Sphygmomanometer

I like sphygmomanometers. I like to look at them. I like to use them*. I like to say "sphygmomanometer".

*[I am gradually getting more confident in my desire to go back to nursing school again, in spite of multiple failures in the past.]

The other day, I was watching some kids playing with a toy medical kit, noticing that among other things, it included a plastic bracelet in the form of an adhesive bandage. Also noticing that they still put it all in a "little black bag", a feature almost as anachronistic as the way that toy gas pumps still go "ding-ding" as they pump imaginary gasoline.

I was intrigued by one little boy using a toy sphygmomanometer on another boy, squeezing the little bulb and pretending to read the dial: "Eighty, ninety, ten, eleven, twelve." Interesting combination of the correct and the almost-correct -- notice that he did keep the tens column straight.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Mind your blood pressure."\\