Women and Brad Pitt

I have a link at the sidebar on my blog to Bill Simmons of ESPN.com Page 2. He is a sports writer, but also mixes in a lot of pop culture. Very funny writer. If you are a big sports fan like me, you'll love his column. And, ladies, if your husband is a sports lover, then he will appreciate this man's column.

Here is the excerpt...


"I was enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon at the gym when I realized March Madness was on the television screen in the fitness area. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to impress my boyfriend (a diehard Tar Heel fan) and return home with some knowledge about one of the games. However, as I watched the Bradley (BRAD)/Pittsburgh (PITT) game and checked out the score (in the bottom corner), I couldn't get past the fact that the score read "BRAD PITT." I actually laughed out loud. It was even spelled correctly! Needless to say, I couldn't tell my boyfriend a single fact about the game and wound up looking even more like your stereotypical girl. Any suggestions?"

Don't worry, Vicki -- you weren't alone. At least 50 male readers e-mailed me just to say that their wives or girlfriends noticed the exact same thing. A quick sampling:

While watching the Pittsburgh-Bradley game for 2 hours, my wife sits down on the couch and within 3 minutes asked why it says "Brad Pitt" on the screen. I guess the tourney really has something for everyone.
-- Ted Reed, Minneapolis

Wife walked in while I was watching Bradley-Pitt in the second round, looked at the score in the bottom right of the corner, and said, "Wow ... the screen says Brad Pitt!" Yet another reason to ban all women during tournament time.
-- Kevin, Albany, N.Y.

In the spirit of your Sports Gal/Sports Mom NCAA Tournament brackets, my wife had the following comment during the Bradley/Pitt game. She says in the most excited voice I have heard from her during televised sports and tells me that the box score says "Brad Pitt." Only a woman would notice that.
-- Ryan, Phoenix

And so on. My favorite e-mail came from David Rushall in Denver, who noticed the graphic before his wife and reported afterward, "I kept telling my wife 'Look, there's Brad Pitt!' She could not believe I could pick him out of the crowd during live play, so she continued to scan the crowd. After a while I let her know it was just the score in the upper left corner: BRAD 74, PITT 66. I giggled and continued to point him out every 10 minutes until the games ended."

Was this some sort of sociological experiment by CBS? Were they trying to increase the number of domestic violence incidents during that first weekend? Nobody knows. But the BRAD PITT saga led to an intriguing question from Dan in Villanova:

"This made me wonder if there were any other match-ups in any sport where the abbreviation would be a celebrity's name. I bet each of my buddies $5 that I could think of another one besides BRAD PITT. Can you come up with any? I don't feel like losing $30."

Well, I racked my brain trying to come up with one match-up so Dan didn't have to lose the 30 bucks. Couldn't think of one. So I went to ESPN.com's page that lists every college hoops team and wrote down every possible name that could fit into one of those spots for a graphic: TEX (Texas), RICH (Richmond), PITT (Pittsburgh), BRAD (Bradley), PENN (Penn), BROWN (Brown), BALL (Ball State), CAL (California), JACK (Jacksonville), SAM (Samford), BUCK (Bucknell), KEN (Kentucky), KENT (Kent State), RIDER (Rider) and BROWN (Brown).

Playing the mix-and-match game, there are two possibilities: Either a Jacksonville-Bucknell game (JACK BUCK) or a Troy-Brown game (TROY BROWN) ... and those two names aren't even remotely in Brad Pitt's class, nor would they have gotten your average female viewer to scream excitedly at the screen. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to realize that this BRAD PITT graphic was a once-in-a-lifetime event, not just because of the odds but because of the male-female ramifications in every household.

(By the way, I spent more than an hour figuring this out. And you wonder what I do all day.)

Dance

Elizabeth Newberry Wooldridge

My dear, sweet grandmother, Peggy Wooldridge died this morning at 5am surrounded by her family at home in Dallas,TX. She was 92 years old.

She was a cute little lady, with timely funny quips, a good laugher, and honestly opinionated like an old lady should be. She was an American girl raised in Chihuahua, Mexico, who went to college, married a giant, short man who was the quarterback at Texas Tech in 1924. She raised three girls, including my beautiful mother, her youngest daughter. "Gabby" survived to meet 17 of her great grandchildren. She still could speak fluent spanish if needed. She was our matriarch for the last 20 years since my grandfather died. Grandmommy will be missed.

Marching

...Is it too early to begin counting down the days until I finish residency and can move? Two years, 3 months to go.

...My body is so confused. I have switched back over to regular daytime hours after spending two weeks on night shift. Today, I slept from 4pm until 1030pm in my bed, extending what was supposed to be a nap. Now I find myself wide awake at 3am. I thought I was past it, but the body refuses.

...Now I am in working in the neonatal ICU, with all the preterm babies. All so small...I'm kinda scared to move them around too much.

...The basketball tournament has been awesome, as it is every year. My bracket predictions were miserably poor, as they are every year. Sucked to see Oklahoma go out early, but I should have predicted it. Too bad Kansas went out 1st round again, meaning that's all we're gonna hear about in KC on the sports radio. Glad to see Air Force lose...

...Going to a concert on Tuesday. Wilco is playing. Should be a good time. Just need to find someone to use the second ticket I bought.

...Finished reading a book that I started in November. Just finished it tonight. A book about Lewis & Clark (mostly Lewis) and their exploration of the Missouri River. The inner nerd in me is fascinated by exploration and discovery, by imagining what the city I lived in looked like when it was small, how the land laid out before construction changed it all, how the streets got their names, why some streets became four-lane, what used to be where the interstates are now. Anyway, it was a long book and I've completed it. Good stuff. Makes me want to vacation in Montana & Idaho and see some of the sites they saw that are reportedly much like they were 200 years ago.

...One year ago I found out I matched for residency in Kansas City. It was one of the best days I've had in years, achieving something I had hoped for so much. My mom was so happy for me. My brother was happy to hear it. My dad was with me when I found out. My ex-girlfriend was excited for me. I was in love. On the weekends, I was playing guitar at a great church with great friends, living a smaller version of my musical dreams on a weekly basis. I miss the guys in the band. Afternoons at the driving range were regular. I was winding down my medical education, enjoying the friendships I made in medical school. Kansas City, here I come! Seemed so exciting...

...Today, so much has changed. Much can change in one year...it has proven to be true, and I hope that bears out again in the next year, just in a different way.

L & D

This week, my sleep schedule has been reversed, as I have been on rotation in labor and delivery, bringing humans into the world at all odd hours of the night. Weekends, I have off. Unfortunately, I am up all night. As a matter of fact, the sky is beginning to change colors as the sun rises. Beautiful...and this sure beats waking up to watch the sun rise.

So last week I delivered five babies. In other words, I was there to catch the babes as they vaulted from their mothers' bodies. I was just there to make sure no cords were stuck around necks, good suction was provided, cords were cut, etc.

During the scuffle of shuffling instruments in my hands and clamping cords, I miss out on the mother's moment. Not to be overly soft, but there is truly nothing like the gaze from a mother to her baby.

It's also funny to think about what's going through baby's mind...like "What the hell just happened??...Why am I choking?...and why am I needing to breathe all of a sudden??...Man, it's freezing in h...wherever I am...All I can do is SCREAM! SOMEONE just HOLD ME or something." You watch them blink and move for the first time...it's all kinda fun.

And then it's back to bitter doctor land, where there's always other stuff hittin' the fan. Where patients don't do what's best for them. Where you have the mandate to just not screw up. To document everything correctly. To interview patients quickly and with compassion when they are far too verbal or tangential.

Please, God, give me more patients....Ooops...patience. I need to learn.

And while you're at it...give me a few more friends so I can go see lots of Royals games. And some friends who can teach me new tricks...I'm gettin' older by the day.

Serenity please...and some somnolence...it's 5am, dude...sorry...Dude

______________________________________________________________________

BTW...for those who were curious...turns out the girl from that prior post actually has a boyfriend--a detail I somehow did not pick up on during our brief conversation. Explains the discretion with which she handed me the note.

So...if you know any short women in the KC area...who are, using the female lexicon "gorgeous," (not 'cute') then let me know.