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Brushweed ... [and a language observation]

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J. P. Gilliver

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Jul 25, 2023, 9:19:53 AM7/25/23
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Anyone still here? I just tweeted an inappropriate it's, was picked up
on it (by my brother), and replied I must re-subscribe to APIHNA - then
found I still was. It's awfully quiet.

There was a lot of coverage, especially yesterday, of the death of a
much respected newsman. Some of the initial reports said he "died after
being diagnosed with...", which to me had at least a shade of
implication that it was the diagnosis itself which was fatal, which of
course it wasn't (as later reports clarified, he died nine years after
being diagnosed).

I appreciate that they wanted not to omit the fact that he had been
diagnosed, and that using other word forms would have involved more
words; it just gave me a momentary jar.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"There are a great many people in the country today who, through no fault of
their own, are sane." - Monty Python's Flying Circus

Andy Burns

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Jul 25, 2023, 9:28:12 AM7/25/23
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J. P. Gilliver wrote:

> Some of the initial reports said he "died after being diagnosed with..."

To me that just reads that the diagnosis was not made as part of a
post-mortem.

Mack A. Damia

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Jul 25, 2023, 9:48:13 AM7/25/23
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On Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:15:59 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver"
<G6...@255soft.uk> wrote:

>Anyone still here? I just tweeted an inappropriate it's, was picked up
>on it (by my brother), and replied I must re-subscribe to APIHNA - then
>found I still was. It's awfully quiet.
>
>There was a lot of coverage, especially yesterday, of the death of a
>much respected newsman. Some of the initial reports said he "died after
>being diagnosed with...", which to me had at least a shade of
>implication that it was the diagnosis itself which was fatal, which of
>course it wasn't (as later reports clarified, he died nine years after
>being diagnosed).
>
>I appreciate that they wanted not to omit the fact that he had been
>diagnosed, and that using other word forms would have involved more
>words; it just gave me a momentary jar.

Some of the initial reports said he "died (NINE YEARS) after being
diagnosed with..."

Reveals the dumming down of education and English usage. Lazy people
taught by lazy teachers.


Graham.

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Jul 25, 2023, 10:32:44 AM7/25/23
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Cancer?s a Funny Thing

 

I wish I had the voice of Homer

To sing of rectal carcinoma,

Which kills a lot more chaps, in fact,

Than were bumped off when Troy was sacked.

 

Yet, thanks to modern surgeon?s skills,

It can be killed before it kills

Upon a scientific basis

In nineteen out of twenty cases.

 

I noticed I was passing blood

(Only a few drops, not a flood).

So pausing on my homeward way

From Tallahassee to Bombay

I asked a doctor, now my friend,

To peer into my hinder end,

To prove or to disprove the rumour

That I had a malignant tumour.

They pumped in BaS04.

Till I could really stand no more,

And, when sufficient had been pressed in,

They photographed my large intestine,

In order to decide the issue

They next scraped out some bits of tissue.

(Before they did so, some good pal

Had knocked me out with pentothal,

Whose action is extremely quick,

And does not leave me feeling sick.)

The microscope returned the answer

That I had certainly got cancer,

So I was wheeled into the theatre

Where holes were made to make me better.

One set is in my perineum

Where I can feel, but can?t yet see ?em.

Another made me like a kipper

Or female prey of Jack the Ripper,

Through this incision, I don?t doubt,

The neoplasm was taken out,

Along with colon, and lymph nodes

Where cancer cells might find abodes.

A third much smaller hole is meant

To function as a ventral vent:

So now I am like two-faced Janus

The only* god who sees his anus.

 

*In India there are several more

With extra faces, up to four,

But both in Brahma and in Shiva

I own myself an unbeliever.

 

I?ll swear, without the risk of perjury,

It was a snappy bit of surgery.

My rectum is a serious loss to me,

But I?ve a very neat colostomy,

And hope, as soon as I am able,

To make it keep a fixed time-table.

So do not wait for aches and pains

To have a surgeon mend your drains;

If he says ?cancer? you?re a dunce

Unless you have it out at once,

For if you wait it?s sure to swell,

And may have progeny as well.

My final word, before I?m done,

Is ?Cancer can be rather fun?.

Thanks to the nurses and Nye Bevan

The NHS is quite like heaven

Provided one confronts the tumour

With a sufficient sense of humour.

I know that cancer often kills,

But so do cars and sleeping pills;

And it can hurt one till one sweats,

So can bad teeth and unpaid debts.

A spot of laughter, I am sure,

Often accelerates one?s cure;

So let us patients do our bit

To help the surgeons make us fit.

 

J. B. S. Haldane (1964)




--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

J. P. Gilliver

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Jul 25, 2023, 12:59:58 PM7/25/23
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In message <kia0va...@mid.individual.net> at Tue, 25 Jul 2023
14:28:10, Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk> writes
Interesting. I don't _think_ UK usage would use "diagnosed" in that
circumstance - though I'm not sure how they _would_ report it. "Found to
have had" or "Found to have been suffering from", I think; I think we
tend only to use diagnosed of the living.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

It costs a lot to look this cheap - Dolly Parton

J. P. Gilliver

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Jul 25, 2023, 1:10:02 PM7/25/23
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In message <u9ome9$14t9k$1...@dont-email.me> at Tue, 25 Jul 2023 15:32:40,
Graham. <graham...@mail.com> writes
>Cancer?s a Funny Thing
[]
>J. B. S. Haldane (1964)
>
>
>
>
Excellent! Thanks for that.

(I recently had the biopsy for prostate cancer. Decidedly uncomfortable
process, but I was declared clear.)

In return for the poem: if you haven't heard it (or even if you have),
you might enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gABYTmXos .
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Steven M. O'Neill

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Jul 25, 2023, 4:42:44 PM7/25/23
to
J. P. Gilliver <G6...@255soft.uk> wrote:
>Anyone still here? I just tweeted an inappropriate it's, was picked up
>on it (by my brother), and replied I must re-subscribe to APIHNA - then
>found I still was. It's awfully quiet.

Still here, but unsubscribed from Tweeter.

>There was a lot of coverage, especially yesterday, of the death of a
>much respected newsman. Some of the initial reports said he "died after
>being diagnosed with...", which to me had at least a shade of
>implication that it was the diagnosis itself which was fatal, which of
>course it wasn't (as later reports clarified, he died nine years after
>being diagnosed).
>
>I appreciate that they wanted not to omit the fact that he had been
>diagnosed, and that using other word forms would have involved more
>words; it just gave me a momentary jar.

Where do jars go when they cease to exist?

--
Steven O'Neill ste...@panix.com
Brooklyn, NY http://www.panix.com/~steveo

Mack A. Damia

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Jul 25, 2023, 5:55:15 PM7/25/23
to
Asphalt. You may be driving or walking on it.




Mike Fleming

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Jul 25, 2023, 6:49:40 PM7/25/23
to
On 25/07/2023 14:15, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> Anyone still here? I just tweeted an inappropriate it's, was picked up
> on it (by my brother), and replied I must re-subscribe to APIHNA - then
> found I still was. It's awfully quiet.

Still subscribed. Must remember to pass on inappropriate apostrophes (do
we win apostrophies?).

Steven M. O'Neill

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Jul 25, 2023, 7:04:40 PM7/25/23
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It's not the fault of mine, I can tell you that.

J. P. Gilliver

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Jul 25, 2023, 11:59:35 PM7/25/23
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In message <kib1s2...@mid.individual.net> at Tue, 25 Jul 2023
23:49:36, Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> writes
Groan! Excellent.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"We're plumbing shallows we didn't know existed here" - Jeremy Paxman (as
quizmaster of "University Challenge"), 1998 (when losing team suddenly put on a
spurt by showing knowledge of things like the Eurovision Song Contest ...)

J. P. Gilliver

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Jul 25, 2023, 11:59:35 PM7/25/23
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In message <u9pke6$1b4$3...@reader2.panix.com> at Tue, 25 Jul 2023
23:04:38, Steven M. O'Neill <ste...@panix.com> writes
>Mack A. Damia <drstee...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>ste...@panix.com (Steven M. O'Neill) wrote:
>>>J. P. Gilliver <G6...@255soft.uk> wrote:
>>>>I appreciate that they wanted not to omit the fact that he had been
>>>>diagnosed, and that using other word forms would have involved more
>>>>words; it just gave me a momentary jar.
>>>
>>>Where do jars go when they cease to exist?
>>
>>Asphalt. You may be driving or walking on it.
>
>It's not the fault of mine, I can tell you that.
>
LOL and GROAN in equal measure!
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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Aug 4, 2023, 1:14:41 PM8/4/23
to
On 2023-07-25 14:32:40 +0000, Graham. said:

> Cancer?s a Funny Thing
>
>  
>
> I wish I had the voice of Homer
>
> To sing of rectal carcinoma,
>
> Which kills a lot more chaps, in fact,
>
> Than were bumped off when Troy was sacked.
>
>  
>
> Yet, thanks to modern surgeon?s skills,
> [ … ] 
>
> J. B. S. Haldane (1964)

Previously I only knew of the first verse. Where can one find the whole thing?


--
athel -- biochemist, not a physicist, but detector of crackpots

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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Aug 4, 2023, 1:19:27 PM8/4/23
to
On 2023-07-25 17:05:23 +0000, J. P. Gilliver said:

> In message <u9ome9$14t9k$1...@dont-email.me> at Tue, 25 Jul 2023 15:32:40,
> Graham. <graham...@mail.com> writes
>> Cancer?s a Funny Thing
> []
>> J. B. S. Haldane (1964)
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Excellent! Thanks for that.
>
> (I recently had the biopsy for prostate cancer. Decidedly uncomfortable
> process, but I was declared clear.)

Not my case, alas, so I needed a full prostatectomy. That was in 2015.
However, I've tended to think of my "cancer" as a fraud, as it never
gave me the slightest pain or discomfort (not counting the iatrogenic
discomfort accompanying the biopsy) and I only know I had it because
the surgeon said so.
>
> In return for the poem: if you haven't heard it (or even if you have),
> you might enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gABYTmXos .


--

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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Aug 4, 2023, 1:22:16 PM8/4/23
to
They go to Laos, where there is a plain of them.

Mack A. Damia

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Aug 4, 2023, 11:19:19 PM8/4/23
to
On Fri, 4 Aug 2023 19:19:23 +0200, Athel Cornish-Bowden
<athe...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 2023-07-25 17:05:23 +0000, J. P. Gilliver said:
>
>> In message <u9ome9$14t9k$1...@dont-email.me> at Tue, 25 Jul 2023 15:32:40,
>> Graham. <graham...@mail.com> writes
>>> Cancer?s a Funny Thing
>> []
>>> J. B. S. Haldane (1964)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Excellent! Thanks for that.
>>
>> (I recently had the biopsy for prostate cancer. Decidedly uncomfortable
>> process, but I was declared clear.)
>
>Not my case, alas, so I needed a full prostatectomy. That was in 2015.
>However, I've tended to think of my "cancer" as a fraud, as it never
>gave me the slightest pain or discomfort (not counting the iatrogenic
>discomfort accompanying the biopsy) and I only know I had it because
>the surgeon said so.

You must remain sexually active and ejaculate regularly. Of course,
Flomax helps, too. Not certain how old you are. I think you may be
in your 80s. I am 76.

Whatever you need to do. It can be difficult. Drink a lot of water.

Ageing ain't easy.



Mack A. Damia

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Aug 6, 2023, 3:10:46 PM8/6/23
to
Read Wilhelm Reich:

"Die Funktion des Orgasmus: Zur Psychopathologie und zur Soziologie
des Geschlechtslebens"

Also,

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Christ-Emotional-Plague-Mankind/dp/0374504768

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