The Noble Putz

I used to love the refrain "Oh, Magoo, you've done it again!" And so it goes for Dr. Barry...

Without going into detail, the Herald showed a photo of a grateful mother and her beaming child, along with a surgeon who "saved her life." No mention of Barry.

But Barry was the true hero, the one who advocated for this little girl and is truly the reason she is alive and hugging her mother and cracking wise...

And he gets no mention in the article.

Ah, Barry. He toils for less money than he's worth, and taking no credit for his holy tasks.

The Torah teaches that a person who saves a single life saves the whole world. Barry has rescued many worlds...

His father Sy, may he rest in peace, was a hard boiled New York guy, who owned a store in a crappy Queens neighborhood and sold out and moved to South Florida after a few robberies and threats on his life. He was justly proud of his only son, but also pointed out what a putz he was for not being more selfish.

Our fathers know us best.

And so I'll buy Barry dinner, and toast him, and he'll smirk and ask why I have so much free time, and it's no big deal, and if were such a big shot, then how come he works at a hospital where the A/C broke down last weekend, and some of the Haitian American nurses remarked that even the hospitals in Port Au Prince have A/C, etc...

But he save the world, and keeps doing it.

And I knew him back when...