penumba! > Elist sat behind an imposing desk in a borrowed office and spoke about his > forthcoming book, a collection of parables for spiritually minded s

penumba! > Elist sat behind an imposing desk in a borrowed office and spoke about his > forthcoming book, a collection of parables for spiritually minded surgeons > titled "Operating with God." His ghost­writer had rendered his voice so > skillfully, he said, that he'd found himself moved to tears while reading > it. Beside a gilt statue of a jaguar in the corner of the room, someone had > propped a mirror with an image of Jesus etched at its center. As Elist > recounted passages from his book, his merry face, crowned by a hair­net, > hovered next to Christ's. The above reads like a Tales From the Crypt movie script, in the leadup to Elist slicing into yet another victim's Johnson.