Russell Saunders
Russell Saunders is the ridiculously flimsy pseudonym of a pediatrician in New England. He has a husband, three sons, daughter, cat and dog, though not in that order. He enjoys reading, running and cooking. He can be contacted at blindeddoc using his Gmail account. Twitter types can follow him @russellsaunder1.
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on Open Mic for the week of 11/25/2024COVID lockdown critic Jay Bhattacharya going to be head of NIH: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/… on Open Mic for the week of 11/25/2024From "just say no" to "straight into the veins" within living memory.
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.He's been saying that sort of thing for years. Probably right about it too.
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.Here's James Carville 's take. I found it hilarious and frankly, on point--assuming it's real. Still…
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.The Tories in the UK got thrased because of inflation in July of 2024. Japan's Liberal Democratic Pa…
on I Told You Soand some picks that we knew were probably in the mix such as Tom Homan who, apparently, worked for O…
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.Do you have a solid reference for exit poll results with demographic breakdowns. I'd like us to be o… on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.There's something to the inflation theory. There's also something against it. Namely, that it was do… on I Told You SoYes, Jaybird, and there were plenty of trade unionists who fled Italy when it was clear that Mussoli… on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.I take it that this means that their internal polling always had them within the margin of error and…
Movie of a Man Awakened at Night
November 26, 2024
It’s Going to be a Hard Winter
November 25, 2024
Hunting the Wild Goose – It’s a Funny Game
November 24, 2024
November 23, 2024
on I Told You So on I Told You So on I Told You So on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead. on I Told You So on Open Mic for the week of 11/25/2024 on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead. on I Told You So on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead. on I Told You So
on I Told You So
on I Told You So on I Told You So on I Told You So on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
Disco 2000 by Pulp and Bicycle Race by Queen.
I realize Paul Rudd already did QueenReport
If Ms. Stone nudges my Kinsey needle ever so slightly off the “perfect six!” mark, Mr. Rudd moves it right back down again.Report
Hello there doc Russell Saunders ! You are not an easy person to track down , & I’m not sure at this point that you will even see this. As a grumpy old pediatrician myself, I have been reading your ” are anti-vaxers as crazy/stupid/dangerous/certifiable as they seem to be ” to which my answer is ” hoo boy, are they ever “!
I’ve been laboring in the underpaid trenches of general pediatrics in Connecticut roughly since god was a teenager, & have seen a good number of the diseases that you ( in vain I suspect given the rise in the loon index ) have not seen & hope you never do.
Where to begin ? Two cases of epiglottis due to H. influenza type “B” . Luckily, being older than dirt it wasn’t hard to figure out. The second case got pretty hairy when it turned out that both ENT’s were out of town . The supposed on call guy was in Hartford at the symphony. The on call gas passer was dragged in & managed to incubate the baby , while having an attack of hysteria at the same time.
Three cases of tetanus, all fatal. The scariest was a mother from central America who had never been immunized & her newborn baby who developed tetanus from the base of the cord. In spite of an attempt to control things by wide excision of the cord, the baby died at 12 days. The third was y our run of the mill unvaccinated 22 year old. Horrible deaths BTW.
A 20 year old unvaccinated female who was admitted to an open ward by her internist, who had never seen measles & thought she had mono. He put her on IV steroids (‘only about four days, not long enough to suppress her immune system ) , at which time she died. She did have enough time to infect roughly 8 children on the ward. I saw two of them in my office , the first one being from across the room as I walked in as an ” oh shit ” Dx. One of the younger peds called me over to his office to look at one of his patients & decide if this was a case of measles, which he had never seen , & which it was. These days the young ones will have a higher chance of seeing measles, 2 cases in the state so far this year.
I could go on, got lots more stuff, but the general conclusion is, yes , I have several of these nuts, one just stupid , one “god will protect me ” & one of the type that my daughter calls ” crunchies ” . These are the ones that are convinced that since they eat only organic foods, exersize properly & often, take a zillion vitamins and supplements, avoid contact with icky poor people who carry all these nasty diseases & don’t always have clean clothes, that they can’t possibly get anything bad. They are ” special ” .They become righteously indignant when I point out the assorted bugs & viruses out there don’t give a rats a*8 how special they are. These are the ones I would like to take out behind my office, shoot them, & bury them in an unmarked grave.
I do truly hope you see this rather long rant . If interested, my email is david.schoon at snet.net ( for some unknown reason my machine is refusing to accept the “at” abbreviation, so you would have to put it in without the spaces as usual ) if you are like me & have way too much to do & not enough time to do it, my ego isn’t that big , & I had the chance to burn off some adrenaline just writing this.
D schoonReport
Queen is a great choice.
I believe during our Oscars post, we had an exchange wherein I mentioned that Zazzy said I look like Paul Rudd and you said I should take it as a compliment. You undersold that, didn’t you?Report
So… um. You know the concept of certain “lists,” about which I decline to elaborate and about which I decided at one point an STQ would be unseemly?
Were I to compose such a list, Mr. Rudd would be right at the tippy-top.
And I am entirely convinced there is a horribly disfigured portrait of him decaying ghoulishly in an attic somewhere.Report
Really? Interesting.
Mila Kunis is at the top of mine.
“She couldn’t look more different than me!” responds Zazzy.Report
Stupid Tuesday questions, Anne Boleyn edition
Aside from that, how did the marriage turn out?Report
You think. I know. My only qualm is that she’s not old enough to remember “Hook.”
Also, “Gin & Juice” would definitely be one of mine. I’ll have to ponder the second.Report
If you do the original version, I’ll do the Gourds’ version.Report
“Gin & Juice” — like so many hip-hop songs — is hard because of the myriad of voices.Report
Yeah, I’ll do all of the voices, or I can have someone do it with me.
I think my second song would have to be classic rock, maybe something by Hendrix or The Who.Report
What are the rules on lip syncing choice words in songs? That song obviously avoids one of the choicer words at all, but still has its share (I’m referring more towards the slurs than just generic vulgarity).Report
Personally, I just yell “BEEEEP!!!” at those points.Report
@glyph doesn’t understand lip syncing if he’s yelling during the performance.Report
Hey, if they are slurs, nobody should hear them, no matter whose lips are moving. I’ve never had any complaints about my performance of track 2 from Enter The Wu-Tang.Report
Kazzy, good question. I think it’s best to not mouth anything, but it would definitely look awkward.Report
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who, FWIW, would also probably end up on my list) did a Nicki Minaj song for one of his selections, and mouthed the F-bomb right along with the song, though they bleeped the audio.Report
Oh, I’d mouth all the cussing, but there’s a particular word common in hip hop that I’d avoid.
I think I mentioned going to rap shows at SXSW that were at least 50% white. At the Future show in particular, when everyone was singing along, every n-word was simply skipped by at least most of the white people in the crowd.
Now that I think about it, “I woke up in a new Bugatti” would be a perfect selection.Report
Oh. That word. Yes. Yes, I would skip that one.Report
(Listening to it.)
Holy Scheiße, “Bugatti” is perfect for this. We’d need someone to do just the chorus, though.Report
I’d probably skip the B-word, too, at least the way it is used in most songs by male performers (it sounds totally different when Nicki says it).Report
Yeah, you got to mix it, child
You got to fix it, must be love
It’s a BEEEEPReport
First off, I am going to disagree — quite strongly — with you. Emma Stone just seems weird to me. Trying too hard. And that constantly perturbed look she has on her face is off putting. More importantly, I struggle to see how lip syncing is cool. What actual talent does it require? At least karaoke. I didn’t get all the fuss about that video. I could do that. Hell, I have done that. I even won a medal for it — bringing home the gold medal prize at an air guitar contest a few years back. And even there we held prop guitars so we weren’t completely empty handed (Tod can vouch for this; he met me shortly after I won and I still had the medal on; I’ll try to dig up the video).
As for what songs I’d pick, first would have to be Kid Rock’s Bawitdabaw. So much energy behind that song, I could really get into it and do my thing (provided you give me the whole stage to work with; if I had to stand at the mic stand, that’d be a real detriment to the pageantry). Second would probably be Total Eclipse of the Heart.
Also, let’s see if this works for video: https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-ash2/v/t43.1792-2/1132346_10100592876083387_29791_n.mp4?oh=7fce90853930414adaafe787cb14ff06&oe=53692DBB
Mind you, this was just the opening round, when I squared off against other crowd members. Upon winning that round, I had to defeat a time traveling guitar god. I did so by taking off my shirt, playing HIS guitar, and raging out in the crowd.
Ladies and gentlemen, possibly your child’s PreK teacher!Report
I haven’t had a chance to watch the video, but promise I will do so later.
I may disagree with you about the appeals of Ms. Stone more than I disagree about the appeals of basketball. Fascinating. But since I am for reals totally super gay, who am I to tell you what’s attractive in such matters?Report
It’s not just the attractiveness. Her whole persona just strikes me as annoying. I venture to guess she’d be the girl at the party that everyone kept elbowing me about while saying, “Isn’t she so cool?” and I’d just be thinking, “She’s kind of annoying.”
She’s not bad looking, though certainly looks better some times than others. During that clip, she is unattractively skinny. Her hair is similar to Zazzy’s, which is a feather in her cap.
The confluence of strange faces and seeming annoyingness make her unattractive to me. But what do I know? I’m just some schlub who may or may not resemble a bearded Paul Rudd.Report
Yes. Stone looks very Zoey Deschanel-esque in that clip. And I don’t mean that as a compliment.Report
Really? She doesn’t seem to be in any way similar to Ms. Deschanel in terms of being excessively mannered or twee. At least not in my estimation.
Once again I am struck by how widely opinions can vary in such matters.Report
Gen X’ers and older should remember when there was an entire TV series dedicated to this premise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llt7h8lc5iA
(to try to answer the question, Green Day’s Basket Case and Republica’s Ready to Go. But I’d be rather terribad)Report
Wow. I had forgotten all about that. Thanks. I think.Report
Oooooooooooooooh, “Ready to Go” is a great choice.Report
Thanks. I wasn’t sure, but it’s not Garbage.Report
Heh.
I was thinking through what songs I would do and I said to myself, “Well, either Submission by the Sex Pistols or Venus in Furs.”
Then I thought to myself, “Good grief, Veronica, you need to get out on a date or something.”
(In reality I’d end up doing something from Hedwig. Yeah, I know, predictable.)Report
The Hand of the Almighty and Hank Williams III’s Dick in Dixie. (Neither of these, my friends, is safe for work.)Report
Outstanding choices, both (I had never heard either before you linked them)Report
I’m happy to have corrupted yet another immortal soul.Report
Since you mentioned “Vogue,” Doc, I’m gonna ask a for-reals question: why did neither Erasure nor Yaz ever cover “La Isla Bonita?” Didn’t anyone realize how perfect that would be?Report
Well, Yaz was broken up by then.Report
OK, why not Jim Rice?Report
Huh. That never would have occurred to me, but you’re right. (Well, at least as far as Erasure is concerned. The only Yaz song I can think of offhand is “Situation,” which I love. Did they do any covers?) “Abba-esque” was a fun album, and Andy Bell would warble the hell out of “La Isla Bonita.”Report
You don’t remember “Don’t Go”, or “Bring Your Love Down (Didn’t I)”?! Hand in your super-gay card.
AFAIK they didn’t do any covers, but as I said, they broke up in 1983, and “Bonita” came out in 86-87.Report
I completely forgot that Yaz did “Don’t Go.” I don’t recognize the second title, but odds are better than even that, were I to hear it on the radio, I would probably be able to sing right along without thinking about it.Report
(in case it’s not obvious, I pulled “super-gay” from the OP, and love Yaz. No insult intended).
(Yazoo).Report
I took it entirely in the spirit in which it was intended, rest assured.Report
I cannot but hear the first line of that song as
Last night I dreamt of some (ethnic slur)Report
I don’t have an answer to your question, but I am amused by the apparent amount of overlap in the hypothetical lists we might theoretically compose.Report
All For You – Sister Hazel
I Don’t Feel Like Dancing – Scissor SistersReport
Sister Hazel is a great answer.Report
Russell: “and which (in hindsight) were taken on faith to mean the things the people at the tattoo parlors said they meant.”
‘on faith’ is a new spelling of ‘in a state of extreme intoxication’ 🙂Report
In the off chance that I have a small number of reasonably-sized tattoos in discreet locations, a consistent feature of their acquisition might happen to be that I was sober as a nun when I got all of them. In fact, the place where I might possibly have gotten more than one of them had an explicit policy against tattooing anyone noticeably intoxicated.
Y’know, if I happened to have any tattoos.Report
This one’s a toughie. I think I’d go with these:
One Week by Barenaked Ladies, because it has the lyrical speed of End of The Word As You Know IT without the receptive cadence.
Feeling Good by Michael Buble, because after showing off my speed-chops I’d want to show I could do careful phrasing and facial expressions.Report
*Loudly Whistles*
FOUL! FOUL! “Feeling Good” isn’t Michael Buble’s song! Nina Simone is the one who made it classic, but it wasn’t hers either. Although her version is, objectively speaking, best.
*Loudly Whistles Again, Waves Arms Around”Report
Yes, I agree.
But the one to lip synch is the Buble.Report
Read about Love by Richard Thompson and Ring of Fire.Report
So no more Monday Trivia?Report
So I think she chose two hard-to-lip-sync songs, but she chose two hard-to-lip-sync songs that are hard in the same way, so I don’t give her as much credit as I would have if she had done, say, “Hook” *or* “All I Do Is Win” and… something… that required her to act up belting something out.
So many choices.
Given the venue, I’d be really hard pressed not to do King Missile’s “Martin Scoresese” or Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” or something like that, just to be lip syncing stuff that was being bleeped out, because that would be hilarious. For the second song, I’d want to do a good ham up job of “The Boys in the Backroom” or “Respect”.
@kazzy
“More importantly, I struggle to see how lip syncing is cool.
You’re voted off the island.Report
@patrick
Lip syncing is miming with background music.Report
Next you’ll say that air guitar is just miming with background music.Report
My friend contends the answer is “Semi Charmed Life” — though that might be more “Got invited up on stage to sing with a cover band: what song do you pick?” He contends that everyone at least knows the “Doot-doot-doot” part so the whole crowd can get involved.Report
Your “friend” is incorrect, @kazzy . Third Eye Blind is never the answer, at least not to any sort of question decent people ought to be asking.Report
So this must be a version of hell for you more exquisite than anything that hack Dante could come up with.Report
I immediately jumped to songs that would be ridiculous for a 40 something woman to sing X-Ray Spex Oh Bondage Up Yours (since I did it 30+ years ago for a lip sync contest) and Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Relax but for Russell I would do Sex Dwarf.Report
Hrmm..
I’d choose “No Rain” by Blind Melon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVn6b7DdpAReport