1 {scene: hospital waiting room}
1 Man in White Coat: I'm afraid the prognosis doesn't look good.
2 Terry: Steve's going to die?!
3 Man in White Coat: Oh, I don't know about that.
4 Man in White Coat: I'm from your insurance company. They rushed me out to assess the situation. Steve's premiums are about to double again.

Hmmm. I went to some trouble to put together a potted palm to place next to Jane Goodall, to give the scene that hospital waiting room feel. And now that I come to write this, I notice that it didn't make it into any of the photos. You can just see the shadows of the leaves on Jane's arm... it's there, really it is! Look at the effort I went to!

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2014-08-21 Rerun commentary: I've had a potted palm in my home ever since very soon after my wife and I moved in here, about 17 years ago now. We got it small and it grew and thrived and became moderately large. And then I came home one day a few months ago and my wife had had a cleaning binge and pruned and repotted all the indoor plants (not a huge collection - it was just this palm and a handful of African violets). I was a bit shocked because 90% of the palm had been removed! The remnant was a tiny few leaves perhaps even smaller than when we'd originally bought it.

But since then it's continued to grow and is doing well. I don't doubt that in another 17 years it'll be quite large again.

"Prognosis" is a cool word, by the way. Except that in any situation where you're likely to hear it, the situation is somewhat bad. I'm quite happy not to have to hear anyone talking about my prognosis, thank you very much.