Thanks!

Hopefully they don’t need to do an MRI of my spine after they operate on it - apparently for their sake, not mine.

I think, as someone else said, things installed into the body are usually titanium and thus non ferrous. Fortunately they don’t generally cause issues with MRIs as a result.

(I only know this because when I broke my ankle, during the pre-surgery interview, I asked the surgeon about going through metal scanners at an airport.)

I am prepared for impending friendship.

I don’t recall where I originally read the joke but I spent years - unsuccessfully - trying to find it again. The version I read followed it up with something like “hard as a rock, dumb as a brick.”

You are the only other person I’ve encountered who knows of this joke, so I now declare us friends.

I soon expect to have screws implanted in my spine. I also have other infirmities. I hope like hell to never have screws ripped through my vertebrae by an MRI.

Otto! You gotta do something! There’s a gremlin on the side of the bus!

Good morning!

Sounds like you should go to space.

Hey, what’s your middle name?

I’m not certain, but I suspect that I’m older than you.

I only mentioned it because there’s a part wherein one of the protagonists mentions going outside involving a gas mask. Seemed relevant.

Have you ever heard of / read House of Stairs by William Sleator?

I guess I don’t go out in public, so I wouldn’t know.

Huh. There aren’t many teenagers in my life but the two who matter to me (my nephews) have always been pro-video-game.

There’s a subreddit with that name (and a discord server with a similar one) that I bet would disagree with you.

Why?

And here I thought I could respect you for your good prose.