Sneeze. Now Faint. Illumination!

Another holiday, bah. Bookstores jammed, malls jammed, people lined up out the door to get their fix at Starbucks, which is to coffee what unfiltered Camels are to cigarettes... Whoever said Hell is other people was talkin' my language yesterday. Or maybe I was just in a bad mood after seeing that mother-daughter combo brought on the Today Show because the daughter sneezes ten times a minute.I felt bad for the mom because as nice as Ann Curry was, leaning forward to coax out the story, the house “expert,”  Dr. Nancy Snyderman, was pretty harsh saying (a) what kind of a sneeze is THAT, it doesn’t even involve the nose; (b) could be a tic of some sort like people get with Tourette’s and (c) could be Munchausen’s and your kid just craves attention. I thought the mum looked at old Doc Snyderman like she wanted to BITE this chief medical editor but I could be wrong. It’s just that she and her 12-year-old seemed so sensible and calm, you could tell it wasn’t THEIR idea to be on national television. Then here's the Today Show trying to justify it all with an appeal to the public: "Do YOU know why Lauren is sneezing? Send your cards and letters etc. As if any of us dummies know anything. but it does bring up an old memory: Back in the 50s there was this rumor that the Pope couldn’t stop sneezing. I was just a little kid but it made a big impression on me. Also, how about the news that he finally read the letter the Virgin Mary dictated through the Fatima kids that no one was allowed to open until then and when he finally did he  fainted dead away? So what did it say, did anyone tell us kids? No one told my sister and me who finally just shrugged, forgot, and went back to sticking Mr. Potato Head body parts into all the apples.Here's the poor child now: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jqIaRN1urg]