Anyone else see the irony in this?

    

Temperance, Michigan arrived from google.com on "Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley: Swine Flu and Drinking Alcohol" by searching for drink alcohol kill flu.

Swine Flu Latest

After the latest swine flu update from the British Government, telling us that there's another 70,000 plus cases arisen in the last week, it's time to put back the precautions we had in early summer.
Accordingly, the "manly handshake of blessing" is once again replaced with the "waving gingerly from behind a perspex screen of blessing". The snog of peace and hug of hunny-bunnyness are definitely still banned. And please avoid sharing Beakers.

Swine Flu Vaccination

I note that the rollout of the new Swine Flu Vaccine is now beginning.  I can only encourage all members of the community, as it becomes available to them, to take advantage of it.  It is important that we take all steps to stop the spread of this virulent disease.

For myself, I can reassure Beaker People that I'll be receiving it just as soon as it's been tested on, oh, say 99% of the population.  Except then of course I won't need it.  That is, after all, what Herd Immunity is all about.  Immunizing the herds. 

Swine Flu and Drinking Alcohol

As one of the sites that frequently mentions Swine Flu (and Alcohol) we here in Husborne Crawley are finding that the most common search by which people are finding us contains the words Swine Flu and Drinking Alcohol.

There's only one possible conclusion here.  We're being hunted down by people with Swine Flu, who want to drink alcohol, but aren't sure if it's a good idea.

Now we're not experts in alcohol.  But it does seem to us that alcohol suppresses the immune system.  It causes a loss of body temperature, even when you think you're warming up.  So on the whole it's not something that's going to build up your resistance.

While Swine Flu is particularly dangerous for people who have lowered immune systems.  
Let's put those two together.  A drug that lowers your resistance, and a disease that is much worse for people who have lowered resistance.

But you didn't really want to hear that, did you?

Lammas

The traditional feast day of "Hlaef-Mass", as Hnaef is liable to call it when in Olde English mode.

In the days of old, this was a celebration of the first wheat harvest of the year.  Everybody would bring a newly-baked loaf of bread to church, and the vicar's wife (post-reformation - it would be "concubine" before) - would be making bread-and-butter pudding for the next six months.

To mark this important cross-quarter day we all brought a different kind of bread to the different Occasions today.  Croissants for this morning's Pouring Out of Beakers (although we only just prevented Drayton from throwing them in the Pit of Cursing, where the beakers are broken in line with our swine flu policy).

Then bagels at Chanting.  That was nice, although they'd have been better with a bit of cream cheese.

Baguettes at Mid-Day Breathing.

White sliced at the three o'clock prayers for the rain to stop in Birmingham.

Brown wholemeal, with the bits in, provided by Agnus at Evenchant.

And oatmeal rolls, with even more bits in, at tonight's edition of "A Bard at Bedtime".

You know, I've kind of had enough bread now.  In fact, I can barely move.  Bread is now officially removed from the Beaker menu until Michaelmas at the earliest.

Swine Flu Policy - Drinking Alcohol

Many people are now on the edge of their seats wondering what to do about Swine Flu - which is why, implausible as it may sound, "Swine Flu Policy" is now the number 1 Google search that finds this website.

This combines with today's report that sensible drinking limits are being ignored.  Which begs the question - which is more dangerous?  Binge drinking or Swine Flu?

Certainly when it comes to driving the evidence is clear - it is more dangerous to drive while suffering from flu than when drunk.  However - this is not justification for drink-driving - rather it is a warning that one should not try to "make it in" like some kind of martyr.

If you reckon you've got flu, stay at home.  If you're more dangerous than some bridge-playing town councillor who's overdone the Pinot Noir, you shouldn't be in your car, no matter how heroic you feel.  Don't come to the Community "because I didn't want to let anyone down".

And don't attend Pouring Out of Beakers if you're infected.  I know we have a small hard-line group of fundamentalists who believe that if you're taking part in a religious ceremony you're immune from disease - but don't.  Just don't take any notice of them.  These people are living in a make-believe world.  Let's face it, this community has another bunch of fundamentalists who believe there's a gibbon living on the moon.

Many people swear by whisky as a cure for flu.  I can't help reflecting that, if this were really the case, the NHS wouldn't be going to all that trouble to develop vaccines and lay in Tamiflu.  The Government would instead be stock-piling Famous Grouse and primary schools would be issued with Laphraoig (it smells like TCP so it would just fit much better in a school environment).  None of these things have happened, so let's assume that it's not true.