High Jinks at Veterans Hospital

Amidst the worry over the financial crisis on Wall Street, I am glad to have John Barge around for comic relief. He told me that when he was discharged from the Air Force he worked for a time as an aide in a veterans' hospital. He helped take care of a veteran who was in the hospital for complications from diabetes. One of the hospital nurses would collect a urine sample from this gentleman each morning to monitor his sugar level. He was so used to this procedure that he would leave the specimen cup on his bed table every morning. He did not have to be asked for it.

A new student nurse came on duty one day. John and the veteran had colluded to play a joke on her. John had hidden the real urine sample and replaced it with a specimen cup full of apple juice. The student nurse came in, bid the veteran a cheery good morning, and picked up the cup. Her eyebrows knitted in a puzzled expression. "This doesn't look right," she said.

"Let me see that," the veteran requested. She handed him the cup. He looked it over for a few seconds and then nodded. "You're right. I'll run it through again." And he drank it down in a single gulp. John said you could have picked the nurse's jaw up off the floor.