St. Valentine's day

In the medical profession, older doctors, especially during medical school, often ask younger doctors/students questions to try to test their knowledge and make sure they understand important information. This has long been referred to as "pimping." Sometimes, the real purpose of pimping is to embarrass or otherwise demean a student/intern/resident by proving to them their lack of knowledge. Thankfully, that does not happen at my residency program, as all we are interested in here is teaching people to learn in a non-threatening, non-demeaning way. (Have I mentioned how much I love my residency program??)

Occasionally, an attending may try to "pimp" you on something non-medicine related. Once in medical school, a surgeon asked me numerous questions about 70s and 80s rock music. I did not fair very well on that quiz.
Today, the older cardiologist who works with us on our cardiology rotation pimped me about who St. Valentine was. (really he just asked me if I knew.) As I didn't, I took a little time to do some reading, given that I do somewhat enjoy being a repository of arcane factoids. So, in light of this weekend, here is what I learned:

No one really knows. Possibly he was a priest. Possibly a bishop. He may or may not be buried on the Via Flaminia north of Rome. Even when his feast was established in 496, nothing was really known about him except that he was a martyr. Later information from the 15th century says that he was arrested for marrying Christian couples during the reign of the Emporer Claudius. The story goes that to kill him, he was beaten, then stoned, then finally beheaded when nothing else worked. Apparently most of what has been written about him was actually invented by Geoffrey Chaucer.

So there you go. Enjoy the random facts of the day, just in case you ever get "pimped." Or appear on Jeopardy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giveaway

Image
I've been watching in amazement for a few days as the links over here keep growing and growing with people who are hosting giveaways. The last time around I didn't participate, but now that things are slightly more settled in my somewhat crazy but wonderful job I thought I'd make an offering. The softies I make don't quite compare to amazing things you might see here or here , but I still think they are pretty cute. All those who leave comments will be entered to win the homemade softie of their choice, either an owl : (You can pick the colors you'd like, from a list of colors I have.) Or a penguin : Who will come with sunglasses, goggles, and a winter hat. (Because every good penguin should be prepared.) You can also pick (from a limited list) colors for the penguin's hat and glasses. I'll hold the drawing on Monday, since I'll be on call on Sunday, and the post the winner on Tuesday. Feel free to leave in your comment any favorite crafty blogs - ...
Read more

I am an awesome mom.

I won a new prize in the awesome mom category today. I have for some time been adding up points for all the ways that I am a good mom. Cut his tiny hand on his fourth day of life when I was cutting off the hospital band: check (He still has the scar!) Found rocks from our fireplace in his mouth: check Set down a knife on the table within his reach: check Turned around and found him holding said knife: double check Found leaves in his mouth: check, check and check Found him holding my razor, which I set down on the tub while he was in the bathroom: check Today, though, I set a new record. I locked Judah in the car. With all the windows up. See? Awesome mom, right here. It was a total fluke thing where I was tossing the keys onto the front seat as I was getting out and about to get Judah out. As I closed my door, the keys fell off the seat and into the shutting door, which closed on the lock button on our remote. And just like that, in a split second, Judah was locked in. ...
Read more

Final Picture Catch-up.

Image
First, about 8 weeks ago, we saw this.... Then this: A little bit later there was this: And this: And Last week it was this: I'm now 13 weeks along, due in late March. We feel incredibly blessed, and of course, are very, very excited. (Working at a doctor's office and knowing how to do ultrasounds definitely comes in handy when you want to see your baby... And yes, I have been doing my own ultrasounds. It's a bit awkward, but I'm getting better.)
Read more