John Hamm, Episode 1

 John Hamm, Episode I

On Morning Joe you half-heard talk of 

Hamm’s new show and thought to yourself, 

Oh, that will be good; it’s on Apple TV,

and last thing last night, you happened 

on it and watched.  So 21st Century of you—

stumbling into another must-see take on

American Life Now. You used to joke that 

to maintain any currency with the younger set, 

elders had to plan time for Ethnographic Studies 

of the New Era, but truthfully, you find it harder 

and harder to keep up.  Case in point, the day’s simple

check up turns into an Emergency Room Brush 

with Mortality that sucks up the whole damn day.  

Short version, doc decides there’s time to do an 

EKG there in the office, hooks you up, reads results, 

and maybe you have had a heart thing before?

Or are having an episode now?  An attack?

Maybe you should head to the emergency room— 

better safe than you know what—you & Doc decide

an ambulance seems too over the top—so you call 

your son for a ride and sit waiting. He arrives, drives 

you to hospital—lots more waiting—another EKG—

then chatting with son, eating sandwiches your

daughter-in-law brings, long wait for benign results.  

Ho hum.  But time for lots of thoughts.  Among them, 

will you ever be good at knowing what your body says?  

Because your sensate chest remembers very well the 

suggested maladies and the striped curtain in A-1

of the emergency room which was not, thank God, 

awash in blood as was poor John Hamm in Episode I.  

      —Sef, 4/12/’25