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You are here: Home / Absent Friends / When efgoldman Talks Someone Else Emails Us the Response…

When efgoldman Talks Someone Else Emails Us the Response…

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Several of you had been expressing concern in the comments about efgoldman as he’d not been around. Some speculated that he’d taken a late summer trip to Camp Methusaleh: The Last Resort. I reached out to SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal as I knew she had been in touch with efg to see if she could check on him and report back. She got a response earlier today and while she posted it as a comment this afternoon, I wanted to make sure everyone saw it

Good news, Jackals! I talked with efgoldman for 15-20 minutes this afternoon.

He is, as you would guess, an intensely private person, but he has authorized me to share the following:

He has been in hospital for a couple of weeks now, having had major surgery on both feet. He was lucky enough to find a vascular surgeon who specializes in saving limbs rather than removing them — so while he’s looking at months of healing and rehab, he still has his feet and all his toes, I gather.

He’s not sure just when he’ll be walking again; expects to be in hospital probably at least until Thanksgiving, but may be home for Christmas. He did say all his vital signs are surprisingly good; I told him he’s probably the only one of us whose blood pressure is normal and who’s sleeping well these days!

Unfortunately, he will not be on line for the duration, but is more than grateful that so many Balloon Juicers miss him, love him, and have been asking about him. I hope in the next day or two I can share his IRL name (it is not efg!) as well as hospital address, room number, direct phone, etc. (Thought I had the latter from the incoming call data, but it turns out to be a dummy number, so I’ll have to track him down through patient info.)

At any rate, he said he would love to hear from and even see Juicers, so as soon as I — or, more likely, a front-pager — posts the relevant information, do think about sending him a card, giving him a call, or paying him a visit if you’re in the Boston area.

I plan to talk with him once a week or so and will share news and jokes and curmudgeonliness.

#fuckem

For those concerned about Yarrow, I emailed him last week when you all asked after him, but have yet to hear back yet. I will update when I hear.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    Thanks, to both you and SiubhanDuinne, for the update. Hopefully his recovery will be smooth and complete.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    If Yarrow is absent there’s but one thing to do.

    Tick-tock, motherfuckers.

    I feel better already. Here’s hoping everybody else is doing well, too.

    The end of an era–Gov Jerry signs his final bill. Live to a hundred-ten my man, and continue giving them hell. And thanks.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    All the usual buck up, recover and get back where you belong ASAP wishes.

    What I don’t understand is a urban or suburban hospital without wi-fi in this day and age.

  10. 10.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Well I guess I’ll have to send him puppy pictures via snail mail for the foreseeable future. And pick out some nice cards for him. I have found a place in a small town nearby, where I can get handmade cards for less than Hallmark, so I’ve been spoiling everyone with them on their special occasions. I await his info…thanks SiubhanDuinne and Adam for the update.

  12. 12.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Good to hear about efg. May the recovery be swift and completely successful.
    Also for Yarrow. Mueller was talking to Manafort today. Tick tock motherfuckers.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @Major Major Major Major: I think that was true in the olden days. Signs posted: NO CELL PHONES. That can’t be the case now. I am guessing that EF needs to concentrate all his energy on healing.

    But what do I know? We are all guessing. :-)

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!

    Thank you SD for letting us know what was going on — and thank you Adam for front-paging it.

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    Eh. I design hospitals. We can’t put enough wifi and charging stations in ’em. It’s the number one patient satisfier right now.

    Lots of hospitals are just old and haven’t spent the money for more WAPs. There’s no compelling reason for a hospital to have crappy wifi.

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    Thank you for reaching out and updating us all! I look forward to a chance to send the old grump a Get Well card :)

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    I think in the other threads SD and WaterGirl were talking about getting a PO box or having a single person to send stuff to so we could protect his privacy from any random lurker on the site while still allowing people to send their good wishes.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    @Suzanne

    There’s no compelling reason for a hospital to have crappy wifi.

    So they can continue milking some more $$ by charging patients for access to a crappy selection of TV. AFAIK sports channels aren’t filtered out – those could rightly be described as stress inducing for some.

  31. 31.

    lahke

    Thanks for the update. Is he in one of the Boston area hospitals, or down in RI where they live? Matters for those of us thinking of visiting.

  32. 32.

    Fair Economist

    Even the hospitals back in Alabama have passable wifi now. Although one of the ones my mother goes to managed to block some of my political and climate change sites. Hmmm…

  34. 34.

    opiejeanne

    Thanks for posting this for those of us who missed it earlier. I was on the road today and missed a lot of news and all of Balloon Juice. I don’t mind missing the news so much since it’s all so bad, but I don’t like missing Balloon Juice.

  36. 36.

    Mary G

    I had to take the teen’s girlfriend to the ER, and they had free device charging with about 20 cables in the waiting room, and the whole four or five hours we were there, we were on our phones. I read Balloon Juice in the hospital.

  39. 39.

    SFAW

    @Suzanne:

    Patient satisfaction scores affect Medicare reimbursements for providers, so patient satisfaction is absolutely top of mind right now.

    So do seven-day and 30-day patient re-admit rates. How do we know that patients — especially those poor, non-white ones — wouldn’t check themselves back in, just to get better WiFi for their Obamaphones? And taking up beds that could otherwise be used by REAL Americans?

    Game, set, and touchdown, libtard!

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    Meanwhile, towering pillar of strength Jell-o, soon-to-be-ex-Senator Flake, said (in Beantown) that the FBI should conduct a “real investigation” into Kavanaugh. Not 24 hours after saying that if he were running again, he would not have made that demand.

    Brave, brave Sir Jeffy.

  41. 41.

    Barbara

    Glad for the update on EF. Best wishes and i hope we get to hear from you directly soon. FWIW UPMC has free wifi and free tv for patients.

  43. 43.

    Jacel

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: His father, Edmund G. Brown, made it to 90 (April 21, 1905 – February 16, 1996). Between the two of them, California has had 24 years of darned good governance.

  44. 44.

    J R in WV

    S-D, Mob Enforcer, Thank you for your caring action in looking EFG up for us.

    I miss his Fuck ’ems, now we just need to hear from Yarrow,

    Tick Tock, Motherfuckers!!!

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