But I'm concerned enough about this year's outbreak that I'm going to find a flu shot today.

Yeah, me too. Both my sister & my mother are sick, and I can't avoid them indefinitely.

That doesn't even mean anything!

Also, what's this about dog vibrations?

Do you think someone could apply by editing the job listing first?

Only if you want to work there. Eek.

really don't want to have to yell at a friend on Facebook that spouting the phrase "pharmaceutical companies don't create cures; they create customers" is both facile and not only wrong but dangerous.

Yeah, working for drug companies, I can say there's lots of shady shit they've done/do. But if there were a magic cure for all the cancer? Hells yeah they'd be selling it--they'd just be charging an arm and a leg for it. And even if they didn't want to sell it, they'd have to test it first (to prove it works) and the people who tested it (both on my side and on the doctors' side) would never be like "Oh, it seemed to be perfect and work amazing, but oh well, they aren't going to sell it". No.

Statistics aren't witchcraft.

But Nate Silver is still a witch, right?

Gris, that sounds like a horrid logistical nightmare on top of a situation that's already awful.

But Nate Silver is still a witch, right?

Probably

MFNlaw, I know you are thinking going where you don't know anyone, but I would like to make sure you know you are welcome out here anytime. There's nothing here. Like, at all. But that may well be exactly what you need, and you are welcome to it.

OR! This summer we'll be gone to do the camp and will likely be looking for a housesitter, so if you wanted time alone in the high desert, which you could use as a base for places like the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon, that would be available to you too.

Statistics aren't witchcraft.

But Nate Silver is still a witch, right?

Or a golden god.

Also, what's this about dog vibrations?

This is what I'm talking about. He and his wife are very hippy-trippy. Lovely people, and comics geeks the both of them. And they can eschew drugs, and talk about dog vibrations, but, well, I'ma have to use an emoticon here:

O_o

(Also, I am looking at my dog right now. He is practically comatose, he's sleeping so hard. He does not vibrate.)

ita, you might need this plushie of Peter from Jack Ezra Keats' The Snowy Day.

"I trust my body more than the CDC, FDA, or drug companies."

I'm pretty sure your body will tell you loud and clear if you've got the flu.

The SO got his flu shot while I was gone, and got $5 in Walgreens credit for doing so! I need to get mine, but it won't happen today, because I am totally letting the paltry inch or so of snow we got last night keep me in. I got back from my trip to KC Wednesday night (sorry I didn't get to see you, KC-istas!) but treated Thursday like it was still a conference day in terms of sleep (5 hours) because it was the only day I'd have with the SO before he left for his recording sessions.

So I promised myself today to be lazy and lounge around and sleep all I wanted.

Also, ftr? TJ's salted caramel chai latte mix? OMG. I should have bought them out.

I had a good trip, and hobnobbed with some big names in our little sphere, and came home feeling very competent. I got to be the only a) female, b) minority, c) person under 45, and d) liberal, although I didn't fess up to that bit yet, at the proverbial table. But they're trying, and me being there is a part of that effort, so I say, yay me.

OMG, did we know there is such a thing as a hierarchy to what order you list people in the TO line in an email? [link]

I had no idea. People are weird, yo.