1) The United States has been inflicted with an idiot for a president.  He may be the worst president in our history but I reserve judgement since I am not as familiar with ALL the presidents and their impact on their era.


You have to feel either pity for the educated and intelligent staff he employs who have to cover for his stupidity, arrogance, and ego (such as Sean Spicer and Mike Pence).  Worse though are the people who willingly believe him with no impunity or thought (the Kelly Conways and Sarah Huckabees).


2) I finally understand why so many chiropractors get out of their relationship with insurance companies and just do automobile accidents and have a cash practice.  Insurance companies devote staff to spend 9-5 every day of the week to claw back money from chiropractors for work already done.


They hire very naive college graduates to go over billing statements and tell the provider to return money because you did not document the use of a code well enough.  The insurer decides what “document well enough” means (there is no standard).  No matter how a provider tries to come up with ways to meet the standard such as electronic health report software, writing out personal notes, using a coder) the insurers will use that method against the doctor.


It would be worth the extra expense and time if we got paid a decent amount but we are not – if I put any more money into being a chiropractor I should just admit that I work for free and be done with it.


I must admit that I do almost no chiropractic anymore.  I see about 5 patients a week.  I only see people who have been here before or who get referred by their friends  and family.  No point putting money into advertising.  


At least a few times a week I get calls from organizations who claim that they can increase my patient volume but the only people that make money from that is the place you pay – no one can increase your volume.  The only things that increase your patient volume is location and demographics.


3) Another group that calls me often are boiler room operations that offer “better” rates on credit card processing.  They hire naive women who do not know that they work for near-shady operations that can never deliver any savings to the merchant and offer equipment that does not work.


The secret is that if you close the account with them and fail to return their shoddy equipment you owe them $1800!


I went through this and returned the equipment so I did not have a problem but I did learn what this was all about.


4) I married my wife for the second time in six months on May 20 in a Jewish ceremony.  We had a court wedding last November 15 but she wanted a religious ceremony so her 89-year old father could walk her down the aisle.


Originally we were going to do this in a Catholic church but with only two weeks to go the priest discovered that the Pope had to annul my previous Jewish wedding out of of “respect” for my faith.  You cannot imagine how odd it was for me to be told that my JEWISH prior marriage needed to be annulled by the leader of another religion!


Even today I am at a loss for words to explain how this year-long process that the church tossed at us at the last minute shows “respect” to anyone, any religion, or supports anyone or any faith.


5) I have a few thoughts about watching professional sports – American men watch large physically-honed and muscular men wearing clothes that emphasize their shoulders and butts and the games go on for many hours.  It would seem to be a dream for homosexual guys.


This is on top of the prevalence of CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in football (and probably other sports but I can only specify that sport which has already been studied [110 of 111 retired players had CTE]).  Brain damage for playing sports.


In my view, if your (male heterosexual) goal is to watch sports for the athletic skills, either watch games that goes fast with only a minimum of equipment (e.g. basketball or soccer) or if watching athletes is for your visual enjoyment then watch something that involves athletic women in minimal clothes (volleyball).


6) I recently took my Colombian in-laws to the Bronx Zoo.  They have been staying with my wife and I since April 27 (coincidentally, my wife’s birthday).  My father-in-law is 89 and spent most of his life very poor in the city of Armenia in Colombia.


This visit was quite expensive for 3 adults, 2 seniors, and a child.  


Just to get to the point, this visit was my FIL’s favorite thing we did!  After years of watching animal shows and seeing these animals that he would never see live, he was only feet away from creatures from all over the world he knew he would never go to in the years he has left.


He almost cried with joy and gave me a speech (in Spanish) about his joy about being there and his happiness with me.  I almost cried myself.


7) For those parents who think that by doing everything for your kids, including laundry and food preparation / clean-up, you are doing them a disservice.  Forever, you make your kids a guest in your home.  They will always look for you to do the mundane tasks while perplexed by any requests to assist or lead in these activities.  They will become dependent on others and irritating to their hosts (who will become more scarce when your kids become known as useless).


It is not your place as a parent to be popular.  It is your job to teach by example and demands that your kids become a useful member of your household so that they can be useful in their own and other peoples’ homes.


5 is not too young to give children tasks.  By 10 it is still possible.  After that age, you have created a permanent guest waiting to be served and complaining about being “burdened” by life’s responsibilities.  You will have no one but yourself to blame.


8)  I live in a world where everyone has an “allergy” or “preference” for what they are served, as if the whole world is a restaurant to serve them.  I can only think how far people have come from a rugged spirit of self-sufficiency that made America great.  it has been replaced by fragile children who need a village to raise them, long after the “child” stage that is part of that expression (“it takes a village to raise a child”).


It is not only men who have to be tough, women should be tough too!  Teach your children not to wait to be asked – pitch in and keep your world neat, tidy, and clean because it is good for your soul.  Being good to your parents should also be an incentive (but that sentence is fraught with issues).


9)  Someone sent this into an advice column:


On having one shot at this whole life thing: 

I am a mental health provider, and I have this piece of advice for all those whose lives are not what they want theirs to be: 

For the love of God, quit complaining and do something! 

You can’t afford to travel? Get a second job or a weekend job and start saving. 

Don’t like the family you were born into? Join a church or a club or an athletic team and create a family of like-minded friends. 

Feel that you are stuck and life is passing you by? Make a list of priorities and take the first step toward making number one happen. 

In a dead-end job? Train for a better one at the local community college. 

No job at all? Volunteer, make crafts to sell, post offers to clean or do yardwork at the local grocers. 

Spouse drinks too much? Join Al-Anon. 

Depressed? Start eating better and walking a mile or two a day. 

Not close to your family? Make the first move, call often, and build your side of the bridge. 

Quit waiting to win the lottery, to fall in love, for a pill to bring you happiness or for miracles to parachute into your life. 

Each of us is given a life, a brain, and a couple of decades to make a difference on this planet. No one else is responsible to bring happiness to us; it’s each of our responsibility, and what we create out of our time on earth is up to us. Thanks for letting me sound off! 

— S. 


10) I am seeing an increasing number of patients in my office with hearing loss. The type of loss is insurmountable in that it is the loss of movement in the STAPES, one of three bones of the ear. These Commercial Drivers License (CDL ) holders will have to stop driving immediately because they fail the “whisper test” (even while passing the other two hearing exams we perform) and this makes them ineligible to continue driving without a variance (a special dispensation document from the FMCSA which allows an exception to be made).
When I ask the drivers, they tell me that years of exposure to loud sounds (often unavoidable) has caused this to happen.


11) July 20 is Colombia Independence Day!  My wife will be happy that I mentioned this.


12) Be on the lookout for my stepdaughter – Jennifer Tatiana Marin – to be coming to a news broadcast in the area of Salisbury, Maryland.  She is a rising star in the world of television news and may soon be an anchor on a Telemundo station.  She has already won an EMMY award as part of a team in the NY/NJ area Telemundo station.


13)  If you are paying attention, SPANISH is a big part of the languages spoke in the US.  If you do business with this group you will succeed where your competition does not.  They are smart, educated, and most have money to spend.  Without my Spanish-speaking staff I would be bankrupt working with truckers in Newark, NJ.


My wonderful wife has opened up a huge part of the world for me in the geography south of Texas – Central and South America.  I go to these countries with her and she can talk to the people and our acceptance is immediate.


My stepdaughter is part of a new trend for English-language news stations to reach a larger population (read: advertisers) of people who are part of the community the station serves.


14)  I adore my wife and stepdaughters but my one regret is that my late mother (Sylvia [Wallach] Lane (April 12, 1922 – January 9, 2009) did not get to meet my very nice sister-in-law.  My mom loved very intelligent women who succeeded.  Mom grew up in an era when women just got married and ran a home and men had all the opportunities.  Even though mom went on to get 3 Masters degrees (and live for 5 years in The People’s Republic of China) she always felt that she would have gone on to much more if she had come up 25 years after she was born.  Mom lived vicariously through her 5 sons.


15)  I have spent some time exploring dental offices because I need an endodontic procedure done.  I am not in pain or in a hurry so I can take my time and get a good price.


   What I have learned is this: if an office is modern and beautiful and has many young women all running around with almost nothing to do (and lots of “office wear” with the name of the dental office on it), along with what appears to be minimal training for the office staff in anything that would amount to knowledge of prices or procedures, you will be quoted a price that reflects the cost of the payroll for those women to be there, not the cost of the procedure.


   The sad thing is that those women have little more than a high-school degree (for the most part, maybe some have additional training for 3 months at a trade school in “medical administration” or “billing”) and their job is made up of looking busy and giving the employer a reason to continue to employ them.


   You would be better off finding an office with less staff and less “modern and beautiful” furnishings and the price will reflect the work you actually need.