Dammit, it was Louis Prima! 
Quasi
No, I don’t think so. He was a miserable ass before the pain. He’d be a miserable ass without it. And the pain is very real and intense. Witness him a couple of weeks ago lashing out at Taub, “I’M IN PAIN!” Very seldom does he take it out on anyone like that, though. It’s just something he internalizes and deals with by popping Vicodin. It doesn’t cause him to pull irresponsible pranks, make sexist comments, or call everybody he deals with idiots. The pain is not his fault, according to him. He puts the blame on Stacy, who authorized a different treatment for his leg while he was in the coma and she had his medical power of attorney. If he had a more sociable personality, he’d still be in pain intense enough for him to need the Vicodin all day long.
I could sympathize with him. I had back pain a few years ago that was so intense I could barely walk and wanted to die. I have a rather pleasant personality and doubt I could have withstood it as stoically as House deals with his.
If you could put his personality on anything, it was probably due to his upbringing with a military father who treated him like the lowest Marine recruit and a mother who was too passive to interfere.
Cite?
Step Father.
For all practical purposes, he was the father figure. I know House suspected early on he wasn’t his real father, but there was no other influential adult male in his day-to-day life.
Agreed, but the primary premise “Everybody lies” comes directly from this situation with his parents. Didn’t mean to be needlessly pedantic, I just think that particular distinction is carbon-level basic to House.
Sure, but doesn’t he also get “paid” for all the lives he saved . . . and the excellent training he provided for his staff, who would then go on and save more lives?
I found House’s conversation with his ex-wife the most interesting. House stuck with his atheism to the end. Also I smiled when Hugh Laurie pronounced “facile” the British way fas-ahyl instead of the American fas-il. Despite some plot points that were a stretch, I thought the episode was an excellent finale to the series.
I’ve been to a couple of cast parties, one being “Camelot The Musical” which Dondra got us invitations to (She free-lanced for Creative Loafing Atlanta’s entertainment section at the time and I got to meet my favorite “Arthur” Richard Harris. Sorry, but I’m very proud of my wife and never miss a chance to brag on her:)), and IMO, this one -House- was a little long in the tooth. I would have preferred a 2 hour “House” instead, but that’s just me.
Oh yeah, that year the Braves made the play-offs and because D went to school with Ted Turner’s executive secretary (Barbara), I was able to get a real Braves jersey to give to Mr. Harris and got to shake his hand and speak with him a little. The next night (we saw the play twice), Mr. Harris took his last bow with the jersey on which thrilled us both no end.
I guess it’d be “bad form” to contact the estate and ask for the jersey back, huh?;):D;):D. J/K, folks! It was, after all just some red and white cloth. I actually got to meet one of my favorite actors and had a short conversation with him about T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, which was way better.
I know this sounds like I’m bragging. I don’t mean for it to, it’s just that this was one of the highlights of my life and it was all made possible by my sweet wife, who is also my hero and I’m her biggest fan. BTW, this all took place during our first marriage.
Who would have known back then, that you and I would at some point in the future have a connection through The Straight Dope, that you’d come to our rescue, and that we’d be the bestest of friends?*
Again, sorry for the detour, but these days being able to remember something like that makes me want to remember every detail I can and write it down, so that I can now edit, copy and paste it into my memoirs.
Thanks very much and we love y’all! 
Bill and Dondra Craig
*P.S: Is that serendipity or synchronicity? I can never remember which is which.
Serendipity is a Cusak movie, Synchronicity is a Police album.
House definitely shot up with POTW: one of his first sentences in the show, which didn’t make sense until later, was telling Suicide-Delusion that he WAS just a ‘delusion born of his smack-addled brain’. Or something close; the ‘smack-addled’ part is dead on, though.
Maybe the patient dying was just a happy accident that House took advantage of, but I’m still going with the idea that House switched all the records later, somehow, because that’s easier for me to swallow than House planning someone’s death in order to take advantage of it, especially since it was made quite clear that yeah, House WAS giving up and saying fuck it and ready to just DIAF. Doubt he planned the DIAF thing either, but his resolution to change seemed pretty clear-cut, and it wasn’t until then that he got his ass up and moving.