Welcome to Callous!  Follow Dr. Rianne Nicah, a struggling physician, as she braves the world with her Guardian Duck, Cal Duck! Published in print since August 7, 1996, online since 1997! Click on a comic strip's link to view and enter comments! 

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21 February 2014

Posted by Carlo Jose San Juan, MD on Thursday, February 20, 2014


    Back when I was a clinical intern, a required extra year of clinical rotations before taking the physician's licensure examination, I used to think of lunchtime as a nice break from the stress within the wards.
    As an intern in the hospital I was matched to, I wasn't receiving any pay, but I did get three free meals a day!  So if we weren't needed anywhere, my fellow interns and I along with the hospital staff would troop on over to the mess hall to get our free grub.  Perks of working in a government hospital, perhaps.
    I'll never forget my first time in the mess hall.  The line to get our food was legendary as was the steel sectioned food trays.  The lack of utensils was a definite surprise (we had to bring our own).  As was the mountain of salt at the ready to add that ever-elusive thing called "flavor" to our free food.  But no aspect of the mess hall experience was more legendary than the mysterious, often-served dish we collectively and endearingly referred to as "beef with brown sauce".
    To be fair, I enjoyed it.  But after several straight trips to the mess hall to find the same old fare I was beginning to realize that I had experienced the extent of the viand variety that the mess hall had in its repertoire.
    In fact, if there was even the slightest variation in our cuisine it would be a magnanimous event! You'd think the Beatles were reuniting for one last performance in the mess hall.  Nevertheless, you could always count on "beef with brown sauce" to return.
    Today, I actually miss it. :)


Tags: mess hall  hospital  rianne  lunch guy  cafeteria  food 
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All Callous comic strips are written and illustrated by Carlo Jose San Juan unless otherwise specified.  Lettering by Carlo Jose S. San Juan, MD and Phil Elliott  

Callous, Callous Comics, The Callous Comic Strip and all related characters, images, and situations are Copyright 1996, 2022 Carlo Jose San Juan

Cal Duck and Dr. Rianne Nicah of Callous Comics
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Callous - The Comic Strip by Carlo Jose S. San Juan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
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