"What's a blog?"

Doctor's Lounge at lunchtime. We gossip about cases, families, hobbies, money. "Say, what's the price of gold? When did you buy it, how much did you pay?" My main asset is a gold-colored piggybank atop my desk, so I am silent. The surgeons gleefully disparage my knife-wielding skills, as I try to slice my entree. Then someone asks, "How's your blog?"

I thought they would never ask. "Let me show you!" We crowd around a terminal and I log on. Half the room asks, "What's a blog?"

Oh, dear. I try to explain. "You know, weblogs." More puzzled looks. We surf some sites, and then I show them mine.

They guffaw at the title. "Yes, I know, it sounds like an inept laundromat, but other names were already taken." One asks, "Are you like Wonkette?"

"No, your mother can read this one."

Then I show them Grand Rounds #9. Now they are interested. "Who wrote these things? Where did you get all this stuff?" I show them Nick's site, and Medlogs, and the roster of Grand Rounds. One wants to know if there's an infectious disease blog. "You can start one, for free, right now," I say.

Then someone asks, "Where are your ads? Don't you make money off the ads?"

"No ads," I say. "I don't know if Google will let me control them. They might be for...well..."

"For organ enhancement," says one.

Well, you should have heard them laugh! They think that's the perfect ad for a psychiatrist's blog. Then, lunchtime over, they are gone. No ads, I decide, because it seems...inappropriate. Besides, I have my piggybank, so who needs more revenue?

(Update: thanks to DoctorMental for including this in Grand Rounds. I changed the date to keep it at the top of the blog.)