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EDITOR'S CORNER | What Santa brought us for Christmas, and some tunes

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Corrections at the top: In our first-person description of a recent hospital ER visit, we said that patients arriving by ambulance are automatically advanced to the head of the queue. In fact, this is only partly true. While the condition of patients arriving by ambulance will be immediately or nearly immediately assessed, this does not imply that they will be treated any more quickly than others who arrived before them. As the article also pointed out, Canadian hospitals operate on a triage system that prioritizes patients most in need of immediate care, regardless of how they arrive at the hospital. “The myth of arriving to the hospital via ambulance as a method of faster care has a significant impact on ambulance offload delays and EMS’ ability to get to patients in the community who are in critical need in a timely manner,” says Niagara Health Communications Specialist Michelle Pressé. Actually, I can attest to the ambulance not providing any special advantage. In October 2021 I experienced sudden intestinal distress and was taken to the ER by ambulance. While I was assessed almost immediately, I then remained in the waiting room for several agonizing hours before much happened. Bottom line: If you’re in acute distress, call ‘em up. Otherwise, drive yourself or hitch a ride…

Bad Santa: Speaking of health and healthcare, guess what that jolly bastard brought to our house for Christmas. Yep, Covid. For nearly three years we evaded the bloody bug by diligent mask-wearing, spritzes of hand sanitizer, and staying up-to-date on our boosters—a pretty good run, considering that by the end of last year we knew almost no one who had not yet gotten the virus. I’m pretty sure I know the time and place where it finally got me—it was a restaurant meal, which tends to be tough to enjoy with a mask covering your pie hole. It was my only unmasked foray into the world that week, and a couple of days later I lost my voice and that second red line showed up on the Rapid Antigen Test (has there ever been a more appropriate acronym than “RAT”?). A couple of days after that my spouse also tested positive. The very good news is that our symptoms did not progress beyond a moderate head cold, for which we credit the vaccine and boosters. Still, it’s not an experience we'd like to repeat...A heartbreaking story: Man, we seem to be on a David Downer trip here today—sorry! (Don’t worry, some smiles are coming at the end.) If you haven’t read yesterday’s article about the homeless man who is seeking a medically assisted death, do have a look. You have to ask how we as a society have failed so badly, how greed in all its ugly forms has all but dominated the culture, even here in Canada...

Putting on an event? Get your free listing: We’ve put together a quick tutorial for anyone looking to promote pretty much any kind of event—service club doings, art shows, book readings, concerts, religious lectures, you name it. Our events calendar is open to all and at no charge. Find out more here...Pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er: Letterkenny is back, more profane than ever, on Crave, and it may be their best season yet, once. Sure, it’s sophomoric—but it’s hilariously sophomoric...Okay, time for those smiles: Another excellent series, The Young Pope, aired on HBO what seems like just a year or two ago, but in fact was in January 2016. The end credits for each episode were often set to classic Italian pop hits of the 1960s and ‘70s, one of which was by the artist Nada, and no, we’d never heard of her either. Here’s the first smile for you: Nada’s debut performance at the Sanremo Music Festival, in 1969, with the song that turned her into an overnight sensation, Ma che freddo fa, “But how cold it is.” She was all of 15:



The way one thing can lead to another on YouTube, as a result we ended up discovering another pop singer of the era, this one Spanish, named Jeanette—again, Jeanette who? She had a massive hit in 1974, at age 23, with Porque te vas, Spanish for, “You are leaving.” Which is your second smile. It’s a mix of funk, pop, and a little disco, and it’s not a bad antidote to yet another grey winter’s day:



And that’s it for a bit: Remember, [email protected] to share your thoughts. We’re starting on our third week into the new voyage here and I think we’re settling into a stable course. Hope your snowblower is ready to roll since it looks like we’ll finally need to move some snow tomorrow! See you next time.

 



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Dave Burket

About the Author: Dave Burket

Dave Burket is Editor of PelhamToday. Dave is a veteran writer and editor who has worked in radio, print, and online in the US and Canada for some 40 years.
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