HOUSE, M.D.: 37. "Clueless"
Micky DuPree
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I'm sure there won't be universal agreement on the point, but while
there's still sarcasm aplenty in the show, particularly House's, I'm
finding that the sarcasm is less and less witty as time goes on and
comes off simply as self-important attitude and mugging.
Elapsed time numbers refer to a videotape copy of the original broadcast
with the commercials left in.
PROLOGUE
I called that the attacker would be the injured party. I did not
foresee that he was fake.
ACT I
4:54
I was disappointed that House checked his hair for thinning after
Wilson's crack about it. It was hard to imagine House caring all that
much, particularly after razzing Wilson for his grooming routine.
It was nice that House was the sixth doctor the A-plot patient saw, but
I had to wonder why this patient seemed to have no trouble getting in to
see House on a referral when House had previously tried to chase
referrals away. Have the writers given up on House's policy of making
everyone pitch a perfect zebra to him before he'll give in? It also
seemed highly unlikely that an ordinary guy who didn't manifest his
acute symptoms for very long could get to see six doctors in only three
days, especially since all but the one(s) in the E.R. were probably
nine-to-five specialists who, in the real world, would have been booked
up for weeks.
I did not at all get why drinking a beverage from a drinker-made hole
near the bottom of the can was supposed to be superior to drinking it
out of the manufacturer-made hole at the top of the can. It's not like
the caffeine sinks to the bottom, and even if it did, you could always
turn the can a few times.
How did Chase know about Wilson's new living arrangements and the fact
that his toenails were loud? Did House get chatty all of a sudden?
HOUSE: Hundred bucks says they're as miserable as the next
couple.
CAMERON: If you ask me, if two people really trust each other, a
threesome once every seven years might actually help a
marriage.
Huh. Was this supposed to be an instance of post-Hunting Cameron trying
to break out of her no-fun-zone image (not that the end to "Hunting"
painted her as happy with her brief walk on the wild side), or was it
just the writers throwing a bone (so to speak) to the Cameron fans? It
didn't sound a lot like her, but hey, who does sound like themselves
this season?
CAMERON: I'll take the bet.
Eh? After all the times on this show when the solution to some medical
problem turned out to hinge on spousal deceit (including four of the
last six episodes)? I know Cameron started out being all Hallmark
anniversary card (dating back to "Fidelity"), but what happened to this
Cameron from "Failure to Communicate":
CAMERON: The more devoted, the more reason to lie.
HOUSE: That's cynical.
CAMERON: You disagree?
HOUSE: No, I'm just kvelling. Our little girl is growing up.
The writers don't keep track of anything this season. I guess Cameron
is just as "clueless" as the plot needs her to be in a given week.
Anyway, as soon as Cameron took House's bet, I knew he would end up
being right, which took a lot of suspense out of the episode. It didn't
matter what evidence was available, either to House or to the audience.
The writers define him as being almost always right. So, given that the
marriage was not good, that meant that either it was heavy-metal
poisoning after all, or else the "nympho" wife had cheated on the
husband and given him an arcane infection that either she had been
vaccinated for or else lay dormant in her. I suppose that using the
same plot for both the A and B stories might have been a bit much,
though.
HOUSE: No applause?
Yeah, like House ever used to ask for applause for anything, even
jokingly. I get that Hugh Laurie is multitalented, but I really didn't
see the point of having House juggle as the fellows came in to report.
It felt like we were back to the smirking, mugging, circus-like House of
the early second season.
ACT II
16:48
So much for anyone on the _House_ staff remembering that House
1) prefers women to leave the restroom when he's urinating and 2) washes
his hands both before and after. Since I did a commentary on "The
Socratic Method" not too long ago, it's fresh in my mind how they used
to be able to use a bathroom setting to brilliant dramatic and comedic
effect simultaneously. Now it seems to be used as a belabored means of
mild fraternity humor or very mild shock value.
I got that the patient's occupation was his connection to Mexico, which
was where his wife scored the gold poison. But shouldn't one of the
doctors have found it somewhat remarkable that a wedding photographer
who lives within commuting distance of PPTH in New Jersey (since Foreman
searched the house) would get booked to do a wedding in Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico? I realize that the rich and famous use a different Rolodex from
regular folks', but there was nothing to indicate that this guy was a
jet-setting shutterbug. Or do ordinary people really send that far away
for wedding photographers?
I would have expected House to push at the stuff in his closet with his
cane, not with his leg.
I was disappointed that they had House as unable to prepare anything
more than canned soup and peanut butter. After his speech to Wilson in
"Detox" about making his own meals, I thought he was at least more self-
sufficient than that, but the second-season writers seem to want to
undermine everything that was good about "Detox."
On House's DVR menu (all with a check mark):
Now Playing Watch Live Settings
The O.C. 26th Fri 8:00 pm
Spongebob 23rd Mon 9:00 am
Spongebob 24th Tue 9:00 am
Monster Truck Jam 26th Fri 8:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 10th Wed 7:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 11th Thu 7:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 12th Fri 7:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 13th Mon 7:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 14th Tue 7:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 15th Wed 7:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 16th Thu 7:00 pm
New Yankee Wrkshp 17th Fri 7:00 pm
Blackadder 10th Wed 5:00 pm
The O.C. 12th Fri 8:00 pm
The O.C. 29th Fri 8:00 pm
Spongebob 25th Mon 8:00 pm
Nice continuity with "Histories" on _The O.C._
Cute in-joke with the _Blackadder_ recording (although I couldn't see a
real PBS station wasting _Blackadder_ at 5 p.m.).
It has always seemed strange to me that House doesn't tape or otherwise
record his daytime soaps, since he has seemed chronically at risk for
missing them.
Their calendar does not resemble our Earth calendar, but the time line
is like a pretzel with scoliosis anyway on this show.
WILSON: Now, why do you have a season pass to the _New Yankee
Workshop_?
HOUSE: It's a complete moron working with power tools. How
much more suspenseful can you get?
Unless they were transmitting it live, there'd be no suspense at all,
and House was the one who sounded like a complete moron.
HOUSE: Tox screen?
CAMERON: No evidence of lead, mercury, or arsenic.
HOUSE: Run 'em again.
If House was convinced it was heavy-metal poisoning and the team had
eliminated lead, mercury, and arsenic, then why wouldn't he have started
systematically testing for other heavy metals until he ran out of them?
Sure there are a lot of heavy metals, but there are fewer of them than
there are viruses, and the docs run gels on those all the time when
they're stymied.
HOUSE: Start treating him for lead poisoning. It's the most
likely heavy metal. [To Chase] And yeah, you can test
him for allergies for dairy, wheat, and legume.
I did appreciate that this House was willing to pursue more than one
theory at a time, but that still left open the question of why
previously this season he insisted it was a wimpy thing to do.
It was kind of cute that they made the way to House's heart through his
stomach. It was hilarious that he slapped Chase's hand away from the
pancakes.
ACT III
28:48
FOREMAN: His urine has elevated proteins and red blood cells.
It's lupus-induced kidney failure. If we don't start
treatment --
HOUSE: Heavy-metal toxicity could cause vomiting.
FOREMAN: So would lupus nephritis, and it also causes tissue
swelling.
HOUSE: He's choking on his tongue, not his feet.
FOREMAN: The corticosteroids we gave him to control the
inflammation can cause facial swelling.
HOUSE: Still not his throat, but you're getting closer.
FOREMAN: I'm doing an ANA and serum compliment.
HOUSE: If you're so sure, why waste time with tests? Start
treatment. Oh, no, wait; we can't do that because we
already have and it's not working! Ergo --
FOREMAN: -- ergo steroids aren't the only treatment for lupus
nephritis. We could also try cyclophosphamide or
immunosuppressants.
HOUSE: Only if we confirm the diagnosis with an ANA, serum
compliment, anti-DNA, IV pyelogram, and kidney biopsy.
FOREMAN: So, now you suddenly believe in tests?
HOUSE: The symptoms --
FOREMAN: The symptoms all point to heavy-metal poisoning.
Yeah, we all get it. Unless you got proof and can
tell me which heavy metal it is, I'm starting
treatment for lupus. [House shakes his head. Foreman
exits.]
As usual, Foreman wanted to confirm his diagnosis with tests. House as
much as gave him permission to do those tests. Why, under those
conditions, did Foreman then abandon his desire to trust those tests and
rush blindly into treating for lupus just because of one gibe by House?
Why did House let him when he thought Foreman was wrong? They both
seemed way out of character here, and I'll revisit the point later.
This used to be a character-oriented series disguised as a plot-driven
story. Now they're increasingly willing to sacrifice character in order
to fulfill what they see as the needs of the plot (in this episode,
stretching it out to the full 43 minutes).
The note on Wilson's salad container:
MY LuNCH
DO NOT
TOuCH !!
This was the same guy who wrote with such stereotypically illegible
doctor's handwriting in "Daddy's Boy"?
House's first "aha" moment was really weak this week: simply "the wife's
to blame," not a medical or intellectual association at all.
Team House does MRIs and CAT scans all the time, as well as the
occasional PET scan, but this was the first instance I could remember of
the doctors doing 2-D x-rays unassisted by an x-ray technician or
radiologist.
CAMERON: We've done over ten different heavy-metal tox screens.
HOUSE: Because there's no reason to test for the other thirty.
They don't get into the air or food. They only get in
you if someone puts them in you.
Here we go. I did not buy that House wouldn't have already insisted on
doing exactly those other thirty tests (in whatever he considered to be
the least unlikely order) if he was convinced it was heavy-metal
poisoning. Which he was. House used to take the Sherlock Holmes
stance, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
_however improbable_, must be the truth." I did not buy that it would
take the weak association to the mere possibility that the clinic
patient's wife was having an affair to get House to think that maybe the
A-plot patient's wife was poisoning her husband. The A-plot guy's
medical symptoms were far more of a smoking gun for his problem than
were the clinic patient's marital relations. By making House back down
on the heavy-metal toxicity theory -- twice -- when he didn't have to,
the writers subordinated his characterization to the plot.
I could have sworn there used to be more space between Cuddy's windows
and the buildings across from her office. More magic remodeling,
perhaps.
WILSON: I'm thinking ... Colonel Mustard -- in the music
room -- with the candlestick.
HOUSE: There's no music room. It's the conservatory.
This was the explicit reason for applying the title "Clueless" to this
particular episode. But it's not like the characters don't start every
episode stumped and have to pull an answer out of the murky unknown. In
fact, if anything, House figured this one out pretty early. The writers
just artificially dragged their feet on letting him press his case.
ACT IV
41:21
CHASE: Interferon isn't an approved treatment for heavy-metal
toxicity either.
HOUSE: True. But it's pretty much the only thing we can do
for a viral infection. We didn't consider it because --
FOREMAN: -- because it doesn't make sense. There's no fever.
HOUSE: Because he's got no immune system -- thanks to the
immunosuppressants YOU prescribed for lupus treatment.
House blaming Foreman for the lupus treatment was a MAJOR "Huh?" moment
for me. This plot line should have been used back when Foreman was in
charge. Otherwise, Foreman can't override House's orders unless House
makes a conscious decision to give in. It just didn't make any sense
for House to berate Foreman for treating the patient for lupus when
House KNEW that Foreman intended to treat the patient for lupus and
didn't stop him. House was the attending physician. Whatever Foreman
did to the patient with House's knowledge was House's responsibility.
That was a recurring plot point when Foreman was in charge, that
whatever happened on Foreman's watch was Foreman's responsibility, and
House gave Foreman a hard time for being a wimp and not sticking to his
guns when he was the boss. So now, with himself back in charge, House
was letting Foreman steamroll over his authority and then blaming
Foreman for it? It just did not sound like House at all, either this
season's version OR last season's.
CAMERON: He didn't present with a fever either.
HOUSE: Because at that point he was a post-viral autoimmune
reaction, which again, thanks to the immunosuppressants
you prescribed for lupus treatment, his immune system
basically rolled out the red carpet for the dormant
virus, waking it up, turning it into a present viral
infection. Give him interferon.
FOREMAN: But, if it is lupus, interferon could make it worse,
suppress his bone marrow even further.
HOUSE: Which is more likely, a rapidly progressing acute-onset
lupus in a patient who's already on steroids, or a team
of doctors missing a post-viral reaction?
FOREMAN: We didn't miss anything.
HOUSE: Well, then I'm wrong, and you shouldn't -- [Leans into
Foreman.] Give him interferon!
So House was all dug-in, insistent, and commanding on the unknown-virus
theory, but waffling on his heavy-metal theory? I did not buy that for
one second. The writers conveniently weakened House just for this one
instance to stretch the heavy-metal plot out for an hour.
I found it predictable that if Cuddy was going to call House on the
carpet about his clinic behavior, then even if he did screw up, there
was going to be someone else's bigger screwup to cover for it. And of
course second-season Cuddy couldn't actually give House a scolding with
any bite. She just got wowed by his automatic Perry Mason brilliance
and fell in line with his antics.
At least House's second "aha" moment, associating the gold ring with the
gold poisoning, was somewhat more substantive than the first.
I doubt Hugh Laurie was anywhere near a bike on this episode since we
never saw his face and the bike in the same shot. Just as well. He was
in most of the other shots as it was.
They kept House in the same building exterior. I managed to miss the
piano and the seemingly permanent fireplace if they were in the
interior, but I'm not checking the tape just for them.
On House's vial:
[...]nnous Chloride
5m/cc??
HOUSE: [To maid] Um. Thanks.
That was kind of sweet, but then I guess that was when House decided he
wanted to keep the maid.
I would have pegged House as the kind of person who wouldn't have much
trouble remembering where he had put things. He's not quite as extreme
as Adrian Monk, but in the past, his memory for details has been
depicted as way above the ordinary.
HOUSE: When I was a kid, my dad was stationed in a Marine base
in Egypt. We were in the middle of nowhere, and there
was absolutely nothing for a kid to do except -- look for
a mummy's tomb.
If House is between 43 and 47 in the present day, then he would have
been a minor sometime between the years of 1959 and 1980. Was there a
U.S. Marine Corps base in Egypt during that time? Embassy duty would
have made sense, but a whole USMC base in the middle of nowhere in
Egypt? Am I missing something, or was this impossible?
HOUSE: Because you were trying to kill him. I'd love to know
the why behind that why, but you're not going to tell me,
are you?
I assumed this was the implicit reason for titling the episode
"Clueless." It would have been one thing for House to be stymied, but
it was way past weird that they had him simply give up that easily on
finding the wife's motive for poisoning her husband. It's not that we
in the audience needed to know why for the sake of the plot. In fact,
given the way _House_ is set up, it really doesn't matter to the plot
why the patients and their loved ones do what they do. However, it HAS
mattered to the characterization of House and sometimes of the other
regulars as well to work out such things, since House seems to go for a
gestalt approach to putting together a picture of the patient and his
environment.
House wants to know everything, and he pursues the knowledge he wants,
sometimes going to lengths that others consider absurd or immoral to
obtain that knowledge. Anomalies used to bug him and supposedly still
do, and while he obviously assumes there's no such thing as a happy
marriage, I'd expect him to try to find out why here in order to wrap up
the case. After all, if it had turned out that the wife had a rare
presentation of Munchausen's by proxy or some other psych problem, then
the case wouldn't have been completely finished until he had diagnosed
her as well. And even in the unbelievable event that House suddenly
didn't have the motive to pursue the motive, I'd expect Cameron to want
to know the motive since it disillusioned her and made her lose the bet.
But instead of staying and trying to find out, all the doctors
inexplicably walked away from the wife and spouted theories to one
another (which was so very odd looking that finally Foreman asked if one
of them ought to go back and stay with the wife in case she decided to
run).
The camera work came off as weird too. When House delivered the line
above, he was reversed right-to-left, so they must have been shooting
into the wall mirror, but he also looked cropped, squeezed, and lower
resolution. I had to think a bit to figure out what was going on, which
took me out of the story. The wife was reversed too, but she didn't
look quite as strange.
HOUSE: [To Cameron] He's becoming more attractive by the
minute, isn't he?
That's supposed to be only when they're getting worse, not when they're
getting better.
The note on Wilson's sandwich container:
PROPERTY OF
JAMES WILSON
TRESPASSERS WILL
BE PROSECUTED!
Why would Wilson leave House's home phone rather than his own cell phone
as a contact number? Evidently to contrive the last scene.
Despite the other out-of-character acts, I was prepared to call this
episode mediocre, which is high praise by second-season standards, until
they had House erase Wilson's phone message. How much could it have
cost him to give his best friend the choice of staying on or moving out?
Used to be House was considered a jerk because he told people things
they didn't want to hear. Now he simply has no scruples at all, and
that's apparently supposed to be the high-concept hook into the
character. As Tony Calguire said, "Asshole Doctor" sums him up.
Given that House could be seduced into letting noisy Wilson stay longer
by the promise of cooking and cleaning, I'm deeply surprised that House
didn't just hire a maid/cook himself back when Stacy left the first
time.
--
trotsky
House was amusing himself--that's in keeping with his character.
SpencerDogg
to analyze it and write about it. Why bother. It's a freakin TV show.
--------
RecGroups : the community-oriented newsreader : www.recgroups.com
Justin Pate
>
> > Spoilers for "Clueless," 3/28/06.
> >
> > .
> > .
> > .
> >
> > there's still sarcasm aplenty in the show, particularly House's, I'm
> > finding that the sarcasm is less and less witty as time goes on and
> > comes off simply as self-important attitude and mugging.
> >
> >
> > Elapsed time numbers refer to a videotape copy of the original broadcast
> > with the commercials left in.
> >
> >
> > PROLOGUE
> >
> >
> > I called that the attacker would be the injured party. I did not
> > foresee that he was fake.
> >
> >
> > ACT I
> > 4:54
> >
> >
> > I was disappointed that House checked his hair for thinning after
> > Wilson's crack about it. It was hard to imagine House caring all that
> > much, particularly after razzing Wilson for his grooming routine.
>
I thought it was a good show, but it's great to see there are people
out there that can point out just how crappy things are to me that I
once liked.
Barry Margolin
MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply (Micky DuPree) wrote:
> I did not at all get why drinking a beverage from a drinker-made hole
> near the bottom of the can was supposed to be superior to drinking it
> out of the manufacturer-made hole at the top of the can. It's not like
> the caffeine sinks to the bottom, and even if it did, you could always
> turn the can a few times.
This is a trick more commonly used by beer drinkers -- the double hole
makes it pour out in a single stream, allowing you to chug as quickly as
you're able to swallow. I guess the idea is that drinking more quickly
causes the effects to be accelerated.
--
Barry Margolin, bar...@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
khal...@netzero.com
Justin Pate wrote:
>
> I thought it was a good show, but it's great to see there are people
> out there that can point out just how crappy things are to me that I
> once liked.
Hm, Micky posts his analyses and opinions of "House" on Usenet. Which
is what Usenet is for. If you don't agree with him, you are free to
say so (which is also what Usenet is for) but if you don't want to
listen to opinions other than your own, why are you here?
They have things on the web for people who only want to post their own
thoughts. They're called blogs. Go get one.
Kate
BreadW...@fractious.net
> HOUSE: When I was a kid, my dad was stationed in a Marine base
> in Egypt. We were in the middle of nowhere, and there
> was absolutely nothing for a kid to do except -- look for
> a mummy's tomb.
>
> If House is between 43 and 47 in the present day, then he would have
> been a minor sometime between the years of 1959 and 1980. Was there a
> U.S. Marine Corps base in Egypt during that time? Embassy duty would
> have made sense, but a whole USMC base in the middle of nowhere in
> Egypt? Am I missing something, or was this impossible?
I thought that whole 'tell a story' thing was just to kill
some time so that the chemical reaction could take place.
Never occurred to me that it'd have necessarily been accurate
in any way.
Thanks for the detailed writeup.
--
Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed.
No HTML in E-Mail! -- http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
Are you posting responses that are easy for others to follow?
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting
Chelsea Christenson
news:1143815109....@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
> I thought it was a good show, but it's great to see there are people
> out there that can point out just how crappy things are to me that I
> once liked.
Your palate is being educated. It's good for you....
Chelsea Christenson
news:s8qvf3x...@recgroups.com...
> And to think I just sit back watch it and enjoy it. It must take you hours
> to analyze it and write about it. Why bother. It's a freakin TV show.
Some people enjoy using their brains, some people enjoy turning their brains
off. Chacun a son gout.
Rich
<a7d...@webnntp.invalid> wrote:
>And to think I just sit back watch it and enjoy it. It must take you hours
>to analyze it and write about it. Why bother. It's a freakin TV show.
Heaven forbid Hollywood should ever put a show on TV that is so
complex it deserves analysis. Everything should be so dumbed-down
that it isn't even worth discussing. Right?
Rich
<bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>In article <e0iopm$jv$1...@pcls4.std.com>,
> MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply (Micky DuPree) wrote:
>
>> I did not at all get why drinking a beverage from a drinker-made hole
>> near the bottom of the can was supposed to be superior to drinking it
>> out of the manufacturer-made hole at the top of the can. It's not like
>> the caffeine sinks to the bottom, and even if it did, you could always
>> turn the can a few times.
>
>This is a trick more commonly used by beer drinkers -- the double hole
>makes it pour out in a single stream, allowing you to chug as quickly as
>you're able to swallow. I guess the idea is that drinking more quickly
>causes the effects to be accelerated.
People are morons, as usual. They pay $2-$3 for those stupid energy
drinks and they have about the same caffeine as a cup of drip coffee.
But then they sell a few 10's of billions of $'s worth of bottled
water every year so....
-Rich
dr...@cornell.edu
> Spoilers for "Clueless," 3/28/06.
>
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
>
> HOUSE: Tox screen?
> CAMERON: No evidence of lead, mercury, or arsenic.
> HOUSE: Run 'em again.
>
> If House was convinced it was heavy-metal poisoning and the team had
> eliminated lead, mercury, and arsenic, then why wouldn't he have started
> systematically testing for other heavy metals until he ran out of them?
> Sure there are a lot of heavy metals, but there are fewer of them than
> there are viruses, and the docs run gels on those all the time when
> they're stymied.
This was the point where I was puzzled. House thought it was heavy
metal
poisoning, but he didn't know which, and so they were doing several
specific
single-element tests. Wouldn't this situation be ideal for mass
spectroscopy?
Even if they don't get a *definitive* answer as to which metal it is,
it could point
to one or a couple that they could then follow-up on. Given that gold
was "off the
scale" on the specific test, this surely would work, wouldn't it?
(It's a technical
quibble, but it makes me wonder if they just needed to pad for time a
bit.)
-Doug Elrod (dr...@cornell.edu)
Micky DuPree
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trotsky <gms...@email.com> writes:
: Micky DuPree wrote:
:: I was disappointed that House checked his hair for thinning after
:: Wilson's crack about it. It was hard to imagine House caring all
:: that much, particularly after razzing Wilson for his grooming
:: routine.
:
: House was amusing himself--that's in keeping with his character.
It came off to me as House actually being concerned about his appearance
because of a casual gibe, which didn't used to be in keeping with his
character.
-Micky
Micky DuPree
: It must take you hours to analyze it and write about it. Why bother.
: It's a freakin TV show.
I make my own fun.
-Micky
Micky DuPree
:: Micky DuPree wrote:
::: I'm sure there won't be universal agreement on the point, but while
::: there's still sarcasm aplenty in the show, particularly House's, I'm
::: finding that the sarcasm is less and less witty as time goes on and
::: comes off simply as self-important attitude and mugging.
: I thought it was a good show, but it's great to see there are people
: out there that can point out just how crappy things are to me that I
: once liked.
Just my public service to you. :)
-Micky
Micky DuPree
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Barry Margolin <bar...@alum.mit.edu> writes:
: In article <e0iopm$jv$1...@pcls4.std.com>,
: MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply (Micky DuPree) wrote:
:: I did not at all get why drinking a beverage from a drinker-made hole
:: near the bottom of the can was supposed to be superior to drinking it
:: out of the manufacturer-made hole at the top of the can. It's not
:: like the caffeine sinks to the bottom, and even if it did, you could
:: always turn the can a few times.
:
: This is a trick more commonly used by beer drinkers -- the double hole
: makes it pour out in a single stream, allowing you to chug as quickly
: as you're able to swallow. I guess the idea is that drinking more
: quickly causes the effects to be accelerated.
But you don't really save all that much time by "shotgunning." I
thought the whole point of doing it with beer was simply to look cool to
like-minded beer-drinking company. I automatically discounted that as a
motive for House with caffeine (perhaps foolishly, considering that his
motives are all over the map this season).
-Micky
Micky DuPree
: Hm, Micky posts his analyses and opinions of "House" on Usenet.
"Her."
: Which is what Usenet is for. If you don't agree with him [....]
"Her." (I know; it's the name.)
-Micky
Micky DuPree
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BreadW...@fractious.net writes:
: MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply (Micky DuPree) writes:
:: HOUSE: When I was a kid, my dad was stationed in a Marine base
:: in Egypt. We were in the middle of nowhere, and there
:: was absolutely nothing for a kid to do except -- look
:: for a mummy's tomb.
::
:: If House is between 43 and 47 in the present day, then he would have
:: been a minor sometime between the years of 1959 and 1980. Was there
:: a U.S. Marine Corps base in Egypt during that time? Embassy duty
:: would have made sense, but a whole USMC base in the middle of nowhere
:: in Egypt? Am I missing something, or was this impossible?
:
: I thought that whole 'tell a story' thing was just to kill some time
: so that the chemical reaction could take place. Never occurred to me
: that it'd have necessarily been accurate in any way.
Well, it was revealed that House's father was a Marine pilot back in
"Daddy's Boy," and then why would House have a vial of stannous chloride
solution in an old box at his home if not to lend some credence to the
story?
: Thanks for the detailed writeup.
You're welcome.
-Micky
Micky DuPree
: "Justin Pate" <JP5...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
: news:1143815109....@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
I am the Brussels sprouts of rec.arts.tv. Hear me roar. In a low-fat,
high-fiber kind of way.
-Micky
Micky DuPree
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dr...@cornell.edu writes:
: Micky DuPree wrote:
:: HOUSE: Tox screen?
:: CAMERON: No evidence of lead, mercury, or arsenic.
:: HOUSE: Run 'em again.
::
:: If House was convinced it was heavy-metal poisoning and the team had
:: eliminated lead, mercury, and arsenic, then why wouldn't he have
:: started systematically testing for other heavy metals until he ran
:: out of them? Sure there are a lot of heavy metals, but there are
:: fewer of them than there are viruses, and the docs run gels on those
:: all the time when they're stymied.
:
: This was the point where I was puzzled. House thought it was heavy
: metal poisoning, but he didn't know which, and so they were doing
: several specific single-element tests. Wouldn't this situation be
: ideal for mass spectroscopy? Even if they don't get a *definitive*
: answer as to which metal it is, it could point to one or a couple that
: they could then follow-up on. Given that gold was "off the scale" on
: the specific test, this surely would work, wouldn't it?
It sounds plausible to me, but since I don't know standard protocol
myself, I was willing to spot them this. They did some kind of specific
spectrographic analysis for beryllium in "Hunting," but I can't remember
them ever just going for an elemental profile of a tissue sample.
Doesn't mean they haven't (nor that they couldn't), but I'm pretty sure
they've never hinged a plot point on it.
But even if they couldn't go fishing for all heavy metals at once,
House's attitude still didn't sound like House to me. He was convinced
and he had the power to say, "Keep testing," but he didn't. He let
Foreman dominate him and he let the wife snow him with her performance.
That's not House.
: (It's a technical quibble, but it makes me wonder if they just needed
: to pad for time a bit.)
Considering the other things they did to pad for time in this episode, I
wouldn't put fudging the technical protocol past them either.
-Micky
Micky DuPree
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In article <1143815109....@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com>,
"Justin Pate" <JP5...@yahoo.com> writes:
: I thought it was a good show, but it's great to see there are people
: out there that can point out just how crappy things are to me that I
: once liked.
I thought I could let it go, but since I thought I was actually pretty
generous towards this episode, I couldn't walk away.
I magnanimously ignored what they seemed to be setting up as a strained
association between rust on a steel pipe and heavy-metal toxicity, which
was even more tenuous a _satori_ than "the wife did it." If they wanted
House to free associate metal to metal, why bother with the rust? Iron
oxide is more suggestive of there being too many free radicals in the
patient's body than of the patient chewing paint off the walls,
especially since iron was never an issue. (Iron in small doses is an
essential nutrient, whereas no one would suggest that you aren't
getting enough lead in your diet.) I cannot figure out why they didn't
just associate pipes to pipes instead: have House reach for the flush
lever, pause, closeup of pipes, and then House orders Foreman to check
out the patient's home for lead in the pipes, water, paint, whatever.
That would have flowed smoothly, with the rest of the plot proceeding as
planned. Why have a shot of rust at all?
HOUSE: Lungs, skin, skin, lungs. Sklungs?
I also ignored the fact that the last time the PPTH Diagnostics Dept.
was stumped by a combination of pulmonary symptoms and dermatological
symptoms the answer turned out to be leprosy with sequela, but not one
of the four doctors suggested that this time even if only to dismiss it.
Tenuous, maybe, but Foreman wasn't even pinning the swelling in the
right place, and yet he went ahead and *treated* for lupus.
The writers have made both the plot and the characterization in the
series dependent on the posited intellectual brilliance of the lead
character. Perhaps that was a strategic aesthetic mistake on their part
if they couldn't ensure continued attention to detail in the long term,
because without that intelligence, both the plot and the
characterization chronically fail. Or are we supposed to just accept
that House is brilliant for the same reason that the Professor on
_Gilligan's Island_ is brilliant: because the writers say so?
-Micky
George W Harris
MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply (Micky DuPree) wrote:
Oh, Micky, she's so fine, she's so fine it blows
my mind, oh Micky!
:
:-Micky
--
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar." -Wash, 'Serenity'
George W. Harris For actual email address, replace each 'u' with an 'i'
George W Harris
MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply (Micky DuPree) wrote:
No Army bases nearby?
:
:-Micky
--
"If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste more like
prunes than rhubarb does" -Groucho Marx
edrh...@hotmail.com
There's "discussing" and then there's the "Please, please pleese get a
life foundation." Fans of a show can turn 180 degrees on it if the
characters don't behave exactly the way the fan in question believes
they should ALWAYS behave.
Chelsea Christenson
news:1144249712.9...@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> There's "discussing" and then there's the "Please, please pleese get a
> life foundation." Fans of a show can turn 180 degrees on it if the
> characters don't behave exactly the way the fan in question believes
> they should ALWAYS behave.
As long as we're playing with contrasts: There's "Hey, that doesn't match
the characters in my head" and then there's "I prefer the way the characters
used to behave."
edrh...@hotmail.com
Yep. I've seen every fan base from Star Trek to Forever Knight self
destruct from people over obsessing on what should be an enjoyable
thing.
trotsky
Hugh Laurie is fantastic with his facial expressions. He clearly looked
amused to me.