That cultural symbol of medics – from Kenneth Williams in Carry On Doctor to Edie Falcon's Nurse Jackie – is being replaced by cheaper and more accurate ultrasound devices
If you Google "Hugh Laurie" and "stethoscope", you will come up with a clutch of stories from February 2012 about how everybody's favourite pill-popping misanthropic physician is "hanging up his stethoscope" after eight seasons on the hit show House.
This underlines a more general truth: doctors don't retire, they hang up their stethoscopes. Is there any profession so proverbially connected to one tool of their trade? Will people believe you are a doctor if you don't wear one?
These questions become topical because the stethoscope is reportedly becoming obsolete, nearly 200 years after it was invented. Is it anything to do with the finding that a third of Us stethoscopes used in emergencies were contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Mrsa) bacteria? No, but it probably didn't help.
If you Google "Hugh Laurie" and "stethoscope", you will come up with a clutch of stories from February 2012 about how everybody's favourite pill-popping misanthropic physician is "hanging up his stethoscope" after eight seasons on the hit show House.
This underlines a more general truth: doctors don't retire, they hang up their stethoscopes. Is there any profession so proverbially connected to one tool of their trade? Will people believe you are a doctor if you don't wear one?
These questions become topical because the stethoscope is reportedly becoming obsolete, nearly 200 years after it was invented. Is it anything to do with the finding that a third of Us stethoscopes used in emergencies were contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Mrsa) bacteria? No, but it probably didn't help.
- 1/24/2014
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
As Hulk Waits For The Doctor Who Panel In Hall H To Start, There Is One Nagging Thought Buzzing Around Hulk’S Brain: We Live In The Age Of Superheroes.
With Movies Like The Avengers And The Dark Knight Rises Dominating The Movie Landscape, We Are Beginning To Accept The Reality That Superheroes Are No Longer Just A Mere Part Of Our Formal Childhood Development. Nor Are They Just A Mere Part Of Our Adult Movie-going Disposition. Instead, Superheroes Have Become Outright Fixtures Of Our Cultural Mythos; Part Of The Fabric Of Our Values And Intrinsic To Our Collective Identity (What’S Next?...
With Movies Like The Avengers And The Dark Knight Rises Dominating The Movie Landscape, We Are Beginning To Accept The Reality That Superheroes Are No Longer Just A Mere Part Of Our Formal Childhood Development. Nor Are They Just A Mere Part Of Our Adult Movie-going Disposition. Instead, Superheroes Have Become Outright Fixtures Of Our Cultural Mythos; Part Of The Fabric Of Our Values And Intrinsic To Our Collective Identity (What’S Next?...
- 7/26/2012
- by FILMCRITHULK
- EW.com - PopWatch
As Hulk Waits For The Doctor Who Panel In Hall H To Start, There Is One Nagging Thought Buzzing Around Hulk’S Brain: We Live In The Age Of Superheroes.
With Movies Like The Avengers And The Dark Knight Rises Dominating The Movie Landscape, We Are Beginning To Accept The Reality That Superheroes Are No Longer Just A Mere Part Of Our Formal Childhood Development. Nor Are They Just A Mere Part Of Our Adult Movie-going Disposition. Instead, Superheroes Have Become Outright Fixtures Of Our Cultural Mythos; Part Of The Fabric Of Our Values And Intrinsic To Our Collective Identity (What’S Next?...
With Movies Like The Avengers And The Dark Knight Rises Dominating The Movie Landscape, We Are Beginning To Accept The Reality That Superheroes Are No Longer Just A Mere Part Of Our Formal Childhood Development. Nor Are They Just A Mere Part Of Our Adult Movie-going Disposition. Instead, Superheroes Have Become Outright Fixtures Of Our Cultural Mythos; Part Of The Fabric Of Our Values And Intrinsic To Our Collective Identity (What’S Next?...
- 7/26/2012
- by FILMCRITHULK
- EW - Inside TV
The British character actor, writer and director Lionel Jeffries has died, following a long illness. He was 83.His film debut was in Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright in 1950, and he was an immediately recognisable face in countless British films for the next two decades. He turned in sterling character work in the likes of The Colditz Story (1955) and The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), and popped up for Hammer in The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958).But he was best known for his comedy roles in the likes of Doctor at Large, Blue Murder at St Trinians (both 1957), and the classic Peter Sellers vehicles Two Way Stretch (1960) and The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963). His premature baldness often lead to his playing far above his real age. He played Dick Van Dyke's father, the eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), despite being six months younger than his onscreen offspring.
- 2/22/2010
- EmpireOnline
Prolific actor and director who made the much-loved film The Railway Children
As an actor Lionel Jeffries, who has died aged 83, was a master of comic unease. This was perhaps fuelled by the personal unease he felt in a sex-and-violence era which overtook the gentler sensibilities he sometimes brought to his acting. But he was able to bring these sensibilities fully to bear in his scriptwriting and film directing, particularly in his much-loved adaptation of the classic children's novel The Railway Children. With the latter, he left an indelible mark on the British film industry and generations of teary-eyed viewers.
The son of two devoted workers for the Salvation Army, Jeffries disliked personal publicity and was a zealot when preparing a role (he ran two miles every morning before appearing in the musical Hello Dolly! after an absence from the London stage of 26 years). He deplored permissivism, and was not...
As an actor Lionel Jeffries, who has died aged 83, was a master of comic unease. This was perhaps fuelled by the personal unease he felt in a sex-and-violence era which overtook the gentler sensibilities he sometimes brought to his acting. But he was able to bring these sensibilities fully to bear in his scriptwriting and film directing, particularly in his much-loved adaptation of the classic children's novel The Railway Children. With the latter, he left an indelible mark on the British film industry and generations of teary-eyed viewers.
The son of two devoted workers for the Salvation Army, Jeffries disliked personal publicity and was a zealot when preparing a role (he ran two miles every morning before appearing in the musical Hello Dolly! after an absence from the London stage of 26 years). He deplored permissivism, and was not...
- 2/19/2010
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
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