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• Around 48% of quick-service restaurants like Starbucks, Panera and McDonald’s now give customers the option to tip, according to data released this month from Toast, a restaurant management software company. That’s up from 38% in 2020.
• People are tipping less in part because of inflation, experts say. They are also overwhelmed with the number of places that give them the option to tip with a card on an iPad, leading people to be less generous.

• Tuesday night will be the best opportunity to see five planets lined up in the sky with the naked eye. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus should be visible even in areas with light pollution just after sunset—“kind of like pearls on a necklace,”

The best thing my students ever gave me. I thought they were just really diligent note-takers the whole semester, but it turns out they were compiling a book of all the craziest things I'd said, all *very much* out of context. It's 152 pages long. pic.twitter.com/9ACboXXoiz

— Joseph Fasano (@Joseph_Fasano_) March 23, 2023

• “New standards will be enforced for bat boys and bat girls, whose ability to quickly retrieve equipment will help efforts to speed up the game, according to the memo. The league will evaluate the performances of bat boys and bat girls and could ask teams to replace them if their performance is considered substandard.”

• The story tracks the rise and fall of the silicone gel implant, from its humble beginnings at Baylor University College of Medicine to white-hot status symbol to eventual subject of lawsuits and federal bans and, ultimately, a safer reemergence in the twenty-first century. Our protagonists are based on real-life surgeons Tom Cronin and Frank Gerow, who invented silicone implants in Houston in 1962. Dr. Conan (Brian Hathaway) dreams of his legacy, while Dr. Rousseau (Josh Kumler) cuts a more empathic figure. The first implants went to, true story, a dog named Esmeralda.

• Backed by a surge of campaign spending from far-right Christian megadonors, Republicans in Texas and nationwide are pushing legislation that would siphon money from public education under the banner of “parents’ rights.” These plans, commonly known as vouchers, would give parents the money the state would have spent educating their children in public schools — between $8,000 and $10,000 per child per year in Texas — and allow them to put it toward homeschooling expenses, private school tuition or college savings accounts.

• Most of the exam was done virtually. I was led to an exam room where a lab tech set up a few things, then she turned the light off and I was looking through some ocular medical equipment in a dark room and conversed with a “doctor” on a TV screen in front of me. The doctor could control the ocular medical equipment remotely. For any of you who have been through such a procedure, it’s a lot of lenses being switched out and you are telling them which one looks better. One, or two? One, or two, or about the same? The whole thing felt so impersonal. I lost connection with the “doctor” three times, so I got to work with three different “doctors” and was feeling frustrated. Each doctor read from a script in a very monotone fashion, were heavily accented, and they all appeared to be working out of a cubical as opposed to an office.
  

• I’m sorry Nadel is going through this, but I hope he has a support system to get him through this. I know what’s it like to not have one during that kind of predicament, and it’s hell. I would have linked to the DMN story, but it’s behind a paywall. I understand the paywall concept, but I think this is one of those things they should open up to the public like they do some of their other articles.

• “Listen, I have always cheered for him, and I would continue forever. If there’s one person I want to be the happiest in the world, it’s him, believe me,” she said. “I want him to achieve and to conquer. I want all his dreams to come true. That’s what I want, really, from the bottom of my heart.”

My 94-year-old grandmother has kept a list of every book she ever read since she was 14 years old. Amazing archive of one person’s mind over nearly a century pic.twitter.com/Cu9znTgkJO

— Ben Myers (@_BenMyers_) March 20, 2023

• These 10 powerful ChatGPT prompts will 3X your interview chances.
• Another AI benefit that caught my attention is how Microsoft Teams will use it to taking meeting notes.

• I had a long conversation in the office today with the patient regarding the recent lumbar spine MRI scan findings. We looked at the MRI scan together and discussed the significance of the findings. We discussed the natural history of lumbar spinal stenosis with neurologic symptoms as well as treatment options. Both conservative and surgical options were discussed as well as the pros and cons of each. I outlined the use of medical therapy including anti-inflamatory medications, physical therapy, pain management including injections, alternative modalities, and finally surgical intrervention. Surgery to treat this condition would consist of a lumbar L3-4 laminectomy with medial facetectomy and foraminotomies and decompression of the nerve roots at the involved site. Since he has a prior L4-5 stabilization arthrodesis and would be at risk of instability, I would perform a concomitant posterior lateral arthrodesis utilizing his own bone. I went over this surgery as well as risks and recovery. Risks such as infection, poor wound healing, anesthetic risks, permanent pain, numbness, weakness, and unforeseen catastrophic injury were all discussed. The patient is markedly symptomatic despite extensive conservative treatment including physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, management with epidural steroid injections, and medicines. He would like to move forward with surgical intervention. Under the circumstances I believe he is a reasonable candidate. The patient has a good understanding and concurs with this plan.