A Festival of Infectious Disease (and this time I'm not referring to Britney)

I saw on the news yesterday that three mice infected with the bubonic plague bacteria are missing from a lab in New Jersey. I doubt anything catastrophic will come of it, but I actually think the plague is pretty fascinating...of course, ask me about it again if I ever catch it, and I'm sure I won't be so enthusiastic. I read this book last year about the plague. It was set in both Medieval Europe and present-day England and explored what the "black death" was like back then and if there was an outbreak now. Dude, I think it can be summed up in one word: Ouch! That was a seriously bad way to go. It wasn't bad enough that you were so sick you couldn't breathe, eat or think, but you also got the pussy, black buboes on your neck and joints. Man. That would suuuuck! On the other hand, "buboes" is fun to say. I also believe it was the name of the owl in one of my favorite movies as a child: Clash of the Titans. I see that movie now and cringe at the special effects, but, man, it was cool in the early 80's. Medusa was a beeyotch!

But back to the subject at hand, have you ever heard of ergotism, also known as St. Anthony's fire? An art history professor was teling me about it yesterday. Another horrible, grotesque way to die. It was a Medieval disease that people got by eating rye bread with fungus on it. The fungus would poison them to the point they'd start convulsing, have horrible hallucinations, and their body parts would feel like they were burning until they eventually dropped off. Geez oh man. Some people think the Salem witch trials were actually a result of ergotism. Huh. All I know is that I have got to stop collecting weird diseases for my mental encyclopedia of Horrible Ways to Die. It's really quite morbid, but I can't seem to stop. Ever read a description of what Civil War soldiers went through since there were no antibiotics back then? Gah.