{"id":442,"date":"2011-05-14T20:03:33","date_gmt":"2011-05-14T20:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.net\/blog\/?p=442"},"modified":"2012-07-12T09:36:33","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T14:36:33","slug":"better-to-be-stupid-than-look-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/better-to-be-stupid-than-look-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"Better to be Stupid than Look Stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 1<\/p>\n

I first started my career in technology assessment at the American Medical Association and was occasionally called on to speak at various conferences.\u00a0 While I was confident of my very narrow topic, as a representative of the AMA the audience apparently felt free to ask me about anything, from AMA lobbying efforts, to physician payment or Medicare fraud.\u00a0 Trying to be the most accommodating of speakers, I would attempt to answer every question, but winging it is not one of my skills.\u00a0 After one such performance, my boss took me aside and told me, \u201cElizabeth, it is better to be stupid than look stupid, and I think that you are smart enough ahead of time to know when you will be stupid.\u00a0 That’s when you should\u00a0shut up.\u201d\u00a0 I have always been grateful for that good advice.<\/p>\n

Chapter 2<\/p>\n

While I was at the AMA I wrote a regular column on new medical technologies for their newspaper.\u00a0 Each month, I would scan the medical literature, and would pluck out something that looked whiz-bang interesting, do a little research and contact some of the physicians who had published on this topic.\u00a0 In the course of this work I had met the executive director of the PET association, basically a trade organization that promoted the use of PET scans, which at the time were a novel alternative to CT and MRI scans.\u00a0 He told me that if I ever was writing about a PET related topic to give him a call and he would put me in touch with some muck de-muck physicians.\u00a0 One month later\u00a0I followed up on this offer, expecting instant access.\u00a0 I gave him a call, another call and yet a third call with no answer.\u00a0 My frustration was mounting as my deadline neared.\u00a0 Here I was dangling an opportunity in front of him to get some PET play in the AMA news and he was stiffing me.\u00a0 Totally exasperated, I gave him one last call; a woman answered the phone.\u00a0 I launched into a terse detailing of broken promises and lapsed responsibilities to the PET community.\u00a0 The women broke in, and with a catch in her voice said, \u201cI am so sorry that my husband was unable to call you back as promised.\u00a0 He was in a car accident last week and died.\u201d\u00a0 I resolved never to get totally irritated with anyone until I had confirmed that they were still alive.<\/p>\n

Chapter 3<\/p>\n

Several years later I was at a street fair and become totally captivated by stone tables with a map of the Great Lakes engraved in the middle.\u00a0 I bought one for ourselves, and then asked the young man if he would accept commissioned work.\u00a0 I explained to John that I would like a similar table but with a map of our summer vacation spot instead.\u00a0 I was delighted when he agreed and rushed home to get the map.\u00a0 This was in\u00a0July, and he told me that the table would be done by October.\u00a0 Since I had planned this as a Christmas gift to my parents, I thought that there was plenty of time, even given the vagaries of an artist\u2019s time table.\u00a0 I did not hear from John throughout October, and decided to follow up once November rolled around.\u00a0 He deflected my attempts to pin him down on a completion date, but assured me that it would be done on time.\u00a0 Finally, on December 24th<\/sup>, John called to say that the table was done and that I could come down to his studio in Chinatown to pick it up.<\/p>\n

Now December 24th<\/sup> tends to be a pretty hectic day, typically involving making multiple casseroles for different households and staging the multi-act Broadway show that we call Christmas.\u00a0 Throwing in a trip to Chinatown in the midst of clogged traffic was a serious blow.\u00a0 But an hour and a half later I was standing in his cramped apartment looking at my beautiful table.\u00a0 I did not want to commit the folly of repeating history, so I made no comment on the missed deadlines.\u00a0 As we chatted he said, \u201cI am so sorry that I was delayed in finishing the table, but my mother died.\u00a0 You see my mother was very allergic to peanuts and my little grandniece gave her a peanut butter cookie by a mistake, and she ate it and died right in front of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was too gruesome to believe, and with some guilt I recalled another piece of advice my mother had given me, \u201cThe best defense is a good offense.\u201d\u00a0 Could this death in the family be an embellishment, or worse, a ruse to defuse any possible displeasure on my part?\u00a0 \u00a0The artist quickly dispelled this unattractive thought.\u00a0 He said, \u201cBefore I started work on your table, I had to design and create my mother\u2019s headstone.\u201d\u00a0 He then showed me a picture of a stunning headstone that he had labored over for many months.<\/p>\n

Chapter 4<\/p>\n

Several years later I was contacted by a lawyer who thought I might make a credible expert witness, testifying about something I no longer recall.\u00a0 He sent me some preliminary materials to review and afterward we met in his office to discuss the case.\u00a0 He told me that my credentials were not quite what he was looking for, but that I might be useful, since as a woman I might appeal to the jury.\u00a0 I was not disappointed when the project went no further.\u00a0 The total time spent was about 3 or 4 hours, and so he owed me the tidy sum of four hundred dollars.\u00a0 In the big scheme of things, this was a negligible amount, but his sexism and his steadfast refusal to respond to my invoices and phone calls\u00a0raised the stakes.<\/p>\n

A lawyer friend of mine told me that he could be reported to some sort of watch dog organization.\u00a0 However, I felt that I had acquired the aura of a black crow throwing a fatal curse on those who dared cross me,\u00a0so before I took this step I wanted to make sure he was still alive and in good health.\u00a0 I called his secretary and carefully asked whether or not the man still worked there or whether he was either sick or on vacation.\u00a0\u00a0 Once I got the go-ahead from the secretary, I sent all the required materials to the watch dog organization.\u00a0 I also sent a letter to the head of his office. \u00a0Then I forgot about the incident.\u00a0 I was thus surprised some 6 weeks later to receive reams of information from the lawyer, consisting of what looked like detailed billing reports. \u00a0\u00a0Also included was a cover letter stating that that the watch dogs had investigated the issue and found that there was no further action that they would take, but I quickly\u00a0realized that I had prompted an absolute moutain of work for this delinquent lawyer.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter I received a mid-morning call from the lawyer, who\u00a0was\u00a0absolutely livid and fuming.\u00a0 Since I had done my due diligence, I felt that I was entirely in the clear and was not accepting any of his increasingly vitriolic insults.\u00a0 He ranted on and I was actually delighted when he concluded by saying, \u201cYou are a pimple on the ass of the world!\u201d\u00a0 Before he slammed down the phone, I calmly said, \u201cI might have started out as a pimple, but it was your negligence that turned me into a festering abscess.\u201d<\/p>\n

The missing words inthe following poem are anagrams (i.e. like spot, post, stop) and the number of asterisks indicate the number of letters.\u00a0 One of the words will rhyme with either the preceding or following line.\u00a0 Your job is to solve the puzzle.\u00a0 Scroll down for answers.<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

In order to meet the timetable that I had planned<\/p>\n

I thought that I had made a very simple ——.<\/p>\n

But the PET guy\u2019s lack of response began to —— me,<\/p>\n

And my repeated calls had a tone of urgency.<\/p>\n

But since since the poor man had died my efforts were defeated,<\/p>\n

So learn from my history or you will be —— to repeat it.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Answers: demand, madden, damned<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 1 I first started my career in technology assessment at the American Medical Association and was occasionally called on to speak at various conferences.\u00a0 While I was confident of my very narrow topic, as a representative of the AMA … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-did"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-78","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}