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Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 10
MARCH 11,1977
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
'Wearing of the Green' Brings Special Menu
By Ina Fried
When Bob O'Connell was growing
up in Pennsylvania, his family
served green beer at the big annual
St. Patrick's Day party at O'Connell's
Kingston House restaurant.
O'Connell's plans for Dietary
Services, which he heads, will lack
the foamy brew but nonetheless
should turn Duke Hospital into a
little bit of Ireland next Thursday,
March 17.
Patients and employees can start
the day with Maggie Murphy's
waffles and Irish oatmeal.
Callahan and Leprechauns
Lunch will feature Callahan's
Platter of traditionally Irish corned
\R\SH ROUTS—^The O'Connell;, reflect their heritage in their
names: (clockwise) Peggy, Timothy, Bob (director of dietary
services for the hospital), Kerry and Erin. (Phutu by Inj Fried)
beef, cabbage and parsleyed potatoes
or Irish country-omelette with
blarney sauce, Leprechaun's molded
fruit salad. Emerald Isle jello,
McMinted pear halves, lime cream
pie, O'Chocolate cake and Irish mist
limeade.
For dinner there will be Dublin's
meat balls, MacLaughlan's baked
ham, Patty's butterscotch pudding
and lime sherbert.
Special decorations and table tents
will carry out the green and white.
Irish theme. An Irish guessing game
will be available from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
and 4:30-7 p.m. in the Courtyard
Cafeteria. Prize winners' names will
be posted the next day.
O'Connell and his wife Peggy, a
secretary at ERA Realty One in
Research Triangle Park, both grew
up in an area of Pennsylvania where
St. Patrick's Day was "really big,"
O'Connell said.
Irish for the Day
Although their communities
included Italians, Poles and
Armenians as well as Irishmen,
"everyone turned Irish for the day,"
O'Connell said. "There were 10,000
people willing to celebrate."
His brother may have overdone
the celebration one year when he
had the yellow line in the town's
main street painted green from the
edge of town all the way to the front
door of the family restaurant. It cost
$1,000 to have it repainted later.
From the framed Irish Blessing on
the wall and the Waterford crystal on
the table to the Kelly green chair in
(Continued on page 2)
Patient Finds Special Meaning
For What Hospital People Say
This column by Dennis Rogers appeared recently in the Raleigh News and
Observer.
ELIZABETH CITY — It occurred to me, lying here in my backless hospital
gown with my mind whacked out on pain killer, that for every brilliant
doctor who graduates at the top of his class from the nation's best medical
school, there is a yo-yo who graduates from the bottom of his class at the
nation's worst medical school.
Think about that the next time your doctor gives you a prescription.
I did a lot of thinking about doctors and hospitals last week. I had to spend
three days in the hospital here when my lung went "psssst" and collapsed on
me. There is very little else to think about at such times, other than trying to
remember how to breathe. And, by the way. I'm fine now, thank you.
* * *
I have, for instance, finally figured out why nurses wake you up every two
hours during the night. They pretend they want to take your blood pressure
and stuff like that, but their real reason is very simple.
They want to know if you're still alive.
Hospital beds are at a premium these days, and think of the waste to have a
dead body taking up a $100-a-day room. At that price, you want to make sure
the guy still is able to pay his bill.
And I have learned how to understand what hospital people mean when
they talk. Not what they say, what they really mean.
"Now you might feel this is a little," the doctor says, when what he really
means is, "Sharpen your fingernails, hoss, 'cause this is gonna make you
hang from the ceiling."
(Continued on page 4)
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