History – Page 4 – Brooklyn Transplant

Camembert

My childhood was decidedly unsophisticated in many ways, including gastronomically. For the first decade of my life my parents and I lived with my maternal grandparents, both immigrants from different shtetls close to Vilnius in what is now Lithuania…. Continue Reading →

Medical Trivia #5: Johannes Lijdius Catherinus Pompe van Meerdervoort; a story of serendipity

Jeopardy category: Medical trivia Jeopardy answer: Johannes Lijdius Catherinus Pompe van Meerdervoort, the Netherlands Correct response: Who established the foundation for modern medical practice in Japan and from what country was he? Many writers—generally of a certain (relatively advanced)… Continue Reading →

June 20, 2019 3

Adages, aphorisms and more …

Favorite aphorisms, adages, sayings and quotes – (mostly learned, a few made up) – collected over many years … aphorism: a terse saying embodying a universal truth or astute observation. adage: a traditional saying expressing a common experience or observation…. Continue Reading →

April 16, 2019 9

Medical trivia #4: Billroth and Brahms

Using language to convey the magic of Brahms would be like using a wooden classroom ruler to measure the speed of light. … Continue Reading →

March 6, 2019 4

Sweet Emma

The mostly unadorned, dark room slopes down from back to front. There’s room for perhaps 200 people but, as I soon learned, most stand and only about twenty people get to sit in the front, on the floor, on scattered… Continue Reading →

February 10, 2019 6

A President Lies in State

John F. Kennedy lying in state, November 24, 1963 On Friday, November 22, 1963, 55 years ago, I was a third-year medical student sitting in a lecture room on the second floor of Freedmen’s Hospital, Washington, D.C. The lecture… Continue Reading →

December 4, 2018 4

The Dying Cadaver

The Spring 2018 issue of Rutgers Magazine, the magazine for alumni of the State University of New Jersey (Kate, my wife, is a Rutgers graduate), includes a one-page article, A High-Tech Anatomy Lesson, describing how medical students can be taught… Continue Reading →

November 6, 2018 8

Return to Bratislava

This year I will be making my third trip to Bratislava, capital of the Slovak Republic, once a part of the former Czechoslovakia which was a member of the Eastern Bloc, closely allied to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics… Continue Reading →

July 5, 2018 6

Diahann Carroll, Jaguar motor cars, Hillary and me

In the Random House Unabridged Dictionary the fifteenth, and final, definition for “crush” is: 15. Informal. a. an intense but usually short-lived infatuation. b. the object of such an infatuation. Diahann Carroll Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960)… Continue Reading →

May 1, 2018 16

Medical Trivia #3: Hadrian’s Earlobe

The Roman Emperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus) was born in Italica-Hispanica (modern day Seville, Spain) in 76 CE and died at his villa in Baiae, an ancient Roman town on the Gulf of Naples,… Continue Reading →

February 22, 2018 5

Musing of a Contemporary Pathologist

Category History