I Like Talbert Pipes

I have been collecting the work of Trever Talbert for quite some time. Matter of fact, I started about the time Trever “went commercial” back in the 90′s. Trever’s elevator doesn’t quite go to the top floor and his work in pipe design reflects that. Although I do have quite a few of his more “traditional” shapes, I am mostly drawn to the weird and fantastical. Of late, I have concentrated on the Halloween Pipes, a series that Trever has since discontinued (a break for my wallet!). I’m proud to say that I am the only person in the world that has at least one from every year they were made! Here’s a picture of Trever working on a pipe called Mountains of Madness:

Trever has been living in France for quite some time with his beautiful bride, Emily. They are both very accomplished pipe artisans and you should take the opportunity to visit their website.

 

How Many Cops?

Just how many cops does it take to load a drunk Paris Hilton into a squad car? Apparently, the number is at least four. Two things come to mind when viewing this picture: 1) There isn’t a cop protecting the perp, er, Paris’ head as she’s stuffed into the cruiser, 2) The matching belt and shoe ensemble is simply stunning!

Health Care

I spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen, so I have a chance to read news from a lot of differnt sources. I am also getting a little older and have a variety of health “challenges”, so I am a consumer of health care products and services. I just filled a prescription for Lipitor, a drug that has been marvelously effective in lowering my, before, intractable cholesterol. I filled the prescription at Walgreens pharmacy. The cheerful note on the package informed me that my insurance saved me over $300 on this paticular prescription. For a brief bit, I was pretty happy about that.

But then I started pondering this whole health care thing. Nope, I didn’t come up with any answers. But I did come to the conclusion that I believe that health care insurance, be it private or government subsidized, is horribly inefficient. I pay premiums for my health care insurance. Somebody has to administer that. The doctors and pharmacies and hospitals use claims systems to request payment for services and products that I use. There’s an empire of adminstration to support that, too. The insurance companies have to spend money on armies of folks that analyze cash flow in and out to make sure that they are charging enough on the premiums to make sure that they make a profit (they aren’t a charity, you know). What is the total cost of this overhead? Really, what is the overall percentage being paid out in health care that has absolutely nothing to with caring for health? I feel relatively certain that direct payment would be much simpler and ultimately lower the total cost of health care. But what do I know?