"Non-Kosher Agrarian Companion Dissaffection"- Oink Oink!

Ok, so I have to give credit to Christoph Amberger for the nifty title of today's blog (But the animal sounds are my own addition).

So if you know me AT ALL you already know how super excited I am this week- because what is better than an epidemiological abnormality? But is that really what we're looking at? Any person who has a familiarity with flu outbreaks/epidemics/pandemics knows that we were due for one this year! Since the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic (which would kill the equivalent population of 1.5 million Americans if it were to occur today), at 11 year intervals an almost clockwork-like flu incident of some note has occurred. The size and scope of each of these has varied, as have the original "host", if you will, but the regularity is alarming, and at the same time comforting to infectious disease junkies like me.

So recent history goes like this:
1976: Swine Flu
1987: H1N1 Swine Flu
1998: H5N1 Avian Flu
2009: H1N1 2009 Swine Flu!

For those old enough to remember the 1976 Swine Flu, an important lesson was learned that ought to be remembered in our current situation (and subsequently every 11 years or so). Gerald Ford's well intentioned flu-vaccine program turned into a fiasco with 40 million people getting vaccinated for a pandemic that never occurred. Bad enough that the pandemic never happened (all that hard work for nothing), but then there was an enormous backlash of lawsuits brought against the government and drug makers for purported cases of the neurological disorder Guillain Barre' syndrome. So that public health initiative was a big FAIL. And since then, we Americans have appeased ourselves into thinking that the flu outbreaks are "over there" in Asia- which they mostly have been- until now.

As of today things are interesting, its fun to watch it spread, especially quickly due to our global society. But its annoying that the media is talking pandemic- which this clearly (as of today anyway) is not. It is not even an epidemic- merely an outbreak at this point. Look up the definitions if you need clarification. But if you still want to obsess (like me!), you can track the spread of the flu in real time:

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/swine-flu-map-and-real-time-tracking-20090427/

Also, for a fantastic read on all types of flu and their historical effects on modern civilization try "Flu" by Gina Kolata. I owe her many facts in this post.


I leave you with a quote spoken a decade ago by a guy who knows his stuff:

"If a new virus gets identified or reappears you don't want to jump the gun and assume a pandemic is happening." - Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Head of the World Health Organization- Global Influenza Program

p.s. Wash your hands!

For a pedophile, he's a damn good singer!

Today was a rainy, sick-day Monday for me and the Bear. We ended up watching music videos on You Tube and I decided to show her the Jackson 5. My five year old little girl sat enthralled while a young (and still white) Michael Jackson sang "I Want You Back"
Our conversation went like this:

Bear: Why were they called the Jackson 5?
Me: Because there were 5 brothers with the last name Jackson
Bear: What were their first names?
Me: Um... Michael, Tito, Frito...no wait...

*** At this point the Bear made me look it up on Wikipedia- the right answer is: Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and of course Michael***

Bear: What happened to him (Michael)?
Me: He grew up and turned into a white woman.
Bear: HUH?

After the Jackson 5 videos we moved on to Michael's solo work. And that's when it happened: she discovered the Thriller album. Released November 30, 1982, it spent 80 consecutive weeks in the top 10, and by most anyone's standards its one of the best albums ever. But my 5 year old doesn't know that- she just knows its "so cool". Particularly "Beat It", which we listened to 4 times in succession! With Eddie Van Halen's guitar work and Michael's melodic angst its irresistible.

The special coincidence on this rainy day is that my daughter is almost EXACTLY the same age that I was when the album was released 27 years ago. This was pivotal in my young life. I still clearly remember getting chills when Vincent Price did his monologue in "Thriller". Sharing this with her, at this time in her life was one of those moments in parenting that you could never plan and is just too precious for words.

So is my daughter's new affinity for Michael Jackson a weird genetic predisposition? Or is 5 years old just the perfect time to be introduced to the work of an incredibly talented artist who lost his own childhood at such a young age?

If I were that girl's mom I’d skip Mass this week…

I have to admit that I am over a month late on picking up this news story- which is dismaying in itself. However, despite the time that has elapsed since the article was first ran in Time on 3/6/09, I feel it deserves attention:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1883598,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom

A brief summary:

A 9 year old girl in Brazil was raped by her stepfather and impregnated with twins. Abortion is generally illegal in Brazil, except for in cases of rape, or if the mother’s life could be in danger. An abortion was performed, as the 9 year old girl clearly met both of these criteria. The Catholic Church of Brazil has excommunicated the family of the girl and the doctors who performed the abortion.

Hmmm. If I were that girls mother right now, I might be questioning my religious affiliation. Now really, who thinks it’s a good idea for a 9 year old rape/incest victim to attempt to carry and deliver twins? Seriously… anyone?

My mother was a rabid pro-life advocate as I was growing up. We had boxes of pamphlets with dismembered fetuses on the covers in our basement and she would drag me to pro-life marches where we would hold up signs saying “Choose Life”. That was scarring to my young mind… but I digress. Even in with her strong convictions, she would not support this kind of insanity.

Now, I don’t like abortion. I think in most circumstances it can be avoided, through good birth control, or other alternatives like adoption. But when people, and institutions take a stance like this one it makes anti-abortion people look absolutely nuts! Of course, those same people wouldn’t want you to teach their children anything other than abstinence only sex-ed or to use a condom to prevent an unwanted pregnancy either. You can’t have it both ways folks!

lickalotapuss and lent

Today, my lovely assistant Ambo and I made what turned out to be a fruitless trip to Staples to purchase office supplies to complete our marketing project. Ok- we really we just wanted to get out of the office and go on a greasy breakfast run. We visited "Corky's Grill",
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which operates as a bar where you can drink with all your neighborhood buddies and also get your scrapple and egg sandwich. Its a dive, but its great. Anyway, as we perused the menu, Ambo lamented the fact that it was Good Friday and she couldn't eat meat, and would thus need to order accordingly. I know she was raised Catholic and had her knuckles rapped by the sisters on many an occasion. I also know that she is now a hardcore lesbian. I said to her "Since you are already committing 'unnatural' acts on a regular basis anyway, do you really think God will smite you for having a sausage and egg breakfast sandwich on Good Friday?" She supposed not and joined me in greasy meat indulgence. Just a commentary on how we sometimes get stuck in how we are raised and fail to remember that we're grown up now. And for whatever its worth, I truly believe God loves both lesbians and scrapple.