LSUA 75

“Pharmaceutical R&D is going to all but disappear”

The tired old R&D argument again.Pharma does spend a good bit of money on that but they spend at least twice that on marketing,some companies much more than that.2024 Pharma spent 293.7 million on lobbying,why do they need to lobby?
Drug companies also spend lots of money as corporate sponsors to American Heart Association,American Cancer Society,American College of Cardiology,Academy of Pediatrics,ad nauseum.
When I was a member of American Association of Critical Care Nurses Pharma was a big supporter of the yearly convention.I guess the idea was for nurses to talk up various drugs to the Drs.

“bigger and better,more square footage,more amenities,more stuff we don’t need”.

I know some younger couples ( in their 40’s ) building these elaborate houses with steep ,cut up roofs,10 foot ceilings,2 HVAC units to handle the square footage.
They’re very nice but I wonder what they’re going to do when they retire and have to reshingle their houses,replace the central units,etc.
These are 2 income couples that couldn’t swing it on one income.

When wife and I built our house we only spent 1/3 of what we qualified for
on our combined incomes.Our mindset was we wanted to still be able to afford it on 1 income if something happened to one of us.
Nothing happened to either of us so we were able to drill down on saving and investing so now in our 70’s we are in a very good place financially.
Last year we had to reshingle our not so steep roof-$17k,also had to replace our HVAC unit,ductwork and all-$25k.
Not that I loved spending all that but wasn’t a big deal,just paid cash.

A neighbor with a much nicer house just had to have some trees taken out threatening their house-$9k and told me they had to borrow the money.
9 frickin thousand,I can’t imagine that.

Raising Cane isn’t getting rich off me.I ate it once a couple years ago,never been back.
People raving about the sauce,I didn’t care for it.

“Rotten potatoes”
It’s amazing how bad they smell to have so little odor they have when they’re fresh.

I didn’t experience this,a nurse co-worker told me about it.A little ancient black lady came to E.R. with complaint of “leaves growing out her Virginia”.
Sure enough she had a vine with leaves hanging out.
What happened was she had a prolapsed uterus so she stuck a potato in her vagina for a pessary.Forgot about the potato and it started sprouting.
They put her on an exam table with her feet in stirrups,Dr.on a stool pulled it out with delivery forceps,when it came out the Dr.fell backwards off the stool on the floor trying to get away from the smell.
Nurse said it would have been funny if the smell hadn’t been so horrendous.

No thanks !

“I’ve always said that Americans starting getting fatter in the 90s”

You would be right based on my experience as an ICU nurse-1975-2010,especially in the 2000s.
Before late 90s we rarely got a 300 lb pt.,if we did it was generally a man that was 6’5” or so,not necessarilly obese,just a big person.
In the 2000s we started getting more and more of them,2005-2010 it was just very common to always have one or two every day,even started getting 400 and an occasional 500 lb’er.
I guess it stood out to me because I was one of the few males on day shift,besides having assigned pts,I was the defacto orderly that was always be ing called upon to help turn pts,pull them up in bed,etc.
Several nurses tore their rotator cuffs with subsequent surgeries.Male nurses would be hired and before long they would wreck their backs.I was very protective of my back but my shoulders got in terrible shape.Last 2 years I worked and for months after I retired I couldn’t sleep in bed,it was a lounge chair.
There was one terrible week we had 7 300-400 lb’ers,I was called upon to help with every one of them ,at least every hour.I would be worn out at the end of a 12 hour shift.
Top it off we started having diabetics like nothing I had ever seen before,seemed like every other pt.was getting Accuchecks done.

Our staff turnover started accelerating,they would hire these smart young nurses,bribe them with sign on bonuses but they would weigh 100-120 lbs.They couldn’t handle it physically,about 1 in 10 would stick it out a year to get the 2nd half of the bonus.

Started getting a lot more bedsores,it was difficult to round up 2-3 people to help pull a pt.up in the bed and turn
My last year I hated going to work,my shoulders ached,lunch was most often a Granola bar and a cup of coffee I would wolf down.Electronic medical record was the last straw,I retired.

Same circus,just different clowns.
What comes to mind when I think of Louisiana’s government.

Crazy friend bought this device for easy peeling of crawfish.Was like a pistol with a CO2 cartridge and a needle that went under the shell,pull the trigger and CO2 blew the shell off.
Dumbass took it to a restaurant first time she tried it .She blew crawfish juice all over herself and her boyfriend and the people at nearby tables.
Her boyfriend said it was the most embarrassed he had ever been in his life.

Grant Parish grandmother:
upchuck-vomit
feel faintified-feeling weak
step ins-underwear
Baton Rouge grandmother:

sette’-sofa
dago-Italian

Both of them said icebox for refrigerator.
Expecting -pregnant
My mother had a melt down one day, I said someone was pregnant.
Would’ve thought I said the f-word.
“Say they’re expecting”.

Buffett is a-hole,gives a lot of money to Democrats.He tries to hide it by giving it through foundations so his name is not attached to donations.The reason Biden shut down construction of Keystone pipeline not because of environment as they claimed,it was so the crude could be transported by Burlington Northern railroad which he is sole owner.Also owns Union tank car which manufactures tank cars in which the crude is hauled.