|
stuff-- good American beer."
My wife pipes in, "And special refried bean dip made with lard. Just the sort of thing that your heart doctor would recommend for you."
My wife's comment is ignored as the bags are set down and unpacked. I see along with the beer and cigarettes that there is an abundance of junk food. Walt and Mary like to be sure that their meals are well balanced.
"Walt and I were just talking about the war on terrorism," says I as I start to help Mary and Claudia unload their booty.
Walt gives me a strange look. I know that he and Mary don't often see eye to eye with us on politics.
"What scares the hell out of me," grunts Mary as she shoves a frozen pie into the freezer, "is Anthrax. Someone is mailing it out to people and you just don't know where it will strike next."
Mary pours some chips in a bowl. She quickly opens a can of refried beans, and guacamole dip, and puts them in small dishes by the chips. "I have some really fresh donuts, just from the bakery. We can snack on them too. You can eat on them if you don't want any chips."
"Do you want me to make coffee?" asks my wife, Claudia.
"Yep, make it the way I like it, with chocolate, whip cream, and rum," replies Mary.
Mary continues, "I'm careful, and I sure as heck don't intend to open any letters that look suspicious. You can't be sure who will be sending out those Anthrax germs.
I giggle, and say, "I don't open any either. I let my wife do that for me."
Mary has a serious look on her face. "Listen to me Bill, it's no joke. You don't know what's going out in the mail system. They could be sending us all sorts of germs. This Anthrax is awful. You heard about the lady in Boston that died. She never did anything."
"Why would someone send you Anthrax?" asks Claudia.
"Why is anyone being sent it?" replies Mary. "It could be in my next Publishers' Clearing House Sweepstakes mailing!"
Claudia hands Walt a bowl of chips, takes a deep breath and says, "Mary, you really should put things into proper prospective. Anthrax has been around for ages. It used to be really common in places where we raised lots of cattle. It is still common in third world countries.
Mary looks at the trickling coffeemaker, then nervously reaches into her purse. She pulls out a cigarette and puts it between her lips.
Claudia continues her lecture. "How many people do you think have died from Anthrax this year?"
"Ten or twelve?" responds Mary.
"I think we have had five people die," replies my wife. "If they would have diagnosed the disease early enough, no one would have died. Anthrax is a bacteria and responds very well to antibiotics. It also isn't considered contagious. A number of people were exposed, but I think that less than 14 actually contracted it. Do you know how many people die of smoking related illnesses in the U.S.?"
"I guess there are a lot of them," says Mary as she takes a deep inhale on her cigarette.
"The Center for Disease Control says that in this country alone, over 430,000 people experience early deaths--all because of smoking. The Surgeon General says that it is the number one cause of death in the United States. This does not take into account all the people that die from coronary illnesses because of improper diets, or all the rest of us who experience problems because of second hand smoke. I think that I should be a lot more worried about smoke and cholesterol than Anthrax."
"I don't believe those figures," pipes in Walt. "It sounds to me like a bunch of people just whining to get money from the tobacco companies, or worse yet trying to shake down the fast food people. You can't believe the stuff that those prissy liberals try and make you believe, just so that they can have their smoking bans."
"You miss my point, even if the figure were 43,000, that would still be an awful lot of people dying wouldn't it? Don't you think that this shows that people are more at risk from getting heart disease, emphysema, or cancer, than they are from getting Anthrax?"
"Hey!" I interject , "Perhaps we should be dropping cartons of Camels on the Taliban instead of smart bombs."
|
|
