flexagon | Positive masculinity, and breast trouble

Because it's amusing to lump them into one post.

First, I've had this Rasmussen song (youtube, lyrics) stuck in my head for a while now. It's one of those extremely sincere songs that actually works. It's also, I realized yesterday, extremely and unabashedly masculine. All the singers: men. In the video: just men. The issue: war. In the lyrics: "men", twice, though leaning into the gender-neutral for poetic effect (men laying down their swords / each of their own accord). It's also pacifist, tough, epic and emotionally mature... just men dealing (manfully?) with what is primarily a men's issue: societal pressure to fight. I can get on board with that.

In less awesome and more female news, I need a breast biopsy. My initial mammogram showed some calcium specks, and today we confirmed that they are all in one tiny circular spot rather than scattered evenly through my breast (a sign of some localized process happening). The odds are 75% that the biopsy will show it's totally benign, and 25% that they'll want to take out some tissue, though the 25% includes atypia as well as cancer.

Whatever it is, it's very small. The possible small surgery is, if I understood correctly, less than a lumpectomy. The only wrinkle is that it'll be a tough biopsy to do, as in they might not be able to do it because of where the calcium is located; I'll be on a table trying to stick my boob through a hole, and the calcium is deep in by my muscle wall. If that fails, then I won't get a biopsy at all, and then we'll be at "small surgery or nothing" without data (which means surgery). More news on Thursday.