... ..cataplexia ....September 16, 2005   I am writing from a hospital bed.  Upon hearing President Bush "take responsibility" for certain failures in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, I suffered a cataplectic episode and struck my head on, of all things, a fainting couch.  The resulting gash required stapling and the concomitant hysteria warranted observation.  I am told I correctly recited the Periodic Table in Farsi.  But I regained lucidity just in time to watch our governor take responsibility for the state's failures.  At this point in the speech, the governor pointed and proclaimed "the buck stops here."  She somehow missed her own chest, and, instead, poked the thin air above her left shoulder.  I thought how much better her speech would have been had she proclaimed "the buck stops there."  Imagine the legislators squinting and craning like pilgrims at Medjugorje. A chocolate-colored nurse enters my room.  Perhaps she wants to discuss why politicians are suddenly falling over themselves to have bucks stop upon them.  As I imagine this discourse, I notice the nurse's feet which are plump and rise from her shoes like baking bread.  She gets my attention by constricting a pressure cuff wrapped around my arm.  I like the measured tightness.  previous..|..current..|..archives..|..3d quarter index..|..next

©  2005 by the beastmaster