Publius & Co.

It's obvious they didn't consult with me on the script.

I'm watching House right now, which is a great show, and not just because Gregory House reminds me of the doctor I had for over half of my life, but that's for another post.

Interesting episode--got a guy who's HIV positive who's sicker than he should be. In one of the backstories, House's ex-wife is complaining about a rat in their house. House decides to be a hero and get rid of the rat for her.

Of course, when House comes face-to-face with the rat (and he's a cute little one, too. Looks kind of like George the gf-eater), he hesitates before deciding not to whack him because the rat tilts his head at him (Good thing there was no rat-murder, too, because I might never have watched the show again, but that's not important right now.).

So he consults with another doctor asking about what causes a head-tilt and the other doctor goes thru a whole laundry list of things, including an inner-ear infection and suggests a CAT scan and other tests. House says no, because the patient has no insurance.

Now, any rat-person can tell you if a rat gets a head-tilt, 99.9% of the time it's due to an inner-ear infection. Rats get inner-ear infections all the time--a round of baytril or doxycycline for two weeks and your rat will be good as new if it's caught in time. If it's not--depends on how "too late" you caught it. Rats can get the infection cleared up but they live with a permanent tilt for the rest of their short lives.

House goes to his ex's house and scrapes up a bit of an apparent urine puddle from the rat to run some tests, explaining mold or something could cause the head-tilt and he doesn't want to risk his ex-wife getting sick from whatever is causing the little rat (by this time, House has named him Steve McQueen) to have a head tilt.

House has a touching almost-reunion with his ex- but they catch the rat in the Hav-A-Hart trap he's set up to catch the rat. He takes the rat into the hospital for reasons yet to be revealed (show isn't over yet) and he runs into a doctor in the elevator...UPDATE: the rat has mycoplasmosis which is what EVERY FREAKIN' RAT IN THE WORLD HAS!!! Anyway, House realizes the rat has myco (despite the fact that some other doctor thinks any thing the rat has can infect the whole hospital) and that gives him a massive clue to what's causing Calvin the kid to get sick.

Oh, and mycoplasmosis doesn't cause head tilts. Upper respiratory infection, yes, but not an inner-ear infection.

The end, basically. Anyway, there was one good line in the show when House took the rat into the hospital and runs into a female colleague in the elevator:
Female Doctor: Why do you have a rat?
House: Jealous?

SUPER-DUPER INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT UPDATE: House kept Steve McQueen as a pet! The last shot was of House watching him run in a wheel...a wire wheel (bad) in a cage identical to what we use for a transport cage (12X12, very bad), and just how did he get that rat to run in a wheel? Anyway, I'm excited and if someone from Fox should read this, I offer my services as a special script consutant for any plots involving Steve McQueen the Rat.

Posted by Victor at Noviembre 22, 2005 09:39 PM | TrackBack