Tête-à-tête

Monday, July 31st, 2017
Baltimore, Maryland

Witness to a moment

When I was leaving the Radiation Oncology department this afternoon, there was an older couple in my path, just down the hall. They both appeared to be in their late 70s. He was in a wheelchair and wearing a hospital gown open at the back; there was a large surgical scar on his scalp. She was kneeling next to him. Each leaned toward the other with eyes closed and foreheads gently touching. I stood there transfixed, trying to determine if the moment I was witnessing was heart-warming or heart-breaking. I suspect it was both.

My radiation therapy in a nutshell

The technology behind my radiation therapy works like this: a linear accelerator is used to propel a stream of electrons to just below the speed of light. Powerful magnets are used to steer the electrons in the right direction (i.e. me), since otherwise they would travel in a straight line forever. The electrons smash into one side of a small metal disk which then emits high-energy photons on the other side. (This is called the photoelectric effect, which Einstein discovered and for which he won his only Nobel Prize.) Those photons, in turn, collide with and eject electrons from the tumor DNA in my spleen. The bombarded cells, with damaged DNA, fail to replicate and die.

Pretty nifty stuff, eh?

​If you'd like to learn more about radiation therapy in general, check out the excellent fact sheet on the website of the National Cancer Institute. If you'd like to learn more about the science and technology behind the Elekta Versa HD, the fascinating equipment used for my own therapy, check out the adjacent video. It's very interesting.

The house that Pope built

The weekend before last, Alison and I visited the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) twice. We visited for several hours ourselves on Saturday and then returned on Sunday with our niece Becca. The museum was built in 1929 in the Romanesque style, designed by the architect John Russell Pope. Although I had not heard of Pope previously, he appears to be famous in American architectural circles. Some of his best-known buildings are the Jefferson Memorial, National Archives and the National Gallery of Art, all in Washington, D.C., as well as Union Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia) in our very own Richmond, Virginia!

Although their overall holdings are impressive, the museum's crown jewel is the Cone Collection. Donated to the museum upon their deaths by Claribel and Etta Cone, two wealthy spinster sisters from here in Baltimore, the collection contains over 500 works by Matisse alone (the largest public collection of Matisse in the world). Since the sisters revolved in the same social circle as Henri himself (and Pablo to boot), this isn't much of a surprise.

We've included pictures of various works (photography is encouraged at the museum) down below.

Click to enlarge

Pictures

Here are some photos that we've either taken or collected in the last week. ​​

Tidbit

My dad visited us here in Baltimore this past weekend and as per our new usual, we tag-teamed on one crossword puzzle per day. This always introduces us to a few new words, most of which I forget immediately. Two new words that we discovered this weekend that have managed to stick in my head are recto and verso. These terms (shortened from the Latin rectō foliō and versō foliō) refer to the front and back sides, respectively, of a sheet of paper when it is bound within a larger item like a book. (If a sheet is unbound, apparently, no one gives a hoot.)

Now, I just need to figure out how to drop my new words into casual conversation. Any suggestions?

Example for a left-to-right language