Anyway, ties are only the beginning of my usually pointless griping. The original idea for my anti-sartorial campaign came in the cliched form of a dream. Actually, it was a nightmare, but it wasn't as scary as it was boring and horribly written and shot. The director was probably asleep during filming. Suffice it to say that the talentless protagonist (through whose eyes this farce was depicted) was being interviewed at a prestigious teaching hospital for a residency position and was not clothed in the complete and traditional interview getup.
Namely, he was missing a tie. But also a jacket, a shirt, and pants. And he was unshaven and crusty-eyed. I mean, he had all of these things with him but he was holding them in his hands as if to say, 'I have no use for these! Ask me your questions, sir, and do not mind the hole in my boxers, for I am confident that you will find me to be nothing less than professional.'
Interpret this however you want, but I take it to mean that something must be done about clothing. Obviously, given the popularity of sculpture, nude photography, and sex and pornography, I am right. Don't argue with me, for I can weave a straightjacket of syllogisms around you faster than you can say 'that doesn't make any sense, you idiot.' And it's true, I am an idiot, I should know.
The point is that in addition to banning the necktie in the hospital we must also ban sleeves, white coats, and pants. Every time a tie, shirtsleeve, or pant leg brushes over some germy metropolis on one person's backside, it takes some of those citizens on a ride to the next person's face and, of course, the physician's lunch and no amount of hand sanitizer or handwashing will address the domino effect of cross-contamination. What we need is leadership on this issue. What we need is a Truman Doctrine--a Marshall Plan if you will--for the containment of microbial evil. While I'm no leader, I will gladly take up my position as behind-the-scenes pragmatist and insidious instigator of antimicrobial attrition and realpolitik. A neurotic germophobic George Kennan if you will (and if you won't).
We must therefore institute funding for an armory consisting of the weapons necessary for this war--for make no mistake, that is what this is comrades and we must not shirk our responsibilities! What this plan amounts to is the distribution of scissors to a contingent of able-fingered guerilla housestaff who will use them to carry out lightning raids, cutting dangling bits of clothing not closely adherent to the bodies of caregivers in the hospital. These soldiers of sanitation will fly by nursing stations snipping off germ-dinghies and bacteria-boats as they swarm, bringing back the sleeveless look from the outskirts of fashion onto the catwalk of the clinically responsible.
We must then fortify our offensive with daring propaganda. This is no time for bashfulness comrades, for the revolution cannot wait. Our message must be clear and strong:
The noose of the enemy chokes you! Off with your tie!
Cut off support to the enemy of the people! Cut off your sleeves!
Pants are the haven of the antisocialite germ! Remove them from our midst!
May the sounds of steel kisses and flying fabric resonate in the halls of healing! Viva la Revolución Antiséptica!
* On a parenthetical lever, I don't want to give you the wrong impression. This post will certainly not be coherent either. Homie don't 'play that' and he's n't about t' start today. D' n't question m' use of the apostrophe. It's ours to dispense with as we each please. I don't come to your house and tell you not to end sentences with a preposition.
2 comments:
For nosocomial infections, I think that the hospital is a more common factor than even the tie. What if we just banned sick people (and thus their germs) from hospitals?
You sir are a visionary. I've always wanted to turn hospitals into sterile nudist colonies where science thrives unfettered by illness and fabric. I say we build a new kind of building for sick people and call it something totally different, like "Sickorarium" or "Sickodome".
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