this week i

was overwhelmed slash flattered that judy feder cited two pieces i worked on in her medicare matters brief.

failed to understand roller derby

..or this czech art, at least the gallery had free pretzels.

recommend they try strokey cloggy bypassy instead.

took my first sick day, i'm pretty sure garlic & gin were responsible for clearing that up within 24 hours. brushed my teeth for about an hour the next morning, though. i also ate bagels+butter; when ya feel miserable, ya might as well enjoy it.

this week i

clicked the 'avoid highways' checkbox on google maps, flew to new orleans, snagged a rental, and crossed the mississippi border just before midnight - the full circuit.

pulled over, reclined the car seat in the rain: waking up on the gulf of mexico makes me feel pretty good in the morning. waffle house waffles help too.

toured biloxi casinos. when gamblers' eyes glaze over, it's a public health problem.


weaved through desoto national forest.

drove more than i slept.

blanketed myself in npr. wow, a harp in the emergency room?

made some friends in hattiesburg. we celebrated valentine's day with heart-stoppin' local cuisine, i recommend the fried jalapenos..


..then at the rodeo, watched some animal cruelty..

..personally, i'd rather be in the line to become a steak.

..moved to a red-light/green-light party..


..then capped the night at a diner..


..this plainclothes marine walked in, ordered a meal, and fell asleep. the sheriff woke him by pounding the butt of a flashlight against the table, then shouting past the toothpick in the corner of his mouth, 'yer sammich is gettin cold!' they took him outside for a little sobriety test, but military service means one get-out-of-jail-free card, so they just drove his drunk ass home.

would not miss..

river delta-appropriate fire department decor

so you're the greatest musician ever? congratulations. here, have a crappy airport and creepy statue.

why the long face

confederate guerrillas laid down their lives for this? not pictured, the owner's two watchdogs: one snarling rottweiler, one neon rainbow-dyed toy poodle.

some nice old houses, i guess

nuclear missile truckers havin' a little off-road fun

pecan-flavored everything, courtesy of classy joints like this.

trees walking on water

marry me diet dr. pepper

the original guinness world record

quality radio

cultural car artwork, my favorite at the bottom.

18-wheel oil tanker on fire (second-to-last right rear tire, zoom in), no big thang

thanks mississippi,

let's do it again sometime.

2/19/09

this week i

saw our work on health expenditures as a share of total household budgets and the increasing burden of out-of-pocket spending go to press.

helped a friend with some r graphics, an exciting saturday afternoon. i wish more of my public health pals would come to me with fun stuff like this.


wondered when the pepsico ceo would make an analogous statement.

attended the release of a study of health insurance and cancer, the video captures the story.

dreamed ♥ would be added to standard qwerty keyboards. also scoffed at the price tag for alleged heart health, soon generic vioxx® will be cheaper.

wished i'd thought of that.

lived the black keys..

thanks ohio, your best work since ulysses s grant.

2/12/09

this week i

rifled through scholarly reaction to the occupation, conor gearty's solution the most practical. also viewed waltz with bashir: the novelty of serious cartoon war failed to compensate for lack of a take-home message, imho.

♥ ny...


talked about urban policy with a good friend who works at nyu's furman center. always more fun to vent about the entrenchment of sas in the data-crunching world over a cube of portobello mousse.
she's pessimistic that any publicly-available data sets might allow us to draw conclusions about the relationship between health status and home foreclosure in the elderly population, since agencies don't record age. i'm still hopeful that the mortgage crisis release of the hrs will yield something, but the clock is ticking.

caught up with someone i hadn't seen in far, far too long. we toured her exhibit in chelsea and scoured chinatown for contraband turtles, but mostly just spent thirty-six hours together laughing about old times. my favorite of her recent work -

left my hair in nyc, next time i'll consider donating.

bought my father some ginger candy, ate half the package before delivery.

was not fooled by the calorie-cloaking technique of dividing one beverage into 2.5 servings.
2/5/09