Why Do Men Have Nipples?

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Have you ever wondered why your teeth chatter when you're cold, or if you could really catch a disease from sitting on a toilet seat?

New York physician Billy Goldberg, pestered by unusual questions at cocktail parties and other social gatherings over the years, puts the public's mind at ease in his book "Why Do Men Have Nipples?" which hits the book stores on Tuesday.

"It's really remarkable how often you get accosted," said Goldberg, 39. "There are the medical questions from family and friends, and then there are the drunk and outrageous questions where somebody wants to drop their pants and show you a rash or something."

The book, subtitled, "Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini," (Three Rivers Press), is co-authored by humorist Mark Leyner.

Read entire story here.

[JoyceCarter]

I heard about a young woman gynaecologist being asked about things medical during a dinner party.  A fellow guest had been told she was working for a PhD, and asked her what her subject was.  She tried to be reticent, knowing a) these things can be quite boring or horrifying for non-specialists, and b) she'd much rather not air the matter while people were eating.  No matter how vague she was, the bore would not be put off, and got everybody round the table listening to him badger her for an exact answer, so she told him. Vaginal hysterectomy: its effect upon female orgasm.

[Geoff_N]

As a teacher I used to be pestered at parties by parents asking about the latest National Curriculum, hints to get their kids through exams, which was the best local schools, and why did the press report me when I once commented that the only way for a educational adviser (I was one at the time) to get sacked was to fiddle your expenses or sleep with the director's wife.

The worst question was what is education all about, what's the point of the agony blah blah? Then it became the best question because of the answer I found by Ernest Hemingway: the purpose of Education is to teach youngsters how to be good crap detectors.   Try dropping that into polite conversation in the hoity toity middle-class parties I get dragged to!!!!

Geoff

[SharonBell]

I don't think I dare read the book, as it will only bring back bad memories! 

My husband is a vascular surgeon and we've been at parties where women have pulled down their stockings to show him their spider veins and men have rolled up their pantlegs to show him bulging, pulsating ropes of "veins." He's even been asked to remove ganglions on hands ("Can't you just take a book and smack it?" "Yes, but it won't go away and you'll just hurt!").
He tells them all to make an appointment at his office where he has the proper instruments to evaluate their veins/arteries/ulcers/warts/wounds, etc. Some do, but many don't. They just wanted a FREE curbside consultation. 

[Ed]

He's even been asked to remove ganglions on hands ("Can't you just take a book and smack it?" "Yes, but it won't go away and you'll just hurt!").

I wish I'd seen your husband instead of my doctor.  He refused to do anything about mine, even though it was agony and it was interfering with my work.  His advice was to hit it hard, in the hope that it would burst.  He said, in the old days, people would hit them with the family bible - I wonder if he meant the doctor or the ganglion.

Anyhoo - I hit it hard, with a piece of 2 x 1 timber, which goes against deeply seated self-preservation instincts, and... it really, really, really hurt, and swole up even more

[Flirtybee]

one of my fave doctors lines was on a sick note i got handed me at work...the pain of management is usually the paperwork...the guy looks at me with a smile on his face...no sick note and he'd have been on report...the guy was a serial sickie...

the doc had obviously diagnosed this often and repeatedly and couched it in wonderfully technical latin jargon...

'pendulum plumbum'   (swinging the lead, a lil colloquial english for being a persistent work dodger)

Flirty

[Missy]

I had a ganglion some years ago, and my mum suggested that I whack it with a big book. When I expressed concern about the pain this might cause, she pointed to my cousin and said,
"Let Jill do it, she's a nurse........."


My husband often gets asked money type things, as he works for a bank. Share prices, best mortgage to get, stuff like that. I suppose it goes with the job to a degree.

[Ed]

Missy - did yours just gradually fade away?  Mine did, but it took a few years.  I found not wearing a watch helped (mine was on my wrist).

Flirty - that's excellent   I can't imagine my doctor being that humorous.

I quite often get asked advice at social events.  I don't mind if it's somebody I like, but if it's not then I just say that I don't want to talk shop in my spare time.  If they want advice they can ring me at work.  Most of the time they haven't got the technical vocabulary to explain exactly what the problem is and/or it would be something you have to see or hear, otherwise the possibilities are endless.

[JoyceCarter]

A colleague of mine went to her doctor with a ganglion, and he did hit it with a heavy book, which sorted it immediately.  He said if it hadn't done, then he would have had to refer her for surgery, but he thought it was worth trying the old-fashioned way first.  (That was about 12 years ago.)

FB - 'pendulum plumbum' - LOL!