The More You Know

This is a Public Service Announcement
Did you know there is a drug that may prevent HIV infection? How did I not know this? It is called nPEP (nonoccupational postexposure prophylaxis). It is a 28-day regimen of two or three antiretroviral drugs that should be started within 72 hours of exposure. So, if you are raped or the condom breaks, if you can't seem to stop sharing dirty needles with your unsavory neighbor or you think you may have been exposed in any (non hypochondriac) way to HIV - freak the fuck out - then head to the emergency room. The cost is around $1,000 and in some cases insurance will cover it.
There are not many well-organized studies about how well it works, but one positive example is from San Francisco. They have been consistently giving HIV-positive women nPEP. In the past TEN YEARS, only 181 of those mothers passed the virus unto her baby.

(as my mother would say) "The whole fam-dam-ly"
I have recently learned that a whole pilgrimage of family members are making the long journey to South Carolina for Thanksgiving. Around the table will be Me, Russ, Mom, Dad, Kare-bear, Grandma and Grandpa (and dog Tengo). Oh my! Seven people and three dogs may not be a lot to those who grew up in Catholic families, but it is a crap load for me. Don't get me wrong, I am super-stoked, it will just be a crazy German Grandma with a temper, dogs fighting, Karen crying, Daddy teasing, Grandpa wants to go bowling, no hot showers, mounds of dishes, "when are you going to start having babies?" kind of a weekend. Here everyone, have another plate of (tryptophantasic) turkey and take a very long, quite nap!

In a hand basket
Here in the South, people have this habit of heaping blessings you on. The waitress will scrawl "Thanks, God bless!" on the receipt and our subdivision news letter signs off with "Many blessings." Today as I was leaving a store, the salesmen called to my back "Have a blessed day!" Now normally I take these in the spirit they were intended, but earlier this super-sales-kid had gotten under my skin, so when he shouted out his blessing, I stopped and turned around and went back to the counter.
I was confident picking this fight because this guy had dropped the f-bomb three times in the twenty minutes I was in his store and I happened to know he was currently living in sin with his girlfriend. How dare he bless me with his filthy tongue! For some reason I was just itching to point out his hypocritical statement.

"Have a blessed day?" I asked.

"No, have a blessed day," he drawled, correcting my two syllable pronunciation, "bless-ed" with his single syllable, "blessed."

This bless-ed-er-than-thou guy corrected me! I was so stunned, I actually didn't know what to say back. I just left in a huff.
Look, Mr. Smartypants salesman, I'm pretty sure that's not how Jesus would have responded. Jesus would have said something more along the lines of "Yes my child, have a blessed, bless-ed, rocking good day and a merry Christmas, a happy Chanukah and a bangin' Kwanza to boot," and then he would have offered me a free hug.

Gesundheit
On the subject of the word bless: when someone sneezes, it is "bless you" not "bleh-shoe." I have calculated that 94.6% of the US population says this (though they all adamantly deny it). Stop the insanity.

If you're ever on Jeopardy: The first barcode, invented by IBM, appeared on a packet of Wrigley's chewing gum in 1974 in a supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

- you're the party, lada's just the guest list