( Poem and translation here: )

7 Days Meme copied from holmes221b

The 7 days meme:

day one • a song
day two • a picture
day three • a book/ebook/fanfic
day four • a site
day five • a youtube clip
day six • a quote
day seven • whatever tickles your fancy

"On three things does the world stand: Torah study, chesed, and tzedakah."

"Love is a verb." (Stephen Covey)

"You cannot talk yourself out of a problem you've behaved yourself into!"
(Stephen Covey)

Swine flu vaccine deliveries run late

With demand far outstripping supply, state cancels clinics

By Elizabeth Cooney and Kay Lazar, Globe Correspondent | Globe Staff  |  October 21, 2009

Swine flu vaccine shipments to Massachusetts are running three weeks behind schedule, forcing the state to direct local health departments to cancel vaccine clinics scheduled for next month.

At the same time, shortages of the vaccine against seasonal flu strains are also being reported, as unusually high demand is outpacing the supply. Communities from Scituate to Somerville and Cambridge said they were postponing vaccine clinics aimed at protecting the public against both types of the flu.

The problems seen in Massachusetts reflect a nationwide shortage, as production facilities - pressed to make two types of vaccine at once - have been unable to churn out adequate amounts of either one.

SONG FOR A TEMPERATURE OF A HUNDRED AND ONE

Of all God's creatures give me man
For impractical uniqueness,
He's hardly tenth when it comes to strenth,
But he leads the field in weakness.
Distemper suits the ailing dog,
The chicken's content with pip,
But the human race, which sets the pace,
Takes nothing less than Grippe.

THEN, hey for the grippe, for the goodly la grippe!
In dogs it's distemper, in chickens, it's pip;
But the lords of creation insist at the least
On the germ that distinguishes man from the beast.

The mule with mange is satisfied,
They tell me in the South;
And the best-bred cows with drowse and browse,
Content with hoof-and-mouth;
Bubonic cheers the humble rat
As he stealthily leaves the ship;
When the horse gets botts he thinks it's lots,
But people hold out for grippe.

THEN, hey for the grippe, for the goodly la grippe,
For the frog in the throat and the chap on the lip;
For the ice on the feet and the fire on the brow,
And the bronchial tubes that moo like a cow.

And hey for the ache in the back of the legs,
And the diet of consomme, water and eggs,
For the mustard which sits on your chest like a cactus,
For the doctor you're kindly providing with practus;
And hey for the pants of which you're so fond,
And the first happy day they're allowed to be donned;

For the first day at work, all bundled in wraps,
And last but not least, for the splendid relapse.
So let man meet his Maker, a smile on his lip,
Singing hey, double hey, for the goodly la grippe.

(Ogden Nash)

CDC: Most hospitalized H1N1 patients under age 25
CDC officials said that slightly more than half of the people sick enough to be hospitalized with the H1N1 flu virus are under age 25, which is very different from the seasonal flu, in which the elderly account for about 60% of hospitalizations. The CDC report also showed that 23.6% of H1N1 deaths are in people younger than 25. ABC News/Reuters (10/20)