The Doctor Was Always In

 

We’ve all heard the story of the selfless, peripatetic, country doctor trudging through the chilly night to tend to one of his patients in need. Well, during a now bygone era, there were also many urban doctors who were equally dedicated  to their profession  who  put their patients and Hippocratic oath before all monetary emoluments.

One such doctor was Dr. Herbert E. Poch, a local legend, who passed last week at the age of 86. Dr. Poch was a caring, loving,  pediatrician. He was also a great teacher of young parents of which I was one when I made his acquaintance shortly after  the birth of our first child. He came highly recommended from everyone we asked. And my wife and  I will forever be in his debt.

 When my oldest daughter collapsed into a seizure one early spring morning, we panicked. I grabbed the  five-year-old, strapped her  into her car seat and rushed her  to the emergency room at our local hospital.

My anxiety level continued to spike upon my arrival. The emergency room doctors were unknown to me. And facing a serious situation of which I knew nothing, I began raising my voice for assistance. After a seemingly inordinate amount of time  had passed, they took my daughter into an examining room and suggested a spinal tap. At that point I really knew it was serious. As I paced the waiting room with my wife who met me there, both of us had no idea of the extent of the danger. As we stared at the door waiting for someone to come out and  tell us what was going on, we both were imagining worst case scenarios. Until the door opened and out came Dr. Poch. No one had summoned him. He was just making his normal rounds when he heard about the little girl who was brought in by a frantic father. The girl just happened to be his patient.

He was wearing a surgical gown and had been present for the procedure. The first thing out of his mouth, “she’s out of danger; she’s going to be alright.” A quarter century has gone by but I still vividly remember his reassuring image. And indeed, everything was alright – thanks to him.

We were sad when he retired. No other pediatrician could follow that act. But he went on to do so much more after he retired from practice. He began teaching full-time, disseminating his wisdom to post-graduate medical residents. He remained active in charitable work, being honored with several awards. He was even honored  with a proclamation on the floor of the U.S. Congress for his extraordinary service to children and his community.

Every once in a while you meet a real life saint. Dr. Poch was such a man. Early mornings on my way to work, passing his office, I’d see him enjoying a walk with his dog. Such a soothing sight. After his walk, he would sit at his desk for an hour or so to field questions over the phone  from parents, dispensing  advice and setting worried minds at ease. If I hadn’t known him in the flesh, Norman Rockwell would surely have created him.

Melo and the Messiah

 

Phil Jackson was recently hired by the New York Knicks to head up a floundering franchise which last won a championship in 1973. Everyone has trumpeted his arrival as some cataclysmic event -- indeed there were  standing ovations at the Garden when he was first introduced as the new president of the Knicks. I don’t think the desired results -- another championship --  will be attained in the new Jacksonian era despite blanket approval for the hire.

Unless I’m missing something this guy looks way too laid back to navigate the alleyways  of Manhattan. He’d be much more comfortable in sandals and cutoffs in Santa Monica or Venice Beach.

Yeah, he’s been part of 11 championships. And yes he did play for the  Knicks under Red Holzman  his esteemed mentor. And has dealt with mercurial characters: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Shaq and Dennis Rodman. And he has produced results, monumental results. But that was as a coach, not an executive who will have to make personnel  and financial decisions. Of course, he and GM Steve Mills will be able to hire other executives to handle the  mundane chores of running a franchise. While  he pockets a cool $12 plus million a year.

To Phil Jackson, this is a win-win. He gets the money, snubs his nose at the Lakers for passing him over for a similar role, most notably by the brother of his fiancée, Jeanie Buss. (By the way how long has she been his fiancée, anyway?) 

This whole affair looks like one big ego stroking for a guy who hasn’t been in the spotlight for a while but loves it. And going against the grain here, I don’t see any championships down the road in the term of Jackson’s contract. The Knicks were much better off with Donnie Walsh running the franchise. He was astute enough to know that trading for Carmelo Anthony was a stupid move, when he could have been gotten him as a free agent in the off season without sacrificing young talent. But Knicks’ owner James Dolan insisted on getting Carmelo which hastened the departure of Walsh, whose Pacers, by the way, are vying for a championship THIS year. And to his credit Walsh had the sense to know that Anthony  is toxic to a championship team.

Can Carmelo sacrifice his game for the good of a team concept? The Knicks are not missing role players they’re missing weight-supporting columns. Players like those don’t like prima donnas who think the game revolves around them. Who, as soon as they get their hands on the ball crossing half court monopolize it. How many last second shots has Carmelo missed this season with the game on the line? When the chips are down in the fourth quarter, great players find a way to win.

Well here’s hoping good luck to the long suffering Knick fans. Hope it works out but I doubt it will.

We Need A Re-Re-Set Button

Guess we need a re-re-set button now that apparently our president has exhausted all his promised flexibility with his good friend Vladimir Putin. From the very beginning this administration had all the trappings of the high school kids who take over the city council for a day and go through the motions of running the town until the grown ups  re-assume their rightful places. Unfortunately there aren’t any grown-ups  in the Obama administration who can step in and make things right.

Indeed they’ve been taken to school by Vlad and his merry regime. In the 2012 presidential debates President Obama ridiculed Mr. Romney for pointing out the grave dangers Russia and her expansionist oligarchs posed in the world. He was oblivious to  Romney's superior insight and said the former Massachusetts governor was  locked in a 1980’s time warp. The president’s naiveté  knows no bounds.

Obviously the administration wasn't prepared for the conflagration going on in the Ukraine. Just as they never seemed to be prepared for any unforeseen situation. They give new meaning to “ad hoc.” The administration’s cigar store Indian, dressed up as secretary of state seems equally inept  when he invokes phrases that the Russians are using anachronistic methods in the 21^st century. Doesn’t seem to bother the Russians. They have  long coveted a warm weather port and now are on the verge of getting one in the Crimea and the Russian-speaking population there is siding with the aggressors.

The Oblivicrats: Reid, Pelosi, Wasserman Schulz will continue to see wisdom when the majority of Americans see ineptitude. Even many media outlets are distancing themselves from the president  because there’s still too much time left in his term and there is nothing positive in sight: the continued displeasure with Obamacare, the lethargic economy;  high unemployment, gas and food prices; no immigration reform. Indeed the administration seems more concerned about the sovereignty of the Ukraine than ours.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed as we eliminate one day at a time when the mid-term elections arrive next November and hope we can re-set our own course.

The Kennedy Defense

 

“I’m very, very happy justice was served,” so said a jubilant Kerry Kennedy after a six-member jury handed down a not guilty verdict in her driving under the influence court case. Not much of a shocker. We have been conditioned to think there is no Kennedy on planet earth who can ever be held responsible for their own behavior. There seems to be extenuating circumstances that lurk everywhere like amateurish detectives when the Kennedy clan is involved.

A couple of years ago her brother was acquitted for an altercation with two nurses because they would not let him take his newborn son out of the hospital  for some fresh air. Her cousin William Smith was cleared of rape charges in 1992; her cousin Michael Skakel is awaiting a new trial for his conviction in the murder of Martha Moxley; her Uncle Ted had a little accident in Chappaquiddick in 1969. In 2006, her cousin Patrick, a Rhode Island congressman at the time was also found dazed and confused, though no charges were brought, when his car was involved in an accident at 2:45 A.M. in the Capitol. Again, like Kerry, a medical mix-up was the cause. You would think  educations  at prestigious universities  would enable them to discern  the differences between pill bottles and pills since pill popping seems to have replaced touch football as a Kennedy family  sport.

No one will believe Kerry was targeted because of her  family name, as her attorney claimed after the  acquittal.  If she was just an average single mom would she have been able to summon expert testimony to support her claim from a pharmacologist who had worked on the clinical trials for Ambien one of the drugs  allegedly taken in error. Would your average single mom engage the services of a top tier attorney. Would the average single mom have access to a propaganda machine extolling her virtues   as a globe-trotting activist superwoman?

To say she was targeted because of who she is, is absurd. The next time we hear  a similar case of a person slumped over the steering wheel of a car asleep after careening another vehicle, and leaving the scene, do you believe  the Kennedy defense  will stand up in that case?

More Liberal Elitist Hypocrisy

There may not be a better example of liberal  elitist hypocrisy than the recent episode of Mayor de Blasio in New York. It’s the apotheosis of the adage “do as I say not as I do.” One of the first initiatives of the new administration was to promote a 62-point safety program to reduce traffic accidents in the city. One of the main components of the plan is to reduce the speed limit to 25 m.p.h.  “We want the public to know,” the mayor said, “that we are holding ourselves to this standard.” Well not for long.

When the mayor’s entourage was clocked speeding, running red lights and stop signs two days after announcing his plan, he was justifiably lampooned in the media.  Because of all the bad press in the aftermath, he decided to address the issue then, inexplicably, directed reporters to the comments made by the police commissioner  who defended the actions of the mayor’s detail  as being proper protocol. So far Bratton has been used twice in the span of a few weeks to  add some cover  to the mayor’s indiscretions.

A short while prior to this incident, the mayor interceded for a bishop who, when stopped for a traffic violation , was found to have some  outstanding warrants and  would have been incarcerated had the mayor  not made a call to the police. Just as he would do for you if you found yourself in a similar circumstance, I’m sure.

When Commissioner Bratton was asked by reporters if he had a problem with the mayor calling the precinct commander for the bishop’s release, in the vaguest of terms said no.  He seems to be acting as de Blasio’s mentor. I know it’s early but I wonder if Bratton is positioning himself for a run for mayor. Especially when de Blasio’s act is already starting to get stale two months into his administration. And he hardly looks like a chief executive especially when juxtaposed against his predecessor, Mayor Bloomberg.

When de Blasio beats his drum about inequality and injustice as if he has a monopoly on righteousness, he’d be smart to look within because the hypocrisy of the far left to act  so concerned with the downtrodden seems to have a double standard. They are in the 1 percent. They and their disciples  are immune from the constraints  the 99 percent of the rest of us must deal with day in and day out. Unless, of course, someone is willing to pick up the phone on our behalf.

The Empty Suit Presidency

President Obama his rattling his tongue again much like the Soviets use to rattle sabers in the days of the Cold War. He has decided to voice his opinion in the latest international skirmish. This one in the Ukraine. And why not? with all the successes he has had lately in Syria, Iran, Libya and Egypt.

If one were to look in a dictionary for the definition of the term  empty suit,   you’d see a picture of our beleaguered president. You look at him and wonder how a man with no ability to lead or solve problems could ever have been elected president. Blunder after blunder after blunder and still  the fourth estate, well ,what passes for the fourth estate these days, makes his every move sound intelligent and inspired. 

JFK was inspirational, Steve Jobs was inspirational the Beatles were inspirational. If the Obama administration been in charge of procuring talent for  the Ed Sullivan show 50 years ago, they more than likely would  have chosen Freddie and the Dreamers over the Fab Four, given their keen eye for talent.

In California to speak about the drought emergency, the president was playing golf on a course using thousands of gallons of water to maintain its greens. Is he so inept he doesn’t  see the disconnect there. Myopia, apparently, is the hallmark of this administration.

So now he’s again talking about  consequences should the crackdown on the Ukrainians  abridge their democratic freedoms as our  own government continues to spy on our people, send drones to kill U.S. citizens without the benefit of due process and ignore the unsavory  IRS tactics against opposition parties right here in America.

Should we expect President Putin to impose sanctions against the U.S. soon?

The Last Caesar

When Sid Caesar’s death was announced last week, I was sorry to hear of the passing of a real TV pioneer – a term I reserve for a precious few. Sid Caesar and his “Your Show of Shows” was a little bit before my time. But in countless clips and  testimonials over the years I’ve become familiar with  the great contribution he made to not only the fledgling medium of television  but also to television as hardware. He was one of the few who made owning a television set as important as Steve Jobs made owning a personal computer decades later.

According to an article in the New York Times when Caesar’s show hit the airwaves in 1950 only 10 percent of the population owned a set. A decade later  that figure had swelled to 90 percent , largely to people like Caesar and the transmogrified vaudevillians who became the first TV personalities.

He was one of the first performers to introduce sketch comedy and recurring characters to the new format. He contorted his face in grotesque ways  and used other physical devices to garner huge laughs  from  live audiences, not sound tracks.  And not only that.  His eye for creative writing talent gave young writers like Neil Simon, Woody Allen and Mel  Brooks an opportunity to hone their comedic genius.

Sid Caesar was the inspiration for generations of comedians that would follow. Billy Crystal spoke reverently about Caesar and the profound effect he had  not only on him  but many of his contemporaries.  Caesar also germinated the ideas that would later  launch the  future programming formats of Carl Reiner (the Dick Van Dyke Show) and Larry Gelbart (Mash).

For me, though, my favorite remembrance of Sid Caesar is the character he played in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In the film’s  star-studded cast Caesar plays the even tempered husband of Edie Adams, who tries to find an equitable solution   for a host of treasure seekers all intent on reaching the booty first, until he too, succumbs to the avarice.

It’s too bad that his career flickered instead of flamed. For there are several generations who have grown  up not appreciating  Caesar’s significant contribution  to popular culture and TV set sales.