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| April 4, 2024 |
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Ignoring
Clint Eastwood's advice in "Dirty Harry" that
opinions, like certain body parts, are best kept to
yourself.
This morning, looking for something else in a
file of old papers, I came across this, the hospital receipt
for my circumcision in 1943:
Years ago, when my dad died, I went to the
bank to have the safe deposit box opened. Right on top was
the bill from the hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for
my circumcision, a whopping four dollars and eight cents,
back when money had real value. I knew immediately why he
put it there, he knew I'd see it, that was his sense of
humor, and in my mind's eye I can see the smile on his face
when he did it.
My daughter Sarah says that
everything I say comes from a movie, and Actor James Mason's
famous line from the 1982 Paul Newman film "The
Verdict" comes to mind, when as the attorney for
the other side, he broke one of the most important courtroom
rules for an attorney, and he paid dearly for his mistake
when he asked the hospital nurse on the stand who had just
pulled out a photocopy of the hospital admittane from her
purse:
"Objection!" Mason cried
out, "Overruled!" said the judge.
Nervously approaching the witness, Mason asked, "Why
on earth would you keep a copy of such an obscure document?"
It was about to get very interesting.
The woman
replied as she started to cry, "After the
operation, when that poor girl she went into a coma, Dr.
Towler called me in. He told me that he'd had five difficult
deliveries in a row and he was tired... and he never looked
at the admittance form. And he told me to change the form.
He told me to change the '1' to a '9'... or else... or else
he said, he said he'd fire me. He said I'd never work again.
Who were these men? Who were these men? I wanted to be a
nurse!"
James Mason's character had
just lost the case by asking a question he didn't already
know the answer to, breaking a cardinal rule in courtroom
performance.
Why did my dad hang on to that obscure
hospital receipt? I'm convinced it was to tease me someday,
maybe on his way out the door, and he did.
Not all
stories have to be long and complicated to be memorable.
Please visit
my
travel blog to learn more about my life on the road.
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Air Aviation Referral Service
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