I like the watch and actually might buy it. William Carlos Williams? World Conference of Wrestling? If the latter, I hope the post title is 100% accurate -- HERE COMES THE GRAMMARIAN.
God damn it, Google tells me that its "World Championship Wrestling." Whoops.
I like the watch, too, but I'm not sure I like it $200, plus I almost never wear a wristwatch* and I think it would feel funny to have that weight on my wrist.
* what did I do before cell phones? either I asked other people or I wore a pocket watch, duh. Highly intermittently as I would either get cheap ones that would break or, last year, watches that didn't break by themselves owing to their cheapness but that would break because I was prone to overwinding them.
1 - The gimmick's underused, Halford!
It never occurred to me just how replete with happy endings and saccharine sentiment conventional wristwatches truly are.
to give the wristwatch a happy ending requires one to wind it indefinitely.
||
News comes home: someone I know has died of the flu. Got sick on a Monday, got worse over the week, missed a checkin Friday and a friend broke in to find her cooling body.
(Not someone I knew well, but someone a whole lot of people I know knew. I am not traumatized but I'm not going to forget about it soon.)
Does this mix well with a lot of Internet friends who fade in and out of an eclectic web magazine? No!
|>
Jeez, clew. That's terrifying. I'm sorry.
I had a (late twenties, early thirties) coworker die even faster, in the 1990s; went to sleep with the flu, got the wrong kind of pneumonia, never woke up.
Next to his sleeping wife.
The flu this year seems unusually virulent. My mom's coworker's six-year-old son was in the hospital on a respirator and kidney dialysis because of it, or because of some secondary infection he got after it. It sounds like they don't think his kidneys will ever function properly again.
One of Newt's friends, and the friend's father, were both terribly ill for weeks with it. No hospitalization and they're both fine now, but very very sick. I figure we're all immune, because if we were susceptible we would have caught it from this kid, given that he's over all the time.
Yeah, and people are getting knocked over with it despite getting vaccinated. Although if you're one of the unlucky vaccinees, it's supposed to at least knock a couple days off your illness.
When a vaccine doesn't take, is that because there are multiple strains of the flu in any given flu season? Or is it something else?
15: Good question. I didn't get the vaccine, and I got pretty sick for a week in December, with a fever spiking as high as 103, but nothing as terrible as all these stories I've been hearing. So now I've been wondering if that was the flu and I'm over it, or if I should still get vaccinated in case I had a mild strain or some other illness or something.
15: I believe this year has a new strain of the virus that they didn't get into the vaccine, but I can't imagine any vaccination is perfect anyway.
Is the vaccine generally based on last year's strains?
How the flu strains for the vaccine are selected. Well, based on the headline. TL;DR.
I understand that, separate from the flu, there is also a puking virus going around. That's the one that has me running scared.
Early death reports are not actually off topic.
Did you write that poem, neb?
there is also a puking virus going around.
Norovirus. And it's not just puking; it's puking and diarrhea!
I just realized that Google Translate does Latin. Sweet.
8 is terrifying.
I got the norovirus that went around here. I got the special pleasure of projectile vomiting all over the lawn of the building where I work, five times before I could get off campus. A friend called and said he was coming over to take care of me right after his office hours, but then he forgot (and called all apologetic well after the crisis had passed). But he hadn't got it yet. You can bet that when another colleague got it, I trudged through the snow to pick him up some Gatorade and come by to check in. The lesson I learned is that no one is too tough to desperately want some human contact and a look-see while/after puking their guts out.
woo, inherited norovirus immunity! Thanks, ancestors!
22: We call that a "two-bucket disease".
I have translated
the Latin
which was in the
blah blah &c.
27: thanks.
24: google translate doesn't do such a hot job with the text, actually.
We have a wonderful family vacation planned for the end of March. I am quite certain that I am going to catch the norovirus on the day before our flight.
The flu this year was bad; I'd heard that they guessed right on the strain but it also hit earlier and harder than expected. Lots of little kids in the pediatric ICU here and the hospitals are not allowing visitors under 14.
I got sick with something nasty (mild flu? but I had the shot) in mid-December and then shiv had the full-blown flu for a week at the start of the year.
What I should do is just go catch the norovirus now, so then I won't have to worry about it ruining our vacation.
Oh yeah, that must have been the stomach virus someone at the office was out for a week with.
33: When my nearest and dearest got sick the week before Christmas, they all shared dishware under the assumption that they were all going to get it (norovirus) sooner or later, and who wants to be sick for Christmas? They were, indeed, all well by the 25th.
All of my sobrinos and their parents *also* got the bad cold that is going around, which is (knock wood) the only thing I've gotten so far.
Most of my office has had the flu, complete with 104-105 degree temps (!) for adults. My boss got it combined with pneumonia, and has been ignoring my attempts send him home to rest more.
On a much happier note... donate $8.01 to scholarship fund, get cool collection of science fiction. I had not known that Octavia Butler did so much mentoring/teaching, in addition to her own writing.
(Apologies to those who already saw this in the birdsong.)
Whenever this thread comes back to life, can someone who knows Israeli newspapers tell me how seriously to take Haaretz? Are they the equivelent of the Guardian, the NY Times, the NY Post, the Daily Mail?
Are they the equivelent of the Guardian, the NY Times, the NY Post, the Daily Mail?
Oh, yes.
Guardian/NYT. Prominent, highly respected national newspaper, considered somewhat left-leaning.
considered somewhat left-leaning.
...but isn't really?
I think of The Guardian as genuinely left of center, and the NY Times the mouthpiece of the wealthy, favoring their own economic interests, but having little patience for the superstitious religious fundamentalism of the peasants.
Do I only have a higher opinion of the Guardian because I don't know it as well?
The NYT is extremely left-leaning if you define "left" to mean a moderately narrow range of social issues.
And thanks, Teo. Although that is very depressing in light of the linked story. I was hoping it wouldn't be plausible.
On the topic of the flu: For myself, I am a cockeyed optimist with a constitution I perceive to be strong, but y'all are doing a fine job convincing me to hit my local CVS for a flu shot. Good work!
41: I put it that way because I don't have enough detailed knowledge to know exactly where Haaretz really stands these days. Historically it's been the more left-leaning of the two major national papers, and I'm sure it's still to the left of the Jerusalem Post, but these days that's not saying much. We'll probably have to wait for Awl to stop by with a more informed perspective.
But regardless of its exact editorial slant Haaretz is definitely a reputable source, in fact probably the most reputable of the major Israeli media outlets. So the story in 37 is very likely to be accurate, depressing as it is.
The Guardian has Manchester School heritage. It backed the Lib Dems in '10. Non-conformist, Liberal/liberal, bourgeois. Engels took it, I am pretty sure.
I got a flu shot at the public health clinic about ten days ago. They said they only had about 30 doses left for adults - none for children - and there was no word on when more supplies would be coming. For the last few weeks they'd been giving out somewhere around 80-100 shots per day, but it wasn't busy at all when I was there.
I got a flu shot a few days ago at Target, because I happened to be there and there was no wait and it was covered under my insurance. I assumed they really nailed it, because their name is Target.
I haven't gotten a flu shot. I probably should.
I don't know how important it is for people in their 20s and 30s. They seemed a bit surprised I even got it at all and I wouldn't have gotten it if I weren't hoping to avoid having the flu while in the process of moving. The shot is only supposed to be about 60% effective, but that's better than nothing. The official recommendations from various organizations seem to be for everyone to get it.
My upper arm was sore for a while and I had a mild headache for a couple of nights but at least I avoided getting the flu right after the shot. I guess there's about 10 days to two weeks before the immunity is supposed to kick in.
Yeah, I dunno. I've never gotten one before, but this year's flu season seems worse than most of the recent ones. Also about a week ago my Facebook feed was full of earnest public-health types exhorting everyone to get flu shots. I don't know if the current outbreak has even reached Alaska, actually.
I don't know how important it is for people in their 20s and 30s.
It's important so you don't get the flu and give it to someone for whom it is more likely to be life-threatening.
Yeah, they asked me if I worked with kids or the elderly as my reason for getting the shot (but then seemed surprised when I said that I didn't). My dad, who's in his 70s, chickened out and didn't get the shot when my mom did.
I refuse to get the flu shot on principle, until Obamacare kicks in and the death panels start up.
Haaretz is pretty much the only serious newspaper left in Israel at the moment. It's also considered left-leaning, and is pretty much the only newspaper which publishes editorials by left-wing writers who aren't David Grossman.
The other major ones are Israel Hayom which is a free rag (it's actually losing money) published by the gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson with the sole purpose of cheering on Netanyahu, which is pure shit, and Yedioth Ahronoth, which is identified as center, I think, and does have some good points, but apart from certain writers has distinct populist and tabloid tendencies.
41: that would be an ecumenical matter
Pretty much the only pretty much the only. I should learn to preview.
Regarding the article linked, this fits in with a long pattern of racism towards each successive new aliyah in Israel, whether towards the olim from Morocco, Yemen, Russia or other places.
Similar stories in the past: humiliating procedures of spraying olim with DDT, Yemenite mothers were told their babies died at birth when they were actually given up for adoption. There are many horrific examples. On a more mundane note, I think around 50% of both the Ethiopian and Russian olim are either unemployed or work as security guards (which is actually a lot closer to doorman than the name suggests).
41: very good.
Makes me wonder how well known Fr. Ted is to the western denizens of Unfogged.
60: I've never watched it, but my parents went through a phase of being a bit obsessed and my youngest brother went as one of the priests for Halloween a few years back.
HERE COMES THE GRAMMARIAN.
IF DEWEY DECIMAL WANTS TO PUT HIS INTERDISCIPLINARY TITLE AND CATALOGUE NUMBER BELT ON THE LINE THIS SUNDAY AT THE THROWDOWN AFTER SUNDOWN IN THE PONTIAC SILVERDOME, THE GRAMMARIAN'S READY TO MEET HIM IN THE MOST HARDCORE MATCH OF ALL: AXE IN THE STACKS! THAT'S RIGHT, DEWEY: JUST YOU, THE GRAMMARIAN AND FIVE HUNDRED RED-HOT FIRE AXES IN THE RARE BOOKS DEPARTMENT OF THE NEAREST TOP-TEN-RANKED LIBRARY SCIENCE PROGRAM! THE GRAMMARIAN WILL PUT YOU THROUGH ALL THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, DEWEY! STAY IN SCHOOL, KIDS! OR THE GRAMMARIAN WILL RED-PENCIL YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Also, needing a watch to remind one to die is exactly something technology something post-WWII something Heidegger? something I forgot where I was going with this something.
Shouldn't the second (temporal, not ordinal) hand say 'Sex'? Or, perhaps more vaguely, 'Fuck'?
Merging with the 'shame vs embarassment' thread, I gave myself food poisoning Saturday and spent thirty hours being glad it wasn't norovirus.