Since the lacrosse thread is just going in circles I thought we could look at another aspect of Paternity; The Bet.

Do you think that House picked up on the cleft chin thing and that's why he made the statement about the father not being the father which led to the bet or do you think he was just going with the odds?

I personally think he picked up on that and was just playing everyone. The subject of a bet was actually secondary to it all. Since Foreman got so upset about it he figured he'd take some money from him in the process.

Considering how observant House usually is, I suspect he did. He saw that the mother didn't have a cleft chin, so the father would have to have had one, which he didn't, ergo the man wasn't the boy's father. Of course then we get the surprise that the mother's not the mother either, I don't think any of them saw that coming. :lol:

What I'd *really* like to know is: when House fills out his *taxes,* does he list betting and 'side action' as his *primary* source of income or just *supplemental* income? :lol: ;) (Kidding, he's too smart--he probably lists it as a deduction for 'educational purposes.' *heeee* ;) )When are the Ducklings going to learn *not* to bet against him? One of these days they'll realize that they're paying into House's 'early retirement fund...' ;) LOL

Hugs,
Sanlin

I think he knew...the look on Foreman's face when he found out look to me to say "So that's how the bloody bastard knew." Probably didn't use the word bloody, that's me...lol, but you get the idea!

House, retire??? Nah I don't see that. Anyway, I love the "educational purposes"

Hey I'm just wondering why Wilson bet him $600?! What's up with that??!!! Wilson should really know better!

Yeah, I'm being facetious about the 'early retirement.' House *needs* to be where he is and solve those mysteries... It keeps the blood pumping in his veins--his 'raison d'etre.'

Yes, Wilson *should* know better. Which makes me wonder why he did it. He's a smart cookie and he knows House better than anyone. Maybe it was worth the $600 to him just to engage House's intellect, interest and sleuthing skills. It might have been to help get the Ducklings to 'bite,' too. If James had said, "Heck, no! Never bet against House!" LOL they probably would have run in the opposite direction... LOL

Also: I think everyone's secretly waiting for House to be wrong about something... Oh, he doesn't get the correct initial diagnosis for his tougher cases, right off the bat. I'm not talking about that. He always comes to the right solution, eventually. But, I think the people around him are looking for something smaller, where they can say 'Aha! Gotcha!' The trouble is, House is just too darn smart... LOL I think he goes into bets already knowing he's 'won' them. :-)

Hugs,
Sanlin

Thinking some more... (Always a dangerous occupation. LOL :blink: )

Because of the harsh realities of the work that House and Wilson do (dealing with dying patients and their loved ones), I think they make bets just as one more way of 'staying sane,' too. Same with some of the irreverence or 'gallows humor.' The emotional impact of what they see and go through in a day has to come out, somewhere. For Wilson, maybe it's through his relationships with women. For House, he tries to wait until he gets home and can let all his 'barriers' and shields drop. Cameron, for her part, cries over 'unbalanced centrifuges.' LOL They all have to find their own ways of 'dealing' with the psychological and emotional impact of high-stress, brutally demanding jobs that deal every day with critically ill or dying human beings. And situations that often push their own ‘emotional buttons…’

Also, back to the betting, again: it's something House said in "Occam's Razor" (thanks again to Marisol for the transcript) that hits me...

"House: Well, that certainly would be a concern. Fifty bucks? [Patient looks up.] Don’t look away, the space monkeys will be all over you.

Foreman: You wanna bet on the patient’s health?

House: You think that’s bad luck? Do you think that God will smite him because of our insensitivity? Well, if God does, you make a quick fifty. [Patient kills the little guy on the Gameboy.] Go check his white blood count. If he’s fighting off a virus like you think it’ll be way up. [He starts to play on the Gameboy again. Foreman leaves, and Wilson enters.]"

I think, in some ways, that House keeps 'throwing down the gauntlet' to God. I'm reminded of the line from "Bruce, Almighty:" "Smite me, oh mighty smiter!" LOL I believe House is a man of faith, on a deeper level, as well as a physician and man of science. But, he hasn't quite forgiven/reconciled with God for his injuries and the personal 'fallout' in his life. Here House is, he's dedicated his existence to saving people, but no one was there to 'save' him. So, House does things with the attitude that if God is really 'up there, somewhere,' let's see Him prove it... Maybe the thought of being a hostile deity's 'whipping boy' would be more comforting, in an odd way, than not getting any reply or indication of God's existence, at all. I think this ties in with when Elise suddenly got 'better,' too, after her husband Ed pleaded with her to live... There was something on House's face when that happened that ties into faith and the power of love.

Hugs,
Sanlin

Yea, I agree, I think he does believe in God, though he's mighty pissed off at him, and basically at life in general in a lot of ways. But like the nun said, "you can't hate God and not believe in him at the same time" or something like that.

I dunno, he may come around, in time. He'll probably be 72, but whatever works. He's just too comfortable in his righteous anger at the moment to see beyond himself. That's another reason he probably doesn't get along with the rest of the world very well, much less God.

The parents should have told House that their son was adopted and then they would not have gone through the mess of getting the DNA test.