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Kray-Kray

Cambridge Dictionary
CRAY-CRAY meaning: 1. stupid or not reasonable 2. things that someone says or does that seem stupid, without meaning

I first heard Monty Python’s very funny ‘Ethel the Frog’ in high school, on WBCN-FM, the station that broke the Pythons in America. The mockumentary told the story of the criminal Piranha Brothers.

What I didn’t know at the time was, the Piranha Brothers were based on the all-too-real Kray brothers of London. In Boston there was Whitey Bulger, and Cape Cod had Melvin Reine. They were violent and, in a word, crazy. Compared to the Krays, the notorious Whitey was a misunderstood businessman.

Tom Hardy, perhaps the finest actor of this or almost any generation, portrayed both of the insanely dangerous Kray twins in 2015’s Legend.

After watching that, listen to this story, as told to me by Prue.

Better Ablate Than Never

Tony Stark recharges his transistor-powered Iron Man armor, with built-in pacemaker

My first post-afib appointment is coming up next week. I was fortunate to have the latest treatment, called pulsed field ablation, performed at Mass General. This video starts with an explanation of my cardiologist’s analysis on the long-term safety of the procedure.

I’ve been asked several times if I feel better since being taken out of afib. That’s a tough question to answer, because I was asymptomatic when diagnosed, not only with afib but also cancer.

At the start of 2024, my focus had been on my weak ankle, aggravated by my return to a regular, albeit modest, running schedule. Everything changed with the diagnoses, the cancer surgery, then the terrible treatments.

Six months after chemo and radiation, I had the delayed ablation. After recovering from the anesthesia, I felt the same before and after the procedure. A couple of weeks later, I woke up one morning and realized that hey, I do feel more like my old self, maybe even better than before the diagnosis.

Perhaps the feeling of wellness is only from a sense of relief (that I’m not dead), rather than a metabolic improvement, but I can honestly say that, physically, I’m younger than my years. Here’s hoping that’s confirmed at my upcoming appointment.