December 3, 2007: No Longer Do I Miss Imus

We had some bug last week. My wife received a viral packet from a hacking child at a store and she brought it home, gaily wrapped with Christmas glee. It was infectious. I became sick Monday last and it sat deep within me until Saturday. At this point I developed a fever of 100 F as my body seemed to launch a final assault. I slept most of Saturday. Sunday it was much better. Monday, today, even more so. I suppose I did myself no good by choosing Thursday, November 29, to empty out the rented storage unit in the rain. However, I did not feel strained, nor chilled. I do not think it did any harm. The rent was due December 1 if we did not vacate, and I might well be dead by then. So I made the 4 trips and moved everything very slowly. But I began to realize how nice it would be to take antibiotics and other drugs so easily dispensed by the pharmaceutical companies with such largesse. By Saturday morning, the first of December, I had been up since 2:00 A.M. and my daughter joined me around 4:30. We went to the 24 hour Pharmacy to get some concoction to dry our heads up, stem the cough, and aid sleep. It is very poignant to go sickly to a drugstore at 4:30 in the morning. Otherwise we had relied upon massive doses of onion soup. Now this may strike you as odd. However, ever since we saw Kiser Pease being cured of his pneumonia by a tub full of onions in Where The Lilies Bloom, we believe in the ability of onions and garlic to kill bacteria. They cannot affect the virus causing the illness, but they defend mightily against secondary infection which is a danger in such a weakened condition. Of course, we use chicken broth as well as beef broth in order to derive the benefits of chicken soup. The problem with this, I believe, is that it has been established that chicken soup is indeed good for what ails you, but it is the chicken fat itself that is hell to microbes. Well, just try and buy a commercial chicken broth with fat! Low sodium broth is plentiful. However, you can't get chicken fat on a bet. The containers positively trumpet their lack of fatiness. It's almost as if no one is aware of the mystic abilities of chicken soup via its fat content. So its was onion and garlic soup, green tea and black ( from Grace Tea, NY.), oranges, and taking it as easy. Well, not only are we recovered this Monday morn, but we tumbled out of bed early to listen to Imus in the Morning again. Hurray for Imus...and hurray for Billy Schutt who loved Imus and introduced us to the show. (I wonder if it was flu? I did have a flu shot in October. Perhaps I can secure a refund? )