spade) and arranged for the nursing staff to hand it out to me at the agreed-upon dose twice a day.

Recently I got the big hospital bill. My Benfotiamine had been sold back to me at about $200. Over the counter, a bottle goes for about $20. But we live in the greatest nation in the world... [/snark]

ellroon said...

I am agog at that, Steve. Can you appeal? Write to the Consumerist and tell them your story. GeeeeEEeezzzz.