Story 1  It wasn’t two months into my fellowship in Clinical Chemistry, working late after the routine staff had left for the day. The phone rings (BRNNG! - [old phone-1978]), and I answer.  I recognize the voice on the line as a world famous endocrinologist; I had attended his lecture this week, so the voice was familiar.  Doc asks “So, how’s the thyroxine reading machine working today?”  (me: Pause - What??? Doesn’t this eminent physician know that there isn’t “a thyroxine reading machine”?  There are extraordinarily talented people working to add the right chemicals, isotopes, separating the phases, and putting the correct fraction in the isotope counter, then using log-logit transformation to calculate the thyroxine concentration, then entering the result on a piece of paper to be attached to the patients chart.)  I think some more…what is this very smart, eloquent, courteous clinician really asking?…AHA, he is asking me if we had any problems in the Lab today.  Moyer learning experience #1, learn how to understand the question to get to the useful answer.  He want’s to know if the result is correct.  I ask if I can call him back in 3 minutes after I review everything (no more than three minutes because I know he will move on to another chart and not take my return call).  So, less than three minutes later I call back to say I reviewed all the the quality checks, and all indicators suggest the result is correct.  His response, another learning experience for Moyer, “OK, just wanted to check before I change my diagnosis.  The result didn’t fit with my expectation, so now that I believe it to be real, I will reconsider my initial diagnosis.  Thanks for your help.”  Moyer to self: Thank you Doc X for that valuable learning experience.