Disconcerting

Scientists decide to set up scenario for real life re-enactment of Stephen King's The Stand

Lovely!

(For those of you who did not click on the link, it points to an article about scientists recontstructing the Spanish Flu virus Actually I think it's pretty cool that they can reconstruct it and hopefully learn enough about it to stop it from recurring. Not releasing it would be a Good Thing as well. Hence The Stand reference. All caught up? Good. You may proceed.)

Meanwhile, the great grandson of the Spanish Flu that killed my biological great grandmother, Mary Petrulyak, along with 49,999,999 other people is romping around enough to draw worldwide attention.

And given the reaction to Katrina - what do you think the results were for the study on how prepared we are to deal with a pandemic were?

That's right. You got it.

(For those of you not clicking the link - "That's right. You got it." means that I am assuming that you will assume that the study shows, as I have assumed, that we are shit out of luck so far in this regards.)

So what's the point? Will I start to wear a surgical mask like Whacko Jacko or some SARS dodging Japanese commuter? Should we all freak out?

Hell no.

It's just disconcerting to read about. And lets face it, there is the much more immediate reality of vague bomb threats to NYC's transit system to not worry about. Avian flu schmavian flu. Bombs? Feh. We have stuff to do!

But then I just read Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, so I perhaps that's responsible for my apocalyptic yet satirical and post-modernist mood. Yeah, yeah, I was a Fordham Lit major and never read it till now - what do you want from my life? Every class I signed up for all I ever got was Edith Wharton & Guest. House of Mirth every damn time. Not my fault.

Speaking of Edith Wharton - if you live in CT or southeast NY - her mansion, The Mount is a nice place to go visit in Lenox, MA - which is about 3 hours outside of NYC and 2 hrs away from Boston. And - if you are going to go to Lenox, you might as well stop in or stay in Stockbridge and check out the Norman Rockwell Museum and or Naumkeag. It's a great weekend get away, especially in Autumn. See? Some good came out of reading Wharton.

The next book on my "to read" list is Kevin Canty's Into the Great Wide Open. Nothing disconcerting about that but not everything can be. Dos Passos will just have to wait. Yeah - didn't read him either. Shameful.