The Lighter Side

Ever wonder whether you got better medical care if your doctor wore a traditional white coat or more casual attire? The editors at the Journal of the American Medical Association did. The Journal recently released a nearly 20-page dissertation on the subject. Breaking down respondents by age, sex, race, income and educational level, JAMA researchers … Read more

When Shakespeare coined the expression “salad days,” he meant youthful ardor and zeal, not the time for us to eat chopped lettuce on a dainty plate. At “casa Duke,” “salad days” might better mean “indifference bordering on active hostility.” That’s not to say I hate salads. I‘ve just always believed a good anything else beats … Read more

I’m not a huge fan of “big box” stores. Too many things to see that you don’t need; too few that you do. Plus there’s that one lone remaining shopping cart, the one with the bad front wheel that keeps steering you away from the garden tools you want and toward the two-pound packages of … Read more

Dr. Duke This coronavirus is turning me paranoid. I stay at home with all the doors and windows closed. The drapes are pulled, and I only part them a nanometer to see if a cloud of round, knobby germs might be rumbling down my block. I haven’t had a haircut since this pandemic began, so … Read more

There was a time when the only people you might run across wearing masks were kids holding their bags out for candy on Halloween and revelers celebrating Mardi Gras – if you happened to live in New Orleans. Even bank robbers had given up on masks in favor of waving weapons and just demanding cash. … Read more

There are some things you see all the time but never pay much attention to – unless you’re stuck in a traffic jam. (An occurrence much more frequent in the Lowcountry these days than, say, 10, five or even two years ago.) Those things are license plates, specifically “vanity” plates. They can be clever, witty … Read more