"Speaking of Operations--"

The author offers a humorous, first-person account of medical operations and the social habit of recounting them, mixing anecdote, social observation, and self-deprecating narration about his own experience receiving surgery. He reflects on how operations become conversational currency, describes the ritual of visiting a physician and the hospital staff, and lampoons common attitudes toward doctors, grooming, and small talk topics. Interwoven are lively digressions on subjects such as public conversation, personal sensations of illness, and the narrator's recovery, all delivered with comic timing and a skeptical eye toward medical and social pretensions.