Via CrabAppleLane, a physician critiques the practice of medicine in Batman comics. I wonder what watching a rerun of ER with this guy is like?

As Batman watches, the patient’s heart stops. “No” says Batman, and hits the wall in frustration. (“Wham!” says the wall).

In one of my favorite butchered medical clichés, the doctor runs in and says: “Oh my God, he’s red-lined.” No, he’s flat-lined. Red-lining is something you do to a very fast car or motorcycle. There’s a big difference.

And in the previous issue it's even better--the cardiac monitor isn't hooked up to the patient anywhere at all, but it's still providing tracings. Did some kid misplace his Etch-a-Sketch, or what?

By the way, if you read weblogs regularly and ever get bored or stuck in a rut with them, you could do a lot worse than to visit CrabAppleLane and raid Rob's Blog of the Day. He just finds terrific stuff. Bonus: You get to read Rob, who's nailed the reason I cannot stand listening to ESPN radio when they burble on about the NBA's latest fresh-out-of-high-school recruit:

The spotlight, the stardom, the attention, the adulation, and the microscope are too much for almost anyone. That said, don’t look to me for sympathy if it all goes awry. My sympathy is reserved for the kids who have to wash cars to put themselves through college or have to take a second job to feed their family and pay the mortgage.

Exactly. Posted by Ilyka at June 25, 2004 10:21 PM in hell is other people