Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Singing Dentist of Bensonhurst new version

By Raanan Geberer
Published in "Bensonhurst Bean" 12/11

“When you begin/Begin the beguine/It brings back the night/of tropical splendor….”

Dr. Pearlstein sang as he looked into Rob’s mouth and started poking around, the curbed probe in one hand, the tiny mirror in the other. Ever since Rob had moved to Brooklyn last year, in 1987, his father had tried to get him to see Dr. Pearlstein as a dentist because Dr. Pearlstein was a cousin and had grown up with his father in the old immigrant East Bronx, and finally, here he was. Dr. Pearlstein’s office was on the second floor of a rundown two-story building on a nondescript commercial street in Bensonhurst whose only redeeming feature was the Italian bakery next door. You walked down a long, narrow hallway to get to Dr. Pearlstein’s office.

“A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H/ I got a gal in Kalamazoo/Don’t want to boast but I know she’s the toast/of Kalamazoo…”

Rob had never heard of a singing dentist before. Not only does he sing, he thought, but he seems to sing only the songs of his own era, which would be the late 1930s and early ’40s. It’s incredible that this guy is still practicing, he thought. He must be in his late 60s, past retirement age. He idly glanced at the wall – here was a diploma from “New York University Dental School, June 1949.” Probably went to dental school on the G.I. Bill, he thought. Suddenly, he became alarmed when Dr. Pearlstein picked up a drill.

“What are you doing with that drill? Aren’t you going to give me an anesthetic or an injection?”

“Well, the X-rays show that the cavity is very small and very near the surface, so we don’t need it. Open your mouth—you’re so good, you’re the best, you’re the champ. Here it comes. I’m not lazy!”

`I got spurs that jingle jangle jingle/As we go merrily along/And they say, ain’cha glad you’re single/And that song it ain’t too far from wrong ’ …You’re doing great! Don’t worry about anything. I’m the master! ` He was a famous trumpet man around Chicago way/He had a boogie style that no one else could play’ …You’re so good! Okay, rinse out your mouth!”

Rob bent over, grabbed a paper cup and rinsed his mouth. He watched the blood going down the drain. He had hardly felt anything. “There! That wasn’t so hard, was it? ” Dr. Pearlstein asked. “I’m gonna do the filling now! You know, your father did some amazing, heroic things! Like the time he ran into the battlefield and carried the wounded lieutenant on his back to safety! They were gonna give him a medal for that, but, you know how it is!”

Rob had never heard that story before. Then again, his father rarely talked about his past. “Did you know my father’s brother?” he asked the dentist.

“Sure I knew him!” Dr. Pearlstein answered. “I remember when he left for Palestine in ‘47! He was promoted to major in the Haganah, the first major in the new Jewish army, and the next day, he gets killed in the fighting in Jerusalem. And he didn’t even have to be there–they wanted him in intelligence, but he had to be on the front lines. What are you gonna do?”

Rob was going to ask another question when….

“Okay, we’re gonna put in the filling material next. Here it comes! Stay still! I’m not lazy! Moon over Miami/Shine on as we begin/A dream or two that may come true/As the tide comes in…….’ Okay, just a little bit more. Just stay still. You’re the best! … Bor’chu es adonai hamvoroch/Boruch atoh adonoi hamvoroch leolom voed/Boruch atoh adonoi/Eloheynoo melech ha’olam... OK, we’re done here, kid!”

“I heard you singing that Hebrew brocho, ” Rob said, referring to the blessing over the Torah that Dr. Pearlstein had just intoned. “Wouldn’t those Hasidim I saw in the waiting room object if you sang that when they were here?”

“Fuhgedaboutit!” Dr. Pearlstein responded, cheery as ever. “Don’t worry about them. They got nothin’ to say! OK, see you next time?”

“What should I pay?”

“Don’t pay anything! ’Cause you’re a relative, I’ll fix the insurance form so the price will be very high, so what they give me will cover what you should pay!”

“You don’t have a secretary?”

“Naah! I used to have a secretary, but if I did now, I’d have to charge you guys more! OK, kid! Give my regards to your father…..NEXT!!!”

Saturday, December 3, 2011

The Brooklyn Work Group--What's Missing

By Raanan Geberer Originally published in Brooklyn Daliy Eagle BROOKLYN — The recent report by the Brooklyn Work Group of the New York State Department of Health’s Medicaid Redesign Team was in the news recently. Many people were relieved that the team didn’t recommend any hospital closings, although it did recommend the consolidation of several hospitals that are in dire financial straits. Lost in the particulars of the report, however, was the actual makeup of this Brooklyn Work Group. It was chaired by Stephen Berger, chairman of Odyssey Investment Partners, “a New York investment firm that specializes in private corporation transactions.” Berger also chaired the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century in 2005-06, a commission that was criticized by many as the “hospital closing commission.” It closed nine hospitals statewide, including Victory Memorial in Brooklyn, Parkway in Queens and Cabrini in Manhattan. As for the other four members, they are all healthcare and government executives. Ramon Jesus Rodriguez has served as CEO of two HMOs; Elizabeth Swain is the CEO of the Community Health Care Association of New York State; William Toby is a longtime federal health administrator, and Anthony Webb has served as the commissioner of several state agencies. What’s missing here? What’s missing is any input from the health professions or the local communities. This is a commission that deals with hospitals, after all. One would think that some physicians who chair medical departments at local hospitals and/or act as professors of medicine would be represented. Nurses, who work with patients on a day-to-day basis, should also be represented, as should the healthcare unions. And what about public officials and leaders of civic organizations? These people are represented in almost every other temporary government task force that I’ve ever heard of. For example, would a task force on the Gowanus Expressway or the Second Avenue Subway be made up of only transportation engineers? I doubt it — it would also include representatives of nearby communities. Finally, since this report involves public funds dispensed by the state to local hospitals, shouldn’t the state legislature also have a say? In this case, however, the Brooklyn Work Group is only made up of financial and high-level managerial professionals, all of them with strong ties to the highest levels of what Jack Newfield once called “the permanent government” and “Occupy Wall Street” protesters more recently called “the One Percent.” It’s very likely that the one of the main objectives of the study is not to improve healthcare delivery and health services, but to protect the interests of the state’s business and government elites. At times these objectives may coincide. Increasingly nowadays, unfortunately, they do not. For the majority of people in a district to have no say in whether services in their local hospital are expanded, cut back or ended is not compatible with true democracy. * * *