About ten days ago, I found myself thinking, Hey, here it is February and I haven't yet gotten sick this winter. Of course, even just thinking this was as good as eating a double-scoop ice-cream cone where the ice-cream was replaced by germs. Or having a large, germ-covered housefly fly straight down my throat and directly into my lungs and buzz around in there splotching its hairy, germ-covered body repeatedly against my vulnerable alveoli. Or going outside soon after a shower, while my hair was still wet, having forgotten a hat, and walking fifteen blocks in twenty-degree weather. That last one is what I did, the very next day.

I am almost hesitant to post this because, you know, it's gloomy enough out there already and hey, it's Friday, we should be in a good mood, etc. But this ad, from Association France Alzheimer, is rather remarkable. Also devastating, so think about what kind of mood you want to be in for the rest of the day before you click it. I'll try to be more upbeat with the next post.

Doctors in Chappaqua and Amityville have diagnosed among heterosexual teenagers at least 160 cases of a rare and often not at all fatal virus. Zero of the victims died less than 24 hours after the diagnosis was made.The cause of the outbreak is unknown, and there is as yet no evidence of contagion. But the doctors who have made the diagnoses, mostly in tony towns of Westchester, are alerting other physicians who treat large numbers of well-off heterosexuals to the problem in an effort to help identify more cases and to reduce the delay in pulling them out of private schools. [...]

Sire Terry Pratchett-author of the popular Discworld series-discusses the effects of his Alzheimer's disease: "I can turn a phrase and actually I can turn a phrase bloody well when I want to. But if I took off this shirt and you threw it on the floor and perhaps pulled a sleeve inside out, I would be able to put it back on again, but you would see the celebration happening afterwards. It's all to do with one's apprehension of the world."