Hollidazed
Everyone loves a holiday. I happen to prefer the type of holiday that gets you a paid day off from work. However, any cause for celebration can be fun. If you're a regular on Facebook, or any other social media tool, you've likely seen people post up trivial "national ( fill in the blank ) day" at some point. I've seen some interesting ones lately. Yesterday, evidently I missed "National Puppy Day". There's always some interesting, crazy, or funny holiday that someone has tagged up, and I'm not saying they're not legitimate, but pretty odd at times, you have to wonder.
So after googling it... Today, March 24th is apparently recognized for the following:
-National Cocktail Day
-National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day (yum!)
-International Day for Achievers
--and last but not least--
World Tuberculosis Day
So interestingly enough, today in history reflects the following amazing and wonderful fact:
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." ~Ferris Bueller
So after googling it... Today, March 24th is apparently recognized for the following:
-National Cocktail Day
-National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day (yum!)
-International Day for Achievers
So interestingly enough, today in history reflects the following amazing and wonderful fact:
1882 Robert Koch discovers the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis
The German scientist, who is regarded as the father of modern bacteriology, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1905.
That's pretty cool, and well mostly likely why they tagged the day "World Tuberculosis Day", so I didn't mean to try to illustrate that it was a coincidence. It doesn't say so, but one could logically deduce this possibility. So I figured in honor of today's great observance, maybe I would just recognize all of the people everywhere (including myself) who cough a helluva lot. No, we don't all have tuberculosis, as bad as we may sound.
In fact, I guess we are lucky in this day and age, tuberculosis is not really as prevalent as it used to be. Yes it is still out there, however. A total of 9,557 TB cases (a rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons) were reported in the United States in 2015. I guess it is just funny (but not funny, no I shouldn't laugh) that anytime we hear someone sporting a really vicious-sounding cough, hilarious thoughts come to mind about "Doc Holliday" and then of course I make unflattering and distasteful jokes. I believe that this stems from my obsession with a particular Billy Crystal movie entitled "Forget Paris", where Billy Crystal plays a professional basketball coach, and while on the road, he gets a hotel room next to as he calls it "a professional cougher". Thus, while he's on the phone with his best friend, going on over how lonely and bored he is while on the trip, his friend (played by Joe Montagna asks, "So where are you?" to which he replies (with the cougher hacking up a lung in the next room), "l don't know. l have to check my itinerary. I'm either in Denver or Charlotte. And l got a room next to Doc Holliday." --just makes me laugh every time, and it's what enters my mind anytime someone anywhere near my 'space bubble' gets cranked up sounding like this. Yes, I know it's ugly. Heck, we've all been there, so why is it still so hard to be sympathetic and understanding when someone else is going through it?
In fact, I guess we are lucky in this day and age, tuberculosis is not really as prevalent as it used to be. Yes it is still out there, however. A total of 9,557 TB cases (a rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons) were reported in the United States in 2015. I guess it is just funny (but not funny, no I shouldn't laugh) that anytime we hear someone sporting a really vicious-sounding cough, hilarious thoughts come to mind about "Doc Holliday" and then of course I make unflattering and distasteful jokes. I believe that this stems from my obsession with a particular Billy Crystal movie entitled "Forget Paris", where Billy Crystal plays a professional basketball coach, and while on the road, he gets a hotel room next to as he calls it "a professional cougher". Thus, while he's on the phone with his best friend, going on over how lonely and bored he is while on the trip, his friend (played by Joe Montagna asks, "So where are you?" to which he replies (with the cougher hacking up a lung in the next room), "l don't know. l have to check my itinerary. I'm either in Denver or Charlotte. And l got a room next to Doc Holliday." --just makes me laugh every time, and it's what enters my mind anytime someone anywhere near my 'space bubble' gets cranked up sounding like this. Yes, I know it's ugly. Heck, we've all been there, so why is it still so hard to be sympathetic and understanding when someone else is going through it?
Not all coughs are infectious. I get a dry one quite often, I believe due to allergies or respiratory irritations. It's not productive, but I'm sure it sounds amazingly attractive (not). Living in the Memphis area does very little for anyone with allergies or sinus problems, in fact, almost everyone I know that lives here has some sort of related complaint.
Better safe than sorry, I always say (and of course my over-protective Mom always said, and though she's been over two years since passed, her voice still rings in my head). We just try to wash our hands like crazy "OCD" folk, keep our hands out of our faces, stay at a nice distance (like a couple of states over) from known sick people, and even wear a mask I guess if we are feeling overly-susceptible.
No matter what we do, we'll still catch a little bug every once in a while, all you can do is your best. Besides, if you never get sick at all you miss out on the best opportunity ever to take an entire day off and make your very own holiday out of it, "World YOU Day". Ahhh come on, you gotta live a little, take my advice, before that innocent little cough kills ya. ;-)
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." ~Ferris Bueller
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