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The Infectious Disease Awards 2003-07-29 I've been trying to decide on my favorite communicable illness, and it's not easy. Each illness has its good and bad points. For instance, HIV is an extremely effective virus, because it takes such a long time to kill its victims. Viruses exist solely to reproduce themselves, and a longer lived victim means more people infected and therefore greater reproductive success. So it's a successful virus, but not as creepy as some, and it doesn't have the sheer gore that would make it a contender for Eva's number one horrific illness. Plus, by and large you can avoid contracting HIV, because you can avoid behaviors that would put you at risk. [By the way, I realize how awful and coldhearted this entry is, but it's not that I don't care about people who get sick with these things. It's just that my fascination with communicable diseases overcomes my sympathy for the victims, especially because I don't know anyone who has, say, died of the Black Plague.] I have to put the hemorrhagic fevers at the top of my list (Ebola, Marburg, Bolivian Hemorrhagic Fever, etc). They're extremely destructive and fast and lethal, and basically they scare the shit out of me. My first runner-up would be the 1918 Flu, because it killed so many people (25 million worldwide, including my Great Uncle John), and second runner-up is the Black Death. I would've put the Black Death ahead of the 1918 Flu but the 1918 Flue is considerably more recent, and therefore creepier. Honorable mention goes to tuberculosis. I know it's weird to be so obsessed with infectious diseases, and I don't know why I am. I think it's like a sickness or something. I'm watching RW Paris right now, and Adam really needs a haircut. CT needs a brow waxing, and I want to know why more men don't go in for good grooming. Maybe it seems girly to a lot of men to groom their eyebrows, but dudes. No one wants to look at a unibrow. Take my word for it. That's about all I have today--I've been pretty tired all day for some reason, but I think I'll feel better tomorrow. I'm going to sleep enough tonight and do the treadmill in the morning, because Francisco and I have set up a treadmill schedule, and tomorrow's my day. I think this is a very good thing. Love,
come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25 |
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