June 28, 2006
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Stretching the Vocab
I spent a full day at a continuing education seminar in St. Louis
today. I had feared that I would fall asleep, but my worries were
unfounded. Two of our main lecturers were a guy from Wales and a
guy from Manchester, England who bore a resemblance to a young Rowan
Atkinson. Their accents, lively humor, and amusing phrases ("dead
on," "bloody" whatever, "advert" for advertisement, "conTROVersy,"
"laBORatry," etc.) kept us more entertained, more attentive, and
possibly more educated than if we'd been sleeping.For one example, our lecturers several times used an optometric term
that I knew, but which seldom comes up in conversation, even among
colleagues (It may help you to know that the first word in the term, MYOPIC, means "nearsighted").I thought that perhaps applying the term to a theoretical conversation
would help me in grappling with its meaning. I shared my
illustration with my colleague sitting next to me, who added his
thoughts on the subject in the second word balloon. Alas, he
shall remain unnamed and uncredited in this venue for his contribution,
but I'm sure he would have wanted it that way:
1st man: You MYOPIC Creep!
2nd man: ?! At least I don't have a MULLET!The "1st man" was originally supposed to
be a woman, but sadly does not resemble one in the slightest. Her
perm was mistaken for a mullet by my colleague. Those who truly
wish to be educated may read the next paragraph; others may skip
it--but you don't need my permission!***** WARNING ***** EDUCATIONAL *****Here is what I gathered was the real
definition of "MYOPIC CREEP": As an optometric term, it is not in
fact a personal, verbal insult, but refers to the idea that patients
who wear traditional hydrogel contact lenses overnight may develop
corneal swelling which may lead to increasing over-correction of
nearsightedness over time. Our speakers were advocating for silicone
hydrogel lenses which minimize overnight swelling and could actually
result in a subsequent decrease in a contact lens wearer's prescription
(if they were previously an overnight hydrogel wearer). Asleep yet?
Comments (4)
Yeah! That's not a very good perm...I can see the mullet.
It seems to me that you and your colleagues do the same thing at seminairs as many teachers do--Goof Off. I can remember many institute days where I would read magazines and discuss the articles with the teachers around me.
please excluse all spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in my first post, it is a bit late at night to be worried about such things.
Please don't get the wrong impression; serious education takes place at these lectures (even note-taking!), but there is time for some silliness.
Besides, mullets and myopic creeps are very pertinent subjects.
(And don't worry about spelling/grammar--your input is appreciated)
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