ArtieShaw

My husband had a weird job many years ago doing this very thing. He worked (via a temp agency) for the federal government. They reviewed hospital billings for their agency’s workers and send mildly threatening letters if they charged $12,000 for a procedure that averaged $5,000.

It had some success, but some states had outright outlawed this sort of thing. Texas.

Not a doctor, but I’m interested in the subject. I think the current consensus is “yes and no.”

200 years ago, people may have answered yes. Thirty years ago it was popular to discount the idea entirely because germs are what make you sick. Can’t deny that.

Lately I’ve been hearing some acknowledgement that a stress to your body may make you more susceptible or less able to fight off an infection. The wiki article includes a recent study that pointed to poor sewage treatment near the White House in Harrison’s day. For whatever reason WHH wasn’t able to fight that off but the rest of the residents seemingly were.

People have been making the connection of “he stood outside for hours in the snow and drizzle, then caught the dropsy and died” for centuries. I don’t think they lacked for sense or couldn’t make the obvious connection between exposure and sickness. I do think they lacked for microscopes.

Hoping for another Wm. Henry Harrison?

When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe… He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day.[104] He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history

In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30 p.m. he uttered his last words…

The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier.

Things one learns in high school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison

I think there may have been a joke in there.

Or maybe not.

I was going to say that The Servant wasn’t that bad - particularly at the beginning.

Then I read the Wikipedia synopsis of the other one. Holy shit, that looks like a mess. May watch it anyway out of morbid curiosity and masochism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Emanuel

I’m somehow more creeped out by the Greatest American Hero hairstyling.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_greatest_american_hero/s01

hefty price

If this is the guy I’m thinking of, he’s doing both.

Extreme workouts, diets, medical interventions (blood transfusions, etc.), general body weirdness that would be classed as some variety of anorexia nervosa if he were younger and poorer, and a regimen of pills. He’s selling the pills.

Oh, and ladies? He’s looking to to reenter the dating market. I guess that’s neither here nor there, but for some reason he’s available!!!

It’s a pretty accurate transcription of the line’s delivery.

Generally described as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.” The lead actor, who non-coincidentally wrote and directed it, is a man of mystery, delusion, and apparent brain damage after one or more car accidents. He has competing desires for fame and a compulsive privacy regarding his past life and current location. He is inexplicably wealthy, after getting his start in California selling toy birds (Oiseau [Wiseau]) on the San Francisco waterfront.

His real name and national origin were matters of speculation for about a decade, but if you were to guess “a transylvanian got hit by a Paris bus and then moved to Louisiana and losing his shit” it would be close to the mark (Oh hai, Mark).

Watch the movie for what it is. If you need to delve deeper, read “The Disaster Artist” which is the (ghostwritten) memoir of his co-star and sometimes roommate. (The guy who played Mark)

Years ago someone on Reddit tracked down parts of his birthplace and history.