Letter From the Lipid Spin Editor: Potpourri

Potpourri /,pou pu’ri:/ is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a gentle natural scent inside buildings, most commonly in residential settings. It is usually placed in a decorative (often wooden) bowl, or tied in a small sachet made from sheer fabric.

Potpourri is used inside the home to give the air a pleasant smell. The word "potpourri" comes into English from the French word "pot-pourri." The French term has two connotations. It is the French name for a Spanish stew with a wide variety of ingredients called "olla podrida," specialty of the town of Burgos. The word was taken and copied by the French military during the Napoleonic occupation of Burgos (1808-1813). Literally, however, the word "pot" in French has the same meaning as it does in Spanish and English, while the word "pourri" means rotten. In English, "potpourri" is often used to refer to any collection of miscellaneous or diverse items.¹

This edition is so named because we are providing a hodgepodge of important opinions, facts, viewpoints, burning issues and anecdotes to our readers. We have had so many requests for publication that we had to make difficult choices. If your article did not get in bear with us. The NLA plans to continue to publish yearly a Potpourri edition.

Routinely we focus with the expressed desire to target matters of currency and importance to the clinical lipidologist. We rotate by region and this adds representation and fairness and currency for all of our constituency. In this instance we are publishing peer-reviewed articles without respect for region. We are publishing with strong respect to differences of opinion and the desire that the clinician practicing in lipidology gets a flavor of how their colleagues think.

The NLA does not necessarily endorse some of the opinions presented in this edition. What the NLA does however is sponsor a forum for the written word to be seen.

We invite each of you to think outside the box. If, however, you meet with resistance we suggest that this is good. Growth comes from diversity of opinion and this leads to further insight. So we hope you read this edition with this spirit in mind. We thank the NLA for sponsoring this extra edition.

We thank the board for providing a forum for people to be heard.

In this era of evidenced-based practice we applaud every effort to encourage practice based on best evidence. We also recognize that every patient we see is not average. Unique circumstances are the rule and we all have to think outside the box to best serve the patients we are entrusted to serve.