Happy As Kings

In etiquette of ahchoo, sneeze in sleeve will do

In etiquette of ahchoo, sneeze in sleeve will do, Kansas City Star

Last week, after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius chided a reporter for sneezing into his hand at a news conference, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh pooh-poohed the practice.

“Elitist snobs advising us to sneeze on our arms,” Limbaugh called Sebelius and her ilk, who apparently want us all to become “hick hayseeds.” You know, like the Beverly Hillbillies and Gomer Pyle.

Beg pardon, Mr. Limbaugh, but I'd rather touch hand rails, elevator buttons, door knobs, grocery cart handles, packages in grocery stores or items in department stores that have been previously touched by people who sneeze in their sleeves (or tops of jackets, as has been my hands-'phobic' style since I was a kid), than by people who sneeze into their hands and have no immediate way to wash off the sneeze.

As we head into the 'flu and cold season, I would hope that setting loose a meme that might (even minimally) cut the rate of infection would be above political mockery -- that could be my kid coming down with a bug.

Must've been a slow news day.

Read in the Kansas City Star (even if not found online at that site)

• Battle lines drawn over sex education

Good.  I'm too prudish to be a fan of explicit classroom instruction -- cucumbers and such -- but young people need to know the exact whos, whats, whens and whyfores of reproduction.

• al-Sadr looking for a comeback

Al-Sadr did fall off the map, didn't he. He was big for a while, then whoops, vanished.

• "it goes without saying ..." Munday on Monday

Monday poem

• It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States mentioned by Froma Harrop

Hmmmm, haven't read that one yet. I'll put it on the list.

• School improvement. Again.

As long as I can remember, "school improvement" has been hammered into our minds. I'm 58, so any "improvement" should have been in evidence for some time now (kind of like the decline in overall drug use by exposing kids to the DARE program that my 38-year-old son went through in 5th grade). If it hasn't, perhaps "school improvement" isn't the way to go? It's not that I don't think education is important, it's just that I think perhaps a parental vocation of raising children educationally might be more effective than $pend, $pend, $pend and test, test, test.