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Tunnel overview
Within I2P, messages are passed in one direction through a virtual tunnel of peers, using whatever means are available to pass the message on to the next hop. Messages arrive at the tunnel's gateway, get bundled up and/or fragmented into fixed-size tunnel messages, and are forwarded on to the next hop in the tunnel, which processes and verifies the validity of the message and sends it on to the next hop, and so on, until it reaches the tunnel endpoint. That endpoint takes the messages bundled up by the gateway and forwards them as instructed - either to another router, to another tunnel on another router, or locally.
Tunnels all work the same, but can be segmented into two different groups - inbound tunnels and outbound tunnels. The inbound tunnels have an untrusted gateway which passes messages down towards the tunnel creator, which serves as the tunnel endpoint. For outbound tunnels, the tunnel creator serves as the gateway, passing messages out to the remote endpoint.
The tunnel's creator selects exactly which peers will participate in the tunnel, and provides each with the necessary configuration data. They may have any number of hops. It is the intent to make it hard for either participants or third parties to determine the length of a tunnel, or even for colluding participants to determine whether they are a part of the same tunnel at all (barring the situation where colluding peers are next to each other in the tunnel).
In practice, a series of tunnel pools are used for different purposes - each local client destination has its own set of inbound tunnels and outbound tunnels, configured to meet its anonymity and performance needs. In addition, the router itself maintains a series of pools for participating in the network database and for managing the tunnels themselves.
I2P is an inherently packet switched network, even with these tunnels, allowing it to take advantage of multiple tunnels running in parallel, increasing resilience and balancing load. Outside of the core I2P layer, there is an optional end to end streaming library available for client applications, exposing TCP-esque operation, including message reordering, retransmission, congestion control, etc.
An overview of I2P tunnel terminology is on the tunnel overview page.
Tunnel Operation (Message Processing)
After a tunnel is built, I2NP messages are processed and passed through it. Tunnel operation has four distinct processes, taken on by various peers in the tunnel.
- First, the tunnel gateway accumulates a number of I2NP messages and preprocesses them into tunnel messages for delivery.
- Next, that gateway encrypts that preprocessed data, then forwards it to the first hop.
- That peer, and subsequent tunnel participants, unwrap a layer of the encryption, verifying that it isn't a duplicate, then forward it on to the next peer.
- Eventually, the tunnel messages arrive at the endpoint where the I2NP messages originally bundled by the gateway are reassembled and forwarded on as requested.
Intermediate tunnel participants do not know whether they are in an inbound or an outbound tunnel; they always "encrypt" for the next hop. Therefore, we take advantage of symmetric AES encryption to "decrypt" at the outbound tunnel gateway, so that the plaintext is revealed at the outbound endpoint.
Role | Preprocessing | Encryption Operation | Postprocessing |
Outbound Gateway (Creator) | Fragment, Batch, and Pad | Iteratively encrypt (using decryption operations) | Forward to next hop |
Participant | Decrypt (using an encryption operation) | Forward to next hop | |
Outbound Endpoint | Decrypt (using an encryption operation) to reveal plaintext tunnel message | Reassemble Fragments, Forward as instructed to Inbound Gateway or Router | |
Inbound Gateway | Fragment, Batch, and Pad | Encrypt | Forward to next hop |
Participant | Encrypt | Forward to next hop | |
Inbound Endpoint (Creator) | Iteratively decrypt to reveal plaintext tunnel message | Reassemble Fragments, Receive data |
Gateway Processing
Message Preprocessing
A tunnel gateway's function is to fragment and pack I2NP messages into fixed-size tunnel messages and encrypt the tunnel messages. Tunnel messages contain the following:
- A 4 byte Tunnel ID
- A 16 byte IV (initialization vector)
- A checksum
- Padding, if necessary
- One or more { delivery instruction, I2NP message fragment } pairs
Tunnel IDs are 4 byte numbers used at each hop - participants know what tunnel ID to listen for messages with and what tunnel ID they should be forwarded on as to the next hop, and each hop chooses the tunnel ID which they receive messages on. Tunnels themselves are short-lived (10 minutes). Even if subsequent tunnels are built using the same sequence of peers, each hop's tunnel ID will change.
To prevent adversaries from tagging the messages along the path by adjusting the message size, all tunnel messages are a fixed 1024 bytes in size. To accommodate larger I2NP messages as well as to support smaller ones more efficiently, the gateway splits up the larger I2NP messages into fragments contained within each tunnel message. The endpoint will attempt to rebuild the I2NP message from the fragments for a short period of time, but will discard them as necessary.
Details are in the tunnel message specification.
Gateway Encryption
After the preprocessing of messages into a padded payload, the gateway builds a random 16 byte IV value, iteratively encrypting it and the tunnel message as necessary, and forwards the tuple {tunnelID, IV, encrypted tunnel message} to the next hop.
How encryption at the gateway is done depends on whether the tunnel is an inbound or an outbound tunnel. For inbound tunnels, they simply select a random IV, postprocessing and updating it to generate the IV for the gateway and using that IV along side their own layer key to encrypt the preprocessed data. For outbound tunnels they must iteratively decrypt the (unencrypted) IV and preprocessed data with the IV and layer keys for all hops in the tunnel. The result of the outbound tunnel encryption is that when each peer encrypts it, the endpoint will recover the initial preprocessed data.
Participant Processing
When a peer receives a tunnel message, it checks that the message came from the same previous hop as before (initialized when the first message comes through the tunnel). If the previous peer is a different router, or if the message has already been seen, the message is dropped. The participant then encrypts the received IV with AES256/ECB using their IV key to determine the current IV, uses that IV with the participant's layer key to encrypt the data, encrypts the current IV with AES256/ECB using their IV key again, then forwards the tuple {nextTunnelId, nextIV, encryptedData} to the next hop. This double encryption of the IV (both before and after use) help address a certain class of confirmation attacks. See this email and the surrounding thread for more information.
Duplicate message detection is handled by a decaying Bloom filter on message IVs. Each router maintains a single Bloom filter to contain the XOR of the IV and the first block of the message received for all of the tunnels it is participating in, modified to drop seen entries after 10-20 minutes (when the tunnels will have expired). The size of the bloom filter and the parameters used are sufficient to more than saturate the router's network connection with a negligible chance of false positive. The unique value fed into the Bloom filter is the XOR of the IV and the first block so as to prevent nonsequential colluding peers in the tunnel from tagging a message by resending it with the IV and first block switched.
Endpoint Processing
After receiving and validating a tunnel message at the last hop in the tunnel, how the endpoint recovers the data encoded by the gateway depends upon whether the tunnel is an inbound or an outbound tunnel. For outbound tunnels, the endpoint encrypts the message with its layer key just like any other participant, exposing the preprocessed data. For inbound tunnels, the endpoint is also the tunnel creator so they can merely iteratively decrypt the IV and message, using the layer and IV keys of each step in reverse order.
At this point, the tunnel endpoint has the preprocessed data sent by the gateway, which it may then parse out into the included I2NP messages and forwards them as requested in their delivery instructions.
Tunnel Building
When building a tunnel, the creator must send a request with the necessary configuration data to each of the hops and wait for all of them to agree before enabling the tunnel. The requests are encrypted so that only the peers who need to know a piece of information (such as the tunnel layer or IV key) has that data. In addition, only the tunnel creator will have access to the peer's reply. There are three important dimensions to keep in mind when producing the tunnels: what peers are used (and where), how the requests are sent (and replies received), and how they are maintained.
Peer Selection
Beyond the two types of tunnels - inbound and outbound - there are two styles of peer selection used for different tunnels - exploratory and client. Exploratory tunnels are used for both network database maintenance and tunnel maintenance, while client tunnels are used for end to end client messages.
Exploratory tunnel peer selection
Exploratory tunnels are built out of a random selection of peers from a subset of the network. The particular subset varies on the local router and on what their tunnel routing needs are. In general, the exploratory tunnels are built out of randomly selected peers who are in the peer's "not failing but active" profile category. The secondary purpose of the tunnels, beyond merely tunnel routing, is to find underutilized high capacity peers so that they can be promoted for use in client tunnels.
Exploratory peer selection is discussed further on the Peer Profiling and Selection page.
Client tunnel peer selection
Client tunnels are built with a more stringent set of requirements - the local router will select peers out of its "fast and high capacity" profile category so that performance and reliability will meet the needs of the client application. However, there are several important details beyond that basic selection that should be adhered to, depending upon the client's anonymity needs.
Client peer selection is discussed further on the Peer Profiling and Selection page.
Peer Ordering within Tunnels
Peers are ordered within tunnels to deal with the predecessor attack (2008 update).
To frustrate the predecessor attack, the tunnel selection keeps the peers selected in a strict order - if A, B, and C are in a tunnel for a particular tunnel pool, the hop after A is always B, and the hop after B is always C.
Ordering is implemented by generating a random 32-byte key for each tunnel pool at startup. Peers should not be able to guess the ordering, or an attacker could craft two router hashes far apart to maximize the chance of being at both ends of a tunnel. Peers are sorted by XOR distance of the SHA256 Hash of (the peer's hash concatenated with the random key) from the random key
p = peer hash k = random key d = XOR(H(p+k), k)
Because each tunnel pool uses a different random key, ordering is consistent within a single pool but not between different pools. New keys are generated at each router restart.
Request delivery
A multi-hop tunnel is built using a single build message which is repeatedly decrypted and forwarded. In the terminology of Hashing it out in Public, this is "non-interactive" telescopic tunnel building.
This tunnel request preparation, delivery, and response method is designed to reduce the number of predecessors exposed, cuts the number of messages transmitted, verifies proper connectivity, and avoids the message counting attack of traditional telescopic tunnel creation. (This method, which sends messages to extend a tunnel through the already-established part of the tunnel, is termed "interactive" telescopic tunnel building in the "Hashing it out" paper.)
The details of tunnel request and response messages, and their encryption, are specified here.
Peers may reject tunnel creation requests for a variety of reasons, though a series of four increasingly severe rejections are known: probabilistic rejection (due to approaching the router's capacity, or in response to a flood of requests), transient overload, bandwidth overload, and critical failure. When received, those four are interpreted by the tunnel creator to help adjust their profile of the router in question.
For more information on peer profiling, see the Peer Profiling and Selection page.
Tunnel Pools
To allow efficient operation, the router maintains a series of tunnel pools, each managing a group of tunnels used for a specific purpose with their own configuration. When a tunnel is needed for that purpose, the router selects one out of the appropriate pool at random. Overall, there are two exploratory tunnel pools - one inbound and one outbound - each using the router's default configuration. In addition, there is a pair of pools for each local destination - one inbound and one outbound tunnel pool. Those pools use the configuration specified when the local destination connects to the router via I2CP, or the router's defaults if not specified.
Each pool has within its configuration a few key settings, defining how many tunnels to keep active, how many backup tunnels to maintain in case of failure, how long the tunnels should be, whether those lengths should be randomized, as well as any of the other settings allowed when configuring individual tunnels. Configuration options are specified on the I2CP page.
Tunnel Lengths and Defaults
On the tunnel overview page.Anticipatory Build Strategy and Priority
Tunnel building is expensive, and tunnels expire a fixed time after they are built. However, when a pool that runs out of tunnels, the Destination is essentially dead. In addition, tunnel build success rate may vary greatly with both local and global network conditions. Therefore, it is important to maintain an anticipatory, adaptive build strategy to ensure that new tunnels are successfully built before they are needed, without building an excess of tunnels, building them too soon, or consuming too much CPU or bandwidth creating and sending the encrypted build messages.
For each tuple {exploratory/client, in/out, length, length variance} the router maintains statistics on the time required for a successful tunnel build. Using these statistics, it calculates how long before a tunnel's expiration it should start attempting to build a replacement. As the expiration time approaches without a successful replacement, it starts multiple build attempts in parallel, and then will increase the number of parallel attempts if necessary.
To cap bandwidth and CPU usage, the router also limits the maximum number of build attempts outstanding across all pools. Critical builds (those for exploratory tunnels, and for pools that have run out of tunnels) are prioritized.
Tunnel Message Throttling
Even though the tunnels within I2P bear a resemblance to a circuit switched network, everything within I2P is strictly message based - tunnels are merely accounting tricks to help organize the delivery of messages. No assumptions are made regarding reliability or ordering of messages, and retransmissions are left to higher levels (e.g. I2P's client layer streaming library). This allows I2P to take advantage of throttling techniques available to both packet switched and circuit switched networks. For instance, each router may keep track of the moving average of how much data each tunnel is using, combine that with all of the averages used by other tunnels the router is participating in, and be able to accept or reject additional tunnel participation requests based on its capacity and utilization. On the other hand, each router can simply drop messages that are beyond its capacity, exploiting the research used on the normal Internet.
In the current implementation, routers implement a weighted random early discard (WRED) strategy. For all participating routers (internal participant, inbound gateway, and outbound endpoint), the router will start randomly dropping a portion of messages as the bandwidth limits are approached. As traffic gets closer to, or exceeds, the limits, more messages are dropped. For an internal participant, all messages are fragmented and padded and therefore are the same size. At the inbound gateway and outbound endpoint, however, the dropping decision is made on the full (coalesced) message, and the message size is taken into account. Larger messages are more likely to be dropped. Also, messages are more likely to be dropped at the outbound endpoint than the inbound gateway, as those messages are not as "far along" in their journey and thus the network cost of dropping those messages is lower.
Future Work
What strategies could be used at the gateway and at each hop for delaying, reordering, rerouting, or padding messages? To what extent should this be done automatically, how much should be configured as a per tunnel or per hop setting, and how should the tunnel's creator (and in turn, user) control this operation? All of this is left as unknown, to be worked out for a distant future release.
The padding strategies can be used on a variety of levels, addressing the exposure of message size information to different adversaries. The current fixed tunnel message size is 1024 bytes. Within this however, the fragmented messages themselves are not padded by the tunnel at all, though for end to end messages, they may be padded as part of the garlic wrapping.
WRED strategies have a significant impact on end-to-end performance, and prevention of network congestion collapse. The current WRED strategy should be carefully evaluated and improved.


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Do I Need To Insure My Boat During The Winter When I'm Not Using It?
If you own a boat, you are not alone if you are wondering why you need boat insurance year round when you are only using your boat in the warmer months. In fact, some boat owners cancel their boat insurance after every boating season to save on premiums. However, this can actually be more costly in the long run. The following are some good reasons to carry boat insurance all year long.
You May Be Required By Your Lender To Carry Boat Insurance
Boats are expensive to buy. If you financed your boat, as opposed to paying cash, it is probably a requirement of your lender that you carry boat insurance year round. Lenders need their investment protected, even in the off season. If you dock your boat, the marina may also require that the boat be insured.
Coverage For Your Boat Under Your Homeowners Insurance Is Limited
Your homeowners insurance policy will only cover damage to your boat that occurs while the boat is on your property. Also, the amount of coverage provided under a homeowners policy is substantially less than boat insurance provides. The typical boat insurance policy covers:
- Collision damage: Repair or replacement of your boat if a collision occurs.
- Bodily injury liability: Protects you from liability for injuring another person in a boating accident.
- Property damage liability: Protects you from liability for damage to the boat, dock, or other related structures or property of another.
- Comprehensive: Covers you against theft, vandalism, or damage to your boat caused in an incident other than a collision.
There Is No Off Season For Natural Disasters
Your boat is still vulnerable to damage while it is in storage. Depending on where you live, there may be a risk of damage from fire, flooding, or hurricanes. In the event of a natural disaster, having boat insurance could save you many thousands of dollars.
Fire, Theft, & Vandalism Can Happen All Year Round
A boat is a major investment. You would be wise to protect it from potential risks, even when it is not in the water. Your boat insurance policy should provide protection against fire, theft, and vandalism, at a minimum. These events are even more likely to occur during the winter when boatyards may be unattended.
Carrying Boat Insurance Year Round Is More Cost Effective In The Long Run
Canceling your boat insurance for the winter months and starting it up again in the spring may actually increase your costs overall. Most insurance providers will reward policyholders for each claim-free year with a reduced deductible and give loyalty discounts for maintaining coverage and renewing policies annually. If you cancel your boat insurance policy at the end of every boating season, and you ever need to make a claim, you will have to pay the full deductible. You will also miss out on any loyalty discounts you might earn by continuing your coverage.
Speak With An Experienced Agent About Boat Insurance
No one wants to pay more for insurance than they have to, but not carrying boat insurance year round can cost you money in the long run. Our knowledgeable agent can help you find the most cost-effective approach to boat insurance and help ensure you have the coverage you need.


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Thursday, February 25, 2010
J.D. Salinger and the Doctors of Tomorrow
Jerome David Salinger died a few weeks ago at the age of 91. The famously reclusive author who chronicled the fictional exploits of Holden Caulfield and the precocious Glass children last published a work of fiction in the mid 1960's. For the past 40 years he has lived an anonymous, unassuming life in New Hampshire. I mean can you imagine an author/artist/actor at the top of his game in this day and age suddenly withdrawing from the public eye, never to be seen again? Rumor has it that Salinger never stopped writing, that his private archives contain volumes of unpublished material.
I'll get this out of the way in the beginning---I'm an unmitigated devotee of J.D. Salinger. I've read everything he ever wrote, multiple times. There's something slightly embarassing about that fact, I realize. Especially at my age. At the beginning of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", Jake Barnes describes how Roy Cohn read a book called "The Purple Land" too late in life and was corrupted by its sentimentality and romanticism. Many say the same about Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye". You're supposed to read it when you're a teenager, so you can identify with the adolescent angst and sense of betrayal that dawns on a young sensitive soul when he realizes the world is full of selfish phonies, but then you move on, to richer, more nuanced literary takes on human existence. It isn't meant to be a book for a mature sensibility; if anything it can be dangerous to read it when you're into your twenties. I gently disagree. It's a soulful, meaningful book that I plan on reading many more times before I die. I read about Holden Caulfield and Franny and Zooey and Seymour and all the other Glass children for the first time when I was 23 years old. I was living in my mom's basement, working at a lousy plastics factory during the day, waiting to find out if one of the medical schools in Ohio would accept me. I wasn't exactly feeling too enthusiastic about my future prospects. My friends had all seemingly moved on in life, consulting jobs and grad schools and such, while my life had stalled for the first time. Reading Salinger that year kept me sane and hopeful I suppose. When the phone call came in the early summer announcing that I had been accepted, I drove around like a madman, happy and delirious, sort of like Holden at the end of the novel, crying in the rain as he watched his little sister Phoebe spinning in circles on the Merry-Go-Round in the park. I couldn't exactly articulate why I was so happy, at that point. I had been chosen was all I knew. Chosen to embark upon a life of service and honor. And all that jazz. I think all medical students start out that way, wide eyed and humble and full of idealistic hope. But it doesn't last; life rolls on and consumes you and the next thing you know you're anxious about grades and AOA status and what specialty to pursue and which residency program to apply to and all these things that have nothing to do with Phoebe on the Merry-Go Round. Without losing those moments of inchoate happiness completely, a young doctor has to somehow figure out how he's going to go about fulfilling his promise to himself, his profession, and his patients. How should he go about being an actual doctor? With what mindframe ought he to adopt? Ecstatic joy is no match for the cruel grind of actual existence, the years on top of one another, the petty torments of human aspiration. You need a more enduring strategy.
There are talented, intelligent college students right now across this country considering whether or not to make a run at medical school. Nowadays, it isn't the slam dunk decision it used to be. If you were smart, top ten in your class, Dean's List--- medicine automatically went to the top of the list of possible career options. It had prestige. It payed well enough and possibly even better depending on what specialty you chose. It made your parents proud. It represented a low risk path to legitimacy in life, an assurance that your social standing wouldn't be contingent on such factors as personal relationships or fluctuations in the business cycle or mere chance. It just seemed to be a smart, conservative thing to do for an otherwise intelligent, hard working youth who harbored vague aspirations of "helping people".
Things have changed. (Not entirely; you're parents will still be proud of you.) But medicine isn't necessarily the default career pathway for a new generation of hard-working, intelligent Americans. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want to pursue a career in medicine anymore. It's a tough gig, one that has lost luster over the past ten years. The pay isn't what it used to be--- there are pediatricians in this country who earn less than high school athletic directors. The debt one must take on to pay for medical school (close to $200,000) is simply absurd. And the prestige has correspondingly dropped. At some point in the near future, the local doctor will be perceived as a mere civil servant, a health provider who is seemingly interchangeable with other providers like nurse practitioners and physician's assistants and whatever other iteration of primary care develops in the future. And then there's the mentality in American medicine that errors and bad outcomes are unacceptable. We have "never events" now. Doctors order tests not to identify diseases necessarily, or to search for an unidentified source of a patient's discomfort, but rather to cover themselves from any future accusations that they "didn't do enough". There's an antagonism that has crept into the doctor-physician relationship, prompted by our corrupt medical malpractice system, unreasonable patient expectations, and physician cowardice and detachment that threatens to permanently blacken the soul of our profession. It's sad and depressing for those of us young enough to know we will have to wade through this transition phase for the next 25 years. For those who haven't committed yet, who stand on the brink of life with all its possibility and glory shining before them, medicine starts to seem far less appealing than other choices, even to the idealists.
But don't let the negative discourage you too much. Let me tell you a secret: this is still the best job in the world. And not because I'm a surgeon and get to do "cool procedures" and occasionally get to directly affect the course of a patient's life through a timely intervention. I like that part, don't get me wrong. I'm not some sort of Marcus Aurelius Stoic saint unperturbed by the dramatic viscissitudes of life, possessing such powers of self restraint that I refuse entirely to pat myself on the back occasionally. I'm only human. But when you do this long enough, you start to realize that whatever good you did for that patient, some other surgeon did just as well in the town next door, and if you weren't on call, whoever was would have done exactly what you did. You did your job, that was it. It wasn't about you. What you realize soon enough is that when you save someone or cure them of cancer, the lucky one in the transaction is you, buddy. Anyone can cut out a colon cancer. A million surgeons can do it with sufficient technical excellence. So don't go getting all high and mighty about it. You did your job as well as you could, based on your training and experience. No one would expect anything less. The patient would have been served just as well at another hospital. You are the one who ought always to feel privileged---that a patient would give herself to you, open her heart and soul, bare herself in all her failings and infirmities and suffering to this stranger who struts into her room in a white coat with all the answers and an indecipherable plan to somehow heal her pain. The sudden intimacy of the encounter is enough to stop your heart if you don't watch it. The trust and the view that our patients grant us is an incalcuable gift. We see humanity in these unvarnished, stripped down moments of vulnerability. Your gaze upon the stricken is a rare glimpse into the depths of what it means to be human. I like to think sometimes that heaven is all around us, if we look hard enough. I see it in my daughter every morning, standing in her crib in the morning dimness with those deep dark eyes of hers, looking up at me, the nascent beginnings of a smile forming in her lips. But too often we miss it in our everyday dealings. We miss it entirely, consumed as we are in our silly strivings and pronouncements and righteousness and posturing. We miss it all. But in the doctor-patient encounter, there is no averting of the eyes. You must look, gaze upon the wretchedness. Maybe you can close your heart off to it, forget what you've seen once the encounter ends, treat it as some detached clinical experiment, a problem to be solved empirically. For some, that is the only way to avoid involving themselves too emotionally in their patients. Regardless, open hearted or closed, you can never forget the things you see and hear and touch. It burns itself into your soul. It is the great Gift bestowed upon a physician. I wrote once about a little old lady who hid a giant fungating melanoma from her family for years as she ministered to her dying husband and how she finally broke down, opened herself up and asked for help. Those moments in my office discussing what had to be done with her and her daughters will never fade from my memory. The piercing brittleness of existence surges to the forefront of your consciousness. The things you will see. The worried, raccoon-eyed mothers in the ER with their young children right before surgery for appendicitis. The elderly husbands who dutifully sit by their intubated wives for hours in the ICU. The way a family will turn a hospital room into a shrine to the grandmother resting in bed; pictures from a foregone time when she was hale and hearty, hair a different color, crazy little scribblings from elementary-aged grandkids, fading bouquets of flowers, the rows of cards. The joy in the post operative waiting room when you tell someone everything went well, your wife is fine. The eruption of relief when you inform a woman her biopsy was benign. The quiet courage and resolve in the quivering, red-eyed visage of a woman told she has breast cancer, the husband who autonomously squeezes her hand white. The 22 year old guy who screams bloody murder when you lance a tiny boil and the old Korean war veteran who tells you about an old girlfriend he once had in Oklahoma the whole time you drain his giant perianal abscess. Broken hearted lonesome single middle aged guys who tell you not to worry about calling anyone after surgery; there's no one to call anyway. The physical maladies are no different than what you read about in textbooks. But the tapestry of human failings and strengths and triumphs you will experience as a doctor are not described in any textbooks I know of. Perhaps they are portrayed in art or literature, but the thing about art--- you never know quite to believe if it is real or not, that small nagging doubt that perhaps it's all made up. The reality of subjective experience-- it's all yours for the taking buddy. All of it is yours to observe, to learn from, to acquire. The entire spectrum of humanity on display, unadorned, vulnerable and full of absolute trust that you will do the right thing. Fear and joy and sorrow and pain and doubt and weakness reside within us all, to varying extents. You will find yourself through your experiences over a career. In Seymour, An Introduction, Seymour Glass tells his brother Buddy that all we ever do is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next. When you walk into a patient's room, the holy grounds open up endlessly before you. Respect where you tread.
And that's the catch. You cannot betray this gift of the Gaze. You must never forget that being a doctor is not about you. It's not a reward for getting good grades and working hard and volunteering at the local hospital. No one cares what your grades were. That AOA plaque on your office wall is meaningless to the suffering souls who come to you seeking solace. No one cares about your fellowship or that you went to Harvard or about your giant research endowment. It isn't about being president of your local medical society and making speeches. It's not about you. You owe your patients this Spartan-like self-denial. The benefits of being a physician will come to you only when you stop expecting them.
But how do you do this? How does one adopt the proper attitude necessary to handle the burden of the Gaze? What is the process? Is there a secret? How do I avoid letting it devolve into some voyeuristic sideshow? Well I think the answer is pretty simple once you get down to it. Salinger, I think, articulates it perfectly and succinctly with his admonishment to, whatever it is you've chosen to make your life's work, "do it with all your heart" and to do it for the "Fat Lady" who lives in the hearts of all men. But more on that later. First, I wanted to veer off course for a minute with two stories; one about my Aunt S. and the other about this mentally retarded developmentally delayed(MRDD) young man I saw in the hospital hallway the other week. Bear with me, please.
First, the young man. I was cruising through a long hallway on my way to the ICU, reading my patient list as I strode, when I noticed him out of the corner of my eye. He was in a wheelchair and he was washing or polishing a handrail that ran the length of the hallway. An elderly volunteer was watching him. At first I had the reflexive, complacent feeling of pity--- awww, look at the poor retarded man forced to do demeaning work in public. But I stopped further down the hall. I turned and watched him for a bit. He was sort of slouched over and his mouth was gaping and he frankly looked a little wild-eyed but he was completely focused on the task at hand. He had a rag in one hand and some sort of cleaning agent in a bottle between his legs. Very meticulously he would spray a little of the solution onto his rag and proceed to carefully wipe down the segment of railing to his right. This was drab, yellowed old railing. It would never look fantastic. And it was interminable, extending far down the length of the hallway, which curved ahead to the right so from his position you never knew when it would end. But dutifully he wiped the two foot segment in front of him, even the back side facing the wall which no one would ever see. He didn't skip areas. He wasn't careless. He concentrated. He did a fine job. There wasn't anything demeaning about it at all. Feeling sorry for him just disrespected his efforts. All work is worthy when done with the clean, humble, simple state of mind of the pure-hearted. It doesn't matter what it is. Taking out a gallbladder. Paving a highway. Cleaning a toilet. Polishing a unpolishable railing. It's all the same. We all have our opportunities to match the efforts of that young retarded guy. As doctors we're no different. It's easy to just go through the motions sometimes, to zip through an exam, to cut off a patient who rambles on about an unrelated topic during an office visit. But you can't do that, at least not with any sort of regularity. Every patient we see, every surgery is just another small segment of never-ending hallway railing to be polished as well we can, with all our hearts.
My Aunt S. was an amazing woman. She wasn't famous or renowned or anything. She was just a very loving, loyal, dedicated woman who constantly put the needs and desires of others above her own. She was always someone's biggest fan. Once she was on your side, you had an iron willed supporter for life. She was one of those people who, if something really terrific or fortunate or wonderful happened to you, she would be unconditionally happy and excited for you. There were never any strings attached. The older you get, the more you realize how rare a human trait that is. The majority of people are unable to feel such pure and unadulterated joy for the triumphs of someone else. Too often the moment is tainted by jealousy. It isn't that you aren't happy for that person. You are. But a small part of you sort of wishes such good fortune were happening to you instead and an incorrigible voice deep within will whisper things like "oh, she just knows the right people" or "his parents were able to pay for all his schooling" or "she's just about the luckiest son of a gun I know". The majority of us succumb to covetousness and an overly competitive drive to have all the happiness in the world for ourselves. My aunt was different. She could feel and internalize the joys and victories of another person as if they were her own. The moment I remember most about my Aunt S. was my medical school graduation day. My crazy family had all made the long trip to Toledo for the ceremony and of course they all got there late and had to settle for seats way high up in the rafters. I remember being next in line, waiting for my name to be called so I could walk out across the stage to get my diploma and already there was a commotion coming from somewhere back in the crowd. I couldn't see because it was so dark, like looking into a murmuring abyss. And then I was announced and there was this eruption of screaming and yelling from somewhere in the rafters. It was so loud and crazy and tumultuous I remember seeing parents in the front rows laughing amongst themselves. But one voice stood out. I distinctly remember hearing someone screaming "way to go Jeffer!!!!" My Aunt S. had always called me Jeffer, ever since I had been a little boy. Specifically, I heard her strident, exuberant voice above the cluttered din of screeches and yells. I turned to that spot up in the rafters and waved into the darkness, smiling like madman the whole time. Two years later she developed a lump in her breast that turned out to be cancer. A couple years after the mastectomy, the disease recurred. She battled for another year or two and then she started to deteriorate. She died two years ago this March. Now I wasn't such a wonderful nephew to her. I didn't call her on her birthdays. I didn't even know when her birthday was. I never bought her gifts. I never looked to her for worldy advice or professional guidance or anything like that. I was her only nephew though and she loved me in a way that I can only now truly appreciate.
These two stories best illustrate the two aspects of "doing something with all your heart". It's a delicate fusion of an almost dispassionate utter seriousness, as if what you were doing was the most important thing in the world no matter how banal and tedious it seems, along with an exuberant joy in seeing someone through a period of illness, a joy that transcends anything that has to do with you. One of my favorite passages in all of Salinger is from Seymour, an Introduction where Seymour writes to his brother Buddy about what it takes to be a great writer. The advice could apply to anyone, no matter what your career aspirations. So forgive me a little poetic license to paraphrase old Seymour in doling out some words of wisdom to all those young peope out there who are contemplating pursuing their life's work in the field of medicine:
When you die and the Man up in the sky reviews your oeuvre, do you know what He will ask you? One thing he won't ask is how many honor societies you were a member of, that's for sure. He won't ask how fast or fantastic of a surgeon you were or how marvelous of a diagnostician you were. He won't care about your awards or diplomas or honorariums. He won't ask if your patients loved you or just sort of respected you. He won't ask if you were nice to all your co-workers and colleagues. He won't ask how many medical missions you went on or how many indigent patients you treated. I mean, those things are nice and all and certainly worth aiming for. But He won't ask you about those things. You'll get asked two things and two things only: were all your stars out and did you practice medicine every day with all your heart? That's it. It doesn't get any more complicated than that. So to all of you thinking about venturing off into this holy profession you better make damn sure your skies are clear and your stars are shining bright. Keep your eyes peeled for that secret and mysterious Fat Lady who lives deep in the souls of all men--- she can be quite beautiful. And listen close for the exuberant scream of unconditional joy and love coming down from the rafters of your own lives....
43 comments:
- tracy said...
This was fantastic, Doctor, beautifully and thoughtfully written.
Thank you so much. You are a very talented writer, i can only imagine what a fine surgeon you must be. - February 25, 2010 at 11:12 AM
- Mike said...
I am one of countless of your anonymous readers. Your blog has been on my Google Reader feed for ages and once in a while I think about removing it as you are postless for a time or you post things I don't understand. Then you come up with something like this and I realize I'm willing to read whatever you write as long as you are willing to write it.
- February 25, 2010 at 11:31 AM
Second year medical student and a long time anonymous reader. I usually don't comment on such things but this post was excellent. Thank you for reminding us that while the road is hard, and that no matter what "they" it doesn't really get any easier, we can still control our attitude toward our practice of medicine. Thank you again for the excellent post.
- February 25, 2010 at 11:59 AM
Second year medical student and a long time anonymous reader. I usually don't comment on such things but this post was excellent. Thank you for reminding us that while the road is hard, and that no matter what "they" it doesn't really get any easier, we can still control our attitude toward our practice of medicine. Thank you again for the excellent post.
- February 25, 2010 at 12:00 PM
- Michael Kirsch, M.D. said...
This was great writing, great thoughts and great reading.
- February 25, 2010 at 12:23 PM
- Joseph F. Sucher, MD FACS said...
I am one of you not so anonymous readers. I have read everything you've ever posted. I don't always agree with you, but I respect all that you have written. I must say that this treatise is one of your finest works.
I am not sure if it makes me feel any better or worse about our chosen profession. I do know that I have told countless people that I feel Surgery is the best professions in the world. However, it is also one of the worst careers. In other words, I love the art and science of what I do, but lament the business. I continue to look for how I can best apply my craft. I am not sure if I am trying to ensure all my stars are shining bright or if this is all merely a Sisyphean challenge. Nonetheless, great post.
JFS http://fastsurgeon.blogspot.com - February 25, 2010 at 12:39 PM
I am just getting a good breath as I forgot to breathe while reading.
Excellent writing, Salinger is knotting his head in accordance right now, he couldn't have said it better himself.
I feel the same way, nothing else matters, it is about doing it with all your heart. Always.
Thank you for your excellent thoughts. - February 25, 2010 at 12:54 PM
Glad I kept reading...was about to open a vein till I got to the good part. And even though it's not THE best job in the world(A-Rod's got that) its still pretty good, where else can you have Hot Young Chicks come into your office for free BRINGING you stuff???
And in any other job if you rub someones chest with conducting gel, Yell "Clear" and shock them with 300 Joules, you'll get arrested and fired...
Keep up the great work JD..
Frank - February 25, 2010 at 1:09 PM
Thank you for this entry. As an EMT and someone applying to medical school this June, it was especially significant. Thank you.
- February 25, 2010 at 2:17 PM
- Unknown said...
Wow. Well done. I really admire the quality of your writing.
I'm headed back to med school after a year LOA, and I intend to save this piece and ty to read it every so often 3rd year.
Thanks. - February 25, 2010 at 3:23 PM
- james gaulte said...
Looking from the perspective of a retired doc,WOW - February 25, 2010 at 4:30 PM
- Tom, MS-2 said...
Hey Buckeye-
Another MS2 here, wrapping up another one of those rough finals hurdles. 9 tests over 2 weeks this time, and more than once we were treated to a surprise of something being "unfair" or an unexpected, undeserved academic slap to the face.
It's enough to drive you to anger, if you don't remember things like this. Thanks for the perspective piece, and please keep writing. - February 25, 2010 at 5:44 PM
I too am a anonymous reader and I must say that your post was truly inspirational and helped me put my 'hospital pharmacist' role with hits/misses and frustrations and worry about the medication events into a much better perspective. Kudos to you and your work.
- February 25, 2010 at 8:13 PM
- Victor Lazaron said...
Beautiful piece.
- February 26, 2010 at 12:08 AM
- Vijay said...
Beautifully written, Jeff. I wouldn't know which superlative to use if I had to praise this piece. I hope every practising and aspiring doctor reads and internalises this.
I, like you, read "The Catcher…" in my early twenties. I was in my second year of medical college then, and I loved it. The day I learnt JD died, I listened to the audiobook version of "The Catcher…" in his honour. My personal version of "doing something with all one's heart" is "Living IN the moment. Completely." - February 26, 2010 at 4:42 AM
OK, its been 24 hours, so I'll point out the Elephant Turd in the Room...
"Catcher in the Rye" SUCKED!!!!! And I read it, well at least the first sentence...
"If you really want to here about it...."
Well I DIDN'T want to here about it, and but I read it anyway, if only cause the Cliff's Notes version was longer than the actual book...and I beat up a kid named "Holden" just cause his name reminded me of the hours I wasted reading that Drivel.
That being said, Nice post,
Frank - February 26, 2010 at 7:38 AM
- Jeffrey Parks MD FACS said...
Yeah Frank, I had you tagged as more of a Btet Easton Ellis/Jay McInierny kind of guy anyway.
- February 26, 2010 at 9:08 AM
Buckeye, once again you demonstrate the great talent you have for writing, which leaves me with the troubling thought that someday you, like most previous great physician-writers, will want to choose between writing and doctoring. Please put that choice off for as long as you find it endurable. Granted there are other docs who can be there and do the needed operation as well as you do, but I venture there are very few who can interpret and share it with posterity as well as you do.
- February 26, 2010 at 9:37 AM
- StorytellERdoc said...
What a well-written, thorough post. Fantastic and insightful and funny and poignant. Thank you.
- February 26, 2010 at 11:45 AM
- Grant said...
Great post, another anonymous MS3 reader. It helps put things back into perspective
- February 27, 2010 at 10:28 AM
Inspiring stuff, but I think I'm still going to resign. I think psychiatry is where I belong. The connection with patients and families in their most acutely trying and vulnerable times is all I really like about surgery anyway, well, that and taking time to conscientiously explain medical things to them like a person. Sounds like you can relate.
Great post and thanks for pointing out the amazing and rewarding daily drama of the human condition. - February 27, 2010 at 8:59 PM
- Jan said...
Another anonymous reader and paeds resident in Australia. An absolutely brilliant post!
- February 27, 2010 at 9:58 PM
- Unknown said...
Hey Jeff,
We are preparing for our worst med1 exam. Reading your posts makes studying less horrible, because it reminds me why I am learning the material.
Thanks for the inspiration,
Rachael - February 27, 2010 at 10:52 PM
- Josh said...
Beautiful post. I hadn't read Catcher since adolescence - always thought, as you mentioned, that it was for that time and would seem irrelevant now. Perhaps I'll pick it up in the near future...
- February 28, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Oh, my. You have put my own feelings and thoughts and aspirations as a physician into one beautiful essay. I will keep your words nearby and reread them when the bad stuff gets waist deep, or higher. Thank you!
- February 28, 2010 at 9:13 PM
- George T said...
Another 2nd year med student who appreciates a good swift kick in the butt from time to time. Thanks for this. Well written and a great reminder of why I started down this road.
- February 28, 2010 at 9:45 PM
- creative gal said...
I just discovered your blog. . . very interesting and certainly started my mind to think. So true in medical practice. . . Hope to read more on your blog!
- March 1, 2010 at 10:06 PM
I just got into medical school, and this post expresses so much of why I feel compelled to go down this path. There are easier things to do in life, but if they don't allow me to reach the depths of compassion, understanding and self-awareness that you express, I won't get much out of life. I will read this when I need to re-center myself. Thank you for that.
- March 2, 2010 at 8:27 PM
Excellent writing. Thanks for your hard work. You make a worthy successor to the fine Dr Schwab via whose blog I found your site.
- March 3, 2010 at 7:36 AM
clap..clap.clapclapclapclapwild applause
nice post doc!
radinc - March 3, 2010 at 11:13 PM
One last anonymous comment. This was a great post. It is amazing how fast we lose sight of what matters in medical school. Third year at my schools is the first time we are really graded, and all of our hyper competitive type-A-ness comes out of the woodwork. It is also the first time we have patients. It made me sick on my medicine clerkship when I realized I could get more scut done and get better evaluations if I spent about 30 seconds per day with my patients.
It's hard to keep perspective but occasional reflection is key. Glad to have you around Buckeye. - March 7, 2010 at 3:56 PM
I'm a final yr student in Australia, love yr blog:) thx for sharing yr insight n experiences wf us!
- March 8, 2010 at 10:21 PM
- Mambosera said...
As a MS1, I understand how the naivete and feeling of being 'chosen' can turn a rough corner with an intense workload and mounting debt. At the same time, it is so unbelievably important to keep the Gaze of which you speak held firmly in the mind...
Thank you so much for this wonderful post. It speaks volumes for that which I cannot put into words! - March 18, 2010 at 3:44 PM
- Unknown said...
Dear Sir,
I am a general surgeon in Bangladesh. 28 months back my only child, 20 yr old son, who was a medical student died from hepatitis. He was a brilliant student, topping in all exams in school and college. He was selected to study engineering in Rutgers Univ USA. But after one semester he chose to return to Bangladesh. We were all surprised, even so when he wanted to study medicine. He was as usual doing very good in all exams in Rutgers, having lot of friends and enjoying life. When I asked him why he wanted to become a doctor in Bangladesh and give up his good life in USA. He looked at me and said, "Abbu (Father), I want to be like you. I want to do good and enjoy doing it." I never understood what he meant, because I am just a simple gen surgeon going through life as best as I could. After reading your blog, I now really understand what my son meant and what he wanted to become. Thank you.
My son fell sick very shortly after enrolling in a medical school and died after being in a coma for 11 days.
You can have a look at his life in the facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21623516576 - April 18, 2010 at 7:44 AM
My dear friend,
this piece was recommended by my colleague and i cannot thank him enough!This is probably one of the most insightful pieces of writing, i have ever come across.
You are blessed with a depth of understanding and wisdom far beyond your years not to mention an enviable talent as a writer.
I am grateful, you have given form to those many thoughts i share privately with friends .
What a surgeon you could be ,if you were even half as good as you think or write. - April 19, 2010 at 8:55 AM
- DrWes said...
I tried like hell to find a typo - couldn't. Tried like hell to find something I didn't like about this post - couldn't. Wish I had a vocabulary like yours and realized as a former engineering student-turned doctor - couldn't say I'll ever have such.
Damn you.
Still, it was a joy to read. - September 28, 2010 at 11:19 PM
Awesome read! It really makes me step back and observe what I have done, and what I plan to do. Right now, I am cracking away at the MCAT and pre-med frenzy of 3rd year. At times I feel overwhelmed and get the feeling of "what's the point?" However, this reminded me why I haven't quit and won't ever quit.
- February 13, 2011 at 11:22 AM
Dr. Parks: I am a nurse practitioner student, but I also raised three children and worked in nursing for many years before deciding to return... For almost 10 years I had the privilege of working for two general surgeons in private practice; from them I learned a great deal. Though neither could write or express what you have in your Salinger post, I thought of them while reading. It is my humble opinion that general surgeons (i.e.,good ones) are unsung heroes, quietly "doing their job" 24/7. And, I will fill in for your Aunt and tell you that you are special;the pt who enters the Ohio ER when you have call is fortunate indeed. Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas and thoughts; the internet is a bit better for it.
- May 15, 2011 at 8:18 PM
- Sally said...
This is truly an inspired post, Catcher in the Rye is such a good book and this post is very poignant.
Great job. I found your site through Oprah! - December 2, 2011 at 6:08 PM
I'm a MD/PhD student writing (or, more accurately, procrastinating from writing) my PhD thesis right now. I've been feeling burned out, with little motivation to continue. I've been reflecting on what I've accomplished during my PhD and it seems like not much (although maybe that's just the burnout rearing its head).
One of the things I had been putting off was reading this blog post after a friend recommended it. I've literally had the tab open in my browser for over a week and haven't been able to summon the motivation to read it.
This morning I read it. For the first time in a long time I'm neither burned out nor bitter.
This post reminded me of why I'm doing what I'm doing. It reminded me of the view I had on the world after my first time reading Franny and Zooey in college. It reminded me to do it for the Fat Lady.
So thank you. It's somewhat amazing to me that a chance reading of a blog post could be precisely what I needed to read at this moment (but I guess that's why the "Unbearable Lightness of Being" sold so many copies).
As I re-enter third year med school, I'm going to try remember the perspective I now have thanks to what I've read here (which reminded me of how I was and felt before). And I'll try to remember at the toughest times in my training and practice to keep my stars shining and to do it for the Fat Lady. - February 19, 2012 at 8:16 AM
An accidental tap and I was back at your site and instantly captivated by the title...excellent timing and an uplifting piece of writing. I am a GP up in Canada, one of those in danger of becoming a cog in the wheel of the primary care system and having a number of those days so well expressed by the phrase "How did I get here?"
No one goes into medical school (I hope) thinking about debt, how much they will make or many of the things I now find myself thinking of. Rather, I suspect most have clear skies and are looking to serve their fellow humans. What I most liked about your blog (and the was a lot to like) was the reminder that we, the doctors, must remember the the way the patients trust and open their lives to us is an honour and a privilege. We are the lucky ones, not them. It is this thought that will come with me into the next day, week, months and years to come as I polish my 2 feet of hallway railing over and over again. Thank you for the excellent reminder of what it is to be a member of this most challenging but excellent field. - May 8, 2012 at 3:23 AM
I'm not a doctor, but soon to be nurse and this post was very powerful for me. You are a fantastic writer, thank you for sharing.
- March 12, 2013 at 10:12 PM
Thank you is all I can say. I am a 4th year medical student preparing for my next journey: family medicine residency.
You really hit 'the nail on the head' with this one. Medicine is truly the greatest profession. I am honored each day that I have the opportunity to do what I do.
Again, thank you! - October 13, 2013 at 4:56 PM


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I've been gaming since the Atari 2600, and I'm old enough to have hip checked a dude way bigger than me off of the game I wanted to play at an actual arcade (remember those) while also being too young to be worried about getting my ass kicked. Aside from a short hiatus over the summer and fall of 2013, I've been with Gamingnexus.com since March 2011. While I might not be as tech savvy as some of our other staff-writers, I am the site's resident A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones expert, and self-proclaimed "master of all things Mass Effect." I may be in my 30's, but I'm not one of those "retro gamers." I feel strongly that gaming gets better every year. When I was a child daydreaming of the greatest toy ever, I was envisioning this generation's videogames, I just didn't know it at the time and never suspected I would live to seem them come into being. View Profile


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AP: Wrestling, one of original Olympic sports, will be dropped from 2020 Games
The IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of 25 "core sports."
The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.
Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.
"This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling, it is what's right with the 25 core sports."
Adams said the decision was made by secret ballot over several rounds, with members voting each time on which sport should not be included in the core group. IOC President Jacques Rogge did not vote.
Wrestling was voted out from a final group that also included modern pentathlon, taekwondo and field hockey, officials familiar with the vote told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the voting details were not made public.
The board voted after reviewing a report by the IOC program commission report that analyzed 39 criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.
The international wrestling federation, known by the French acronym FILA, is headed by Raphael Martinetti and is based in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. Calls to the federation for comment were not immediately returned.
Wrestling featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year's London Olympics. Women's wrestling was added to the Olympics at the 2004 Athens Games.
Wrestling will now join seven other sports in applying for inclusion in 2020. The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020.
The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC session, or general assembly, in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It is extremely unlikely that wrestling would be voted back in so soon after being removed by the executive board.
"Today's decision is not final," Adams said. "The session is sovereign and the session will make the final decision."
The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Previously considered under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, and combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting.
Klaus Schormann, president of governing body UIPM, lobbied hard to protect his sport's Olympic status and it paid off in the end.
"We have promised things and we have delivered," he said after Tuesday's decision. "That gives me a great feeling. It also gives me new energy to develop our sport further and never give up."
Modern pentathlon also benefited from the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president who is a UIPM vice president and member of the IOC board.
"We were considered weak in some of the scores in the program commission report but strong in others," Samaranch told the AP. "We played our cards to the best of our ability and stressed the positives. Tradition is one of our strongest assets, but we are also a multi-sport discipline that produces very complete people."


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Limelight is Iightyears ahead Offering an innovative new take on condominium living, Limelight will have a personality all its own. Young, fresh and vibrant, these gleaming glass towers will illuminate the Mississauga Skyline with their shining beacons of light. As a landmark residence within Daniels' Award-Winning City Centre Community, Limelight will offer you more than just a home but a sense of community and belonging.
Designed to fit seamlessly within Daniels' master-planned, park- inspired neighbourhood, Limelight will dazzle with its distinctive modern architecture, forward-thinking, environmentally-friendly design, interactive amenities, superior location and unsurpassed Daniels' quality craftsmanship. A new light is shining within Daniels City Centre Community.
SPECTACULAR BUILDING FEATURESLimelight is the most environmentallyfriendly condominium residence within Daniels' award-winning City Centre Community.An impressive 22-storey glass-clad modern tower featuring a uniquely patterned six-storey podium complete with an illuminating beacon of light at the top.Seamlessly embedded within Daniels' pedestrianfriendly City Centre Community with easy access to Mississauga's most anticipated three-acre community park.Situated in the heart of the Mississauga City Centre, steps to Square One Shopping Centre, the Living Arts Centre, City Hall, YMCA, the new Sheridan College Campus, the Central Library, Mississauga and GO Transit as well as highways 403, 401 and 407.Beautifully landscaped entrance courtyard with seating areas and walking paths.Impressive two-storey interactive Lobby designed and furnished by an internationally renowned design team.Tastefully decorated elevators to deliver residents to their destination.Convenient locker and bike storage. A convenient car share program located in the underground parking garage.Executive Concierge welcomes residents and their guests while overseeing the sophisticated building security measures.Resident Services Director provides onsite customer service for residents. Building Automation Systems designedto improve resident comfort and properly manage energy use.Twin garbage chute system for ease of refuse and recycling.Carbon Monoxide monitoring system in parking garage.
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ILLUMINATING FLOORING FEATURESContemporary bamboo fl ooring in the hallway, living/dining room, den, kitchen, foyer and foyer closet, as per plan.Green Label Plus textured carpet in the bedroom(s).Porcelain fl oor tile in the bathroom(s). Ceramic fl oor tile in the laundry/storage area.SPARKLING GOURMET KITCHEN FEATURESChoice of fl at slab paneled cabinetry from Daniels' select lines.Granite countertop with single bowl stainless steel drop in sink.Single-lever kitchen faucet. Imported porcelain tile backsplash.Custom designed dual use kitchen island with granite countertop, under-counter storage and seating, as per plan.Stainless steel appliances, including 18 c.f. frostfree refrigerator, self-cleaning oven, built-in 24" dishwasher and combination microwave/hood fan located above stove and vented to exterior.
GLITTERING BATHROOM FEATURESChoice of comfort-height cabinetry from Daniels' select lines. Marble countertop with porcelain sink. Single-lever water effi cient chrome faucet. Luxurious acrylic deep soaker tub with ceramic wall tile surround up to ceiling.Framed, clear tempered glass shower stall in second bathroom, with pre-formed acrylic base and full-height ceramic tile surround, as per plan.Polished edge vanity mirror with wall sconce located above the mirror.Chrome bathroom accessories including towel bar and toilet paper holder.Exhaust fan vented to the exterior. Low consumption toilets.
TWINKLING LAUNDRY ROOM FEATURESWhite full-size, stackable front loading washer/ dryer combination vented to exterior.ULTIMATELY CONVENIENT ELECTRICALFEATURESSuite hydro individually metered using 'Smart Meter' technology.Individual service panel with circuit breakers. Voice data and coaxial cable wiring throughout.Cable receptacle allowing television connections located in living room, bedroom(s) and den, as per plan.Pre-wired telephone outlets in living room, bedroom(s) and den as per plan. Stylish ceiling light fi xtures provided in foyer, kitchen, bedroom(s) and den, as per plan. Capped ceiling outlet in dining room. Decorative style wall mounted light fi xture in the bathroom(s).All appliances connected and ready to use.Each suite to have an "all off" electrical switch near the entry so residents can turn off all overhead lights easily.Energy effi cient lighting in all suites and common areas designed to last longer and use less electricity.PEACE OF MIND SECURITY FEATURESEnter-phone and cameras at all visitor entrances allowing for in-suite viewing through cable television connection direct to suite.Resident Key Fob access throughout all common areas and parking garage entry.Convenient underground parking with cameras in the garage at pre-selected locations, along with two-way voice communication to concierge or monitoring station.Rough-in suite entry door contacts provided for intrusion alarm system.


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Santa Monica Emergency Dentist, Richard Haber DDS, for Playa Del Rey who accepts Guardian Insurance(We do not accept any HMO Dental Plan) Have you dreamed of having a beautiful smile, but worried that you can't afford it? Then you need to call our office. If you don't mind a short drive to a Emergency Dentist that has great credentials, nice office and accepts Guardian Dental Insurance Plan please call our office. Dental Indemnity Plan - What is it? With a Dental Indemnity Plan, you can choose any Emergency Dentist you want, and you don't need a referral to visit a specialist. Most PPO dental plans are an indemnity plan. Most PPO plans allow you to choose any Emergency Dentist. We accept your PPO plan if it is an indemnity plan. What are my out-of-pocket costs? You will generally be responsible for a deductible and co-insurance for services. Most Guardian dental plans also have an annual benefit maximum. Before you receive any treatment We will try our best to provide you with a dental treatment estimate that includes details on the services that you need and how much each service will cost. We will call Guardian dental insurance and try to get more information about your dental benefits. Your Guardian dental plan may have limitations: You may have a waiting period before you can get any major dental treatment Most Dental plans may not cover every dental service that may be suggested by your Emergency Dentist. For example, some plans may not cover dental implants. In addition, services for strictly cosmetic reasons, such as teeth whitening, are rarely covered by dental insurance. What you need to know Your dental benefit program is a contract between you, your employer, and the insurance company. A dental office is not a party to that contract. Our office will be happy to file your insurance claim as a courtesy to you. We are an out of network provider for your plan. 1260 15th St #701 Santa Monica CA 90404 Tel: (310) 393-7766 Santa Monica Emergency Dentist For Playa Del Rey who accepts Dental Insurance PlansRichard Haber DDS1260 15th St #701Santa Monica CA 90404Tel: (310) 393-7766 | Home | Doctor | Services | Location | Contact Us
We accept most types of dental insurance including Delta Dental, Aetna,, Anthem Blue Cross Dental Plan, Assurant Employee Dental Benefit Blue shield of California Dental Insurance, Cigna , Connecticut General , All Delta Dental Insurance Plans, Dental Network of America Insurance, Guardian Dental Life Insurance Company, Humana Dental Insurance , Metlife Dental Insurance Plan, Metropolitan Life Company, Dental Principal Financial Dental Group, United Concordia Dental Insurance, United Healthcare Dental Insurance Group. We are an in network provider for Delta Dental Plans . We are an out of network provider for other dental insurance plans. We do not accept any HMO Dental Plan. Located in Santa Monica, California the office serves patients throughout Los Angeles County including neighboring cities such as Santa Monica - Brentwood - Westwood - Century City - West Los Angeles - Pacific Palisades - Malibu - Marina Del Rey - Playa Del Rey - Venice - Playa Vista - Westchester - Culver City - Baldwin Hills - Cheviot Hills |


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