1. To stay listed with the University of Maryland Medical Center Transplantation Division, I do one thing monthly and other things annually. Every month, I have blood drawn so that my blood can be crosschecked with potential donors. I got that done today at Shoshone Medical Center. The time has also come for me to have an annual chest X-ray and a TB skin test. I need referrals for those and, after my call to my nephrologist's office in CdA, the referrals should be coming in the mail. I had a colonoscopy in February. I don't have this done annually or monthly! I had the results faxed to Baltimore today.
2. It might be that Richard Nixon had conversations that occured in the White House and elsewhere (secretly) taped because new tax laws didn't allow his donated presidential papers to be a hefty tax deduction, but the new law didn't cover audiotapes. In fact, it might be that the promise of this lucrative tax deduction that would extend deep into his life was what kept Nixon from destroying the tapes once Alexander Butterfield testified that the recording system existed. Please note: I wrote that this tax angle might help explain the existence and the preservation of the tapes. J. Anthony Lukas, in Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years goes to great lengths to explain why this possibility makes sense, but doesn't claim to know that it's absolutely true.
In dramatic tragedy, the tragic figures are largely the authors of their own tragic fate -- they are mighty in power, often mighty in strength, often very intelligent, but they are most often brought down by their own obsessions, their own appetites, their own preoccupations. I've known for years that Richard Nixon suffered his downfall largely because he was so suspicious, held long and dark grudges, desired revenge against those he felt had belittled or disrespected him, was deeply insecure, had felt humiliated by losing two major elections, and was irreversibly jealous of those he perceived as privileged, elite, smooth, even handsome (he famously hated the Kennedys, for example). But, until reading this book, I never thought about Richard Nixon's distaste for paying taxes and his growing infatuation with wealth (hard-earned wealth, in his mind, not inherited family wealth) as playing a central role in his demise. But, I think it did.
3. The Deke borrowed Christy's mixer and made a heavenly pot of garlic basil cauliflower. It was kind of like having mashed potatoes only way better. I fixed a cross rib steak. The Deke and I spit it three ways: we each ate a third of it and we saved the other third to have with eggs for breakfast. The Deke also made a baby kale salad that was out of sight. In other words, we joined forces tonight to make a memorably delicious dinner.
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