At Johns Hopkins today, waiting for phlebotomy, minding my own business, flipping through the usual bizarre array of magazines on those office-type end tables from what has to be the Medical Office Wood Veneer with Mauve Upholstery Furniture Distribution Center. What can I say? It's disquieting, the magazines one finds. You know they were brought there by patients because they have that lower left-hand corner (address label area) of the cover ripped, so you won't find out the home address of Sean and Mary Catherine McCarthy, recipients of Myasthenia Gravis Today.
So what do these magazines say about the people who frequent JHU oncology, and maybe about America in general (to the extent that a critical mass of us must be reading this stuff in order for the mag to continue publishing)? Well, we like our guns and our Newsweek circa 2003.
My favorite issue today was a back issue of some gun magazine (some kind of hunting/sports mag) from December 2004. The cover featured a dad in army fatigues hugging his two daughters and a rifle. The headline said, "Give Them Some Freedom Under the Tree This Christmas."
Yeah. It was a whole article on finding just the right gun for your kids. For Christmas. The celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. You know: Jesus. Wonderful Counselor. Bread of Life. King of Kings. Emmanuel.
Prince of Peace.
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