Today’s most-emailed story at the New York Times tells the story of a medical student, Kristen Murphy, who voluntarily spent two weeks as a wheelchair-using “patient” in a nursing home in preparation for specializing in geriatrics. It’s an otherwise engrossing read, but I had to read the following passage a half dozen times to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating:
No one said a word the first time Ms. Murphy showed up at the daily bingo game. She started to talk to anyone who would listen. And she was surprised what happened.
First she bonded with Camille Stanley, the “queen bee” of the social scene. Then she found Dr. Thomas N. Silverberg, 89, a former internist and arthritis specialist with advanced rheumatoid arthritis. “My specialty is slowly killing me,” Dr. Silverberg said.
The two talked for hours about life and medicine. Unlike the friendships she makes as an adult, slowly nurtured over dinners and drinks, bonds in a nursing home, where there is nothing to do but talk, are forged quickly and deeply.
(The whole thing is here. My emphasis.)
Whoa! How, exactly, does the clock run backward? Is it becoming an octogenarian that cancels out being an adult? Or does entering a nursing home do the trick? I’d like to know, since my parents are well into their seventies, and I don’t think they’re quite ready to stop being “grow-mutts,” as my younger son says, just yet.
Or maybe these nursing-home residents have discovered the fountain of youth?
All snark aside, it’s plenty unfortunate that the author, Katie Zezima, used that phrasing. It’s inexcusable that her editors didn’t catch it.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
Jesus Christ on a flying bicycle.
As awful as that is, that’s not nearly as bad as the NYT’s “EWW, FAT PPL ARE GROSS” review of the J.C. Penney on Herald Square.
*headdesk*
Hi Nell. I agree that Cintra Wilson’s piece was egregious (link provided for anyone who missed it). It got roundly criticized in the blogosphere, by NYT readers, and by the NYT’s own executive editor, BIll Keller. But this little nugget seems to have slide beneath the radar, which is why I felt compelled to say something.
Wow!
I’m as surprised as you are, but then, the NYT is all about “young and vital and edgy” so not too surprising…
Edgy? The NYT? Wow, that’s new to me. Methinks they’re trying way too hard not to be the “gray lady” anymore.
Yeah, read the theatre section. Any show that can reasonably be called “experimental” usually gets a nicer review, even when its obviously shit.
Of course, that’s bias from out here in the provinces!
Just twittered this!
[...] Here is the original post: Spectacular Ageism at the New York Times « Kittywampus [...]
Well, here in metropolitan Appalachian Ohio, we don’t even read the theater reviews. That how far we are from “edgy.”
Thanks for the tweet, Daisy!
Really? You are going to lead with a poor editing choice? The piece was clearly one of the few article on geriatrics in the national press that highlights the terrible neglect of our elderly within the medical community and society in general.
Rather than snarky remarks about word choices, at least the newbie journalist found a remarkable individual to hang the story on. Ms. Murphy is clearly a dedicated doctoral student, and her sympathy and courage drew thousands of readers into the plight of being old in America.
Hi Keith. Sorry that your comment took so long to appear. It got caught in the WordPress spam filter.
As I said in my post, the rest of the story is good. I said nothing critical about Ms. Murphy or the program, both of which are admirable.
But yes, I think it’s fair to pick on a word choice when it’s as diminishing to a group of people as that one was. I don’t know if the author is a newbie or not, but when a student of mine makes a comparably bad word choice, I call him or her on it. I wouldn’t make snarky remarks to a student. But the big difference between my students essays and this piece is that the latter was edited by someone who’s surely a professional at our country’s supposed “paper of record.” When the New York Times screws up in a pretty spectacular way, I don’t think we have to be quite as diplomatic in our criticisms.