Chapter 6 chapter Five

Saturday, December 22 "I didn't hear you enter the room last night. I woke up very late again today." Bridge Spellman is cutting oranges on a cutting board in their spacious kitchen. "Mom, it was late at that time. I didn't come back at the right time, and the road back from Philadelphia was very heavy. But Dad was still up, and he opened the door for me. You know, I don't have a home Keys." Patricia Spielman went to the sink to help her mother prepare breakfast. "Your dad and I are so happy you're home for the holidays. He's coming down right away.

You go make coffee. ' Bridge Spellman pointed to the coffee pot. "Dad stayed up late last night, too," Patricia said, pouring coffee. "He took out his stamp album. It's been a long time since he took out his stamp album. He said something wasn't going well last night. So he had time to sort out the stamps." Just then Henry Spellman walked into the kitchen. "Is there anything I can do to help?" He sounded in a good mood. "We were just getting ready for dinner," Bridge replied.The Spielmans haven't been together for a long time.They're now ready to sit down to a New England breakfast of hot cake and Vermont maple syrup.

Breakfast at the Spielmans was still old fashioned.Frozen concentrated orange juice, mixed pies, substitute maple syrup, and freeze-dried coffee are not suitable for Bridge Spellman.In her house, everything is, as she likes to say, "from scratch."Bridge Spellman is a firm believer that a good breakfast can energize the day.In the early years, in the winter, she would rather let Patricia go out without a coat and gloves than have her eat some hot cereal, pie, eggs, and freshly baked bread. "Is the demand for veterinary services increasing?" Henry Spielman asked, cutting a pancake with a fork.Patricia Spielman started her internship in Philadelphia just over a year ago after finishing her veterinary medicine studies at Cornell University.

"I don't know if the demand is increasing. But I'm really busy. Sometimes I wonder if I'll make it through. So it's great to be home for a few days now. Not to have to deal with people who are sick. Animals, zoo people wouldn't call me to come over - what a luxury." "If you don't want to be so busy," said Henry Spielman, "it's an easy problem to solve. Just raise your rates," said Spielman, munching on food. "Dad, if I raise my rates, I think more people will come. In Philadelphia, some people choose veterinarians based on how much they charge. They're happy to go to the veterinarian who charges the most for their pets."

Henry Spellman found this conversation at the table more attractive than the breakfast in front of him.But before he could respond to his daughter, Bridges quickly changed the subject.Because with years of experience, she knew that an economics lecture was about to begin. " Patty , when you came home last summer you said you pulled an elephant's teeth. Have you ever seen it again?" "Oh Mom, it's Ike, the African elephant at the zoo. He's one of the reasons why I love working at the zoo. Last July, Ike had a toothache. We had to extract his tooth and remove the infection. In It seems to Ike that I can make him relieve the pain. Every time I go to the zoo, he comes to see me alive, like a puppy."

"It's really like a puppy! You have to be careful not to be stepped on by it." Bridge reminded her while sipping his freshly brewed coffee. Both Bridge and her husband are proud of their daughter's professional accomplishments.Getting into veterinary school is harder than getting into med school these days.In fact, if their daughter hadn't been able to get into veterinary school, she would have been a doctor.But her undergraduate grades made both Cornell and Michigan State very happy to accept her.She wanted to be close to home, so she chose Cornell easily. "I can picture you treating puppies and cats," Bridge Spellman continued, "but you go to the zoo... I really can't imagine you operating on lions or Elephants pulled their teeth."

"But Mum, my favorite things are the big ones. I'm just starting my career, and I feel lucky that a zoo can call me there." "The zoo called to ask you to go?" Her father asked. "Human doctors stopped coming to the house a long time ago. The customers came to see them. Why did you go to the zoo to see the animals in the cages?" Woolen cloth? " Patricia Spielman immediately realized that the situation had been reversed.She will not pass up this opportunity. "Dad, why is this an economics question?" Henry Spellman cringed a little.He wasn't used to coming up with good economics ideas to explain for himself, especially in his own home.He looked at his daughter expectantly. "Economics? What principles of economics make veterinarians behave differently than human physicians?"

"The law of demand. You often say that's the most basic law of economics. Can you imagine how many people would come to me to see their pets if I had a gorilla sitting in my waiting room?" ?” After hearing this, Spielman put on a pained expression, like one who just heard a corny pun.Both Bridge and Patricia were amused by his expression.Spielman didn't want to spoil their fun, either. For this reason, he didn't tell them that the reason he made that exaggerated look was because his daughter had made a mistake.She confused "demand" with "quantity demanded."He thought silently: For an economist, this is a serious mistake, but for a veterinarian it is nothing.Spielman was interested in explaining the difference, but it was Bridge's second pancake that intrigued him more.Between these two options, even a professor who loves to teach people will not hesitate.