Solution for “Frequent Fliers,” the Science of Laughter, and One Doctor Who Refused to Accept Her Own Death
Dallas has a solution for “frequent (E.R.) fliers”: Buy them a home.
“All language groups laugh ‘ha-ha-ha’ basically the same way.” Each “ha” is about one-15th of a second, repeated every fifth of a second.
Doctor who helped patients face death, refused to accept her own. She wanted to try treatments even if they were painful and offered only a 2 percent chance of survival.
Is the doctor a complete hypocrit. It’s hard to conclude otherwise.
I found the story of the doctor really poignant. Until she was in the same situation, she could not say how she would respond.
We’re programmed for life, and it’s hard to let go of that.
The doctor who refused to accept her own impending death was 40 years old. I wonder if her youth added to her denial. Would she have been less reluctant to embrace death at 80?
Interesting to learn that “ha ha” is the same in all languages.
About the city of Dallas providing micro-sized homes to the chronically homeless. Last year an article appeard in the New York Times describing a city program to buy one-way tickets for those homeless families with somewhere else to go.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/nyregion/29oneway.html
“The project is modeled after similar developments in Los Angeles and Seattle.” What the article doesn’t mention is that in the Seattle accommodations(according to Michael Medved)the homeless can drink in their rooms — so this is just giving them a place to play “Leaving Las Vegas” [ie, drink themselves to death] at taxpayers’ expense. Jail is good, people dry out there. Unless they are commitable (imminent danger), these people wouldn’t otherwise go to Terrell State Hospital. THIS WILL NOT SAVE MONEY: Build a thousand units, and a thousand more will show up to take their underpass campsites.