I dunno about the public recognition part. Parents older than me can comment, but my brother was allergic to what seemed like everything in the 1980s (dairy and-- citrus?). Though I don't remember epi-pens being in our lives.

On the other hand, bon bon, I have a lot of much more mild food allergies. When I was growing up neither my parents or my doctor connected the dots well enough about what I was allergic too. They ruled out all the animals and then decided it was either hay fever or a persistant tendency towards colds. (I think with the doctor, he may not have been given enough information).

Man, I guess I underestimated the Kerry hate.

We had an epi syringe in the 70s, in case my brother ever had another reaction to whatever it was he had a reaction to when he was about a year and a half. Possible spider bite. We never did figure it out, and he's still around.

Random thought: I've always wondered how humans ever sorted out which plants were good to eat, and which ones weren't. You know, without testing them to see which ones killed you, made you sick, or provided nourishment. Because no sane person is going to go into the forest and go, okay, let's try THIS leaf today! Now it occurs to me that maybe that's why humans evolved such that our babies want to eat everything. They're our food testers. And now we know what to eat and what not to, but the instinct is still there, so we have to be ever-vigilant over our curious, smart, omnivorous babies.

I'm evil, aren't I?

I don't mean to be mean, but I know peanut allergic kids and Juevenille Diabetics, both. From an outsider's perspective, it's much more difficult to be a Juevenille Diabetic. I wonder what is at the root of this finding--what the questions are like, and where we have a problem with our attitudes about health issues.

But peanut-allergic kids have lower quality of life than child diabetics (see below).

I imagine things may get somewhat better for insulin dependent child (and adult) diabetics now that there's an inhalable version of insulin coming out.

You know, I'm not very proud of the American spirit at the moment.

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In an interview with UPI, Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson confirmed that his department shut down the bridge to pedestrians: "If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

Burn in hell, Arthur Lawson, you cold-hearted motherfucking son of a bitch. You and Barbara Bush. Just go and fucking rot.

Jesus wept.

Now there are rumors that Brown is completely out.

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What Plei said.

I still can't get into gmail. All I get is a page that says "loading...", but it LIES. It's annoying.

My condolences, -t, to you and your family.

Happy birthday, Nutty!

Laura Bush implied today that the television footage we've seen doesn't reflect "what really happened."

Probably not. I think it may be worse than some have actually shown, especially considering the American press's reticence to show dead bodies (not that I really think this is a bad thing).

Cindy, the family doesn't sound familiar to me, although they certainly might have. I have run into friends in the Seattle airport before, although, not so much in the last few years. But I don't know anyone who has recently moved to the Boston area.

Don't we have another Alaskan here, in addition to you and libkitty, j? Oh, wait, I think we do and the Alaskan's name actually is Another Alaskan.

Indeed. I introduced AnotherAlaskan to b.org. He works with me here. Unfortunately, he's hooked on another board that's actually work related, and no longer comes to b.org, even to lurk. I tell him that this is a personal failing of his, but so far this has been ineffective in getting him back. He'll be thrilled to hear that folks remember his existence though!

"in Alaska" (her words, not mine--and my inner-Buffista really wanted to question her whether this was true for the whole state, or just their former school, but I was good) the snacks had to be healthy, and even when she'd baked Banana Bread, it was taken away from the kids, and they weren't allowed to eat it.

This is definitely not true for the whole state. I know that they serve crap all over, and have heard of friends at work bringing in cupcakes for their childrens' birthdays. They were having a big stink a year or so ago because it turned out that most high school students who ate on campus in Juneau were having Frito pie, which has about 2000 calories and teensy-weensy nutritional value. But despite the complaints, they still serve it.

I'm actually really curious as to where in Alaska this family is from, because my guess is that her statement isn't even true for most schools in her town (if the town is big enough for multiple schools). Odds are they're from Anchorage, both because they have half the population of the state and because they often tend to think of themselves as being the whole state, but you never know.