Tongue In Cheek Research Articles

On the Purpose Orientation and Character of Systems

In the history of human knowledge or cognition, the concept of purpose is one that possesses a vital importance, and yet it is also a question that is rather unusual. We almost always use it, whether consciously or unconsciously, and yet, even more often we are loathe to acknowledge it publicly. Someone said once, with tongue in cheek, that teleology, or the theory of purpose, is a [special] lady; any biologist could not live without and yet is always ashamed to appear in public with her (N. I. Ruke-fu [transliteration], Kongzhi lun de zhexue yuanli [Philosophical Principles of the Theory of Control], p. 104). This article hopes to present a preliminary investigation and examination of this problem on the basis of the science of systems, which revolves around three theories—systems theory, control theory, and the theory of information.

Can 'Fewer Patients, Studied More Intensively,' Solve Historic Problems of MS Clinical Trials?

NOT ENTIRELY tongue in cheek, Labe C. Scheinberg, MD, professor of neurology and rehabilitation at New York City's Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, observes that "those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first have do clinical trials in multiple sclerosis." For at least the last 20 years, investigators have publicly and privately grappled with a crucial problem: how to design and evaluate clinical trials in a field whose history is strewn with failed therapies, whose patients enter trials carrying with them unknown prognoses and histories of prior treatments, and whose financial resources are strained to the limit. At the American Academy of Neurology meetings in New Orleans, these problems again bubbled to the surface. This time, though, there was nearly unanimous agreement that clinical trials have markedly improved, and that—even in the absence of "a cure"— more broadly designed rehabilitation strategies can do much to help

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Even experienced clinicians in endemic areas occasionally have difficulty diagnosing Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) in the early stages. Numerous pitfalls in diagnosis may test the acumen of even the best physicians.<i>Rickettsia rickettsii</i>, the cause of RMSF, has the potential to kill healthy persons of any age. Thus, physicians must be alert to the diagnosis and able to recognize usual and unusual clinical presentations. This is easier said than done. Patients with RMSF may not give a history of tick bite in up to a third of cases. To make matters worse, rash occasionally may not occur in the first three to six days of illness. In other cases, rash may first appear in the terminal stages of illness or, rarely, not at all.¹Tongue in cheek, Westerman²coined the term<i>Rocky Mountain spotless fever</i>to describe these patients and emphasized that waiting for a rash to

Congenital nevi. The controversy rages on

Should we remove all congenital nevi (CN) regardless of size? I am frequently asked this question by a variety of physicians. I think it is safe to say that there is no universally accepted answer. As recently as the 1984 Annual American Academy of Dermatology meeting, Rhodes and Kopf were on the program to, once again, debate the pros and cons of removal. I have heard it said (tongue in cheek, of course) that matters would be greatly simplified if the two were given dueling pistols and let the outcome dictate policy from then on. In order to answer the original question in the affirmative, the minimum requirement would be to prove malignant potential for these lesions. That large (>20 cm) CN are melanoma precursors is agreed on by essentially all investigators working in this area. 1,2 The magnitude of the risk varies greatly from report to report, but the

The heart. An endocrine organ (revisited).

In an editorial published almost 25 years ago, Braunwald et al¹(perhaps tongue in cheek) referred to the heart as an endocrine organ. They referred to the ability of the myocardium and its nerve supply to produce and store catecholamines for later release. Over the years the concept of an endocrine function of the heart lay dormant, but during the last two or three years a rapidly developing series of studies from a number of laboratories have demonstrated that a factor is produced in the atrium that may be responsible for excretion of sodium and water. To the cardiologist this concept will be easily acceptable since, from a teleologic point of view, it is logical to accept the idea that if there is one locus in the body that can sense and adjust for a circulatory overload, it must be located in the low-pressure area of the circulation and,

The Heart

In an editorial published almost 25 years ago, Braunwald et al 1 (perhaps tongue in cheek) referred to the heart as an endocrine organ. They referred to the ability of the myocardium and its nerve supply to produce and store catecholamines for later release. Over the years the concept of an endocrine function of the heart lay dormant, but during the last two or three years a rapidly developing series of studies from a number of laboratories have demonstrated that a factor is produced in the atrium that may be responsible for excretion of sodium and water. To the cardiologist this concept will be easily acceptable since, from a teleologic point of view, it is logical to accept the idea that if there is one locus in the body that can sense and adjust for a circulatory overload, it must be located in the low-pressure area of the circulation and,

Native Studies: The New American Fur Trade

Loretta Fowler. Arapahoe Politics. 1851-1978: Symbols in Crises of Authority. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.373 +xx pp. Michael D. Green. The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1982. 237 + viii pp. William K. Powers. Yuwipi: Vision and Experience in Oglala Ritual. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.112 + vi pp. Francis Paul Prucha. Indian-White Relations in the United States: A Bibliography of Works Published 1975-1980. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1982.179 + viii pp. James R. Walker and Raymond J. DeMallie, eds. Lakota Society. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1982. 207 + xvi pp. It is common wisdom that Americans and Canadians are presently discovering "their" Indians. A colleague of native ancestry, tongue in cheek, points out that the process has reached the stage where the native fact is now recognized in Canada's national anthem in the phrase, "Our home and native land." The discovery of the native presence in our histories is part of a growing awareness of the pluralistic dimensions of societies, although the professional historians still tend to regard material, technological and institutional themes as their most legitimate concerns. Human elements are more suspect and unmanage- able. But increasingly American and Canadian scholars are discovering the disinherited in their histories—the Indians, the blacks, the Hispanics.

What's in a name? "Mechanical" diagnosis in clinical medicine.

PreviewMany clinical disorders have been labeled with the names of tools or machines. Placing tongue in cheek, Dr Hayden takes us on a shop tour of these diagnoses—mainly of the cardiovascular system, the nervous system, and the musculoskeletal system—so that we might become better “mechanical” diagnosticians.

The Misuse and Abuse of NEPA

When Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at the end of 1969, many environmentalists hoped it would usher in a new era, marked by ecological awareness and concern for the impact that technology and economic devTlopment were making on the physical environment of the United States. Since that time many analyses and critiques of the law have been undertaken. Some, especially from those who emphasize economic growth, have been critical of NEPA for slowing down development and for further bureaucratizing the process by which policy decisions are reached.2 Even some environmentalists, who expected more than was achieved, have criticized the NEPA process as being primarily a paper exercise with little impact on projects. Some would go so far as to argue, half tongue in cheek, that the real impact of NEPA has been to further denude the national forests and convert them into mounds of unread reports.

Colectomy With Rectal Mucosectomy and Ileoanal Anastomosis

To the Editor.—I read the interesting article Colectomy With Rectal Mucosectomy and Illeoanal Anastomosis in Young Patients by Drs Telander and Perrault (Archives1981;116:623-629). Dr Sam Schneider (deceased) of St Louis operated on a series of patients in the early 1950s. I had an opportunity to work with him on three of these cases. A motion picture of this procedure by Dr Schneider was shown at a clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons in the 1950s and was, as I recall, met with tongue in cheek. Dr Schneider's procedure involved isolating a terminal loop of ileum as a mucous fistula, with the distal end being brought through the anus and anastomosed. The extraperitoneal rectum was prepared by a mucosectomy using the uterine curette (the blood loss was amazingly controlled and not excessive). A formal ileostomy was performed in the right lower quadrant in the usual manner and

The Physical Education Program at Equality High

With tongue in cheek, Jerry Bergman compares the current educational overemphasis on the upper end (the gifted and talented) to an area we are all familiar with-sports. The comparison helps us realize the results of the current attitude that supports expensive programs to help the below average, but grossly neglects the above average because of the feeling that they can “help themselves.”

Genetic Systems in Phytopathogenic Bacteria

Studies of bacterial genetics have made a major contribution to the knowl­ edge of the nature, function, and regulation of the genetic determinants of phenotype. Although the genetics of has been intensively investi­ gated, the scope of these studies remained so narrow that Millard Susman, with tongue in cheek, stated that bacteria means Escherichia coli K12 (93). This viewpoint is apparent when surveying the literature for informa­ tion on the role of the bacterial genome in biological interactions between organisms, especially in phytopathogenicity. It is evident that this area has received little attention. Phytopathologists are interested in defining mechanisms of pathogenicity among diverse bacterial pathogens (leaf-spotters, wilt-inducers, toxin-pro­ ducers, blighters, gall-inducers, and soft-rotters). One obvious advantage in using genetics to study pathogenicity would be employing a different point of view in approaching these studies. Hitherto, classical studies of phytopa­ thogenesis have considered how the environment affects the expression of pathogenicity, how the host defends against the pathogen, or how the chemical products produced in host-pathogen interactions might contribute to pathogenesis. The critical question of what is in the genome of the pathogen that makes it capable of causing pathogenesis has been largely left unstudied.

The Epistemology of Metaphor

Metaphors, tropes, and figural language in general have been a perennial problem and, at times, a recognized source of embarrassment for philosophical discourse and, by extension, for all discursive uses of language including historiography and literary analysis. It appears that philosophy either has to give up its own constitutive claim to rigor in order to come to terms with the figurality of its language or that it has to free itself from figuration altogether. And if the latter is considered impossible, philosophy could at least learn to control figuration by keeping it, so to speak, in its place, by delimiting the boundaries of its influence and thus restricting the epistemological damage that it may cause. This attempt stands behind recurrent efforts to map out the distinctions between philosophical, scientific, theological, and poetic discourse and informs such institutional questions as the departmental structure of schools and universities. It also pertains to the received ideas about differences between various schools of philosophical thought, about philosophical periods and traditions, as well as about the possibility of writing a history of philosophy or of literature. Thus, it is customary to assume that the common sense of empirical British philosophy owes much of its superiority over certain continental metaphysical excesses to its ability to circumscribe, as its own style and decorum demonstrate, the potentially disruptive power of rhetoric. "The Skywriters," says a contemporary literary critic (with tongue in cheek) in a recent polemical article, "march under the banner of Hegel and Continental Philosophy, while the Common Sense school [of literary criticism] is

“Don't Go like That”: A Guide to Correct Writing

Perhaps with tongue in cheek, the author gives sound advice on how to avoid some of the pitfalls of style, punctuation, and grammar. He suggests that the principles he gives will result in clearer and simpler writing.

Catherine II and the Image of Peter I

In 1770 Etienne Falconet notified Empress Catherine II that he preferred to carve only a brief inscription on the base of his monument to Peter the Great: Petro Primo/Catharina Secunda. The empress did not object, and when the statue was finally unveiled in 1782 it bore the sculptor's lapidary phrase on its gigantic granite foundation. Catherine is presumed to have relished the equation which the motto implied, that Peter had been Russia's first great modern ruler while she, although not descended from him, was the second. In the context of whatever it might mean to be an enlightened autocrat, it is often assumed that Catherine both represented and understood herself as Peter's only true heir, the continuer and completer of what he had begun.But some of Catherine's friends, writing what they knew would please her, said differently. After observing, not altogether tongue in cheek, that brevity was a virtue which inscription writers should cultivate, Melchior Grimm suggested that the motto's appeal might be further enhanced by removing the numbers and leaving just two words, “Petro/Catharina,” a move which would also have dispensed with the pecking order which the numbers implied. And from the edge of Switzerland, Voltaire sent greetings in 1774 to his favorite Petersburg correspondent: “Meanwhile, Madam, allow me to kiss the statue of Peter the Great and the hem of the dress of Catherine the Greater.”

The Busy Principal Syndrome

With tongue in cheek, this author says there are definite advantages to one's appearing busy. He describes just how one can emphasize the appear ance of busy-ness. It's not sufficient to be busy un obtrusively, he says, others must know you are busy.

Modern Shakespeare Offshoots by Ruby Cohn

350 Comparative Drama to test a highly resistant and intractable medium, and with stern and dogged effort to define his own limited control over it. Fly’s Shakespeare sounds so bottled up, so costive in his confrontation with aesthetic and expressive complexities, that he begins to resemble a caricature of a nineteenth-century Romantic, a joyless egoist engaged in an unremitting battle to define the self through art. Fly is enough of an historicist to know what Heminge and Condell said about their colleague—that Shakespeare “was a happie imitator of Nature” and “a most gentle expresser of it,” also that “what he thought, he vttered with that easinesse, that wee haue scarse receiued from him a blot in his papers.” But he dismisses the testimony of the Folio as too simple-minded. Fly prefers to imagine a dramatist for whom writing is a prodigious effort, the kind of writer, perhaps, whose compositional throes might lead to a sentence such as the following: “Timon’s spiritual agon—his dynamic achievement of insight—takes place behind closed doors, and the new entity who finally comes crashing through those doors crosses, in an explosive instant, the threshold between one identity and another” (p. 127). Fly’s book is inelegantly written, but worse still, it is presumptuous. Instead of plumbing the depths, it merely roils the water. CHARLES R. FORKER Indiana University Ruby Cohn. Modern Shakespeare Offshoots. Princeton: Princeton Uni­ versity Press, 1976. Pp. xii + 426. $22.50 hardcover. $8.95 paper. On the propriety of meddling with masterpieces, G. B. Shaw wrote with tongue in cheek, The stage is still dominated by Garrick’s conviction that the manager and actor must adapt Shakespear’s plays to the modem stage by a pro­ cess which no doubt presents itself to the adapter’s mind as one of masterly amelioration, but which must necessarily be mainly one of debasement and mutilation whenever, as occasionally happens, the adapter is inferior to the author. This was in the 1898 Preface to Plays Unpleasant. So why do it? Is the temptation so great, the inspiration so irresistible, for an author to measure himself against the master? Perhaps the reason is more subtle, that Shakespeare’s plays have acquired the stature of universally known myths, whereby an audience can be assumed to share a common ex­ perience at rise of curtain and so also share the pleasure of recognizing a departure from it. For, as with Greek tragedy, it is not the similarity between one Electra or one Hamlet and the next, but the perceived difference which makes the point. We laugh at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead because we think we know what happens in Hamlet when Ros and Guil do not. If we have a strong image of the original in mind, we can strangely enjoy even Hamlet or Lear with a happy ending, irreverently ignoring the inevitable trivialization. In another way, any “offshoot” from a Shakespeare play should tell Reviews 351 us something about the source, and especially about the age in which it is offered up for the sacrifice, just as we learn more about any play the more it is performed. The assumption here is that no interpretation is the last word, no production definitive, but that a play is alive and growing as long as it is on the stage, offering new insights with each production, revealing to each audience what it is most able to see, and, since in the theatre we are spectators and actors, perceiving and being perceived, revealing to each audience a new truth about itself. Shake­ speare above all, it seems, survives each onslaught of fashion and style, the death of each audience. Professor Cohn chooses not to discuss the aesthetic reasons for departure from the original, nor the interaction of stage and audience in period, although on occasion she dispenses with a chronological catalog in order to trace a style, like that associated with Hamlet the gloomy Dane of nineteenth-century romantic sensibilities, attractive in madness, loneliness, and Weltschmerz, a sorry condition summarized by Laforgue’s word “hamlétisme” (we are reminded that Hamlet’s “shadow darkened” Büchner’s Danton, Chateaubriand’s René, Byron’s...

Editorial: Immaterial to diagnosis.

We know that chivalry is of the past, but what about gallantry? Does it still find a place in modern society? Women's liberation has opened our eyes to the sinister implications of what men always thought to be gallant acts and words. They sense condescension, even disdain, in a man's exaggerated courtesy, oversolicitous attentiveness, and ornate compliments. They resent being looked upon as "pleasure objects." This resentment is reflected in a recent comment by Cherill M. Parmentier-Perera.¹"Should a female," she queries, referring to a previous article, "be reported as 'attractive' on physical examination?... the adjective is immaterial to diagnosis." And she goes on to say, tongue in cheek: "Perhaps, the letter on page 858 of the same issue should be appended to read 'a 52-year-old handsome male school bus driver.' " "Handsome," however, is not the exact male counterpart to "attractive." The former appeals to aesthetic sensibilities, the latter

Immaterial to Diagnosis

We know that chivalry is of the past, but what about gallantry? Does it still find a place in modern society? Women's liberation has opened our eyes to the sinister implications of what men always thought to gallant acts and words. They sense condescension, even disdain, in a man's exaggerated courtesy, oversolicitous attentiveness, and ornate compliments. They resent being looked upon as pleasure objects. This resentment is reflected in a recent comment by Cherill M. Parmentier-Perera. 1 Should a female, she queries, referring to a previous article, be reported as 'attractive' on physical examination?... the adjective is immaterial to diagnosis. And she goes on to say, tongue in cheek: Perhaps, the letter on page 858 of the same issue should appended to read 'a 52-year-old handsome male school bus driver.' Handsome, however, is not the exact male counterpart to attractive. The former appeals to aesthetic sensibilities, the latter

Brecht's Mother Courage

Why Mother Courage and why still the Manheim translation over the Bentley? “Because Brecht was dead and Manheim was in Paris”—Richard Schechner, tongue in cheek, coming off Tooth.There were other reasons, too, why The Performance Group elected to stage Brecht's Mother Courage, which opened in late February, 1975, at the Performing Garage on Wooster Street in New York City after almost a year in rehearsal. The women in the group — Elizabeth Le Compte, Joan Macintosh, and Leeny Sack — had called for a play with large roles for women since the group's last production, Sam Shepard's The Tooth of Crime, had revolved around male rock ‘n’ roll recording artists. So, after Richard Schechner, a co-director of the group, brought the play by the garage and there was a reading in which members simultaneously used three translations — Manheim, Bentley, and Hays — because there were not enough copies of one version available, the group unaminously settled on Mother Courage and the Manheim translation, which they felt was the most “modern.”