Opened the window on a new year and Influenza. 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's about halfway through flu season and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn this could turn out to be the worst flu season since the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.

Family vacation trip west featured a cast of dozens and far fewer than half escaped unscathed.  Never before witnessed such mass destruction by this Orthomyxoviridaean invader.  Just managed to push myself out the door today and go to work after 5 days of chasing after this viral vampire with every weapon at my disposal.  I knew I had turned the corner when I decided that the effort required to open another impregnable packet of vacuum sealed NyQuil pills wasn't worth the temporary benefits anymore.

 Was pleased to see David Brooks this morning turning to GK Chesterton to conclude his "Suffering Fools Gladly" essay.  I cited the same quote last year while in my delirious GK immersion period and it's such a goody, that I'll toss it out one more time:
  
"A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke. Each has discovered that the other is a fool, but a great fool. This largeness, this grossness and gorgeousness of folly is the thing which we all find about those with whom we are in intimate contact; and it is the one enduring basis of affection, and even of respect.”

What follows  is evidence that I have not fully recovered from my viral victimhood and the most lingering symptom is one of chronic sophomoric giddiness. 

Some 2013 Predictions:

The new rage in mixed drinks will be fresh animal blood.  From Martinis to Daiquiris, the in-crowd will be guzzling down the finest reds from the most exotic mammalian species around the world. 

Rise in instances of death and disease caused by energy drinks with high caffeine content will lead to replacement product that uses adrenal glands of monkeys as a substitute.  Success will be short-lived following multiple reports of users tossing or throwing their poop at innocent bystanders in public restrooms.

A Former NFL football star will die at the age of 67, making him the only player of his era to have lived long enough to collect a social security check.

The SuperBowl will be best remembered for Google sponsored “Celebration of Democracy “ halftime show with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un performing a Gangnam Style dance routine while Julian Assange recites the Bill of Rights.  Finale will feature the one hundred thousand Stadium fans equipped with iPads, and 132 million home viewers who will simultaneously log onto Facebook to register a Like or Dislike vote which when tabulated will result in Sarah Palin replacing Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State. 

A few new words including some from contributor D. Olsen,  to ring in the new year: 

Adorkable: He wears mismatched socks, but he’s sweet.

Lingweenie: Make pasta. Cut up hot dogs.  Mix and serve.

Accordionated:  Ability to drive while correctly folding road map

Bambidextrous:  Ability to drive with one hand,   fold road map with the other and still avoid hitting the deer.

Carpetpetuation:  Vacuuming the rug and running over the same tiny piece of string a dozen times before reaching down and repositioning it before giving it one more chance to get sucked up.

Disconfection: Blowing on a piece of candy that you dropped on the floor in order to remove all bacterial dangers before popping it in your mouth.

Peppypreppypepperer:  That particularly irrepressible upbeat waiter at certain restaurants whose sole duty seems to be the offering of freshly ground pepper upon your entree. 

For the record...from the record.

“	The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage and could rightly claim to have made Gingrich the House Speaker."
—Bill Clinton, My Life pp 629–30