I always thought no one outside of overblown Victorian romances
got gout, but recently a good friend came down with it and it’s
not after all very funny. Who knew?

I get it in my right foot every now and then and it’s quite painful.
Luckily, there are some good medications for it these days.

I understand that an excessive fondness for steak can lead to it.
Ah, yes — the rich man’s disease.

No, steak doesn’t have much of an impact on it. Liver or kidneys can
contribute.

Nor is it a “rich man’s disease.” Rich men go to the doctor and get
diagnosed for gout. Poor people simply have “the miserables”. As Alan
King once noted, “You never heard of a poor man hospitalized for
exhaustion.”

I wasn’t really serious, although it certainly is known as the “rich man’s
disease”. Poor people never had the chance to eat well enough to fall
victim to it, was the belief. Coincidentally, just last weekend I was with
a man who was suffering with it and made no bones about it. Noisily.
Filthy rich, he was, too.

As for diagnosing it, sure, they know what it is. Curing it is the problem,
and the pain is quite stubborn also, I’m told.

Another victim was my lead-man, way back when I first hired in at Lockheed.
He was in his twenties and hailed from Bohemia. He complained a lot also.