“Have you still got those yellow pills I gave you?”
“Your father’s heart is weak. You must never tell him this; it would weaken his heart.”
“The best prescription I can offer him is someone who believes he’s going to get better.”
For what it's worth, a modern-day doctor advised me to move to Canada for the weather and primarily eat stew. She may have a point, but I lack the means (or appropriate external narrative intervention) to follow her advice.
Plus they're often making house calls! Tangential: Have you read Stephen Potter's "Upmanship" books? The section on "Doctorship" (in "One-Upmanship") is one of my favorite things in the book:
"...in the bedroom, the brisk type of MD-man is able to suggest by his manner not only that Patient's room is surprisingly disordered, but that he, the Doctor, goes in for a more up-to-date type of pajamas:
LAYMAN: Thank you, Doctor. I was coming home rather late last night from the House of Commons...
MD-MAN: Thank you...now if you'll just let me put these...hair brushes and things off the bed for you...
LAYMAN: I was coming home rather late. Army Act, really --
MD-MAN: Now just undo the top button of your shirt or whatever it is you're wearing..."
I've taken to putting a library hold on any book I see or hear strongly recommended, so anticipatory thanks for Malice Aforethought. For others who might be temporarily flummoxed, as I was, it was written by Cox under the pen name Francis Iles, so that's where you'll find it.
For what it's worth, a modern-day doctor advised me to move to Canada for the weather and primarily eat stew. She may have a point, but I lack the means (or appropriate external narrative intervention) to follow her advice.
Plus they're often making house calls! Tangential: Have you read Stephen Potter's "Upmanship" books? The section on "Doctorship" (in "One-Upmanship") is one of my favorite things in the book:
"...in the bedroom, the brisk type of MD-man is able to suggest by his manner not only that Patient's room is surprisingly disordered, but that he, the Doctor, goes in for a more up-to-date type of pajamas:
LAYMAN: Thank you, Doctor. I was coming home rather late last night from the House of Commons...
MD-MAN: Thank you...now if you'll just let me put these...hair brushes and things off the bed for you...
LAYMAN: I was coming home rather late. Army Act, really --
MD-MAN: Now just undo the top button of your shirt or whatever it is you're wearing..."
Beautiful!! Thank you! Now I ought to get back in bed, and will for sure take some of those little pills.
I've taken to putting a library hold on any book I see or hear strongly recommended, so anticipatory thanks for Malice Aforethought. For others who might be temporarily flummoxed, as I was, it was written by Cox under the pen name Francis Iles, so that's where you'll find it.
New Year’s resolution to start more sentences with “Say!”
I was guffawing from this!!