Another Novel Except

I had joked, before the mission, about prophylactically taking out everyone’s appendix.  I want emphasize that I said it was a JOKE, because it would be completely ridiculous to submit otherwise healthy men to the risk of surgery that they didn’t need, solely for the benefit of potentially avoiding the rare and unlikely scenario of having to do emergency surgery in space.  The NASA doctors didn’t grasp the humor or irony though, saying that if prophylactic surgery was my recommendation then they would make it happen.  I mused at their overly cautious approach, and decided to see how far I could push them.  I suggested that we should probably take out the men’s gallbladders too, lest one of those start to act up in space.  They agreed wholeheartedly.   Finally, I proposed cutting off everyone’s testicles too, to avoid emergency surgery in the (extremely!) rare circumstance of testicular torsion.   They nodded along, and said that it sounded reasonable.   At that point, I began to stop enjoying my little game and fearing what kind of men I was really talking to.