Expensive: costing a lot of money.
Prohibitive: excessively high; difficult or impossible to pay.

Drugs, prescription or otherwise, have never been expensive for me.
last year, I might have spent $200.00 for all medications, prescriptions and over-the-counter, for the year.

That cost includes a few dollars spent on two prescription body lotions intended to alleviate two rough patches of skin, one on each hip, which cause a good deal of discomfort by way on incessant itching.

Yesterday I visited the dermatologist for a different prescription.
He gave me samples of something called Eucrisa.
New on the market.
Tiny tubes.
Three days’ worth, perhaps.

At home I applied the lotion.
Result: stunning.
Relief for the first time in years.
Called the nurse to ask about duration of use.
I needed to get a prescription she said.
The samples not enough.
Then she said, “Compare prices.”
A new and ominous sounding piece of advice.
Then she said, “It’s so new, I’m not sure if your insurance covers it.”
A new and ominous sounding conjecture.
Or was it a statement of fact in the guise of conjecture?

On the way to Planet Fitness I went into CVS.
They don’t have it in stock but can get it tomorrow.
What sizes? How much?
She looked and hesitated.
One size.
$750.00 without insurance.

There is expensive: costing a lot of money.
And there is prohibitive: excessively high; difficult or impossible to pay.

I exclaimed, “How much?”
She repeated.
But if I bring in the prescription she can check to see if my insurance covers some of it.

So I have come squarely in confrontation with the American drug cartel.
Nose to nose.
Let me start again getting all of the information I need; take the preliminary steps; get the facts squarely in front of me.
Get the prescription.
Get the cost.
Discover if my use of the lotion will be a permanent condition.
Not even going to think about what ifs until I know.

How many people are faced with this kind of shocker daily?
And worse.

Are the laws of supply and demand what should be guiding our medical treatment?

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Tagging Today
Saturday, January 19, 2019
My 282nd consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
Time is 12.01am.
On Saturday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 27* with a feels-like temperature of 18*.
We will have snow that will vary in intensity and duration around our region.

We’re noticing that the cold but predictable weather patterns that we enjoyed in December and early January are gone, replaced by the more predictable unpredictable winter weather.
But permit me to offer this thought:
According to the Blog’s Winter Calendar, Jan2 to Feb13, we have only 26 days remaining to our winter.
We can get through this short period.

Dinner is  to be determined. The dinner party Friday night prevents me from thinking ahead.

__________________________
Question of the Day:
January 19
What is Delmonico’s?

_____________________________________
Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com

This from our friend Sally.

Oh, Dom, lots of things to remark on today! 

Definitely cherish those moments, planned and otherwise, with your daughter, with your children. No matter how slight or insignificant, each is a building block of love for which there is no substitute. I cherish the times I can spend with my mother, age 94, whose wisdom, honesty, and perception I can never get enough of, to say nothing of her camaraderie and good humor. 

Regarding ailments, being a Pooh fan, you must be familiar with Christoper Robin's "wheezles and sneezles." That's another cute poem that may be worthy of your blog. 

As for cafes, it is likely that you are also familiar with the history of Delmonico's.  Some years ago at a library's used book sale, I picked up "Delmonico's: A History" about the famous eatery, founded by two Swiss brothers in New York City in the 1820s.  Before they developed their "empire," restaurants and cafes, where one could go and sit to share lunch with an acquaintance, just didn't exist. One's lodging provided meals, which consisted of a single dish, usually stew.  The Delmonico brothers ran an imported-wine business, and as more and more foreigners like them filled the city, they added specialty foods from Europe to their stock, which made their European wine patrons feel more at home. Right around the time that the Erie Canal was opened, they moved into a space where there was room to put a couple small tables with chairs, so the patrons could sit for a moment and enjoy their purchases before returning to the busy streets. And from there, the concept of a public place where one could order a fresh meal and sit to eat it took off.  The rest is history, as they say. 

Sally

Web Meister responds: Didn’t know that about Delmonico’s. And guess what?
I’ll make that the answer of the question of the day.
Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

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Short Takes: City Life

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Answer to Question of the Day:
What is Delmonico’s?

Delmonico's is the name of various New York City restaurants of varying duration, quality, and fame.

The original and most famous was operated by the Delmonico family at 2 South William Street in Lower Manhattan during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it gained a reputation as one of the nation's top fine dining establishments.

The birthplace of the widely imitated Delmonico steak, the restaurant is credited with being the first American restaurant to allow patrons to order from a menu à la carte, as opposed to table d'hôte.
It is also said to be the first to employ a separate wine list.

The family also opened other restaurants under the name, operating up to four at a time and ultimately totaling 10 establishments by the time it departed the business in 1923.

In 1926, restaurateur Oscar Tucci purchased the ground floor and the basement of the 70,000-square foot building at 56 Beaver Street and reopened Delmonico's as a speakeasy.
During the 1920s & 30s the upper floors of 56 Beaver Street were being used as offices for ship insurance, legal offices, and other types of offices.

In 1933, after the repeal of Prohibition, Tucci was given the third liquor license in New York City and quickly renamed the restaurant to Oscar's Delmonico's.
By the 1940s Tucci was able to purchase the entire building.
Delmonico's in the Tucci era was open through 1986 with its final closure of the Greenwich, Connecticut, location after the death of Oscar Tucci's son Mario Tucci.
Other Delmonicos have operated in the space from the late 1980s to 1992 and since 1998.

Origin
The original Delmonico's opened in 1827 in a rented pastry shop at 23 William Street, and appeared in a list of restaurants in 1830.
It was opened by the brothers John and Peter Delmonico, from Ticino, Switzerland.
In 1831, they were joined by their nephew, Lorenzo Delmonico, who eventually became responsible for the restaurant's wine list and menu.

The brothers moved their restaurant several times before settling at 2 South William Street.
When the building was opened on a grand scale in August 1837 after the Great Fire of New York, New Yorkers were told that the columns by the entrance had been imported from the ruins of Pompeii.
It eventually became one of the most famous restaurants in New York, with its reputation eventually growing to national prominence.

Expansion and closure

Beginning in the 1850s, the restaurant hosted the annual gathering of the New England Society of New York, which featured many important speakers of the day.
In 1860, Delmonico's provided the supper at the Grand Ball welcoming the Prince of Wales at the Academy of Music on East 14th Street.
Supper was set out in a specially constructed room; the menu was French, and the pièces montées represented Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Great Eastern and Flora's Vase.
The New York Times reported, "We may frankly say that we have never seen a public supper served in a more inapproachable fashion, with greater discretion, or upon a more luxurious scale".

In 1862, the restaurant hired Charles Ranhofer, considered one of the greatest chefs of his day.
In 1876 news of the prices at Delmonicos restaurants spread at least as far as Colorado where complaints about the cost of wine, eggs, bread and butter, coffee, and potatoes ("2 potatoes cost 15 cents") appeared in the Pueblo Daily Cheiftain.

The business was so successful that from 1865 to 1888, it expanded to four restaurants of the same name.
At various times, there were Delmonico's at ten locations.
Delmonico's vacated the six-story Delmonico Building at Fifth Avenue and 26th Street in 1899.
The edifice was sold to John B. Martin, owner of the Martin Hotel, in May 1901.

In 1919, Edward L.C. Robins purchased Delmonico's.
Its grand location at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street closed in 1923 as a result of changing dining habits due to Prohibition.
That location was the final incarnation of Delmonico's with continuity to the original.

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Good morning on this Saturday, January 19.
We talked about the sometimes shocking cost of medications.
We noted the weather, the time.
Sally sent some notes and one of them, on Delmonico’s restaurant, precipitated the question of the day: Delmonico’s restaurant.
We saw some pictures of the geldings that sometimes walk the Public Garden, they always causing a good deal of joy among the habitues.
We’re done.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom