Krugmanisms

 

Dean's Word CloudJust what the doctor ordered: the wit and wisdom of Dean Krugman

Richard Krugman, MD, possesses a distinctive linguistic style, and whenever he’s in a meeting or a conversation, one of his unique phrases may come tripping off his tongue.

The graphic on this page is a “word cloud” of the most commonly used words in his weekly campus email, compiled from the missives sent during the past 18 months. In this graphic, the size of the word correlates to how frequently it was used.

In addition to these words, there are a batch of Krugmanisms that are part of daily life with the dean, who is a connoisseur of cadence, an eminence of elocution and a wrangler of wry witticisms. Here are a few favorites:

“The great conveyor belt of life never stops.”

“If your only support is above you, then you’re hanging.”

“Krugman’s the name. Deaning’s the game.”

“It seems to me we’d be trading a headache for an upset stomach.”

“The Schulick Unit is the current active unit for participating on search committees.” (Said when the dean thanked Surgery Chairman Richard Schulick, MD, MBA, for serving on three concurrent search committees.)

“I met with all the stake holders; I was medium rare.”

“That’s one for the next shrimp on the barbie. But given the growth around here, maybe we need a giant prawn.”

“Spasms of citizenship lead to eruptions of good behavior.”

“Are there any acute and chronic issues we should discuss?”

“What I heard from an unusually unreliable and uninformed source ….”

When entering a room: “All rise.”

“Please stay seated and talk among yourselves.”

“Please stay seated and read a magazine. The doctor will be with you in a minute.”

“Trust me. I’m a doctor.”

“The pleasure of our meeting hasn’t been all yours.”

“Just be patient. These things take a little time.”

“They are moving from indignant rejection to reasoned objection to qualified opposition to tentative acceptance to qualified endorsement to judicious modification to cautious adoption to proud parenthood to dogmatic propagation.”

“Sometimes you just have to set aside your principles and do what’s right.”

When eating a big dessert: “I’m in the control group.”

“It’s a prime number.” (whenever one comes up)

“I can see you don’t suffer from triskaidekaphobia.” (fear of the number 13)

At the end of an arduous discussion resolving a seemingly intractable dilemma: “That was easy.”

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