Even though he ruled Rome nearly 2,000 years ago, Marcus Aurelius made news recently in – of all places – the National Football League, when Patriots’ player Deatrich Wise Jr. quoted the ancient emperor-philosopher during a press conference. The aptly-named Wise invoked sagacity from the Roman leader’s diary-like Meditations, musings to himself on morals and self-improvement that […]
Columns
A look at What’sUpNewp’s latest columns.
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: At Christmas. recalling a seaside ‘miracle’
You couldn’t call it a Christmas miracle, because it happened in March – but it had Christmas written all over it. This was a few decades ago, but the spirit of it still burns bright, which is what miracles tend to do. And adding intrigue to the tale is whether it really involved a miracle at […]
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about defunding NIH
So there’s talk that Robert F. Kennedy Jr will defund the NIH. Or something like that. In full disclosure, I am not a fan of the man. But, I also view the hysteria of academics and institutionalists about his nomination to head HHS with a somewhat jaundiced eye. The National Institutes of Health is the nation’s – and […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about mammogram and colonoscopy rules
Okay. We think women need mammograms if we are going to reduce the number of women dying from breast cancer. (Men also get breast cancer. It’s less common. But it happens. There is no mammography recommendation for men, however.) We think everyone of a certain age needs screening for colon cancer, which is or sometimes leads to colonoscopy, if […]
Posted inColumns
Just My Opinion: Thankful for family, and hopeful the political drama of 2024 turns into acceptance and understanding in 2025
As I’ve done over the last few years, I reached out to Facebook friends and others, asking what it is this year for which they are thankful. This year, I also asked what makes them hopeful in the year ahead. I’ve always been impressed with the number of people who responded, and the thoughtfulness they […]
Posted inElection
Gerry Goldstein: ‘Resolutely’ bracing for Trump’s legacy
Late in the recent presidential campaign, Kamala Harris made a prediction whose outcome was a sure thing. Offering a challenge to voters, she said, “It’s either going to be Donald Trump or me sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.” Things turned out badly for her, and soon it’ll be Trump who reigns […]
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about vaccines
So we may or may not have a guy with a worm in his brain running CDC or HHS. Time will tell. But it is clear that, for the moment, we have a guy with a famous last name who appears to be a vaccine skeptic, and who has the ear of the President-elect. What’s up with […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: Women’s journeys, some complete, some yet to come
Women’s rights were a major topic of discussion in the campaign that handed Donald Trump a sweeping election victory – his second triumph over a woman trying to break the nation’s highest glass ceiling. Post-campaign, pundits are pondering many reasons for Trump’s decisive victory over Kamala Harris, including speculation that in some masculinity circles, women […]
Posted inBusiness
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about buying and selling hospitals
Lifespan, which is about to be rebranded as Brown University Health, just bought St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton, Massachusetts for $175 million, making it a two-state hospital system. Should Rhode Islanders care? On the face of it, it’s no big deal. A number of Rhode Island hospitals – Landmark in Woonsocket, […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: Ancient advice for modern flaws
Even though he ruled Rome nearly 2,000 years ago, Marcus Aurelius made news recently in – of all places – the National Football League, when Patriots player Deatrich Wise Jr. quoted the ancient emperor-philosopher during a press conference. The aptly-named Wise invoked sagacity from the Roman leader’s diary-like “Meditations,” musings to himself on morals and self-improvement that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Comic – Sour Grapes: Waiting
Here’s this week’s Sour Grapes; enjoy! Sour Grapes creator Tim Jones will be appearing as a guest at Rhode Island Comic Con November 1-3, 2024! You’ll find him at the National Cartoonists Society booth in the convention center. Be sure to stop by to say hello and to check out the latest cool items that he’ll have […]
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about medical debt?
So there are now a number of programs and great organizations that buy up and retire medical debt. Which is kind of a cool idea. It turns out that 20 million Americans, or 15 percent of American households, have some medical debt over $250, that Americans owe at least $220 billion to health care clinicians and organizations. […]
Posted inColumns
Just My Opinion: ‘Hear it in the wind’
Recently spent a few days in the Laurentian Mountains, Mont-Tremblant, about 90 minutes west of Montreal. I was there for my niece’s wedding, set in a wooded and mountainous area in Quebec Province. We stayed at a chalet, near the main house, a mile into the woods. We drove up to our chalet greeted by […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: Voting is no laughing matter – or is it?
In 1924, the poet Arthur Guiterman wrote, Anger drives away the Peace of Men; Pleasant laughter calls it back again. Words to ponder now that Labor Day is past and the presidential campaign has heated up in earnest. As we consider a possible return from a few years back of government by insult, a head-scratcher […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about health care and the presidential election
Before I start talking about the current presidential campaign, I thought I’d disclose my biases. I’m an independent with complicated political views: fiscally conservative, small government oriented, socially progressive but not woke. I don’t love our choice this year, which seems to me to be the choice between Julius Adolph PT Trump and Tweedle Dum and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Gerry Goldstein: An ideal day for pressing your luck
Friday the 13th is fast approaching, and contrary to prevailing opinion, it could be your breakout day. So when it arrives, throw caution to the wind – walk under a ladder, cross paths with a black cat, break a mirror, step on a crack. As for that last one, chances are you will not break your mother’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about living with dementia?
Basically, everything is crazy, for the caretakers of people living with dementia. If you have dementia, it’s hard for you, because you can sense what you don’t know or understand, and sometimes see the apprehension and disappointment in the eyes of the people you love, and feel that but too often don’t understand it, which […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: Some say this endorsement of Harris can’t come too ‘swiftly’
Will Rhode Island homeowner Taylor Swift, who in 2020 endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket, throw her noteworthy support to Harris’s presidential run? It’s a question high on the minds of many Swifties, not to mention political wonks who appreciate the reach of her celebrity. Some of the singer’s fans believe she hinted at a Harris endorsement […]
Posted inOpinion
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about health care and free food
Last Saturday, I went to try to help some heroic colleagues, who practice in one of Rhode Island’s poorest places, and who had set up a walking program called “Walking with the Doc” and a Saturday immunization clinic so that thirty local kids who had just moved into town could get immunized and start school […]