Despite the mad gyrations of Wall Street, the dire warnings of an imminent financial meltdown, San Francisco seemed to have a Zippity Do Da attitude. The streets were filled with people who walked briskly to their jobs in soaring highrises. Avid shoppers, their pockets stuffed with euros, filled Nieman Marcus looking for bargains, and the restaurants were bursting. While ACR attendees may have filled some of the seats, the natives were there in force, and that was not a bottle of Gallo at the table. No, that bottle was a rare and ethereal pinot noir crafted from grapes from a steep, fog-embraced slope. The nose of the wine was redolent of cherries and that little puppy cost 200 smackers.
Always cautious, I had thrift on my mind. On the front desk of my hotel was a shiny silver bowl filled with the best Granny Smith apples you ever saw. Each day, I took an apple for an afternoon snack but I never ate one. By the end of the week, my black bag was filled with apples. While feeling sheepish about this fruit collection, I was reassured that, if the stock market really tanked, I could set up shop on Market Street, ready to sell those Granny Smiths to make ends meet.
The ACR meeting inspired me with optimism and good humor, especially as I saw all those young trainees who looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and seemed keen to learn. Nevertheless, a “big one” may be around the corner and, in my next column, I will provide further musings from the ACR meeting on the future of rheumatology.
Dr. Pisetsky is physician editor of The Rheumatologist and professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
