I no longer have any doubts whatsoever: as long as there are people on the planet living and creating news, there will always be plenty of rhubarb for countless episodes to come. Truth will always find a way to be stranger than even the best fiction.

Why? Take, for example, a news report from Miami last week. A man chewing off the face of another? Seriously? Is the zombie apocalypse upon us? Or is it yet another example of “there’s just no way you can make this stuff up”?

With news stories like that, there is certainly no shortage of rhubarb in the world.

On a (generally) brighter note, Episode 42 of the Rhubarb Report focuses on focus on royalty – the new King of Canadian cycling, King James, and Queen Elizabeth II.

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If you listen to the patient, they will tell you what is wrong.

This is a phrase I like to use when I am teaching clinical reasoning and decision-making. Listen to the patient. The patient has one witness, the clinician has none. Our task as clinicians is to ask the right questions and to make sense of the truths offered by the patient and their particular clinical presentation.

Strangely enough, dealing with tech support is no different.

Oh, if only they had listened to me on the first call, let alone the 7th.

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I know that you are as surprised as I am. Today is officially National Doughnut Day!

Hey, everything in moderation, right? Is this just another Hallmark nightmare? A day conjured up by Homer Simpson?

I tell you – it is for real. Seriously. It actually serves a valuable purpose.

The story of National Doughnut Day goes all the way back to 1917. Salvation Army volunteers went to the front lines to serve home-cooked foods and to, yes, make doughnuts for the infantrymen – otherwise known as “doughboys”.

In 1938, National Doughnut Day was established by the Chicago Salvation Army. The goal was to raise money during the Great Depression, and to honor the work of World War I Salvation Army volunteers.

But how can National Doughnut Day not have me thinking about a Tim Horton’s famous doughnut? And a double-double coffee to go along with it?

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Quiz time: What happens when you add one bad bill to one good bill? Answer: California AB 1000.

AB 1000 is Assembly Bill 1000. It began as two separate bills: AB 1000, a patient access bill sponsored by the California Physical Therapy Association, and AB 1003, a bill sponsored by the California Medical Association and the California Orthopedic Association. The latter would allow for any professional corporation listed in the Moscone Knox Act (i.e. physicians) to employ all professions included in the Business and Professions Code (i.e. physical therapists).

As it stands right now, the State of California Legislative Counsel has stated that it is illegal for physical therapists to be employed by any professional corporation except for those owned by physical therapists and naturopaths.

The net result of this legislative wrangling and hoo-haa is a classic example of short-sightedness and attempting to grab the scraps of patient access as they fall from the table. It reeks of permission-based professional "judgment", and it could end up being a long-term nightmare for both patients and physical therapists in the state of California.

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