Weird things over email.

First of all, happy December. Or to those who survived NaBloPoMo, way to make it through the whole month!

I had a couple of bizarre things in my email today when I got home. And I feel crappy and am borderline grouchy and, well, I needed a post today without a lot of thinking involved (if you think I'm kidding, it took me four attempts to properly spell "involved" just now). I think I may have honked my brain right out my nose and it's now been replaced with mucous.

Anyhow.

Item one, from CNN Breaking News. Let me say that again - BREAKING News.

-- The U.S. entered a recession in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Um...yeah, thanks, I kinda noticed that already.

They get that it's December 2008, right? As in, almost 2009. As in, you're just getting around to deciding this NOW?

And further more...breaking news? Really?? Really. You're sure? They didn't send me an email about Mumbai, but, deciding we've been in a recession FOR A YEAR somehow qualifies as an emergency. Come on, folks. It's a developing story like the Grand Canyon was a riverbed.

Item two - today's Merriam-Webster's word of the day: alienist.

Who knows what it means? Want to venture a guess? And no, neither Scully nor Mulder was one.

It's a psychiatrist.

No, really! Or at least that's what they claim. Here's their explanation:

Did you know?

"Alienist" looks and sounds like it should mean "someone who studies aliens," and in fact "alienist" and "alien" are related — both are ultimately derived from the Latin word “alius,” meaning "other." In the case of "alienist," the etymological trail leads from Latin to French, where the adjective “aliéné” ("insane") gave rise to the noun “alieniste,” referring to a doctor who treats the insane. "Alienist" first appeared in print in English in 1864. It was preceded by the other “alius” descendants, "alien" (14th century) and "alienate" (used as a verb since the early 16th century). "Alienist" is much rarer than "psychiatrist" these days, but at one time it was the preferred term.

Makes me glad I didn't practice in the 1860s. As do many other things....

See? Don't you feel wiser now?

I'm perhaps more ill today than I have been. My working theory is that while I was down with the plague I caught a nice hefty rhinovirus, and the two progressed more or less seamlessly in a continuous blog of grossness. I miss breathing, I do... It could just be a continuation of the Pink Office Plague, though, because both Peng and Ruthie have remnants of their respective bouts some three or four weeks later. Apparently, also, down South this sort of thing is referred to as "the crud," or when particularly epidemic, "the creeping crud." So I'm attempting to fight the crud with its known natural enemy - soup in a bread bowl.

My dad is doing okay, and thanks everyone for their concern and good wishes. So far, there's nothing super informative to report. He's apparently in a room that makes the Hilton look dingy (internet! cable! fold-out couch!), and they haven't decided what, if anything, they're going to do yet. He's on the OR schedule for Wednesday morning, but, uh, no one's really certain what surgery - if any - he's going to have. Which is fair - they're waiting for the culture results to decide the next course of action, but, you've got to claim the room before another surgeon does, else you might not have it if you need it. So we're waiting. And he's well-vicodenized.

Maybe I should tell my mom to bring him some soup in a bread bowl...