Here’s this week’s Sour Grapes; enjoy! Tim will be at http://www.rianimecon.com this coming weekend, June 15-16, at the RI Convention Center, Providence. Stop by and say hi!
Columns
A look at What’sUpNewp’s latest columns.
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s not that crazy about making sure pharmacists are part of the primary care team
On these pages, an Op-Ed (Let Rhode Island Pharmacists Close the Primary Care Gap) by a number of trusted colleagues argued that allowing pharmacists to bill insurance directly for clinical services might close the primary care gap. I’m not sure where I stand on letting pharmacists bill insurance directly. On the one hand, pharmacists are critical […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about letting business people and lawyers control health care
What I am about to tell you is a true story. One that is happening now in a Rhode Island hospital. An 81-year-old man who still worked ten hours a day and was as strong as a bull was hit by a car as he crossed the street from the restaurant where he worked to his […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: A protest derailed, in different times
The recent demonstrations on college campuses produced varying opinions on how administrators can respect freedom of speech while keeping protesters from trampling the rights of others. The issue was more straightforward decades ago, when as a crusading student newspaper editor I tested the waters of protest at our state university in Kingston. It did not […]
Posted inOpinion
Dr. Michael Fine: Why this Jewish Zionist supports and thanks the protesters on college campuses
I’m a Jewish fella. I go to synagogue. I read the parsha (Torah portion) of the week, every week. I keep something approaching Kosher and keep something approaching Shabbos (which means I don’t work or travel Friday night and Saturday until sundown) imperfectly, but I think about it and feel it. I’m more Conservative than Orthodox and imperfect in […]
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Just My Opinion: In ‘a doozy of a news year,’ we strive to find fact over fiction
As some have suggested, this should be “a doozy of a news year.” And our ability to determine fact from fiction will be tested. We’ll be inundated with press releases, statements and advertisements from politicians at the local, statewide and federal levels. “So, we need to defend ourselves against being duped,” says Harvard University in […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about electronic medical records
You know the drill: the doctor, nurse practitioner, or PA walks into the exam room, sits down at the computer and looks at the computer screen, not at you. And then reads a bunch of questions for you to answer, many of which you’ve answered a hundred times before. And then said clinician types in your answers, clicking […]
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Gerry Goldstein: Unleashing ugliness with dogged cruelty
When the story broke recently that South Dakota’s governor shot her German wirehaired pointer after its exuberance ruined a pheasant hunt, cancer was stealing the life of our beloved Tibetan terrier, Buddy. That’s why the disturbing admission, in a memoir by Republican Kristi Noem – a vice presidential wannabe under dog-hostile Donald Trump – slammed […]
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Gerry Goldstein: A steady hand, in war and the composing room
Tommy Plymesser, a gentle and soundly anchored soul, greeted the world just over 100 years ago during his home-birthed arrival on – ironically – Farewell Street in Newport. Later, during a long career in South County, he honed a particular skill: He could close his fingers around an idea, or a well-turned metaphor, and actually […]
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What’s in Season: A mid-April Mount Hope Farm farmers market brings in a fresh catch of seafood
Even though the sun is starting to peek out from behind April rainclouds, the untrustworthy weather mixed with the breeze off the bay makes being outside on the bare edges of blustery and chilly. That’s why, despite it being mid-April, the Mount Hope Farmers Market spent its last “winter” weekend indoors in the barn. On […]
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Just My Opinion: Perhaps inflation is really linked to corporate greed
GDP, CPI, WPI, corporate profits, tax avoidance, consumer confidence … goes on and on, as we all try to understand the state of an economy that some politicians say is soaring and others say is in the tank. Which is it? Don’t expect me to tell you. I’m no economist. Although economists like the University […]
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Gerry Goldstein: Politics to smile about, until it isn’t
Now that the political season is moving along in earnest, it’s time to examine the Monster Raving Loony Party. And I don’t mean the party of MAGA loons who obsess over Jewish space lasers and idolize the Proud Boys. The Loony Party actually exists, in our mother country across the pond – where for 40 […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Comic – Sour Grapes: Loofa
Here’s this week’s Sour Grapes; enjoy! Tim Jones is the creator, artist and writer of the widely popular, self-syndicated comic strip; “SOUR GRAPES” about “Aesop”, a miserable-flying dog, living in a strange, problematic and troubled world along with his odd family and pet cloud, ‘Ominous’. Originally from Attleboro, Massachusetts, Tim lives with his wife and […]
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about health care and private equity
There is lots of talk about health care and private equity lately, and the truth is worse than anyone knows. Too many greedy and unscrupulous people use the equity markets to make ungodly profits for themselves by using a legal process to extract wealth from governments, communities, and even from insurance companies, usually by buying […]
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Just My Opinion: Renovating a historic theater – more than two decades later
As I sat in the newly renovated New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway some years ago, I could not help but marvel at how this renovation recaptured a golden era, and its importance to the economic revival of New York City’s Broadway district. It was, perhaps, the showpiece of the district’s revitalization, a Disney project to […]
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What’s in Season: A late March Aquidneck Growers Market in Newport brings joy with fresh sunchokes
Until April 27, when the fickle warmth of spring decides to stay for good, the Aquidneck Growers Market stays cozy in the winter months inside Stoneacre Garden in Newport. Inside, vendors and farmers nestle together to create a winding path of tantalizingly fresh food and goods. At this particular market, mushrooms, lavender sachets, breads, and […]
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Gerry Goldstein: ‘All That’ and more about our state
I see we have a new Rhode Island slogan to attract tourists, and not surprisingly, it made its debut to mixed reviews. This is a touchy subject, especially after the last attempt at state sloganeering, “Cooler and Warmer,” was received like ketchup on a hot wiener or fried clams with no bellies. The new slogan, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Theatre Review: ‘Twelfth Night’ at The Gamm Theatre is fun and funny
Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” begins with a shipwreck. Twins Viola and Sebastian are tossed into the sea. Viola is saved. Sebastian is feared lost. Brought to Illyria by her rescuers, Viola takes on the appearance of a boy, working as Cesario, a page to Illyria’s Duke Orsino. Now hold onto your hat, it gets a little […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: A debate quip we can only dream of
Despite all that’s going on in our turbulent world, much of the current presidential campaign is based on age, but this isn’t the first time that’s happened. In fact, the 1984 debates produced a zinger on the age issue that’s still considered one of the best campaign bon mots. That came amid concerns about the capacity […]
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Gerry Goldstein: When salesmanship founders
TV commercials during the Super Bowl earlier this month continued to attract nearly as much attention as the game itself, and one of the most popular of the entries had an unintentional local flavor. The ad, featuring heavily-accented Arnold Schwarzenegger, was built around the actor’s inability (like many a Rhode Islander) to pronounce that final […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s Crazy About Health Care and Pet Supplies
Pet food? Health care and pet food? No, dear reader, Dr Fine hasn’t gone crazy. There really is a link. In the Wall Street Journal of February 10, the distinguished long-time Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins, who was arguing for desperately needed military aid to Ukraine, claimed that by spending an extra $35 billion, Russia was trying […]
Posted inColumns
Just My Opinion: Greatest threat to Democracy — Indifference
Indifference. As the future of our democracy is debated in this presidential election, as fears grow that some candidates are intent on unraveling our form of government, as the demonization of facts becomes the norm, perhaps democracy is most at risk from indifference. According to Ballotpedia and Ballotready, more than 60 percent of the 500,000 […]