Hospital Punctuation
Hospital Grammar
I went to the hospital yesterday for my yearly check-up with my head and neck surgeon, Dr. Civantos. I waited awhile reading The Naked Ape. Eventually he came in and remarked how well I looked (this is good to hear from a cancer doctor). He had operated on me for twelve hours over two years ago. He had also got to know my son who is an ENT doctor and surgeon. We chatted awhile about medical matters (nothing too worrying). He then asked for an update on my tennis and romantic life. I duly updated him. He commented it was like a party having me there (this tells you how worried he had been). Then we turned to more serious matters: the chart on the wall. I had noticed it was titled “Ears, nose and throat”. Immediately my punctuational self was aroused: surely that should be “Ear, nose, and throat”. I pointed this out to him and asked if he knew what the Oxford comma is. He did not—he is a surgeon not a grammarian. The whole room of nurses was similarly engaged. After a short pause, he agreed with me that the punctuation was wrong and should have the extra comma. The nurses nodded. He then bid me farewell so that he could see another patient who was actually ill. I left thinking, My work is done. Priorities etc.
From one language to another…
In French, never a comma before the last « et » (and).
I teached that to my pupils for many years.
I guess either the English or the French chose to differ on that subject out of mutual spite 😉
In a couple of other languages I know the same rule as in French applies
It is more normal in English not to have that comma before “and”, but there are dissenters from this orthodoxy.
And good for McGinn to have a clean bill of health!
But what about my mental health? I suffer from angeritis.
I’m positive that you went over available options to contain it and even more sure that you control it well. The fact that your social life appears to be in good order is a further tell that angeritis is not taking too huge of a toll. Other than that, if it is a part of your temperament, methinks you are stuck with it; getting a nose job is way easier… Not to mention the fact that a lot of it is justified. Reminds me of a cartoon where one character asks the other what are you missing? And the other one answers: “The world before I knew too much about it…”.
I have a strategy: I confine it so far as possible to one brief period each day, but I allow the intensity to be high. The other strategy is avoiding people in philosophy, with some exceptions.
Doctors are used to feeling intellectually superior, I wonder what it’s like to have an eminent philosopher as a patient.
The doctor learned a valuable lesson. In just the same way as a lack of physical hygiene can be fatal to the body, a lack of intellectual hygiene can be fatal to the mind.
I rather think he is acutely aware of it, but he is a nice man.
I quite agree about the hygiene: you have to take care over the small things. I was impressed that he quickly saw the point and agreed with it.
At least your cancer was but a comma and not a full stop. I dread to think how I should have punctuated this, but I hope you get my drift.
The meaning of life: punctuation.