Met Museum

Playing medical Whack-A-Mole

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‘So many doctors, so little time.’

I just got back from The City, which is what people in New York call New York. (Note: No one ever calls it “The Big Apple.” So don’t. Just don’t. Also note: If you ask someone where they’re from and they say “New York,” they mean The City. If they’re from somewhere else in New York State, they say “Buffalo.”)

So. What was I doing in Not-The-Big-A? Window-shopping on Madison Avenue? Exhibit-hopping at the Museum of Natural History? Maybe hiking along the High Line? Nah. I was getting a mammogram. Also one of those icky pelvic sonograms.

Actually hiking the High Line. Highly recommend

Yes, I have reached that point in my life where visits to The City are planned around appointments with doctors. Sooooo many doctors.

No, I’m not going to show you pics of my doctors. Well, except in the photo at the top of this post. That’s my favorite doctor, the one I’m married to, taken inside the Met. This photo here was taken outside the Met. With no doctor

Now, there’s nothing particularly wrong with me. But every time I see a doctor, I need to see another doctor. Say I go to the dermatologist. He looks me over and sends me to a different dermatologist who specializes in whatever that skin thingie is on my leg. He takes said skin thingie off, but then I have to go to yet another doctor to get sewn up. See? Whack-A-Mole.

Another shot taken inside a museum with a favorite person, this time MoMA and The Child

And it doesn’t let up. The general guy sends you to the heart guy. The bone guy sends you to the pain guy. Or the eye guy (like Dr. Dude) sends you to the retina guy. I even have a hand guy who once saw me for arthritis. Lately it’s been acting up, but in my feet. So I guess I can’t go back to him. Though maybe that’s not a bad thing. When I asked what I could do about the arthritis, he said, “Get different parents.” 

Outside the Metropolitan Opera with The Child and the SIL

When I was a kid, our family had two doctors: a regular doctor and a dentist. When I grew to young adulthood, I still only had two doctors. But now they were a dentist and a gynecologist. I used to tease my dentist that he should invent a new specialty called “dentecology,” so that women like me could get both ends tended to in one visit. Easy-peasy. All he’d need was an exam chair that tilted both ways.

Strolling Fifth Avenue with the Louis Vuitton store as backdrop. I was probably on the way to the dentist

Now that I’m on the Far Side of Seventy, my doctors are legion. And, as I mentioned, there’s nothing alarming about my condition — nothing that a time machine couldn’t fix. I honestly can’t imagine what would happen to my doctor-studded schedule should I become certifiably ill.

The Central Park reservoir on a pretty day, no doctors in sight

Ironically enough, there is one doctor I never see. That’s my ophthalmologist, AKA Dr. Dude. Just like the shoemaker’s kids have no shoes, this eye doc’s wife never has an appointment. He tells me to “just stop by” and he’ll “squeeze me in.” Which, of course, never happens. Though, trust me, I see plenty of him nights and weekends.

The doctor I “see” most often — just not in his office

Amagansett, New York. April 2026

 

 

Art Appreciation, Dude Style

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‘The two criteria he uses to judge any work of art’

Dude Man and I recently took in the Caspar David Friedrich show at the Met. Poor ole Caspar is not well-known over here in America, although he is very popular in Europe. In fact, he was Hitler’s favorite artist. Which could be part of why he’s not so famous here. (It wasn’t Caspar’s fault; he not only didn’t hang out with Hitler, he lived a whole century before him.)

Probably Caspar’s most famous painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. You can buy a poster of it. I wonder if Hitler had one over his bed

Anyway, Caspar David Friedrich’s paintings are mostly landscapes, so I was pretty sure Dude Man would like this show.

The Dude really likes landscapes. In fact, his favorite art is the Hudson River School. You know: Thomas Cole, Frederic Church. Asher Durand. Is it because these paintings evoke majesty? Or because they stir up philosophical thoughts of man’s insignificance in the face of nature?

Thomas Cole: The Oxbow. Majestic. Philosophical. And checks both of The Dude’s “Is it Art?” boxes

Nah. It’s because landscape paintings — or most of them, anyway — look like what they’re supposed to be. A mountain looks like a mountain. A river looks like a river. The moon looks like…well, you get the idea. They also look like they’d be pretty hard to paint. Look at the brushstrokes in that sunset! Check out the jillions of leaves on that tree! Gosh…this painting is so big; I bet it took him forever to paint it!

Landscape paintings, therefore, check both boxes on The Dude’s “Is it great art?” list. First: “Does it look like what it’s supposed to be?” and Second: “Was it hard to do?”

The Whole Dude Family in front of their (real!) de Kooning. Which Dude did not like. Because? Doesn’t look like what it’s supposed to be (though exactly what “les Orages” are, I’m not sure) And doesn’t look like it was hard to do. Read the hilarious story about how Dude’s Fam got this painting in “De Kooning’s Revenge”

One time, at the Museum of Modern Art (where most of the works definitely do not meet the Dude Art Criteria), we came upon a piece that looked like a giant chair — made of thousands of nails — pointing out. It was not only hideous, it looked truly uncomfortable. But Dude Man liked it. And not only because it looked like what it was supposed to be (a chair) but also because it looked remarkably hard to make. “How on earth did he do that?”

Nice try, Artist. But this chair doesn’t like like it was all that hard to make, does it?

I’m happy to say that most of the paintings in this show met Dude Man’s Art Criteria. I liked them too. (In fact, I went another time, Dudeless, so I could take my time with the paintings I liked best.)

One of the more spectacular Friedrichs in the show: The Monk by the Sea. Dude: “Where are the boats?”

Another one I loved and thought Dude would too, since 1. It looks like a real tree and 2. Was no doubt very hard to paint. Dude: “It’s just a tree.” Oh. Okay

After taking in the Friedrichs, we wandered around, checking out other stuff. Of course, some works Dude liked better than others.

You guessed it. He LOVED this column

All in all, a good Art Day. Oh — there’s another criterion I almost forgot to mention: Can the Art be enjoyed with Mr. Baby along?

Perfect work of art here at San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor: looks like what it’s supposed to be — and incredibly hard to make

New York City. April 2025