The Inquiring Manatee

Swine Flu by Any Other Name

    

The 20 million to 50 million people who died in the 1918 influenza pandemic (including my late Uncle Louis) are memorialized with the exotic and rather glamorous-sounding name given to their disease: the "Spanish flu." It is with some pride that the victims' descendants can remember and recite the tragedy that befell their ancestors. Spain conjures up images of Don Quixote, boolfights, Hemingway, sultry senoritas, the Loyalists, the humanistic comedies of Pedro Almodovar.
     By contrast, with what sense of ignominy the victims of the current viral outbreak are apt to be remembered -- unless we stop calling the disease the swine flu.
     Who wants to go down in history as having been stricken by a disease associated with pigs? Even avian flu would be preferable. Everybody respects birds. But saying "swine flu" sounds as if the victims had been wallowing with los puercos.
      I'm taking a poll on finding a better name for the potential killer pandemic, which got its start in Mexico. If the proud Spanish could get over being tagged with the last big pandemic, couldn't Mexico put up with the "Mexican flu" of 2009? If we shrink from stigmatizing an entire country, what about the "Mexico City flu?" The "taco flu?" Or the sexier "tequila flu" or "Margaritaville flu?" 

             My thinking is in tune with that of Israeli Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman. Today he called for changing the disease's name to "Mexican" flu, saying the pig thing is offensive to both Jews and Muslims.
      Can anyone offer better suggestions? Comment below.

Annoying Phrases, Continued:

 

Today's Annoying Phrases: "Going forward," "free gift" and "all new."

 Going forward. I forget; I may have bashed this one before. It's adopted diplomaticspeak, and it's used universally these days in place of the homier "from now on" or "from here on out." It's pretentious, like borrowing the British "at the end of the day." Those who use it, please knock it off.

  Free gift. Marketing at its lowest common denominator. If it's not free, it's not a gift, is it? If it's a gift, it has to be free. Use one word or the other, but not both. That's redundant. Something is free. Good enough. Or something is a gift. Good enough; it's understood to be free. Don't fall for this one.

  All New. Used chiefly for TV series episodes and cars. What else should we expect: a TV episode partly consisting of old scenes? A new car with used parts from a 1949 Frazer? "New" should be good enough for anybody. The "all" is assumed.

Obama to Reverse Bush on Stem Cells: Oh.

   

President Obama is set to announce Monday that he's ending George W. Bush's outrageous restriction on federal funding of stem cell research, removing American science from the clutches of fundamentalist Know Nothings.
    My only reaction is: What took Obama so long?
    This no-brainer of a presidential action should have been Obama's first official act on January 20, 2009.
     Let the cures commence now.