{"id":44,"date":"2008-06-05T22:05:06","date_gmt":"2008-06-06T05:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/?p=31"},"modified":"2008-06-05T22:05:06","modified_gmt":"2008-06-06T05:05:06","slug":"delivering-the-news-round-4-page-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/delivering-the-news-round-4-page-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Delivering the News – Round 4 : Page 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSorrow sometimes teach a lesson well,
\nAnd I know that good can come from bad
\nSo let\u2019s look into that morning Star
\n\u2018Cause you know just who you are…\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

-Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, \u201cAll I Need,\u201d Spirit of Music<\/em>, c. 1999, Bob Marley Music<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019ll be frank,\u201d the doctor intones gravely, tightening the knot of his tie. \u201cThe prognosis is…not good.\u201d Could be paranoia, but it\u2019s as if he\u2019s biting his tongue to keep from popping a grin, or even a chuckle. That too- serious look. The bastard, I do believe he\u2019s enjoying this!<\/p>\n

Delivering the news, after all-that\u2019s the signature scene on every one of the dramaporn clones that have been hastily plotted by failed playwrights since television began. The shows where dumpy looking, balding guys with glasses get to be unconscionable philanderers and still earn the love of grandmotherly near-widows who bake brownies all day for you after heroically snatch ninety-four year old Sylvester from the jaws of death by performing some unconventional radical surgery that you invent on the spot, mostly to impress the new nurse.<\/p>\n

You know that sort of show. In fact, I believe that the ubiquity of this tired setting has less to do with it\u2019s popularity among viewers (it\u2019s a fact that most Americans will watch any crap put in front of them) or even
\nunwillingness to invent new and original premises (which in addition to being expensive and risky, requires exactly the type of minds that avoid commercial television) than with the patriotic zeal of network executives, who, in their unobtrusive way, are trying desperately to address the nation\u2019s shortage of physicians.<\/p>\n

I can just about see a teenage version of this geek, pocket protectors and calculators, Advanced Placement Biology text at the ready the minute he stops jacking off to ER. Standing in front of a mirror in blue thriftshop surgical scrubs and a white Miami Vice coat, practicing his lines. \u201cThere appears to be an abnormality,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m going to be frank, the prognosis is not good,\u201d and \u201cNurse, please, I can\u2019t. I\u2019m a married man, and my mistress works on this wing.\u201d<\/p>\n

If I were writing the script, the next line would be, \u201cHowever, there is an experimental therapy that just became available for your condition, and the early indications are promising…\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the Writer, who I sometimes think is boring and unnecessarily cruel, decided to insert a lecture into the monologue. \u201cIf you\u2019d come to me earlier, when we first called you, it\u2019s possible that we\u2019d have had some options. Surgery might have been feasible. But it\u2019s been over three months, and your x-rays are extremely discouraging. Chemo and radiation are contraindicated by the extent of the growths.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pauses, savoring his moment. \u201cI\u2019m afraid that the best I can recommend is a course of painkillers, and I will, of course, associate the research centers with your case. Breakthroughs happen every day, and one might be relevant to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hesitates again, and it\u2019s obvious he\u2019s waiting for the Question. It\u2019s my big line, one of the last I will get to utter, since I am a guest on this show, just one among the legion of goners that portray the heartbreaking tragedy the Star must confront each day in his daily struggle to be true to his Oath.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no escaping it; I need the information, if only for tax purposes, and he\u2019ll never tell me without being explicitly asked. Would you? I surrender, nearly choking on the words. \u201cHow long, doc?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSorrow sometimes teach a lesson well, And I know that good can come from bad So let\u2019s look into that morning Star \u2018Cause you know just who you are…\u201d -Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, \u201cAll I Need,\u201d Spirit of Music, c. 1999, Bob Marley Music \u201cWell, I\u2019ll be frank,\u201d the doctor intones gravely, tightening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[42,40,26,43,41,33],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transmigrant-blues","category-transmigrant-blues-round-4","tag-cancer","tag-dying","tag-past-lives","tag-prognosis","tag-rebirth","tag-reincarnation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amanamission.com\/transblues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}