This is Boston Not LA

I have this song by The Freeze screaming in my head thus morning. Why?

As I was sitting in the ophthalmology waiting area on Wednesday, I was thinking about a Facebook NF2 page that I follow. The page is mostly about people asking for advice, general questions (e.g., I have XYZ symptoms – anyone else experience this?), and tips on interesting NF2 related events and such. The other group members are from around the US as well as other countries. 

What brought this to mind is that, it’s not unusual for someone who lives in some remote area (remember, the US is HUGE – a LOT of land with sparse towns and few people) to write in that they’ve just been diagnosed but their local, rural docs, surgeons, hospitals don’t have the skills or set-up to treat it. 

Imagine being told you’ve got a head full of killer tumors but the home team can’t help you. PANIC!  I’ve been surprised to read the responses to these posts. Why? 45 years ago, when I was first diagnosed, there were two places in the country to go to if you wanted the most accurate diagnosis, the best treatment and surgical outcomes. One was Boston – Doctor Ojemann at Mass General Hospital (my home away from home). The other was in Los Angeles (I’m not sure of the neurologist or hospital’s name – possibly UCLA).

All these years later (decades even – nearly half a century!!!) and Boston or LA is the answer I most often see given to newly diagnosed NF2ers. See Dr. Plotkin (who I got after Ojemann retired) or go to LA.

I'm very lucky. I probably won’t quit complaining about the awful 14 mile commute from Valhalla to MGH BUT, I’ll try to keep in mind that at least I don’t have to to fly in from East Nowhere, Iowa and pay the obscene hotel rates around here just to have my damn appointments.
~~~
FYI, being kind of out of control, prone to poor decisions and drinking and/or drugging too much after you turn 30 is not cool, edgy, attractive or smart unless you’re a Keith Richards, Freddie Mercury, Stephen Tyler or Keith Moon (who only made it to 32) type.

Not being a gifted rock'n'roller, I was in talk therapy well before I hit 30. Had been for probably five or six years but I had a long way to go and a lot to learn before I was at a reasonably acceptable ready-for-civilized-social-interaction level. There’s a good chance I’m not there yet and may never get there at all. Given the current government and the wackaloons who voted them in (or chose not to vote for whatever shortsighted, dipshitted reason), I think I’m, comparatively, in pretty good shape. 

Opinions on this undoubtedly vary.
~~~
One last thing on the recently deleted soulless, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, hate machine (REALLY the last—for my own sake as well as yours):

I, personally, think this was an inside job. For what purpose?

To drum up MAGA hate for the Left (which may have been waning due to all the major diplomatic and economic failures of this astoundingly incompetent administration) and to distract from everything Epstein (NB: apparently the now dead Gums McWeirdface was a proponent of releasing the files).

Having someone shot in the throat is a damn strong message to everyone on your team that no one should make any more noise about releasing those files. 

Having said all this, you simply MUST read The Rude Pundit’s post Well, Shit, I Guess I Gotta Write Something About Charlie Kirk, which isn’t really about Mr. Tinyface Bighead at all. TOTALLY worth the click.
~~~
A quibble:

Half-staff is the term for a flag flown from a flagpole (or staff) on land. Half-mast is how you refer to a flag flown on a ship's mast, on water.
~~~
The appellation “Mayberry Machiavelli” came to mind yesterday. What’s that mean?

DiIulio defines the Mayberry Machiavellis as political staff, Karl Rove and his people, “who consistently talked and acted as if the height of political sophistication consisted in reducing every issue to its simplest black-and-white terms for public consumption, then steering legislative initiatives or policy proposals as far right as possible….” (source) 

You know, bust everything down to soundbites and bullet points that even a toddler (or Lauren Boebert or Markwayne Mullin) could understand.

The current admin? They’re more the F-Troop Nixonians.

Okay, done rambling. Time to get up and commit acts of hygiene!

If you dance the same and dress the same
It won’t be long ‘til you are the same
You look the same and act the same
There’s nothing new and you’re to blame
This is Boston, not L.A.
This is Boston, fuck L.A. 
—The Freeze, This Is Boston, Not L.A.