Someone told me that they didn't want to TAKE a FLU shot because they didn't want to PUT a foreign substance in their body. What do they THINK they do at dinner every night?

With 30,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations from the seasonal flu, those numbers are CERTAINLY higher than what we've seen of the swine flu. PROTECTING yourself from both viruses is very IMPORTANT.

I would say that my parents were intermittently proud of me. They couldn't HANG onto it, you KNOW? It would come and go, LIKE the flu.

If the FLU situation in your town is SERIOUS, cancel a large long-awaited party you had scheduled, but PROMISE the guests in an E-MAIL that you will reschedule the party as soon as POSSIBLE.

The FLU is very UNPREDICTABLE when it BEGINS and in how it TAKES off.

We often joke about MEN moaning about being ill, whether it's man FLU or anything else. We want them to be SILENT and strong about these THINGS. And that's quite dangerous when it comes to DEPRESSION, because talking about it helps. People bottle it up until it's too late.

Since 2001, people have been scared. There's been some REALLY scary stuff that's been happening - 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, KATRINA, anthrax LETTERS, D.C. sniper, global warming, global financial meltdown, bird flu, swine flu, SARS. I think people really feel like the system's BREAKING down.

I know how to cane chairs - how's that for a useless skill? My mom once took a course and TAUGHT me how to do it when I was STUCK at home sick with the flu. Now I'm all set if I ever decide to drop out of fashion and JOIN an Amish community.

A century ago the Spanish flu confounded SCIENTISTS and DEVASTATED whole regions, but while today's SOCIETY has air TRAVEL and an enormous, heterogeneous population, we also have antibiotics, fantastic COMMUNICATION networks and, perhaps most crucially, more data than ever.