Friday, September 12, 2008

Last call!

photo: Ken Thompson
So I had to get a procedure done today at the hospital called a CT Enterography . I won't go into all of the delightful details, but when I checked in to radiology I was given 3 bottles of barium liquid that I had to drink. One every 15 minutes. These were not tiny bottles by any means, more like the paper-bagged bottles of Old English beer that I used to see littering the train tracks of the Long Island Railroad. Okay, maybe not that big, more like soda can size. The guy asked me if I wanted a straw and I tried to figure out a way to drink out of the straw so I couldn't taste anything. I remembered something about holding my nose and standing on one foot, but I was too embarrassed to try that in the waiting room. After 45 minutes, I was still trying to calculate how much of this stuff I really drank (does anyone know how to convert cc's to ounces??) and I started thinking about the nasty things people will eat or drink for money. First there was Survivor, pioneer of the gratuitous bug-eating, followed by Fear Factor, and now there is Man vs. Wild. Remember Bear Grylls, of the amazing pants? Well not only does he eat freshly caught "meat", but he also drinks some of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in the name of hydration. The difference is that on Survivor and Fear Factor, critter dining is entirely for shock value whereas Bear Grylls is teaching survival skills. But, when you really think about it, none of these people are actually faced with life or death situations, they are making television shows. How far would you go? What would you drink or eat if it could lead to you a million dollars?

1 comment:

Jon said...

Last call...now that's funny