quaternary

Hello to my dozens of readers and anyone else looking in.

The term quaternary refers to the fourth order in a series.  As a lifelong striving academic, I’m well aware of the quaternary milestones of graduation from high school, college, and medical school.  The rhythm gets fuzzy after that: residencies – at least for internal medicine – only 3 years (unless you make chief resident), and fellowships 2-3 years.  As the academic clock starts ticking, there’s 7 years to get those papers in for tenure. My own tenure clock got pushed to a double quaternary when my committee judged that the first year of my appointment was primarily for training purposes and carried no expectation of academic productivity.  Yet the rhythms of academic life run strong.  Each September brings pangs of a need to return to the classroom, even if those obligations are long past.  Watching our sports teams, we’re aware of the quaternary clock that will determine how long we’ll get to watch these athletes play.  Redshirting, transfers, and early exits change the equation, but we still want to know the class of the hero we’re watching.

Today marks a personal quaternary.  Four years ago, on this day I posted my first blog on WordPress.  This post is my 404^th (does that make it a 404 error?).  There have been some ringers, like tables of contents to make a URL for a book, and “shameless plugs” announcing a new Amazon book.  But for the most part, it’s been writing, writing, writing.   I try to make the most of it, bundling some posts into Amazon books by topic, 5 so far (1,2,3,4,5).  The royalty checks Jeff Bezos sends me are pretty meager, but it’s a joy to hand one of my books to a friend.  This particular anniversary marked a self-imposed deadline for including posts in a book that’s not new, but a revision.  My original series of 5 was titled “Musing Through a Pandemic”.  Volume II – “Interpersonal Relationships” – was supposed to have a section “My brilliant career” with all my medical posts.  Somehow, they never got into the original.  I’ve sought to correct that and will be submitting a revision soon. I’ve decided to feed another section – “In this life” – with post-pandemic posts right up to the 4-year mark.  Don’t worry, I’ve excluded anything COVID related.

This blog is a pit stop, not a farewell.  There’s plenty more to write about.  I keep a file full of blog possibilities, and this crazy world of ours offers up plenty more potential topics.  So, like my dear dad liked to say: ”See you in the funny papers”(6).

References

1. Ike R. Musing through a Pandemic. My year and a half with Mr. Corona. Volume I. about Mr. Corona. Amazon (Kindle) 2021. ISBN: 9798530730. https://www.amazon.com/Musing-through-Pandemic-Year-Corona- ebook/dp/B098LML34S?ref_=ast_author_dp

2. Ike R. Musing through a Pandemic. On the sidelines. Volume II. Interpersonal relationships. Amazon (Kindle) 2021. ISBN: 9798531225023. 2^nd edition to be submitted 8/8/23https://www.amazon.com/Musing-through-Pandemic-Sidelines-Inter- personal-ebook/dp/B098QZJMLW?ref_=ast_author_dp

3. Ike R. Musing through a Pandemic. On the Sidelines. Volume III. Indulgences. Amazon (Kindle) 2021. ISBN: 9798531231062. https://www.amazon.com/Musing-Through- Pandemic-Sidelines-Indulgnces-ebook/dp/B098LY1J8X?ref_=ast_author_dp

4. Ike R. Musing through a pandemic. On the sidelines. Volume IV. Then play on. Amazon (Kindle) 2021. ISBN: 9798780303411. https://www.amazon.com/Musing- Through-Pandemic-Sidelines-Then-ebook/dp/B09NGZL5TH?ref_=ast_author_dp

5. Ike R. Musing through a pandemic. On the sidelines. Volume V. Foodies! Amazon (Kindle) 2022. ISBN: 9798811634828. Published 8/26/22. https://www.amazon.com/Musing-Through-Pandemic-Sidelines-Foodies- ebook/dp/B0BC5Y7QML?ref_=ast_author_dp

6.”See you inthe funny papers”: etymology and meaning. ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND USAGE.  https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/106878/see-you-in-the-funny-papers-etymology-and-meaning