Mary has traveled so many layers down into Mike's dream within dreams to perform inception, that it's doubtful he'll ever wake up. The faceless projections; the ceiling tiles coming down on his ever rising head; the shrinking doors; the Penrose corridor; the girlish "shoulder to cry on" line... if Mike doesn't kill himself quickly, I may!Today's Full Strip
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Ah, a new character in this story. No, wait -- Mary is calling him "Mike." Whoever it is, we know he's a fan of the 5th Dimension.
And, of course, to fit into the next dream level, Mary must be an acceptable part of it. That explains why she's just going through patient files.
Did I miss something? She's not really a nurse or something, is she?
No, "heydave", Mary is just a volunteer at the hospital. Just a glorified "candy stripper". She really shouldn't be handling anything confidential. Doesn't "OSHA" or whatever that privacy act is called cover volunteers? If it doesn't, it should...
Mary is busted, reading confidential patient information!
Yeah, just about every appearance of Mary includes a violation of HIPAA regulations. Whether she commits the act herself by going through patient records, or coaxes information on recent meddlees from their (licensed) counselors, Mary always acts on the premise that she's in the "need-to-know" category. In the real world, she and just about every doctor in the strip would be fired a dozen times over for their negligence. Oh, and the impending lawsuits...
By the way, I'm loving the "Inception" tie-in. It all makes so much sense now!
I think back during the Ron Amalfi storyline, it was established that Mary's function as a volunteer was to distribute reading material to inpatients in the hospital. (Only hardbound, grey books) If I recall correctly, Donna Amalfi asked for some books on grief and family counseling out of concern for the fights going one between her sons (and Mary swung into action). At the time I found this so aggrevating that volunteer book truck pusher Mary was the only recourse for poor Donna Amalfi instead of some professionals that might benefit the family in their time of need, but if Dr. Mike is typical of the kind of professional you find in this hospital, I think the patients are better off with grey tomes and homespun wisdom, but I digress...
Mary may simply have a list of patients who requested reading material and be making her rounds. I don't think that would violate HIPAA. (I have some concerns about the placement of the monitor that the hospital employee is looking at though.) I agree, of course, that Mary will not recognize any establsihed boundaries, even those that may be spelled out in federal law and carry significant civil and criminal penalties when ignored. But she does what she does out of concern, and that mitigates everything.
The Clipboard of Authority indicates Mary is THE most important person in the hospital. She is checking to see if there is enough time to squeeze in another session on the couch for Dr. Mike. She looks, she nods, hmmm..yes..."yes, I believe I can spare a few minutes, Mike".
Dr. Mike needs to head down to the cafeteria, suck the grease out of a hash brown or two, and he'll be back to his old self (whatever that is).
Am I correct in believing that he spent the entire night in the park, waiting for this father?
I'm starting to think that's a different Mike. He's a sales rep for a firm that sells hospital book carts and he's been trying to land the lucrative Mount View Hospital account for ages. He thinks he has an in with Mary, but fails to realize that she doesn't really make any purchasing decisions at the hospital (but you wouldn't know it to hear Mary tell it). This Mike's not really very good at his job either.
Oh, hey, and check out the second panel of today's Phantom. The chin napkin accessory is really catching on!
Why is Mike dressed like Herb Tarleck, from WKRP in Cincinnati?
The suspense kept me up all night too. Moy sure can spin a yarn.
About that HUGE monitor the nurse is studying. It is a known fact that all the nurses at Mountview have terrible eyesight.
Nurse: "My, your blood pressure is, ah, um, 900 over 260!"
No wonder they have third graders manning the check in desk.
Now Dr. Mike can do the "told you so" dance.
Looks like Mike either stopped home long enough to change shirts and put on a tie or he had them stashed in his desk.
Dr. Mike's sorry attempts to meet up with his dad don't seem to be working out, and yet Mary keeps pushing Dr. Mike to do more. But how is he supposed to force his dad to actually show up?
I can see where this is heading. Mary's going to track down Dr. Mike's father herself and berate him for a week into actually showing up to meet with his son.
We have a nice hospital in our town, but I sure don't see THAT many people wearing suits & ties!!! Mountview may have awful medical care, but by golly, they try to LOOK nice while being incompetent! (Although, personally I think Dr. Mike's suit is u-g-l-y)
My favorite part of Tuesday's strip are the automatons moving around robotically in the background with their trays. They look like those fake people who get drawn into architectural plans so you can see what the building will look like when "real people" are using it.
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