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Neil

Neil Pappalardo has died. Sixty years ago, with Curt Marble and others, Neil created MUMPS*. To this day, MUMPS software technology, or one of its derivatives, drives the majority of hospital information systems.

I was fortunate to have started working for the great man when the company was small enough that Neil knew every employee. He was incredibly supportive of me through two extremely difficult crises; one medical (detached retina), and one financial (the mortgage underwriting fiasco).

The last time I met with Neil personally, I was both flattered and stunned when he told me, “I know what you’ve been working on. Keep it up. You have a job here for as long as you want one.”

This video will start with Neil talking about a class he took at MIT. The instructor was Amar Bose.

* Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System

Frozen in Place

There were a couple of spots on my leg the dermatologist wanted to biopsy. They appeared identical to me, but one of them was nothing and the other was pre-cancerous. The treatment was a blast of freezing liquid nitrogen.

The Liquid Nitrogen instructions:

  • A small blister may form on the areas treated. If the blister is large it may be ruptured with a sterilized needle. Sometimes the blister may be hemorrhagic (blood filled).
  • It may take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks for the areas treated to form a scab and fall off.

Hmm. To rupture or not to rupture? I’ll contemplate what to do while awaiting the arrival of Snowzilla.

Small Records With Big Rabbit Holes

Looking at the charts Denro provided in the previous post, I see ‘Nothing But a Heartache’ by the Flirtations. A powerful, catchy record that deserved to do better, it peaked at #34, even lower than ‘Will You Be Staying After Sunday’.

How did a 1968 Psychedelic UK record that didn’t chart in America (was it even released here?) …

… get reworked into the Soul Pop sound of ‘Nothing But a Heartache’?

Here’s the explanation. Its history starts with a former Beatle.

Five years later came this Sugar Pop classic.