Shut Up Already

Ex-Cattleman's Warning Was No Bum

Ex-Cattleman's Warning Was No Bum Steer (washingtonpost.com)

This is the guy who was sued along with Oprah for talking about the problems with meat handling in the US. He seems to know what he's talking about, and he says he's very worried about mad cow disease.

Excerpted:

If you ask him, he will suggest that we are looking at the possibility of a terrible epidemic. "Do the math," he says. "Any scientist will tell you that one mad cow tells you there are thousands more."

City Living Last week, I

City Living

Last week, I had a horrible cold. The kind that won't respond to medication or rest or hot tea. I was pretty sure it was new strain of SARS, but I still went to work because I'm just that dedicated to the cause of paper-pushing.

On the bus to work, I had the mother of all coughing fits. My eyes watered, I gasped for breath, and still it just went on and on.

"Excuse me," said the man next to me, about 5 minutes into Hackfest 2003. I had turned away from him, to shield him from harmful SARS droplets, but it's still pretty intimate on the bus. In my part of Washington, people aren't afraid to tell you their opinion. They aren't afraid to shout it halfway down the block.

I turned toward him, wincing. I was pretty sure he was going to tell me that I shouldn't be spreading my germs all over the bus that people had to take to work. "What are you taking for that cough?" he asked. "Have you tried TheraFlu? It's great. Here," he shoved a packet toward me. "It's unopened, and it works really fast."

"Thanks," I choked, surprised. It really helped, too. I saw him the next day at the bus stop and he asked me if I felt better. That's the kind of occurrence that restores your faith in people. Random acts of kindness and all that. If I'd been sitting next to someone hacking up a lung like I was, I would have moved to another seat.