CREAMPUFF, MY LAST KITTY

Creampuff and Linda

IN PRAISE OF THE COMMON COLD

Our Enemy

This is not a “Frivolity” by any stretch of the immagination, but as it isn’t about ovarian cancer I stuck it here,

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/07/28/immune-t-cells-may-offer-lasting-protection-against-covid-19/

You probably know more about how the immune system works than I do; it wouldn’t take much.  Well, Francis Collins has provided us with a blog concerning Covid 19 - more specifically about how we might combat it - that I found very interesting.  The gist is something like this:  

The virus we now are contending with is a member of a “family”; specifically, the coronavirus family.  Other members include SARS, MERS, and several of the bugs responsible for the common cold.  All members of this family are structurally and/or biochemically similar.  Seems that “memory” T cells activated by these various coronavirus-type diseases hang around for decades – and sometimes, somehow, under some circumstances, may be effective against our current tormentor.  This was discovered by some guys in Singapore; it may lead to an effective vaccine.  Much work is ongoing, in Singapore and elsewhere.  Let us fervently hope.

So maybe those childhood "colds" were a blessing in disguise.  Well, probably not.

BAD NEWS

CORONAVIRUS, BUBONIC PLAGUE, EARTHQUAKES

and Donald Trump

You’ve all heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, right?    We’ve been dealing with two of them, Donald Trump and Covid 19, for some time.  Well, this morning I was startled to learn of signs of  the remaining two: Black Death has arisen again, in Mongolia, and earthquake activity in Yellowstone could indicate an imminent civilization-destroying super-eruption!

Note that I’m not predicting the end of the world, but. . ..

If you have some wine that you’ve saved for a special occasion – drink it now.

TWO WOMEN I WISH I HAD KNOWN

Two women I wish I could have known.  Unrelated, except rhrough Ancient Egypt.

Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards.  (1831 – 1892).  Ms Edwards was a well-heeled Englishwomen who played a vital part in the development of scientific Egyptology.  She already was a writer and illustrator of some note when, in 1871, she made a journey up the Nile, in an old fashioned sailing boat, with a half-dozen companions.  The result was a true literary triumph, A Thousand Miles Up The Nile, published in 1877.  That trip kindled a passion for ancient Egypt in her of such intensity that she went on to found the British Egyptology Association and helped finance the career of Flinders Petrie, the absolute father of scientific Egyptology.  Ms Edwards herself wrote one volume of Egyptian history; sadly, it is dreadful.  However, A Thousand Miles is a masterpiece, which you can read off your tablet for free.

Barbara Mertz.  (1927-2013).  Dr. Mertz earned a Ph.D. degree in Egyptology  from the University of Chicago, then and perhaps now the top school in the field.  However, probably owing to her sex (my guess here) she did not settle down in some quiet academic grove, but rather became a writer of mysteries- and a wonderful one, in my opinion.  Early on she wrote two useful and entertaining nonfiction books on Egyptology:  Red Land, Black Land and Gods, Graves and Hieroglyphics, both still available.  Then she turned to fiction and, Lord, what a flood!  She wrote under several pseudonyms and in several different genres, but the collection I recommend most strongly is her Amelia Peabody series, written under the name of Elizabeth Peters.  There are 20 books in all, each detailing  the adventures of a family of Egyptologists around the turn of the last century.  The stories, all involving crime – usually murder – are fun, but it is the characters that make Ms. Peters tales absolutely sparkle!  If you haven’t met Amelia yet you are in for a treat.

My guess is that the fictional Amelia Peabody Emerson is based, at least loosely, on the very real Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards.   Somewhere, Ms. Peters says that isn’t true, but my doubts remain.

And here is Barbara Mertz