H1N1, Swine, or Mexican?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I received a shot for Swine Flu back in 1976 when Jerry Ford was President, and it must have worked because I never caught the dreaded and deadly malady. It was a huge deal then. Poor Ford was trying so hard to be relevant while Chevy Chase did skits pretending to be the bumbling President tripping and falling over everything in sight. Simpler days, those.

Actually the Swine Flue never materialized and the national drill of everyone rushing out to get shots in school houses and armories all over America served as yet one more reminder of just what a goof poor President Ford really was. Lyndon Johnson had commented once when Jerry Ford was a member of Congress, that he had played too much football without a helmet.

So now, thirty-three years later, the Swine Flue finally arrives. Arizona had its first reported case today, It is somewhat remarkable that it took so long to get here considering the long border that Arizona shares with Mexico - the country where the current outbreak originated. As of this evening ninety-some cases had been reported in a total of ten U.S. states, and there had been one death in this country - a toddler in Texas who had just arrived from Mexico.

There are also about a dozen countries where the Swine Flu has made a beachhead, most tracing its origins back to people who had been in Mexico. There are a few cases in Israel, and the Jews, who don't eat pork, are somewhat reluctant to call it Swine Flu. One Israeli politician suggested that it be referred to as Mexican Flu. Needless to say, that recommendation did not endear the state of Israel to Mexico.

American officials, to include President Obama, have today started referring to the flu by its scientific shorthand: the H1N1 Virus. I noticed that most of the newscasters have begun to use that label as well. I guess that I can understand that. After all, who would want to succumb to a flu named for a pig?

Good friend Xobekim forwarded a description of the symptoms. They involve a sudden urge to eat raw corn and roll in the mud!

'Nuff said.

The Name Game

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I can remember a time when it was a popular concept to name babies after prominent Americans, particularly historical figures. Thomas Jefferson Jones, Benjamin Franklin Brown, and George Washington Smith were all common occurrences. I went to school with a Dwight, and even knew a Lyndon. But, for the most part, babies today are more apt to be named after athletes, movie stars, and soap opera characters.

It now looks as though there is a boomlet emerging for naming babies after our new President-elect, especially in Africa. The day after the election last week, six of ten baby boys born in Sierra Leone's main maternity hospital were named Barack Obama. From election day until this past Saturday, forty-three children born at the Nyanza Provincial Hospital in Kisumu, Kenya, were named after the Obamas: the twenty-three boys were named Barack Obama, and the twenty girls are now known as Michelle Obama. Another news report stated that in the past few days Barack, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and Obama have become very popular first and middle names for babies across the United States.

Everyone seems to be anxious to hang an Obama tag on their babies. Sheikh Abdullah, the leader of 8,000 Bedouin tribesmen in the Galilee section of northern Israel, has disclosed that he believes his entire tribe is loosely related to our next President. He said that Africans came to work in Palestine during the early part of this century, and that one of those men was a relative of Obama's grandmother who left some of his genetics behind. The Shiekh says that several men in his tribe look remarkably like Obama. Two baby boys born to the tribe this week have been named Barack Obama.

So there are legions of babies around the world being named after the Obamas. That's a good thing. It's a tribute to our next President and to the good people of America. We have elected a leader who is seen as a beacon of hope to the rest of the world, a man of peace who isn't afraid to take a world view of the future. May he be worthy of all of those children who will bear his name.