so how's it going, herb?
really? i'm sorry to hear that. i understand you've moved out to a hotel.
it got that bad with phyllis?
yes.
listen, herb, i'm the guy who brought you into this hospital, so i think i can skip the diplomatic overtures. marty stopped me in the hall yesterday, very upset. he had just had lunch with you and said you sounded suicidal. marty tends to be extravagant, but he's not the only one. jack singer mentioned the other day you've been boozing it up a lot. and let's face it, you've been sloughing off. i understand you haven't even been doing rounds.
herb, want a couple of days off?
go down to montego bay, get drunk, get laid, get a little sun.
maybe you ought to have a talk with joe einhorn.
oh, god. did you call the cops?
goddammit, barry, i've got a dozen community leaders waiting for me in the library! we've been trying to work out some kind of negotiable formula for two years! and with no help from you people in the urban affairs division, i might add!
and i'm not going to throw all that down the drain because some cockamamie activist group is show-boating for the television cameras! you get those people out of those buildings before a wall collapses or a fire breaks out and we've got a riot on our hands!.  okay!
it's news to me.
i'll probably get it tomorrow. report on what?
welbeck, i'm terribly sorry, but i do have this meeting. in any event, there's nothing i can do about it. if gilley wants to cut your privileges, he's chief of surgery, it's within his province. you'll have to have the hearing.
of course.
now, now, welbeck. it seems to me i've had your name down here before for something.  i'll be in the staff room.
wait a minute. you're the fellow with the medicaid collecting business who incorporated and went public, right? i mean, something like that? milton mead was telling me about you just the other day. you're a whole medical conglomerate. you've got a factoring service, a computerized billing company, and a few proprietary hospitals, a few nursing homes. good heavens, welbeck, you shouldn't be brought up before a committee of mere doctors. you should be investigated by the securities and exchange commission. you'll have to go through with the hearing, welbeck. i don't interfere in these things.
please, please, please!
for god's sake! we've got eleven people in these buildings, and we've got to get them out of there! we can rectify the injustices of the world tomorrow, but right now, for god's sake, can we get those people out of those buildings? will you people please listen to me? will you people please shut up and listen to me? will you people please call a halt to this participatory democracy and address ourselves to the immediate problem?!
you people want to see me?
i've had it up to here. i'm not dealing with this kind of cheap blackmail!
i am not going to do anything.  about anything.
by god, if you want to take over this hospital, you take it over!
you run it! i am finished! i quit! you run it! you pay the bills! you fight the city!
you fight the state! you fight the unions. you fight the community! you.  you think you can do a better job, you do it! now i am finished! i quit! it's all yours!
yeah.
it's like pissing in the wind, right, herb?