I Miss Fafblog Comments, Spot!
you had me at drainpipe bassoon of doom
hang ten, Pup'ted
I am sure you are right. A "cakewalk" is how you tiptoe along when you're stranded in a minefield, trying to put a small bootprint on the ground. And 'Katrina' was some sort of a jazz musician/stripper that took New Orleans by storm, 'foreign policies' are where your accountant hides your money, and 'swine flu' refers to Biblical times when pigs could fly. Which brings me to this map of swine flu cases.
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Speaking of that aquatic sport in which people have fun in the sun while using a board in the water - you know, I recently watched a documentary on The Who, and learned (among other things) that Keith Moon was a big fan of surf music. In fact, when he met the rest of the band his hair was orange because he'd tried to make it blond. When the band stopped performing for a while he went to live in California.
California has some of the swine flu cases now. And speaking of swine flu cases - to repeat something I posted as a comment at Effect Measure, and which you are welcome to send along to others, even without attribution:
As Simple as Possible, but Not Simpler
Those of us reading here may be asked to give advice to people we know, who know that we know more about this situation than they do.
Last night's televised presidential press conference, and various other communications aimed at the public, are, in my opinion, keeping it TOO simple. Here's my version of the "as simple as possible" advice:
I read quite a bit about influenza during the bird flu "boom" a few years ago. We didn't get a bird flu pandemic, but I'm sure we will get a flu pandemic eventually. Is this it? We'll see.
But we do know some things now. As Obama said in his press conference, if you cough, cough into your elbow, not into the open air or your hand. Wash or sanitize (with Purell or equivalent) your hands frequently. Stay home from work or school or crowds or traveling in mass transit if you're sick.
Other things you could do now:
Accumulate food and water at home in case supplies are interrupted.
Download and print out the CDC's home care advice (just as the stores might be empty if this hits hard, the hospitals will definitely be full). It's at the CDC site, or search for the terms "swine influenza" "taking care of a sick person in your home":
www.cdc.gov/swineflu/guidance_homecare.htm
While antivirals and antibiotics require prescriptions, CDC says over-the-counter cold and flu medications will give symptomatic relief (but don't give them to children under the age of two; don't give aspirin-containing drugs to teenagers or younger). You might check that you have some of these on hand, just in case. Aches and fever can be helped with acetaminophen (TylenolŽ), ibuprofen (AdvilŽ, MotrinŽ, NuprinŽ), and naproxen (Aleve).
And finally, here's a doctor's advice about dealing with being sick without help - based on going through it herself:
http://www.fluwikie.com/
index.ph...ences.HomeAlone
Speaking of following the drainpipe bassoon of doom
and "A joyous day for America, during which a few Americans had planned to make a whole bunch of spurious and outrageous character based accusations against a bunch of their fellow Americans while the FoxNews cameras whirred and purred and the FoxNews anchors looked on and preened and simped..." The folks at Science News have an interesting article wondering; Can Living And Non-living Follow Same Rules? "
They seem to think the answer is yes, personally, I think that the living are subject to more constraints, issues like the quality and quantity of life, that zombies and corporations are free of.
We seem to have a pretty good health system in place for epidemics and such. How come nobody acknowledges that it is a Socialized system?
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