First Words
…thoughts of an anachronistic, solo pediatrician
by Glenn Feole, M.D.
"Be careful too that the reading of your story makes the melancholy
laugh and the merry laugh louder," Cervantes, Prologue to Don Quixote
Contact: ishmaelish36@gmail.com
Blog site: ishmaelish36.blogspot.com
June 21, 2014 Saturday
Chief Complaint: (written on the chart before I go in the room)
Interesting Name:
Jethro, Jewel, Josiah and Jubalar (siblings)
Anecdote:
Joey was very thoughtful for an eight year old. He took my questions seriously and usually
thought awhile before answering. I was impressed.
He said he liked animals so in an attempt to make conversation and to also be educational, I asked him about the author of All Creatures Great and Small (about the Yorkshire vet),
"Have you read any James Herriot?"
(Long pause)
"No."
"Hmmm. Let's see now. Have you read any Dostoevsky?"
(Long pause)
"No."
Westport, Connecticut, 1990's
 |
| At one point I had three Woodies, but they have all gone due to attrition (he is well loved). |
In Defense of Nothing
I guess the trailers lined up in the lot off the highway will do.
I guess that crooked eucalyptus tree also.
I guess this highway will have to do and the cars
and the people in them on their way.
The present is always coming up to us, surrounding us.
It’s hard to imagine atoms, hard to imagine
hydrogen & oxygen binding, it’ll have to do.
This sky with its macular clouds also
and that electric tower to the left, one line broken free.
by Peter Gizzi, from American Hybrid,
A Norton Anthology of New Poetry
Coup d'essai:
"There was that infinitude of oddities in him..." Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne. One of my favorite lines in James Herriot's books was when he mentions that he finds aficionado's fascinating, but fanatics irresistible. I love people who have a passionate interest, whether it was Viktor Klemenko (below) and our shared love of chess (which has still permeated my being)...or my avid reading and search for the perfect science fiction book in my pre-high school years and then with my recent reading of the Nebulla Award winners several years ago.
Favorite Musician/song:
Mozart, Symphonies
When I think of Beethoven, I think of his overwhelming symphonies (Pastoral especially), and not the sonatas (which I have come to love). Similarly, I associate Mozart with his short works... but his symphonies are wondrous.
Favorite Book/author:
Charles Eric Maine, He Owned the World
Sci-fi. This was the first science-fiction book that grabbed my imagination; it was in St. Louis, Missouri in 1968 and I was in the 7th grade. It was recommended by my good friend, Viktor Klemenko, who was a quiet, gentle and self-assured intellectual from Russia that I would play chess with. A great guy. I read the book he lent me and returned it to him after a few days. He said, "What did you think about the ending?" I said it was...ah...very good…having missed the point. The whole book revolved around the devastating surprise ending that was revealed only in the last sentence or two… and I had missed it! ha. But when I reread it, I was hooked. I have collected his other works, all vintage and dated. Not the top of the sic-fi literary world, I am sure, but they all still have that first-love feeling of discovery, suspenseful atmosphere and excitement.
Favorite Movie/DVD:
An alcoholic ex-country music star who finds redemption at the hands of an understanding, struggling Southern woman and her son. Beautiful in its quietness, set in a small town rural setting.
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