There is a saying in France that one should never get sick in August, as that's the month when the entire country - including the medical profession - is off on vacation. I thought of that Friday, when I called my ear-nose-and-throat doctor and was told that he doesn't see patients on Friday. Next I called my general practitioner and learned that she was away until the 23rd. The American medical system, it seemed, was copying the French one in its least appealing aspect: inactivity.
