Overswined

No, I am not panicking about H1N1, and I don't wish to be a flu hoax (as in bomb hoax) either. Yet, it only takes an almost immediate, small life example to expose the vulnerability in this belief.

While I read the report on the latest development of H1N1, a lady was reading a Chinese novel at an adjacent table at McDonald's, when she started sniffing, coughing and then sneezing into a tissue, easily catching my attention. And the first words that leaped into my mind were: "For god's sake, why don't you just stay in bed at home!" Miraculously, she was up and going in a wind, as if having read my thoughts. And I actually felt guilty.

On the other hand, at the office yesterday, we were giving one of our colleagues a hard time for going for a short overseas trip over the long weekend. Of course, all was in the name of fun, and I somehow coined the verb "overswine", when I highlighted how we were peppering our jokes with swines. Say, when was the last time swines were in the news?