{"id":1484,"date":"2014-11-03T22:44:05","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T21:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2014-11-03T22:44:05","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T21:44:05","slug":"response-to-john-langley-from-the-patron-of-paper-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/2014\/11\/03\/response-to-john-langley-from-the-patron-of-paper-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to John Langley from the Patron of Paper Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some while Langley and I have been debating whether injury prevention workers \u00a0should try to prevent all<\/span> injuries because (as I reason) we simply cannot predict which will be severe, or, as he argues, we need only prevent those that will be serious. After some \u00a0back and forth, in a recent issue of Injury Prevention Langley wrote a long letter that ended by attempting to ridicule my position. It concluded, “Accordingly, I intend to nominate him as a Patron of the about to be formed International Society for the Prevention of Paper Cuts.” Because we are such good friends, I wrote the following by way of rebuttal. Wisely, however, our editor decided ‘enough is enough’, \u00a0declined to publish my response but agreed I could post it here. Enjoy!!<\/p>\n

(PS – If you are not familiar with the poetry of Edward Lear (1812-88), especially his limericks and nonsense poems, you are missing a huge chunk of \u00a0enjoyment. Make haste to your local library and read on!!!)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Response to Langley\u2019s letter \u201cSeverity of injury can be assessed on a number of dimensions\u201d (Injury Prevention, Inj Prev <\/em>2014;20:218)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>How pleasant to know Prof Langley<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Who has written such volumes of stuff.<\/p>\n

Some think him ill-tempered and dangly<\/p>\n

But I find him pleasant enough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His mind is concrete and fastidious,<\/p>\n

His nose is remarkably big;<\/p>\n

His visage is not at all hideous,<\/p>\n

His beard (when he has one) is a twig.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He sits in a beautiful parlour (that\u2019s queer),<\/p>\n

With hundreds of books on the wall,<\/p>\n

He drinks a great deal of marsala (read \u2018beer\u2019),<\/p>\n

But hardly gets tipsy at all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He has many friends, lay and statistical,<\/p>\n

Old Jack is the name of his dog;<\/p>\n

His body is far from spherical,<\/p>\n

And his hat resembles a log<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My problem is simply stated:<\/p>\n

I beg he explain how to tell<\/p>\n

(Without being singularly \u2018creative\u2019)<\/p>\n

When a fall will break, bruise, or be well!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

POIS studies are flawed we are told<\/p>\n

Because subjects are not hospitalized<\/p>\n

This contradiction leaves me cold:<\/p>\n

As many are long disabled or immobilized!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Langley would have us believe mostly<\/p>\n

We need only prevent injuries severe or costly<\/p>\n

He assures he can tell, which will be which<\/p>\n

POIS recruitment shenanigans just a glitch<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When he writes in scholarly journals,<\/p>\n

His old editor chides him so!<\/p>\n

Calling “He’s gone out in his nightgown,<\/p>\n

That crazy old Kiwi, oh!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He should weep by the side of the ocean,<\/p>\n

He should weep on the top of the hill;<\/p>\n

He thinks he can foresee the future,<\/p>\n

But contradicts himself yet and still<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet I am not swayed, \u2018Patron of Paper Cut Prevention\u2019 is fine<\/p>\n

Over them I happily reign (pronounced \u2018rine\u2019),<\/p>\n

But if the paper cuts an artery first grade<\/p>\n

Would John remain quite so sanguine? (pronounced sang wine)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He reads, does not use logic, or speak Spanish,<\/p>\n

Does not abide ginger beer, or reason till dawn;<\/p>\n

As the days of his pilgrimage vanish,<\/p>\n

How tough to debate Langley John!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(with apologies to Edward Lear)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some while Langley and I have been debating whether injury prevention workers \u00a0should try to prevent all injuries because (as I reason) we simply cannot predict which will be severe, or, as he argues, we need only prevent those that will be serious. After some \u00a0back and forth, in a recent issue of Injury […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1574],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-offbeat"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}