An Interview with Craig Hildreth of The Cheerful Oncologist

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This time around, we're talking to Craig Hildreth of The Cheerful Oncologist.

What's your name?
Craig Hildreth

What do you do when you're not blogging?
I enjoy assassinating cancer cells that have taken nice people hostage. I also read, lift weights, hang out with the family, walk the dog, peruse restaurant menus with a skeptical eye, eat dark chocolate, listen to old songs, drive my boat on the river, shoot skeet, listen for whip-poor-wills, and try to make myself part of the solution, not the problem. (Note the Oxford comma there).

What is your blog called?
The Cheerful Oncologist

What's up with that name?
While appearing on a local radio station I was named "The Joking Oncologist" by one of the hosts after interjecting some desperately needed humor into the program. When it came time to name my blog it was suggested (by my intelligent wife, natch) that I might want to tweak the title a bit, in the hopes that readers would not mistake my site for a Henny Youngman tribute, or worse.

How long have you been blogging, anyway?
Two years

Where are you from and where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Iowa, and now live in St. Louis.

Would you describe yourself as a working scientist?
As compared to an idle-rich scientist? I'm a doctor, not a scientist, and I'd also like to add the following into the Starfleet record: He's dead, Jim.

Any educational experiences or degrees you'd like to mention?
Well, my undergraduate degree is in English, specifically poetry. I am also a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Medicine. I did my internal medicine residency at Barnes Hospital / Washington University School of Medicine and then my medical oncology fellowship at Vanderbilt.

What are your main academic interests, in or out of your field?
Cosmology, physics, polemology, despots, English history, Earth history (biological and geological), classics in literature, memorizing Shakespearean quotes, Hemingway biographies (of which there are legion).

The last book you read?
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell

What is your idea of a perfect day?
A gorgeous sun buffeted by foamy white clouds, a brisk morning run followed by a successful fishing trip, toes in the warm sand by the lakeshore, a long water-ski run, then a few more as the driver, a hot shower, cold martini, nice piece of fish, then laughter deep into the night with those whom I find most precious of all.

What's your greatest habitual annoyance?
Rudeness - I despise rude people. Ostentatious displays of wealth or ignorance run a close second.

Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley and Count Mippipopolous (The Sun Also Rises), Harry Haller (Steppenwolf), Dagny Taggert (Atlas Shrugged), Jeeves (P. G. Wodehouse novels), Odysseus, Sherlock Holmes

Your favorite heroes in real life?
This is a tie between folks who go to work every day and give their best at what they have been asked to do, and people who know the true value of sacrifice.

What's your most marked characteristic?
I cherish the humor hidden in most situations.

What's your principal defect?
I can't stand disorder or messiness. I'm also a recovering Type A Personality - with occasional relapses.

What quality do you admire most in a person?
Good cheer.

Who are your favorite writers?
Churchill, Wodehouse, Hemingway, Hesse, Wharton, Shakespeare, Keats, Poe, Updike, A. C. Doyle

What would you like to be?
A writer.

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