Sappy Cat Blogging

It’s Friday, so it’s time for sappy cat blogging. Here’s Murphy.

Graduate School #27

Alcohol.

What is a drink equivalent? What is proof? How much is too much? How much can one person drink? And why do people always get intro trouble around BAC .25?

What are the stages of intoxication? How much does one drink raise your B.A.C. What is an alphabetic alcoholic binge.

Then, of course, there is the naked native parrot dance.

Penny For the Guy?

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Gunpowder treason and plot

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

Dental School #4

Myocardial heart disease. Myocarditis, cardiomyopathies.

Pericardial heart disease and tumors of the heart.

I must say, the dental students are quite cheerful and helpful
Image from the pathguy

Graduate School #26 Terrorism and War

Or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the bugs.

What one does with the dilithium crystals found at Mentor Mall.

Interesting Essay

From the Simon Teller and the Telegraph on Obama’s first year.  Key graf:

What the dilemma illustrates is that governing is not so easy as it might once have seemed; that you cannot please all of the people all of the time, so there is little point trying; and that the expertise of the Obama campaign in managing image is useless when managing a country. Tony Blair, had they asked, could have told him that.

Dental School #4

Hypertensive, atherosclerotic, and valvular heart disease.

Graduate School #25

Deaths in Custody

Excited delerium, the difference between jail and prison, why you don’t fight with the cops.

The newest developments in TASERs, the autopsy techniques for deaths in custody.

I also handcuffed the entire class and demonstrated stress positions.  A professors dream.  Though I started with 12 pair of handcuffs and now I only have 11.  Oh, dear.

Forensic Hallowe’en

People die every day of the year.  Hallowe’en is no exception.  Some people really get into the iconography of Hallowe’en, with the bones and ghosts and such.  Forensic people, not so much.  Although, I was considering getting one of these for someone, but that’s another story.  And getting a date for the Mortician’s ball is always…problematic.  There’s also this.  But I digress.

But for a forensic pathologist, the dead are your patients.  They’re around all the time, not trotted out for a day of the dead ceremony, and with familiarity comes ennui.  My investigator once had Fred in a box in his truck for a prolonged period of time.  He said it was someone to talk to.   I’ve worked in a couple offices where there were long-term tenants in the freezer unit.  Dead bodies are just…there.

They are treated with respect, because that’s the right thing to do.  But they lose their specialness.  And they lose their capacity to frighten.  There’s nothing more well-behaved than a dead man.

The last time I was asked about Hallowe’en, it was by a cop, while we were waiting for animal control.  An individual who was a dog breeder had died, and the dogs would not let us in to move the body.  They were adamant about guarding their pack leader, and keeping him safe.  Thankfully, they were all Golden Retrievers.  But even dogs as good-natured as goldens weren’t going to allow just anyone to cart Dad away.

“No,” I said to the officer. “Just another day at the office.”

Sappy Cat Blogging

It’s Friday, so it’s time for SAPPY CAT BLOGGING!