WARNING: SLOW BLOGGING TODAY

Nuts, we’d had a feast of shish kebab on Saturday night with friends here, so much that I didn’t put on a big Easter feast yesterday.  I’m now faced with a standing rib roast to cook for dinner tonight.

Worse, the boss is in town – and I’d already told my husband he could invite him to dinner next time he was in town.

Even worse: I can’t remember what I did with the recipe for a standing rib roast.  Damn.  And I’m out of fresh garlic and romaine lettuce for salad.

Picture me running around doing the corporate wife freak-out thing.  It’s not pretty.

12:59:44 PM    comment []

Turn ‘em in for cash: SARS spreaders

Now this is scary.  If you think your Constitutional rights were abridged by the Patriot Act, just wait.  Taiwan is setting a dangerous precedent, asking its citizenry to turn in people who are suspected of having SARS.

Already, travelers coming into the U.S. can be quarantined for having SARS-like symptoms – that means, if you have a cold or fever on return from a vacation out of the country, you may want to plan on a protracted stay someplace not of your choosing. 

Don’t get me wrong, I do think that SARS is a huge threat.  It’s not just the rather high mortality rate or the as-yet undetermined method(s) of transmission, it’s that people who get sick stay sick for a long time.  Imagine something that spreads like the common cold, causing illness requiring hospitalization for weeks per case.  Our hospital system, while one of the better in the world, simply can’t handle this.  It’s a potential disaster.

Yet is this threat worth even greater abridgement our civil rights?  I don’t believe so – and I have to hope like hell that the American public will handle this more effectively and more responsibly than the duct tape over-reaction to terror alerts this past year.

Wash your hands thoroughly (20 seconds or longer), frequently and cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze, please!  (BTW, the most sanitary method is to cover your mouth by coughing/sneezing into the inside of your elbow, not into your hand where you can spread it on contact!) 

Don’t make me turn you in!

12:40:09 PM    comment []