The other Awards Obama will will this year...

[kandrathe]

Indeed. On a related note, some studies have shown that, even for perfectly healthy people, moderate waiting times can actually reduce mortality. Both doctors and patients have a propensity to want too much treatment too quickly (than is statistically optimal), and that slight delays can actually prevent more deaths due to errors and complications than immediate surgeries. Treatment is always to be judged vs. the alternatives - there is no panacea, only different states of being with different survival rates and quality of life. Sometimes, the disease is more gentle than the cure. Often times not, but it's not always easy to tell.

That's one way to make lemonade from a bad situation. So not only do you have to wait, its a good thing since your doctors don't always make the right decisions. Where do I sign up?

And I'm happy to still have everyone's favourite curmudgeon lounging around. Maybe someone took a peek at your "contribution" and decided that brilliant people should be kept around.:)

Ditto. Verbal fencing on the lounge would hardly be as fun without the old master.