Eluding the Germs; plus, Mohamud verdict and Tully's sale

Is the ’flu season over when Punxsutawney Phil pokes his head out of the ground?

It’s been a nerve-wracking winter so far. In years past, when stories ran in the media about the progress of the latest version(s) of influenza, I could feel reasonably safe, because I spend most of my working day at home. I don’t go to an office anymore where I’m trapped with other people who have come in to work still sick, and I don’t have to ride germ-ridden buses and trains every day.

Regular readers of this blog may remember a commentary I posted two years ago about wee beasties in our modern, tech-laden world.

For the past four to six weeks, though, many of my local Facebook friends have been bitching and moaning about a really rough bout of the ’flu this year -- and in a few cases, some appear to have suffered more than one round!

Wednesday night I went to the final rehearsal for a staged reading of three new short plays scheduled for this Saturday, and at least three of the five other people in the room were recovering from bad colds. One had experienced laryngitis as part of her sickness, and was only just coming out of that.

When it’s both that widespread and that close, I get to feeling paranoid and surrounded on all sides.

I find myself pressing elevator buttons with the back of my hand, pushing open doors with my elbow or the back of my forearm, and pulling on door handles at the location that’s least likely to have been touched by others -- such as the very bottom of the handle, or the underside where it reattaches to the door.

Whenever possible, I keep my gloves on. This became absurd this afternoon when I went to the public library. No doubt, plenty of germ-laden respectable citizens have breezed through, coughing and touching things in the library. One also sees (and smells!) a lot of street people in the library these days, so there are plenty of reminders that all kinds of folks have touched the online catalog keyboards and mouses before you.

I couldn’t really type with my winter gloves on, so I took off my right hand glove and made a fist to press the individual keys with my knuckle; then put the glove back on to maneuver the mouse. Twice.

I’m not a superstitious guy, but I pray, knock wood, and thank my lucky stars that so far, neither Carole nor I have been laid low by this year’s germ attacks.

It’s enough to make you want to hole up at home for weeks on end.

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Catching up on older stories. . . .

This afternoon, pretty much as predicted in my last post, the federal jury found Mohamed Mohamud guilty of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction. It wasn’t a weapon of mass destruction, but merely a fake bomb designed and placed in the defendant’s hands by the FBI.

Personally, I believe that while the case might not have qualified under the law as entrapment, this story is still mostly about the FBI trying to justify its own existence and budget than actually trying to keep American citizens safe. They didn’t have to put this silly kid away; we all would have been just as safe if law enforcement officials had worked with the boy’s parents to discipline him and keep him at home.

If they had been truly serious about fighting international terrorism, they could have let Mohamud travel to Yemen or Pakistan and used him to get to some real, serious terrorists capable of doing damage on their own instead of having to have their hand held every step of the way by undercover FBI agents. This kid’s life has been utterly ruined, and I feel awful for his parents.

All the FBI really accomplished here was to continue to scare its own citizens; I almost have to believe that was their only real aim. If anything, much like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. authorities haven’t made us or the rest of the world any safer, but possibly created even more potential terrorists with their heavy-handed and insidious tactics.

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On the brighter side, despite Starbucks’s attempts to throw a monkey wrench into the deal, the investment group spearheaded by Patrick Dempsey succeeded in winning the bid to buy troubled Tully’s Coffee chain. I should say that I was rooting for him not because I’m any sort of fan of Dempsey or “Grey’s Anatomy,” but because he seemed to have a personal connection to Seattle, where the show is supposed to take place, and the chain itself. He appeared to have a relationship with Tully’s, not just an interest in a potential investment opportunity.

Last week Dempsey gave an interview to Time magazine to discuss his reasons for going into the coffee business. He’s certainly not going to give up acting, but Dempsey actually wants to become certified as a barista – and the latest news is that he proposes to open a Tully’s in Malibu. Again, I say good luck to the man.