In the movie Conspiracy Theory, Mel Gibson's character is always compelled to buy Catcher in the Rye when ever he sees it.

Also,

In The Good Girl (a wonderful indie film) Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Thomas "Holden" Worther, thinks himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield. He's about a half bubble off plumb, as well.

He's about a half bubble off plumb, as well.

:lol2:

It was so long ago, I don't remember much of what he said, but Will Smith has a really long scene talking about Catcher in the Rye in the movie Six Degrees of Separation. I remember that it was interesting.

The movie "Field of Dreams" featured a reclusive author (played by James Earl Jones). The movie was based on a book called "Shoeless Joe" by W. P. Kinsella. In the book, the narrator/author has always been struck by the fact that a character with his name has a cameo in Catcher In The Rye. In the book, the reclusive author is actually J. D. Salinger. I understand it was changed in the movie due to legal issues.

I thought I hated Catcher when I first read it (I was far too young to read it) and then, when I was old enough to read it, it just sounded dated. THEN I read Frannie and Zooey and loved that....then I read Raise High the roof beams and threw the book across the room by page four. Whaddya gonna do?

I like Esther Greenwood as a Catcher type person---but she's dated as hell, too. At least she goes really crazy, though. I always got the feeling Holden was laughing at me as a reader....but, that's just me and my cocaine induced paranoia talking.

So, I was dealing with this teenager and her parents. I don't even remember at this point what was wrong with her. It really wasn't that spectacular. Relatively normal teenage stupidity, with some minor drug use for flavoring, probably. The specifics aren't important. I was talking to her insurance company, trying to convince them why my hospital should get paid for dealing with her. I found myself saying to the insurance company care manager, "Well, what it comes down to, really, is that these people do not need Dr. Tim (our shrink d'jour). They need Dr. Phil."

~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~

Phone call from last night

wolf: Emergency Service.

caller: Oh, I have a wrong number. Is Jeffery Smith there?

wolf: (*transfers obvious blonde without further comment*)

OK, I was an English major who read Catcher in high school and liked it. Send the nut wagon.:nuts::cop:

Seriously, back then there wasn't a lot of good fiction about teen angst.

Plus, any book that so many people want to burn or ban must be good.

It is 2326 hours on 10-23-2008.

One of my patients has just walked in the door.

Why, you may wonder?

Because she is upset over the Phillies' performance in Game #2 of the World Series.

Yes, really.

She started crying uncontrollably, and also realized that her medications aren't working.

All because of the Phillies.

The Curse of Billy Penn reaches all the way out here to the suburbs.

You have a patient who is self-aware enough to accurately realize when her medications aren't working? And calmly brings herself into the building?

I didn't know those existed in your line of work.

I would say calmly exactly.

We do have a couple of folks who do know when they are not doing well and show up on their own.

Most of them get dragged in screaming and kicking.

And then there's a bunch who come in when they are doing well, but they're just looking for three hots and a cot.

Frankly the "I'm upset over the Phillies losing" lady is one of the latter, but I have to applaud her creativity tonight.

-sighs- I usually get taken in when I know I'm not doing too well but am too stubborn to admit it and go myself. But fortunately that necessity is rather rare... maybe once a year...

Tomorrow (Thursday) morning, I am going to get to take a tour of the Forensic building that is down the street from my hospital. It's a specialty prison unit for the Criminally Insane.

I did take a tour there 15 or so years ago, but at that time we weren't permitted on any of the occupied units. They just put us all in a ward room that was part of an unoccupied unit that was being renovated.

I don't think they have anybody notable there right now, but a few years ago they housed John DuPont while he was awaiting trial (he was considered too high security for us ... ordinarily we get Delaware County Prisoners who are mentally ill), and I believe that Sylvia Segrist ended up there after the Springfield Mall Shooting in the 1980s.

I wasn't even aware that they were going to allow a tour ... one of my cow orkers who moved into our Criminal Justice Department called me the other night because he thought I'd be interested and he saved me a slot. They're only letting ten people in, apparently.

That will be very interesting, wolf. Please submit a report afterward. I toured a place in Lima OH in college (psych major) but I don't remember what it was...I do remember thinking I didn't think I had what it takes to do the kind of job you do...I'm too wimpy. But I still find it all fascinating, how the mind can work.

Christmas brings families together.

Sometimes it doesn't go well.

Especially when the identified family psycho clocks her retarded cousin with a snow globe.

This is how you get to meet Sanity Clause.

I suppose that's just a small bit better than if Christmas is when the unidentified family psycho gets identified. (Speaking of psychos, I'm reading Carrie Fisher's new book.)

So how did it go? Give us a play by play. Should have been interesting.

We have a new ward clerk.

She's clueless.

I mean, like, really.

The guys like looking at her. Blonde, big hoots, apparently doesn't know her actual clothing sizes and keeps buying things that are too small.

The guys do not like talking to her because she is as dumb as the post that she should be dancing next to.

Oh, and she's rumored to be Amish. Yeah, that kind of Amish ... bonnets and buggies, Kelly McGillis in Witness Amish. I don't know how, she must have gone on Rumspringe and never went back.

She actually said something funny last night.

We got this dude, he's an old pillhead. Games ERs for pain meds, carefully simulates a number of chronic and acute pain conditions.

She came out looking for some of his property and asked, "you know that new admission guy, the one who looks like Gollum?"

Well, as it happens, he does.

If that wasn't funny enough, one of my cow orkers says "Smeagol wants it, needs it, Oxycontin, yessss."

ah, wolf. How I envy you.

some little bits I recall from being on both sides of the desk:

a woman talking with her therapist about whether the doc was correct in his diagnosis (of her bipolarity) "Well, with that doctor, I take everything he says with a grand of salt,"

A 20-something schizo, on being told the refridgerator was unlocked: "that's probably not a good idea. I'm a compulsive thing-taker."

Replying to the question of how this man found himself at the State hosp.: "I really don't know. I just went to the police station to get a restraining order against God."

:lol2:

Wolf. Click the link, sixth frame down. Click the video. I think I found one of your patients. :lol2:

http://creativedisease.com/index.htm

If a Mormon marries a woman with multiple personality disorder, is that considered polygamy?

Yes, of course this is based on a real life situation. Sort of, I mean. She wasn't married.

I vote 'yes' on the polygamy. It's not as much fun as you'd think, though.

I watch Big Love. I know.

For the first time in the history of policing ...

An officer will return to the station and tell his Sergeant, "Well, Sarge, you won't believe this, but the suspect, he was a real 96er, Sarge, and I put him in cuffs and he started banging his head onto the hood of my brand new cruiser, all on his own, and that's why the hood has five big dents in it."

And the officer has car-camera video to prove it.

Suggest to 'em that they stash the video and tell the insurance company it was hail damage! :rolleyes:

Yesterday I got to see our criminal justice system at work.

Or not work.

There is a lot of waiting around involved.

On the upside, I got to hear a police sergeant tell funny true stories.

He's a real cop. He says you're not a real cop until you've been suspended, sued, and divorced. He has also been hung in effigy. I had seen the effigy, but didn't know it was he.

Anyway, I had to tesify at a trial for the drugs I found. This one was for the recipient.

They forgot to bring him from the jail. So that meant waiting another two hours until the sheriffs brought him down from the county.

Pre-trial testimony prep is not like you see on Law and Order. I did not meet with the ADA in a nice office. I stood in a hallway and she gave me a printed sheet of the questions she was going to ask me, with answers filled in, pretty much based on my initial witness statement to the police.

I ended up not having to actually testify. Probably just as well. We were heading in towards lunchtime and the judge wanted to wrap things up. Prisoner pled to some lesser offence to avoid a two year minimum manditory sentence for contraband.

I go to a preliminary on the one who smuggled in the drugs next week. At least that one's at the District Justice's office that's down the street from my house. I get to sleep in. For this one I had to be up before 7am, and at the courthouse by 8:30, was stuck there until past noon, never got any sleep ... I can't nap. So by the end of my shift my butt was dragging something awful. And it was busy.

But all the time at the court was OT, so that's something.

So, I'm dealing with this kid, 19 years old. He's not merely gay, he's a complete screaming queen. Lisp, limp wrist, lilty voice, glided across the floor when he walked, wearing more Silly Bandz than the average tween girl. So flamey I feared the couch would catch fire.

So, he sashays into the interview room with me. I start by asking, "Your paperwork says your name is 'Charles.' Are you are a 'Charles,' 'Chuck,' 'Chas,' or something else?"

"Nibbles."

"What?"

"They call me Nibbles."

"Young man, I cannot call you Nibbles. Let's just stick with Charles."

This is the funniest story I've heard in quite some time! :lol:

Something tells me they don't call him Nibbles because he's always snacking on something... (unless that's what you wanna call it)

:eyebrow:

Are you sure he didn't say Nipples? :D

:fumette:

We've got a local trial upcoming of the guy who shot a kid that was a lot like Nibbles. I think a lot of very ugly stuff is going to come out about both the shooter (a juvenile) and his none-too-functional family... something like John Belushi and those mashed potatoes.

There was a kid who worked at the Speedway for a while, who was like that. I loved this kid, he was always cracking me up. One day I went in and they were particularly busy and he just kept saying (in that voice) "This is OUTRAGEOUS. Where are they all COMING FROM?"

I think that was the last I saw him there. :)

I had a Chihuahua named Mr Nibbles. He like to nibble my ankles to get my attention. No tooth marks just a friendly reminder that he was on the floor "pick me up!" :)

I just read an article about a guy who got drunk and passed out and his dog nibbled his toe right off. He ate the whole thing.

I read that article. The dog saved his life, apparently.

But has now had the taste of human flesh.

I wouldn't sleep in that guy's house.

(and yes, I'm sure it wasn't nipples.)

You never know what kind of impact you're going to have on someone.

There's this guy, I'll call him Dave.

Dave is a classically crazy guy. Hears voices, has difficulty understanding and participating in interpersonal interactions, all that, but he's a nice guy.

As I went into work last Wednesday, who do I walk past in the lobby, but Dave.

After I was on the clock, I sat out on the couch to chat with him for a little while, catch up on how things where going, and all. I wasn't working with him, just chatting.

He remarked, as a lot of our frequent flyers do, on how long I'd been working at the nuthouse, and started talking about the first time we met. He remembered a lot of details about that day on the unit, which for me, honestly, was just one of a bunch of days on the unit. I mean, I remembered Dave and all, but no real specifics. He mentioned that I had been wearing a hat from a concert that I had gone to ... I remember the concert, and I had remembered the hat. What I didn't remember was this ...

He remarked that it was common in those days (about 16 years ago) for nursing staff members to spend their time on the unit talking to nursing staff members, except for the time that they were supposed to spend interviewing their caseload of patients. What Dave said was that I didn't do that. I spent my time talking to the patients ... and when he asked me about that, I told him that I wasn't there to talk to my cow orkers, I was there for the patients, who came to the nuthouse because a lot of the time they didn't have anyone else. He said that was very important for him ... that he knew that I really cared.

So, you never know how you're going to touch people. Be mindful of that.

I'll bet that felt good, Wolf. I'm proud to know you.

So it's your fault, they keep coming back to see you. :haha:

Didn't Heart sing about that?

You are a good egg wolf.

:)

I took a call of an elopement from the State Hospital last night. "Elopement" is a nice way of saying "Security didn't notice a patient was missing."

This happens relatively infrequently, and usually doesn't involve the sort of manhunt for a dangerous maniac that you see in movies.

Usually they turn up. Sometimes a nut just really wants to wander around for a bit, have a Dunkin' Donut, or grab a quick adult beverage at a nearby watering hole.

The notice consisted of the patient's name, and a description:

"Last seen wearing a brown trench coat and black ballerina tutu."

So, I guess sometimes it really is like the movies.

Hey, who doesn't want a donut every now and again?

:D and I like that use of "elopement"

Yesterday, I saw something I thought was nice at our local grocery.
A customer placed all of her groceries on a check stand that had no cashier.
My cashier called her by name three times asking her to come to his register
The woman had a blank stare and didn't move.

My cashier then called for assistance by saying: "We have a "lost customer" at stand #4"

From nut house to donut house and back
Attachment 30198

There but for the grace of Thorazine...

Sometimes there is no suitable response to visions of tutu's and donuts tucked away in a long trench coat.

I wasn't wearing a tutu, it was a muumuu!

So wolf, have you put up a sign outside your office door that says "Nutcracker Suite"?

If not, maybe you can print this out and tape it to your desk or monitor:

Attachment 30199

No, but we do have a sign that says "Empathy Free Zone."

How about a cuckoo clock?

We briefly had a box of Cocoa Puffs, but the boss noticed.

Two years ago in the land of no fun, someone brought in an honest to goodness leg lamp for our Christmas display. It could NOT be seen by patients or visitors.

One of the bosses found it offensive, having never seen the movie. Our cries of "But it's a major award!" went unheeded. The light went out and never came back on.

She didn't think it was funny when someone hung luncheon meats on the administration tree, either. That's referred to as the Salamity incident (she was so incensed she was unable to separate the words "salami" and "calamity").

Our family's favorite X-mas movie.

"You'll shoot your eye out"

"It must be Italian!"

On stage here in town.

i can only imagine the things you go through at work wolf. the average IQ in the tdcj is 85. and i believe it. seen it. been there and unfortunately bought the t-shirt. some stories though are funny as hell!

You seem to think you have a lot of "t-shirts".