For Barter or Worse

My wife, Mary Lou, and I retreat each summer to our cabin in the Lake Wobegon region of Northern Minnesota. This renews us both spiritually and intellectually; and so it is the perfect place to write about the topics covered in this issue of Medical Meetings: speaker honoraria and meetings in international destinations. We used to have a café nearby until the owner, George (not her real name), began putting ordinary expenses under the heading of capital improvements. While her logic