On my way to Guéthary

   The open secret, that the diagnostic

   imaging platforms of modern medicine

   are as close as most of us are like-

   ly to come to an Atlantic crossing in

   First Class on the Normandie, was not

   lost on me in an inconceivably expen-

   sive ride in the radiology wing of a

   local hospital, only this week. What

   I missed by way of deck sports cer-

   tainly was recompensed by the pres-

   tige of my exposure to body-surfing

   loads of lethal energy, and all of

   it a tax-free benevolence of one or

   another of our sovereign insurance

   empires. Offered my little identify-

   ing wristband as a keepsake of this

   journey, I realized I had been only

   the baggage of an opulent carriage.