CAN YOU TRUST YOUR DOCTOR?

Does your doc tell you the truth? The whole truth?

Possibly not, according to a recent survey in Health Affairs of nearly 1,900 physicians around the country.

If you have a fatal illness would your Doc tell you? I think it depends on your relationship to the Doc. Is he like a parent? An authority? A teacher? Does your doc know the real you? If Doc thinks you'll kill yourself, he may suggest tests and make you aware that you need to be concerned. How you react, what questions you ask will tell him what should be revealed to you.

Why was the survey made on whether or not doctors tell the truth to their patients? Probably to promote something. I think opinions are sought and quoted to prove a point for someone who wants to substantiate that their conviction or their product is best, the rightest.

For me this is talk in the air. Like a cloud, it'll fade into another cloud, or disappear.

The real question is, do you have a good doc, the right doc, or are you your own doc? If you are, can you trust you?

I am my own doc. I go to the professional doc for tests I am not able to take on my own, or prescriptions that need to be renewed.

The guy who needs to know everything about what 's going on inside your body, head to toe, what feels okay, what feels odd is YOU. Sure, you can pay a doc to do the bookkeeping, but it's better if YOU remember, (not necessarily the dates or numbers) -- better if YOU retain what hurt, what healed, what tests were made, what they showed, what doesn't feel right now -- what medications, what advice worked, or didn't work.

It's a lot to remember, but you remember because it's YOU. If you don't remember some of the details, just mention it. And your doc will ask questions. The two of you can construct the "case" history.

You are the best, the very best keeper of your own history. Hey, you know what size shoes, belt, dress, pants, suit, jacket, underwear, (if you're female) glove size, hat size, and bra.

Accidents, injuries, small thing that happened to you -- that stomach ache, migraines, bathroom problems, fever, infection -- they're bumps, and bruises on the plant (I think of myself as a plant) that later shows signs of decay, and later on, more decay.

All those events in your life, I think, are areas of weakness. If you watch over them, you may be able to prolong your life. I've got to say, right here and now, I think old injuries, ailments, aches and pains are a preview of coming attractions. They can tell you how your life is going to end.

Tell the truth to yourself.

“The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” -- Oscar Wilde

“I lie to myself all the time, but I never believe me.” -- S.E. Hinton, author of young adult book,"The Outsiders"

“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” -- Gloria Steinem

Take this test and see if you are depressed.

Take this test and see how gullible your are.

Take this tezt to find out if you know enough about medicine.

If you're not exhausted, click and find out how Dr. Em came to be.

I PAY ATTENTION TO THIS WOMAN

Her name is ROBIN GIVHANS, She won a Pulitzer -- she's the first fashion writer to win it. The Pulitzer Committee noted her for her "Witty, closely observed essays that transform fashion criticism into cultural criticism."

I like what they said. I think it's true. I think it's important.

Givens has great credentials. She's 47, a Detroit, Michigan girl with degrees from Princeton and University of Michigan. She's worked for two newspapers, and Vogue Magazine in NYC, also, on and off, for the Washington Post, where she writes about fashion and currently covers First Lady Michelle Obama.

Before I knew who Robin Givhans was, I read a few of her articles in various publications, enjoying her down-to-earth writing style, liking the way she speaks her mind, amused that her bluntness creates uproars.

A few years ago, Givhans drew attention to an outfit worn by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, declaring that Senator Clinton's V-shaped neckline was "unnerving" and "startling," especially for a woman "who has been so publicly ambivalent about style, image and the burdens of both." Givhans added, "It was more like catching a man with his fly unzipped. [You] just look away!"

Givehans has explained, "There are a lot of people who sort of say that something is good or important or progressive or edgy when in fact, it's just crappy. And no one will just say it's crappy, I also say when I think something is absolutely magnificent."

When Justice John Roberts was sworn into the Supreme Court, Robin said that his wife and kids resembled "A trio of Easter eggs, a handful of jelly bellies, three little Necco wafers."

Criticizing Michelle Obama for wearing shorts on a family vacation. Robin G. wrote, "Avoiding the appearance of queenly behavior is politically wise. But it does American culture no favors if a first lady tries so hard to be average that she winds up looking common."

Watching over our first Lady, Givhans says what she perceives and it's often what we are thinking -- "Eek, why did Michelle wear that -- my goodness -- does Barack like that outfit?"

Right now, Robin Givhans is trying to sell her Upper West Side one-bedroom pre-war co-op. She moving back to DC to be closer to the first Family,

I read this on robingivhans.com where she has a blog: "I would say that she (Michelle Obama] is extraordinary, but not exceptional, There’s still this perception that somehow she’s alone. That she doesn’t have a group of ten girlfriends who are just like her. I’d like to explore a lot of that and just put her into a broader context and try to get at some of the issues about race and class that she brings up."

Givhans goes on to say, "So I will discuss something far less stressful: The Golden Globes. I am most fascinated by the popularity of the mermaid silhouette. Perhaps it is just my own personal bug-a-boo, but I do not think that it is a flattering silhouette, pretty much on anyone. If you're too thin, it makes you look hungry. And if you're curvy, it makes you look like a sausage. And yet, it not only survives, it is embraced. To each starlet her own, I guess."

I say hurray for Robin G. I'm not a starlet. I'm not trying to be fashionable but golly, I'm very glad Robin Givhans is out there influencing many women who dress with the vogue.

(Video) WHAT IS "METHOD ACTING?"

John jokes about the fact that he is not a "method actor." When Em quizzes him about how he produces tears, or anger, he reveals some of his inside secrets, on what makes him do what he does as an actor.

John speaks about inner and outer feelings, and also talks about using "contraries" -- when a line is sad, it often works better if the actor laughs a little. If an actor weeps too much it stops an audience from weeping. Contraries also works with humor -- if you want an audience to laugh at your joke, DON'T laugh.

HEY GAMESTERS

Remember when you played card games, board games, guessing games?

Now, as you probably know, games are played on an Xbox, Nintendo, mobile phone, laptop, or on a PC.

The other day I read about a two-day event called Call of Duty XP, a get-together in Howard Hughes' old hanger where he kept the Spruce Goose. Six-thousand players attended -- guys who play one of the insanely popular "Call of Duty," Modern Warfare," "Battlefield" video-games that are gritty simulations of military combat. The event ended with a "Call of Duty" tournament -- 32 four-person teams competed for $1 million in prizes.

I'd never heard of "Call of Duty." I was amazed that so many people were hooked on it. But since I'm hooked on conquering and improving various computer processes that I use daily while maintaining my YouTube channels and blog, I certainly understand how seductively fascinating "playing" on a computer is.

Googling "Call of Duty," I studied pictures, videos, and Websites. I read about forums, discussions, blogs, clubs, and noted that there are 24/7 hot-lines where players can get support.

The creators of "Call of Duty" brag about its fidelity. Some of the gameplay could be mistaken for Youtube footage from Iraq or Afghanistan. They're touting the fact that veterans just back from these wars, and active military people, play it in their off hours.

Maybe you don't play games on any of your gizmos, but children do -- kids who are going to become our inventors, our advertising execs, copy writers, designers, architects, authors, rappers, singers, -- celebrity performers who will inspire the next generation.

Okay, we've got violence and perversion in blockbuster movies, but gizmo games are played for hours on end. You're not just watching. You're practicing violence.

What about Farmville, Mafia Wars, and other seductive games you can play on Facebook? I don't play video games, but I know when you're playing on a computer, you're deep into an imaginary world, avoiding little ideas, little pings of energy, that might get you active in the real world.

Why now, more than ever, are these games being played?

Maybe because right now there are no oases, no place where you can forget what's going on in your city, your state, your country, the rest of the fomenting, world.

I think these war games are encouraging and teaching players the thrill, the ecstasy of brutality, inflicting pain, using everything you know -- to kill better, faster, more thoroughly, gruesomely.

Okay -- killing games have been played throughout history. They're going to continue to be played in the same way that marijuana will be smoked, drugs will be taken, people will drink too much.

T.S. Eliot said, "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, with a whimper." I'm whimpering.

I'm quietly. writerishly shouting BEWARE OF GAMES. You can lose YOU in game playing.

Play the real game, the tricky one we all play 24/7-- the game of life -- live it, protect, nurture yourself and your loved ones -- keep alert, curious, involved with whatever concerns you.

If that takes you to a church, a school, a hospital, a dog pound or to a park to be a protester, or into politics locally, or nationally-- whatever... Wherever that game takes you, go and do something that needs to be done.

Here's a "Call of Duty" promotion video. The budget for making it was nine figures; Oscar winning screenwriter/director Paul Haggis ("Crash," "Million dollar Baby") worked on it.

If you're sort of intrigued, click. I'm hoping these HOW TO PLAY IT instructions will discourage you.


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